I CAN say that I have always been ahead of my time, literally and figuratively. I was usually ahead in age and was always one of (if not the) oldest in a group, whether at work or in a friends group. Born in the last quarter of 1979, I'm an almost-millennial and young Gen-Xer, or a xennial. I have lived forty-something years, through eight Philippine presidents and two recognized revolutions which were both for worthy causes. In other words, yes, madami na akong pinagdaanan, guys! To top it all off, I was born the youngest among four siblings who all were born two years apart except for me who was born six years after the one I directly followed. Get it? Anyway, this gap is where I attribute my penchant for old songs to. And I would never hear the end of it from my friends — 'Ang luma ng playlist mo!' I would always hear old songs play on the radio in the car on our way to and from school every single day until all three of my older siblings had gone off to college. They would switch between 96.3 WRock and 105.1 Crossover during our daily commute from our schools in Mandaluyong and Pasig all the way to Commonwealth in Quezon City for about one to two hours per way. And I never complained because I loved old songs. I thought they were cool. And there was this one song by The Carpenters that always made me stop and wonder why it felt so cut short. The song was 'You' and I was talking about this line in particular, 'You are my heart and my soul. My inspiration. Just like the old love song goes.' And every time I would sing it, I would always complain in my head that it was missing a 'how.' Just like HOW the old love song goes. Right? Call it traditional or old-fashioned writing but I call it proper writing. It was when I learned about 'poetic license' that I started to make peace with it. Poetic license allows songwriters to veer away from rules like grammar for art's sake. Oh, lucky art! In other words, songwriters get a free pass. And in case you were wondering, this phenomenon explains why Justin said, 'If I WAS your boyfriend ...' but Beyonce said, 'If I WERE a boy ...' Who do you think is flashing the poetic justice card in this case? Abangan ang susunod na kabanata!