Leica Mae T.

Calooy

Literature 21: Creative Nonfiction

Warm and Fuzzy

Fuzzy and comfy. That is how I would describe Dumaguete City. The city really has a
charm in a way that it warms your heart, like how would you feel after sipping a cup of coffee in
Rolling Pin on a rainy day. It welcomes you almost immediately after you stepped on its soil.
You could easily adapt to it without a doubt. You would learn how to walk with life accompanied
by different people with that same collective feeling of comfort given by this city. With just a
simple hangout at Hayahay or a walk in the boulevard, you would easily know that you belong to
this city.

Being the university town that it is, most of the people who come to Dumaguete aims to
finish college not knowing that this city will give them more than that and I am one of those
people. For the past six years, I have had that fuzzy feeling for this city but sometimes on dark
and gloomy days it makes me feel nostalgic for unknown things and realities. I remember one
day, in the middle of the ROTC formation, there was this girl with short hair and a good laugh.
She was smiling from ear to ear with her cheeks burning from the sun’s kiss. It was a sight. And
when she slowly graced her way to me, I immediately knew I was smitten. She would take me to
the tyangge and buy me this delectable cassava cake, sometimes she would take me to the
boulevard to watch the sun go down and let the moon and stars decorate the night sky.
Everything was magical but it only lasted for four months. And it made me think, that someone
might sweep you off your feet but will not be there when everything falls into the deep well of
darkness.

Since then, I have always tried to stay away from fleeting feelings, and I have always
craved for stability and permanence. Did I find it? Oh yes, I did in the same city that I almost lost
it. But this time it was at night, while we were sitting under a tree, talking about how we lost
ourselves because of some people we deemed important before. There was no magic in the air,
instead, there was that familiar fuzzy feeling embracing me against the cold night. We hung out
at the library talking about films that changed us, at the local pub while having lemonades, and
at his place while we laugh our stress away. It was slow and gradual. We took our time and we
spent time getting to know each other in ways that other people could not. We rarely have fancy
dates, he was never the romantic type, but with him I am secured and grounded to my present.
He made me focus to what we have now rather than worrying about the future or looking back
at the past that I could never change.

Like Dumaguete City, he embraced me without judgements, welcomed me to his life

wholeheartedly and all I could do is melt in his warmth. Like Dumaguete City, he became my
home and my comfort zone. With him, I can let down the brick walls I have built over the years.
Like Dumaguete City, we had our fair share of gloomy days, but we always emerge stronger
every time. Like Dumaguete City, he taught me a lot of things about life that I know I can bring
with me wherever I go. Like Dumaguete City, I am in love with him.