Coming Back

It's been a while, huh? I feel like I've committed a crime, allowing dust to gather on my page with no update in site. For that, I sincerely apologize. But may I tell you this, friends? While there have been no words, there have been countless thoughts and musings and inspirations. Those beauties, I don't let them escape me.

But as a writer (or as I try to be one), I have the utmost duty to transform the fleeting into the lasting. To tell the stories, both little and grand. To weave the moments into words.

Needless to say, I have a few (or many?) entries up my sleeve and I absolutely can't wait to share them with you, to finally begin another tête-à-tête.

If there's anyone out there, on the other side of the screen, thank you for waiting. Believe me, I've done my own fair share of waiting, too. And every single time, it has always been worth it.

ConversationsDeanne BanaresDecember 28, 2016Writing, Waiting, Stories Comments

From The Ground Up

I will never forget the evening of the 9th of May. An ordinary day for most of the world, the day of reckoning for our country. After casting my vote, I threw myself into a pool to temporarily relieve the anxiety caused by waiting. And then the numbers started going up and up and up and up for candidates that were the last on my list.

We reached home and my husband and I found myself in the middle of an emotional outburst unlike any I've experienced before. There were tears, so much of it; short breaths, my chest aggressively rising and falling; words, that spoke everything I was feeling.

'Why are you crying?,' my husband asked, nervously. First, there was silence. And then the thoughts spilled out, one after another...

ConversationsDeanne BanaresMay 11, 2016Philippines, Elections, Nationalism, Hope, CountryComment

Confessions of a Fashionholic

Fashion was my first true love. I hate to admit that most of the time because people think that it's just about #OOTDs, designer labels, and magazines. But I fell in love with it because of its unsung potentiality, of what it can do for the world, of what it can speak about our world. If you think about it, there's so much substantiality behind all the frivolousness. So I made it my mission to be part of the industry to change that image. To remove (most of) the petty glamour and replace it with raw stories and human craftsmanship...

ConversationsDeanne BanaresApril 28, 2016Fashion, Conde Nast, Vogue, Teen Vogue, PassionComment

Of Firsts

Confession: When I tell people I run a blog, I still feel embarrassed a bit. I imagine raised eyebrows and disappointed hearts. A blog, you say? What does that entail? Do you earn from it? (Note: Said in an insinuating tone.)

Even I asked myself those questions exactly a year ago, when I was about to hit Publish on my very first entry. I didn't even know what I was going to write about; what my 'brand identity' was going to be; or what blogging category it would fall under. I just knew I wanted to write. And that there was lots and lots of fear...

ConversationsDeanne BanaresApril 4, 2016Blog, Birthday, Anniversary, Baking, Writing Comments

Fem·i·nin·i·ty

Modern woman has a battlecry that sounds like a roar and a blast, like a man and a lion. Feminism is the word, isn't it? Let's fight for our rights, let's hand out flyers, let's take it to the streets because damn it, it's a man's world out there and it isn't fair. It isn't fair that they get dibs. It isn't fair that they get more money. It isn't fair that they rule.

But you know what? That fight isn't fair to us either.

It isn't fair that we wish to be their equivalent, that we hope to share the same podium, that we dream of being like them. Because it was never meant to be that way...

ConversationsDeanne BanaresFebruary 1, 2016Femininity, Womanhood, Woman, Aya Cabauatan, Vania Romoff Comments