The Story of my Life

A good friend of mine is leaving for Thailand this June. I'm excited and happy for him because I know this is what he's been trying to achieve ever since I met him. Flip was always on the lookout for job opportunities here and abroad...hoping to finally land the job that will satisfy his intellectual and financial needs. His patience paid off really well.

Anyway, we prepared something for Flip and part of it was a message from each one of us. Mine turned out to be a letter...hehehe

Here goes...

Dearest Flip,

For the couple of years we've been friends, you've witnessed most of the major events in our life. And in all those occasions, I never felt you left me. Thank you for everything. I may not have expressed my gratitude in the best way I can but I truly appreciate having you as my friend. Thank you for being such an asswipe on our first lunchout (because of that I realized...mata mo nga lang talaga ang maliit sa`yo...)- ->Senseless to? Why did I write this?...Thank you for allowing me to mingle with your friends and for introducing Sidebar (ngayon, mas madalas na akong pumupunta dun kesa sa`yo). Thank you for accepting my katangahan pagdating sa pag-ibig...for letting me do my thing even if you know it will only hurt me in the end. Thank you for listening to all my stories even if it's about the same person (I know you got tired at some point...I can't blame you. Kahit ako minsan napapagod din.) Thank you for sharing with me my life's little victories. Thank you for putting up with my eccentricities and kasungitan. Thank you for being brutally honest when you see that I'm about to make another stupid decision. Thank you for all your opinions...kahit na alam natin pareho that's where we get into trouble at kahit alam natin na WE DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO HAVE AN OPINION. Thank you for trusting me with all your secrets, the same way that I trust you with mine...and most importantly, thank you for visitng me that fateful morning at UST. That made me realize our friendship goes beyond our gimmicks...That and all others make-up our friendship. I know this is nothing compared to what you've shared with your other friends, but that's irrelevant now. What's important for me is that, somehow, we shared a few memorable times together...

Even if you're just starting to reach the next milestone of your life, I want to congratulate you already. I've always believed in you (eventhough its not obvious...hehehe). Even in the midst of conflicts and near-quitting episodes (hehehehe), you always manage to stand out and put in excellent work. I hope you learn to let go of your emotions. Feel happy when you're happy. Tell the world that you're happy when you really are. There's no sense of containing your happiness...you're only depriving yourself of what was freely given to you by Jess. To let it out is to show Jess and the whole world that you appreciate His blessings for you...and contrary to your belief...failures, sufferings and disappointments are not payments in exchange for the happiness given to you. They are blessings in disguise...they make us stronger and wiser individuals. They brought us to where we are now.

Jess has given you so many blessings. All the things you've always wanted are given to you one by one. You have to nurture it, share it (pasalubong! sampaloc lang! hehehe) and be thankful for it. Not so many people are as blessed as you are. Love? hhhmmm...it will come, also when you least expect it. It will come when you're ready. It will come to each one of us, in His perfect time. Aren't you convinced yet? All that you prayed for were given to you...(UP Masters, Guam racket, and now Thailand)...we just have to wait for His perfect time? He's preparing the right person for you. Pinapapayat lang nya, sabi mo kasi ayaw mo ng mataba...(you're so mean!) Seriously, I know you'll find her soon. =)

Here's to the fulfillment of our dreams and the answers to our prayers!

I'm in a daze...In October, I prayed deeply for something to come my way which will mark the start of a new chapter in my life. And in the most unexpected moment...I came face to face with the sign. Suddenly, I began questioning the validity of this sign....suddenly, questions started popping out. Is this real? How could you have known that was the one I needed? What brought you to me? Why now? Is this our fate?

Its just so strange that this has to happen at the time I was ready to give it a pass. Now, I couldn't let it go because He gave me a bunch of reason not to...So who am I not to reconsider? I asked for this and now that its here, won't you take it? My mind believes I should, but my heart tells me otherwise...

"You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Everyday, God gives us the sun - and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Everyday, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist - that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover the magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when you are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and on things that ll seem the same to us. But that moment exist - a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.

Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments - but all of this is transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.

Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps this person will never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she will hear her heart saying "what have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God bestowed on you? You buried yourself ina cave because you were feaful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage: the certainty that you wasted your life.

Pitiful are the people who must realize this. Because when they are finally able to believe in miracles, their life's magic moments will have already passed them by." ---By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (Paulo Coelho)

I learned about this poem from Aileen...Thanks Ai. For those who are trying to shut doors...

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end.
If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time,
we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages
we have to go through.

Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters...
whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past
the moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end?
Did you leave your parents' house? Gone to live abroad?
Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened.
You can tell yourself you won't take another step until you find out
why certain things that were so important and so solid on your life
have turned into dust, just like that...

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved:
your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister,
everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life,
and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time,
not evern when we try to understand the things that happened to us.
What has passed will not return: we cannot forever be children,
late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents,
lovers who day and night relieve an affair with someone who has gone away
and has not the least intention of coming back.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.
That is why it is so important to really go away.
That is why it is so important (however painful it maybe) to destroy souvenirs,
move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or doante books you have at home.
Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world,
of what is going on in our hearts and getting rid of certain memories also means
making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them.
Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win
and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return,
do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, you genius to be discovered,%0