Maria Carlyn Villarosa Rodriguez

A person is often construed by his outward manners. An established social case or an old cliché, this works both goodly or badly against Maria Carlyn Rodriguez, depending on what people think of the feisty that is her.

Carlyn's (or Cai) presence involuntarily demands attention. Aside from that she relies on a big-boned, 5’8” frame and carries around a disarmingly pretty face, her voice registers more than the number of decibels that’s expected from women, she walks around with a gift for chatter, and more often than not, wears bubbly with a winning smile like both are her best accessories.

But these are only the Cainess hanging from her sleeve. Up close and personal, she is bright, sensitive, thoughtful, and insightful beyond her 20 years. As a friend, she has many descriptions: one who would drive anywhere to comfort you in your emotional downtime, one who sometimes forgets your birthday but otherwise, would have prepared a candle on a cupcake for you, one who doesn’t mind hours of dispensing sound advises when you need, one who listens all too willingly. If you stay long enough to take this side out of her, congratulations, you’ve just made one good friend.

Hope you also stay long enough to be a good friend to her. No question Carlyn is strong, independent, and decisive; these are clearly part of her feistiness. But she also has fears and a lot of questions, suffers from insecurity and sometimes, alienation, and most crucial of all, she is needy of somebody to whom she could show this weaker side of hers. She is just 20 after all, the age that holds the threshold to a major crossroad in life.

Other people may busy themselves more with noting down her flaws, which at many times, are hard to miss. BUT who doesn’t wake up late in the morning or arrive late at a gathering? Who doesn’t leave or misplace stuff everywhere? Who doesn’t get confused by suggestions? Who doesn’t get something wrong once in a while? Who doesn’t want to insist on what she believes in? Carlyn may fall victim to these more often than other people, but as I have earlier mentioned, this is not all that she is.

On a final note, Maria Carlyn Rodriguez is a bundle of sunshine whose light she shares and extends beyond her daddy Bingcol and mommy Judy, brother Vincent, and sister Alyssa, beyond her huge family scattered around Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, beyond her high school and college friends, beyond the one guy she calls her sunshine (I’m assuming Cai :)… to everywhere that she blesses with her presence. She was born on April 29, 1987, and in behalf of all whose lives she came across with or she is yet to touch, we’re glad her sun shines at this corner of the world.

*** Carlyn is now a first year med student at the Cebu Institute of Medicine.
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I originally made this in my cousin Carlyn's request for her school project. (so to my dearest sisters, don't feel bad i have not put you down in words yet)