In the city of Manil, it doesn't stop snowing. Snow litters the ground year round, and ever since we've been children, we've never seen what lies beneath; but this year is different. 25 years ago, when the pattern of snowstorms became apparent, people put aside their problems to try and survive the cold. 25 years later, the snow begins to thaw. The white begins to fade, and for the first time, the city sees the bricks that made the city, and with that, mistakes people had chosen to ignore. Most buildings were still passing (and failing) tests before the seemingly endless snowfall began. Few structures in this city are confidently secured to the floor. As the snow is now too weak to hold up the fragile builds, most, if not everything has collapsed. Beneath the snow and architectural failures, in a small box, were letters from various people written 25 years apart, and today, I write this entry for the next person to read. Perhaps by then, this city will no longer be Manil, and no one will know how to read these letters. But before then, this must teach a lesson, and I as an educator, will

document it.

Your issues will never improve if you choose to forget it. Delaying something inevitable will only ever make it worse. This city, the people in it, our home, whatever it is you care about for, are the same reason it is gone. We hope the world will fix things for us, but growth requires responsibility beyond ourselves. I sit facing my home, now in pieces, and I wonder whether or not, though I am a teacher, I have ever learned anything from what I tell others.

With love,

Ms. P