Milieu Euphony (In Act Series #2)

The Final Phase

THE FINAL PHASE

THE MILIEU OF EUPHONY

When everyone was moving, I was stationary.

When everyone had found their direction, I was directionless.

When everyone knew what they wanted, I knew nothing about what I want.

Like a puppet—that was how I acted before.

But it was all in the past now.

It had been years since the chains that bind me were long gone nor were there any traditions to hold me back.

Because I was finally on my own.

Like a free individual who had her journey to herself. I was able to see whether the directions I received would guide or mislead me.

I remembered how the misled Lael would be confused whether she should pursue the sculpting discipline or not. Should she give in to her desires to pursue sculpting? Or would she rather choose the path that her parents had given her?

She knew that her parents wouldn't morally support her. That there was a possibility that she'd experience the same fate as her cousin's. That taking this path would mean exposure to stronger, courageous people. That the directions those people had could possibly destroy and mislead her. And that venturing in this discipline could push her to stay.

But she went on with it.

Because that's what you're supposed to do in journeying, wasn't it?

To be courageous to avoid from being a misled.

But no matter how you believed that you are what you are, the outcome would always change.

Like how you were such a weakling, but you became stronger in the end.

Like how you were such a coward, but you became courageous in the end.

Like how a wanderer believe that they wouldn't stay, but at the end of the journey, they would.

And that's where I was currently at—a sculptor.

It had been a few years ever since I graduated, and I had been working with my cousin who just opened the second branch of her studio. Since she started to become busy, I was surprised that I was left to manage the first studio that she built.

I expected to manage the new branch, but she didn't. Mas gusto raw niyang umalis mula sa Iloilo dahil sa mga memoryang nandito. Siguro ay dala ng kay Michelangelo, dala ng mga Costiñiano, o dala ng mga bagay na hindi ko alam na nangyari pa.

Ngunit wala namang akong problema kung mananatili ako rito.

I preferred staying here anyway. Nakikita ko kung paano unti-unting nakikilala ang mga taong pumapaligid sa 'kin noon. Nagugulat sa mga naging hakbang na isinagawa bago mamangha sa pangalang pinasikat sa disiplinang napili. At natutuwa sa mga emosyong ipinakikita nila.

Suddenly, my world wasn't all about sculpting and sculptures. Like how I could see a sculpture in a person, or how a person was sculptor before it became a sculpture. Like how this sculpture's cheek was warm, but how his person's cheek was cold.

The ivory white, that was once one-toned, was now multi-toned in my eyes.

I could now see the ranges of the hues and saturations in one color. I could sense how every sculpture had their emotions to themselves, and if they didn't have it, those were waiting to be unsealed.