From a tale of warm, fleeting love to a bitter curse, these viral UP Diliman Freedom Wall posts have our hearts breaking and eyes welling up.
Freedom walls have now become a staple of not just Filipino university life, but popular culture itself. These social media pages, often found on Facebook, allow anyone to submit an entry anonymously and the page will post it on their behalf for the community to see and respond and react to.
Freedom walls are spaces for members of a certain college community to air out grievances, ask for or give guidance, anonymously admit their feelings to their crushes, tell anecdotes, jokes, cautionary tales, and more. Like anything in the hands of people, it can be a double-edged sword. Regardless, in this case, the UP Diliman Freedom Wall found itself in the spotlight as two entries about love, posted on the same day, went viral and had everyone feeling the feels—in pretty different, yet both bittersweet, ways.
A ROMANCE SO WARM
Gitling (2023) Katipunan version pic.twitter.com/wIA4F42bUS
— skindeep reconstructions (@nagkakapelikula) August 16, 2024
This open letter by what seems to be a Japanese exchange student studying at the Ateneo de Manila University is love in less than 400 words. Addressed to Fine Arts student Carl, OP (original poster) teleported us to a world of sunsets and warm, warm affection. The minute details about UP, familiar to Iskos and non-Iskos alike, the way they laid bare exactly how they felt about Carl through every metaphor, and the gratefulness they carry home despite having to cut their time short are wonderful to encounter—through a Freedom Wall post, no less.
It takes a lot of love to be able to talk about the Metro Manila heat like this! And it takes a lot of courage to lay your heart bare on an anonymous page for everyone to see—and to do it in a language that isn’t your first. Despite OP saying they have “bad English”, the way it was written took people’s breath away. It’s bittersweet, but the feelings are so real, and so resonant. Love is love, no matter how fleeting, indeed. Now everybody’s crying.
GOOD LUCK, BABE!
“you will spend the rest of your lifetime looking for me in a woman’s body.” pic.twitter.com/MlGsdehaTE
— ₍ᐢ. ̫.ᐢ₎ khun niho (@dablobbergasted) August 17, 2024
Heaps more crushing than the first, this second viral post on the UPD FW touches on identity and resentment, betrayal and heartbreak. And people do love their angst. Although it seemed “Alfred” seemed like he was accepting that his soulmate was a boy, he turned to another girl for companionship and intimacy. OP, of course, felt betrayed, and though context is lacking, the message, “you will spend the rest of your lifetime looking for me in a woman’s body” was crystal clear. And no matter how true or not it was for Alfred, that line was a gag and a half.
FREEDOM IN THE FREEDOM WALLS
WHY DOES EVERY FREEDOM WALL HAVE DOOMED YAOI?? I'M SO SAD pic.twitter.com/26UqcXr5Xj
— gelly (@achoochiii) August 20, 2024
Whether or not they turn out to be a creative writing exercise for class, a spontaneous fiction, or simply something that the OP felt like it needed to be told, these Freedom Wall posts did exactly what a good story, whether from a stranger or a friend, should do—make people feel. Whether you feel empathetic or inspired, bitter or sad, sharing and learning about very human experience of love in all its forms (even its loss) always brings out something within us. Great tales of love lost will always get us in our feels, and will stay with us for some time.
So if you’re in need of a cathartic release via anonymous social media post, take it from these OPs above—sometimes you just need to let it out. The world will listen. Or if you’re in need of some short yet emotionally-charged stories of love and love lost, and books, Wattpad, and AO3 won’t cut it, apparently you need not look any further than your local freedom walls.
Continue Reading: What College Taught Me About Love
