Harriet and I

This Week’s Winner

MANILA, Philippines - Sari Katharyn Molintas, 17, was born and raised in Baguio and Benguet solely by her mother. She graduated high school through various scholarships. She is now a scholar at the Ateneo de Manila University taking a course under the Biology Department, although her first passion has always been — and will always be — writing.

She sat there thinking, feeling very calm, happy, and immensely pleased with her own mind. — Louise Fitzhugh

Harriet M. Welsh was my most constant companion during my first year in high school. I had her on her mind on the long lunch hours I spent alone, ostracized from my class by my very own “Marion Hawthorne.” It was through the character superbly created by Louise Fitzhugh that I managed to slowly get back on my feet and triumph over my insecurities.

I first became acquainted with Harriet the Spy when it was adapted into a movie with Michelle Trachtenberg starring in the title role. During that time, I was still at the age when I understood movies based on the actor’s expressions and my mother’s explanations and not on the actual dialogue.

It was many years after that I discovered the existence of the book. If I am not mistaken, it was during the summer before high school started that I found a copy of it. The title alone was enough to bring back vague recollections of the film I enjoyed as a child. I decided to purchase the book to see if it could help me with the many details of the movie that I had forgotten, as children forget many aspects of their early lives.

Initially, after having completed reading, I only appreciated the novel as a piece of art. I delighted in exploring the world through the perspective of Harriet, which was so realistic — and seemingly accurate — for a child her age to the point that it was difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. In addition, it made me realize the power of words to communicate to the human mind what movies still fail to.

Regardless, it was notably easy to relate to Harriet, even before first year high school. We had numerous similarities, then and now: dressing for comfort and wearing eyeglasses (although hers do not have any glasses); innate curiosities about everything: how things work, what words mean, why people do the things they do; imaginations enough to be content even in solitude. And, most importantly, we both had the irresistible urge to write: always ready to jot down anything that happens to come into mind or anything peculiar we happen to observe.

And when first year high school occurred, dire circumstances were included in the list of things we had in common. It was only during this period that I re-read the book and realized, “So this is what she meant!” I began to truly see the beauty of Harriet’s story.

Harriet was not just an inspiration, she was a reminder. There were many times when I felt like giving in to my despair and anger, wanting with all my heart to hurt my classmates as much as they’d hurt me. But I would think of Harriet and realize vengeance was cheap and unsatisfying. I needed to stay on higher ground. I had to keep my cool. I learned to value who I knew I was and who I knew I could be, and not who I was with, or who I was without — something that still remains an important factor of what empowers me. I would not resort to stooping down to their level. Whenever I felt particularly lonely and sad, I thought about how Harriet managed to patch things up with her friends in the end, and I would reassure myself that I would find true friends, no matter how long it took. It was during that period when I began to truly excel in my academics, when I learned to have faith in myself and faith that everything would turn out right. And, like Harriet, everything did.

Harriet may be a fictional character, but in a way, she lives in me: a little girl who triumphed over crab mentality and emerged a stronger and better person.