Jerry Gracio’s Bagay
Tayo
The topic of love in media and literature can be seen as an overused topic throughout its years of existence. It is usually filled with clichés; the beauty, happiness, and pain of being in love. There might be a reason for this, however, because even though I have only experienced the basics of love, a part of what we see in media actually makes its way to real life love stories.
Jerry Gracio’s Bagay Tayo is a collection of flash essays that talk of his experiences in love. These stories were written in first person, and it also used a subjective approach. This made the stories feel more personal, like the author was pouring their raw and unfiltered thoughts about what love truly is in their experience through writing. I realized that when people talk about a topic such as love, it would be very difficult to use an objective approach, because the reality surrounding love is that you cannot describe it objectively or it will feel too plain and vague for those who are reading it. Jerry Gracio’s works were not like this, at all. Aside from using very emotional words and phrases like “nadurog ang puso ko” or “naramdaman ko ang kirot”, his works were also very light and humorous. It captured my attention while reading, and the way he writes gives you new ideas and it piques your interest, but I noticed that the tone was also very conversational. The way the pieces were written talks to the readers in a way that feels like telling stories to a friend, and that made it more interesting to read.
The way the author told his story in stream-of-consciousness also made it feel more natural, in my opinion. Although he did start off with where he met is partner, Mong, the rest of the lessons in love and experiences were told by how he remembers them. Personally, I think that there were certain aspects of the relationship that was toxic, because Mong gave off ‘manipulative sad boi’ energy throughout the works. He always appealed to Jerry’s emotions, because he knew that it would work in getting what he wants, and I personally do not think that a healthy relationship would be like that. However, I think that this is also what makes it more realistic; not all stories of love are perfect and healthy, but it would be a good thing if they were.
At the end of the day, the way we view love is a very personal experience, and the love we choose to receive will depend on what we can handle. Something that I learned from these stories is that love comes very unexpectedly, indeed. At first we can fall in love with a person for their looks, or like in Gracio’s works, we can fall in love with their stories. However, what we fall in love with first will not matter. In the end, we will learn to love all of them, anyway.