Saint Valentine’s Day. Ninth grader. The number of days in a fortnight. Fourteen. Labing-apat. Today marks the 14th year of my journey here in this little space of mine in the blogosphere. And yes, I’m still here.
It was the Christmas season after my dad died in 2010 when I first arranged a D-I-Y trip to Cebu and Bohol with some of my friends. During that time, I realized that traveling makes me feel alive and happy—like I was born to do this.
My online journal was born after that trip, this space. I started this blog to document my travels and some anecdotes from my not-so-exciting everyday life. Writing became my therapy or sanity break from life’s shitness. Now that I don’t have much time for writing because of adulting, I still document our trips through Instagram—short-form, same-old antics.
In January 2024, I did my third solo travel for my 40th birthday. Yes, solo. I told my two boys I needed this trip to celebrate my four decades of existence. Some may be weirded out with the thought of me celebrating it alone but I loved those times when I only needed to look after and decide for myself. I went to Cagayan de Oro City, Bukidnon, and Camiguin where I celebrated my birthday with the owner of the inn where I was staying. What are the odds that we both share the same birthday, eh? So, I got to celebrate it with him and his guests that night.
It was in April when we traveled to my parents’ hometown in Zambales where we stayed for the Holy Week vacation. In the same month, we escaped the intense heat in the metro and stayed for 12 days in Baguio City. During that time, some schools shifted to online classes.
During my two-month school break in June and July, we traveled to Bohol via 2GO ship and got stuck there for 12 days because of some technical problems with our vessel. Instead of purchasing a flight back home, we went around Central Visayas and explored Siquijor, Dumaguete, and Cebu for the next few days.
After that impromptu backpacking trip, we headed to Japan where we explored Hida Takayama, Furukawa, and Nagoya city for 12 days. We got to visit Legoland in Japan where our son was so happy. We aptly called the trip #PreKinderTrip2024 as this was the last school break before our son went to school for the first time.
Akira started kindergarten in 2024, and he loves it, so far. I recently asked him about his favorite thing in school and he said he loves taking exams ‘coz it feels like he’s solving a puzzle.
It was also last year when I first got inked, ever. I had my first three tattoo pieces in April when we were in Baguio City. It was from an all-women team of artists in a cute little studio with just the perfect view. In the last part of the year, I got three more, and in just eight months, I got six inks in total which wouldn’t even be possible if my mom was still alive ‘coz she’d disown me, for sure.
Life gets tougher and tougher each year. ‘Coz maybe, it’s meant to be that way. Akira, our 5-year-old son, asked us one night why Jesus “invented” death, which I rephrased into, “Why do we need to die?” I was stunned for about four seconds and thought about a line from the movie Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange said, "Death is what gives life meaning. To know your days are numbered, your time is short".
I then told him that death gives meaning to our lives, that knowing that we’re all going to perish makes us strive to give our best in every situation given to us, 'coz if not, we will all be reckless and will not take care of ourselves and our lives. I know in my heart that he understood what I meant 'coz spending five years with him taught us how to patiently explain things in the simplest ways.
And so, yeah, life goes on and there’s so much more to celebrate and we need to focus our energies on what and who matters most.
Happy 14!
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