LET's talk about core memories. One of the questions I ask my 'learners' that I fondly call my clients during our assessment session is: 'What is your favorite childhood memory?' And this is exactly because I want to see how comfortable they are in using the past tense when talking about things that started and were finished in the past. You see, using the correct tense when you're speaking in English is one of the most important factors in doing it well. Speaking of childhood memories, one that remains off the top of my head which I wouldn't necessarily call a favorite is this time in the mid-'80s when I was about 6. For some reason, which I haven't uncovered to this day, I ended up huddled in a circle of random kids of boys and girls clad in their Sunday best at the Regal Films office in the Sampaguita Pictures compound on Valencia Street in Quezon City ready to slug it out in a cryfest after the casting director says: 'ACTION!' We fell in line for I would say, give or take, an hour, for that 14-second moment of fame. I'm not sure who made the cut but surely, he or she must have been a standout! On our way back to the car, ready to go back to my life as an ordinary kid whose favorite activity every day was to ask, 'Ma, anong ulam?', I was pulled by the hand by a total stranger who was dressed in white and whose face I couldn't exactly recall except that he was wearing a pair of glasses that was too big it almost covered his entire face. He took a good look at me as if there was something on my face and then handed over his calling card to my mother. He was a talent manager and asked to bring me to their office and do a VTR. And so we went. In the waiting room where all the auditionees including their entourage were, there was a TV on the wall. To keep everyone entertained, they would show the live auditions that were happening in the adjacent room. And true enough, everyone was entertained, except me. That was probably my first taste of stage fright and what triggered my sweaty palms as a kid, which I had thankfully outgrown after growing calluses from playing tennis in my teens. Seeing all these bright, young, talented, and good-looking boys and girls come before me made me want the earth to swallow me whole! And then my turn came. They asked what my name was, my age, to look into the camera and smile. And then they asked, 'What are your hobbies?' Since I wasn't in school yet and all we spoke at home was Tagalog, I didn't know what a 'hobby' was. Using context clues and for fear of getting embarrassed if I asked what it meant, I blurted, 'architect.' The end.