Today’s Exactly100: A Rare, Overwhelming Pleasure

Oh, that was good. I was tearing up watching Carlos Yulo’s first victory, wondering why it moved me so. Then it dawned on me: this is a country so drenched in loss, calamity, defeat, and despair. Inflation just spiked to 4.4%. Yulo’s medal felt as if it was being bestowed upon us all; when he cried, the entire country wept with him. The feeling was so rare, so pleasurable, it was as if, to borrow a phrase from the esteemed Erwin Castillo, 'my heart came.' This might be the closest description of how the country feels—a rare, ecstatic victory./Vincent R. Pozon