2002: Thanks for the memoriesby Toni S. Leviste of the Philippine Star’s YS

I am tired of making New Year’s resolutions. Every year, I make a promise to myself that I will never be late for anything again. Every year, I break that promise and it makes me feel like a failure — truly! I am changing my strategy and forgetting about making promises I cannot keep. Instead, I will simply strive to be a better person. I will try to be more considerate (i.e. coming on time for appointments and engagements), thoughtful, gentle and kind. Hey, I said no promises!

In a blink of an eye, the earth has turned full circle. Many things have been transformed in the world, in our country, and in each of our individual lives. Some things have changed for the better, while others haven’t. There is always something to learn from every experience, whether pleasant or otherwise.

As I go through the past 12 months in my mind, I realize that this year has been a colorful mix with the exciting and the dull, entertaining and stressful significant and insignificant encounters of people, places, events and things. There are no New Year resolutions to be made here, just a random list of small "discoveries" that have made 2002 the year for me.

People

In the beginning of the year, I planned to open a US dollar checking account to make transactions easier, anticipating many months spent abroad around the European Show Jumping Circuit. The first bank I approached was Citibank. Like any other applicant, I produced all the necessary documentation required to open such an account. Normally, it would have taken a few minutes, half-an-hour at most for everything to be processed, before being assigned an account number. An hour or so later, and after having been passed on to one of the bank’s more senior members, I was informed that there were some problems with my application and that it would not be possible for me to open an account with the bank since I belong to a "political family" (whatever that meant!). I know what some people think of politicians, but this was ridiculous. Initially, I tried arguing my case because by not doing so would make me feel like a wimp. Then I realized it’s a battle not worth fighting.

Obviously, the bank has its reasons for accepting or denying any application and to be fair, the Citibank staff who dealt with me, were all polite and apologetic, although the situation was far from pleasant. It was a case of outright discrimination. As I walked out of Citibank Tower, I could not help but feel angry and violated.

Without giving it a second thought, I walked over to the HSBC building, where I met Marijo, who was ready to call it a day, it being almost 3 p.m. I handed her the same documents as I did the other bank, and after a few mandatory questions, she informed me with a smile that my application will be processed and I could pick up my HSBC cash card and account details the next morning. I felt like a normal, ordinary citizen again. From this little encounter, I realized that life’s too short to fight every single battle. If there’s a hitch, there’s always another way. All’s well that ends well.

There is something about movie stars and celebrities that make them seem larger than life. We imagine them to be different from us, not just onscreen but in their public and private lives, as well. They cannot possibly eat, sleep, even breathe like ordinary people.

It is admittedly difficult to remain non-judgmental when one is watching from a distance. Reading or hearing about Athena Onassis (granddaughter of the late Greek magnate, Aristotle Onassis) or the Saudi Arabian princes is like reading a fairy tale set in distant lands, where people just don’t behave as we do. Surprisingly, the contrary is true.

Meeting Athena Onassis for the first time was a refreshing, yet very ordinary moment. At 17, Athena is extremely tall (probably 5’9"), but far from being overbearing. She’s soft-spoken and is in love with horses. Athena trained and kept her horses at the legendary Nelson Pessoa stables in Belgium, where I trained, building up to this year’s competitions. Although she moves around with bodyguards — being the lone heiress to the Onassis fortune — she tries very hard to be inconspicuous. Once, I asked if I could do a feature story on her, (for Young Star), but she politely declined because she is embarrassed about being photographed and is painfully shy about interviews. She tried so hard to be treated like any other rider in the stable, no one would ever suspect she’s the richest girl in the world.

Meeting a celebrity is one thing, meeting royalty is another story. Or so I thought. Prince Abdullah, 19, and Prince Bader, 25, of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were similar to Athena. Being the grandchildren of Saudi Arabia’s reigning King Abdullah, one would think that both princes would be spoiled rotten. They are avid showjumpers and like all aspiring athletes, they trained and worked just as hard as the others, not expecting that medals come in silver platters. Trying hard to strike up a conversation, sometimes Prince Abdullah would throw in Tagalog words he learned from his long-time Filipina yaya when he spoke to me. It was endearing. He often said that Filipino workers are the best in the world, as they had several in their household staff. Perhaps, young people in these circles try extra hard to be down-to-earth, in order to be accepted by the rest of society, as normal and ordinary. And why wouldn’t they be?

In the Philippines, we have our share of larger-than-life personalities. Gretchen Oppen-Cojuangco, I believe, is one of the fairest and most gracious women in Philippine society. I met her in Busan, Korea, for the first time, as she watched the Philippine Equestrian Team compete, where three of her grandchildren, Michelle, Danielle and Paola were members. She was more beautiful and gracious than I imagined her to be. She was eagerly cheering and quietly praying for every team member as we entered the arena and when we won the team silver medal, she hugged all of us like we were children. What surprised me was how kind and truly beautiful she was both inside and out.

People have opinions of other people all the time. It is but human to judge others, although we are always told that it is not right to do so. "Never judge a book by its cover" is an adage that holds true for people and situations. We are indeed all equals in this world. There are those who may have more fame or fortune, but they are no different from you or me. We all want to be accepted and to love as we are loved.