e-baggage number 2
-------------------

G o o d b y e

by Eliza Agabin

"Oh, no.  You're going to graduate this summer already!"

a lot of people have said to me lately.
Nope, I'm not talking about graduating from school.
Together with my co-reporter Ian Tugas,
I am "graduating" from the kiddie show 5 and Up --
to give other children a chance of becoming reporters.
 

As I think about this,
my brain flashes back to wonderful memories
with the Uppers and the Uppies;
the places we've been to,
and the cool people we've met along the way.
 

Yes, it was a sunny Saturday morning
in the month of November (I think) 1994
when I first stepped into the Probe Productions office
to audition as a 5 and Up reporter.

 

I definitely had butterflies in my stomach.




While waiting for my turn to be called,
I used some of my acting skills to project
that I was calm and collected.
 
 

I decided to look at the numerous pictures of trophies on the walls of the Probe office

with my hands at my back
to show that the audition didn't really bother me that much.
 
 

Boy, it was difficult!

The audition seemed pretty easy,
but it turned out quite hard because I was nervous
and I panicked as I racked my brain for intelligent answers.
 

Several days after the audition,

somebody from 5 and Up called me and told me
I was already a certified 5 and Up reporter.
"Yehey!"
     I said to myself.
            "This is going to be fun!"
                                     Definitely.
 
 
 

I was very, very shy when I first joined 5 and Up

and I remember my first...everything.




Here goes:

FIRST SKIT
My first skit was from my first story, Sugar Flowers.
I remember making a few bloopers
and laughing very softly.
FIRST INTERVIEW
There's also my first interview,
wherein I kept starting the interviews with "Umm, bale."
The people I interviewed then all replied with, "Bale..."
It still turned out to be an amusing story, however,
because they taught me how to dance the tinikling
-- one of the first things I learned from 5 and Up.
To this day, though, the members of the crew who shot this funny interview tease me about it.
 
 

STORIES
I've done lots of different stories for 5 and Up --
all of them educational,
but some serious -- like children working in the Payatas dumpsite for instance,
and some fun stories like bees' honey or meeting a chef at the Shangri-la Hotel.

TRAVELS
I've also done cool out-of-town stories.
I've been to Boracay where we swam,
did some shallow-water scuba diving,
made bead necklaces and covered the paraw boat race.

In Benguet, we met some child health scouts
who taught other children about hygiene;

and also saw the ways UNICEF helped the people recover from earthquake damages.
In Cagayan de Oro, together with The Probe Team,
we visited a jail
and saw the lives of very young children (hooked on drugs),
being rehabilitated.

In Palawan,
together with Jolly and Chiyomi (my co-reporters),
I visited magnificent places like the Underground cave
and went island-hopping.
We met an ethnic band
and went to a Vietnamese refugee camp.




However,
there Is one place
which is really one of my ultimate favorites.
Guess what place it is...

Oui, it is Paris!


When we arrived in Paris, France, I still couldn't believe it.
Well, it was just my luck,
because I was an honorary delegate
to the 3rd Annual Children's Summit in France
because I represented 5 and Up of the Philippine press.
I met a lot of children all around the world and made friends with them.  Isn't that cool?
 

We spent almost four very tiring (believe me!) days walking all around Paris.
         We saw the Eiffel Tower (of course),
                                           the Arc de Triomphe,
                                   Notre Dame,
                                               The Louvre,
                 and Disneyland Paris where we stayed.
                                              We even took a boat ride down the River Seine.
 
 

After all my adventures,
it's now time for me to leave 5 and Up.



 
 

It's sad and I've spent some nights crying just thinking about it.
Because surely, I'll miss the characters I depicted;
 

                     all my interviews,

                                        skits,

                                                       voice-overs,

                                    spiels,
 

               but most of all, the people of 5 and Up (weep, weep...)

This is eLizA aGaBiN, signing off.

 
 

Eliza Agabin graduated from the show last June 1998