POWER OVERWHELMING

A CHEAT. A code for a cheat I resorted to when I knew I'm about to lose in Starcraft, a LAN game I used to get hooked onto in my high school. It amplifies your units' damage in very huge proportions. The first time I used it I felt uncontrollably powerful. I was floating in elation knowing that I'm still going to win with just a band of zealots going up against an army of nasty Zergs. Name it.

I was there sitting in the lobby of DDB, in Two World Square building in Mckinley Hill. I was listening to my own songs in my iPod when a tall and pretty girl approached me. 

"Are you James?", she smiled.

"Yes." I smiled back.

She extended her hand. 

"I'm Kris, was it Rica who called you?"

"Yes."

"Follow me." 

Just a few steps and we got inside a not so big room with a long table and several office chairs. If I recall correctly, there were 5 or 6 of us in the room. 

But someone looked so familiar. She is a beautiful woman and I believe I've seen her on TV. She introduced herself but I didn't hear her name 'cause my mind was flying trying to recall where on TV I saw her. 

"James Leyte, right?"

"Yes."

"How are you? Do you know why you're here?"

"Uhmn.. Rica called me. She says something about PhilPop and that there's a technical problem with my entries."

"Right, right. Actually, we're close to completing the screening and we need to make sure that there are no issues with the entries. What is the name of your song?"

"I submitted two actually. An english song called "Fall Out Of Love" and a tagalog one called "Brown"."

"Great. Let's check Brown first." 

Then she started working on her laptop. 

"Are you sure you didn't encounter a problem when you uploaded Brown?" 

I felt nervous even though the lady had a very friendly aura. I tried to recall the guidelines, the rules, etc. 

"I really couldn't think of anything. I guess I followed everything posted in your site?"

"You believe so?" 

I felt more uneasy. I had mixed emotions. Anxiousness and excitement combined. 

"I guess so?"

"Are you ready to be one of the best songwriters in the country?"

"What.. do you mean?"

"James, your song Brown has made it to the top 14 in the first Philippine Popular Music Festival!" 

I attempted to say something but no words came out of my mouth. It was like I was floating. Her face was like an angel spreading a very good news. There was this kind of energy trying to get out of me. I tried to contain it. I didn't shout. Didn't cry, nope. Hell, all kinds of things entered my mind though. I noticed the camera was pointing at me. I smiled widely. LOL. But I couldn't ignore that power creeping from under my skin. I couldn't forget that feeling.

 I got power overwhelming.