Salutations.

There is diversity inside the university.

The University of the Philippines Diliman is a beautiful campus. Even its diversity in terms of people is noteworthy. You'll find students who wear flip-flops and shorts to class, students whose noses are buried in thick stacks of handouts, and students who carry themselves so confidently you could have sworn you feel small next to them. Then there are the jeepney drivers, whose faces I swear are now familiar to me. There are the employees who would often run into another colleague while inside the jeepney, and talk as if they are the only people around.

One afternoon, my feet dragged me somewhere in the National Science Complex of the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Inside the university, you'll also find food stalls and kiosks, and you will wonder just how many people the flagship campus of the University of the Philippines houses. When I first entered its Los Baños campus in 2012, I was mesmerized. The Los Baños campus is home not only to students and faculty, but non-UP students and people, too. There are residential areas that house a wide diversity of people, and so I shouldn't be surprised that the Diliman campus do, too.

Even a man who carries the world.

Salutations to the man who carries the world.

Way back in 2012, as I hurry my way to class as early as 7 AM, I would run into an old woman, whose back hunched so bad she stood many inches smaller than me (and I am only 153 cm tall). She would drag herself with the support of a makeshift wooden cane, a big black bag of garbage thrown over her shoulders.

Something that embarrasses me up the following years is how I placed more importance to running late for my class (my professor then was unforgiving toward tardy students... really unforgiving) than to helping an old woman who struggles with the weight on her shoulders. I can only sigh in relief some other times when I find other students volunteering to carry the bag of trash in her stead.

Today, as I was getting ready for work, I looked out the window and found a man very much like the old woman from UP Los Baños. On his back, slung over his shoulder, were bags of junk.

He limps through his way as he goes over trash bins over trash bins and searches for any junk he could probably sell.

The scene reminds me not only of the old woman from my undergraduate days, but also of the one night I was walking with the @coarebabes and @mind-candy pointed at an old man who was crossing the street alone. We planned to help him out, but he had nearly crossed the street by the time we saw him. @mind-candy said that for some reason, she hurts for old people. I could only reply with "Me, too."

To be old and working to survive, it is unimaginably hard. Salutations to the old man who carried what would mean the world to him on his shoulders, and I pray for you. I have no idea how to reach out - I am an undeniably anxious person - but I look forward to the day I have more means to make a change for you.