Emotional Spectrum in Pictures: Kilig

The hardest image to photograph is one that cannot be seen by merely by the naked eye. Everything has meaning, even the minute twitch of one's lips or the inherent spark of one's eyes. Photographing feelings require the skills of an empath.

There's a certain elated feeling when you see you crush pass by your locker, looking like the 21st century James Dean. Or the feeling when your significant other has a really clever pick-up line, and your heart just swoons. That is the feeling of "kilig".

According to Oxford Living, "kilig" is a Filipino-Tagalog word that means "causing or characterized by a feeling of exhilaration or elation", or "(of a person) exhilarated or elated by an exciting or romantic experience". To put it in English, it's the overwhelming butterflies of romance — the good kind.

It's not the butterflies that make your stomach churn when you worry of your crush's reaction from the secret gift you gave him or her, nor is it the rapid, galloping beat of your heart of whether or not he or she is going to reject you. In "kilig", there's only the good feelings of romance.

It's what you feel when he or she suddenly shows up on your doorstep, unexpected, and all you can do is blush like a little schoolgirl or schoolboy. Kilig happens when you feel the rising heat of your ruddy cheeks when they say something that sweeps your heart away, and all you can do is give the rawest, most 'I-am-in-cloud-nine-at-seventh-heaven' smile. The mix of surprise, admiration, and happiness is a cocktail of 'kilig'.

You swoon and sigh out of the vivacity and joys of a good romance, like when the two people you're rooting for on a soap opera had finally kissed. You are so "kilig" that you screech and jump for joy, clutch your heart.

And what another day to express such a lovely feeling during Valentine's Day?

2018-02-19 #culture #emotional-spectrum-in-pictures #kilig