Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

2007 is about to end in a couple of hours. As early as now I’m turning nostalgic already, and to think the year has not even ended yet. I’m really going to miss the year that was. It has been one helluva ride. It was a fairly smooth one with a couple of bumps along the way. I’m glad I still managed to get to the end with a good head on my shoulders. The highlight of my year would have to be Paris, Italy, and Tokyo. Europe was such a surreal experience, one that I will never ever forget. I’m definitely going back to Paris whether my budget likes it or not. Hehe This year was also the year I met different kinds of people, some unique colorful personalities whom I never thought I would actually get along with. I’m blessed to have met such really nice cool people whom eventually and unexpectedly became an important part of my life. While a lot of new people came into my life, I also lost dear ones. 2007 will never be complete without my grandma Amma Adams and cousin Jerric. They will always and forever be in my heart. May my niece Ma-an, aunt Lucy, and uncle Peter rest in peace as well.

This year is one of the most memorable one yet. It was indeed a year full of surprises and laughter, as well as heartaches and pain. There were also a few regrets, but I think I wouldn’t have done it any other way. I've stumbled, learned, and grown a lot. I feel like a bigger person now, thanks to 2007. I’m definitely looking forward to the coming year. I’ve got my hopes all high, my goals way up in the sky, and my happy heart on my sleeves. I'm going to travel light this coming year. No more excess baggage this time around. Cheers to 2007! Here's to a fresh brand new start. 2008, here I come!

On Letting Go

-Staying with someone you really love even if you know it's better letting go is like standing under the rain. It feels good but you know it's going to make you sick.

-Sometimes people choose to leave not because of selfish reasons but because they just know that things will get worse if they'll stay. Leaving can be a tough act and it's hard when people can't understand you for doing so.

-One grows distant from another not because of hatred, not because of indifference but because of fear. There's the fear that the hurt gets greater as one gets closer; a recognition of the tendency to fall deeply and consequently rush in a quicksand of stupid rationalities. Sometimes what drives one away is not the absence of emotion, but the overwhelming presence of it.

-A "goodbye" can hurt but not as much as an "I love you" that can't be proven.

-I thought love can melt the pain no matter how painful it is...but I was wrong, because now I know pain can melt the love no matter how great it is.

-Every tear of sadness that we shed for a person we love is a capsule of memory that we have to leave behind. We fall in love so that we will learn. We get hurt so that we will become strong, and we cry so that we can let go and find our place in the life of someone who will love us right.

-Letting go of someone doesn't sincerely mean you have to stop loving. It only means that you allow that person to find his/her own happiness without expecting him/her to come back. Letting go is not just letting the other person free in the real sense of it. But it is also setting yourself free from animosities, hostility, and resentments that was long kept in your heart. You have to let go because not doing so often diminishes the strength we have left and weakens the little hope left making our lives more miserable than ever. If ever you lose that special someone today, it simply means someone better is coming tomorrow. If you lose love that doesn't mean you failed in love. Probably it was another mismatch in heaven.

-In love you have to expect absence at some point but that doesn't mean it's the end; all you have to do is wait for a time. Give the person space because true love is proven when a person has seen the best people in the world but still turns back to where you are, reaches for your hand and chooses you above the world's best.

Hmnn..

Sher sent this text forward a couple of days ago,

"There are times when I wish that I was limited to certain emotions. So that I'll never have to experience pain, never feel betrayed or disappointed, and never get my fragile heart broken. But the same thing means that I'll never know how it feels to love and be loved in return. The thought of it kind of scares me. To have a heart that's whole but numb, or a heart that's broken but real."

Which one would you rather have?

Help End Hunger

Tin showed me Free Rice , a cool site that lets you play and help feed the poor at the same time. For each word you answered correctly, you get to donate 20 grains of rice through the United Nations. I got 3,780 grains of rice. I would have wanted to get more rice if I didn't have to go to work early the next day. As of this writing, 254,840,800 grains of rice has been donated already.

"The United Nations estimates that the cost to end world hunger completely, along with diseases related to hunger and poverty, is about $195 billion a year. Twenty two countries have joined together to raise this money by each contributing 0.7% (less than 1%) of national income. Some of the countries have already met this goal. Others are being a little slow, but this can be fixed."

Friends Forever XOXO

I don’t know if it has to do with the so-called “fast paced lifestyle” we have, there’s something about today’s world that makes it difficult for one to have a satisfying relationship. Everything just seems impersonal and detached. The “Hi’s and How are you’s?” are automatically spelt out without any thought. The responses to it are likewise the same. The standard “I’m fine. How about you’s?” are just as predictably expected. I’m finding it hard to rise above all the superficiality and look for that warm (Wow, warm daw. Hehe) genuineness.

These days it’s almost rare to meet someone whom you can actually enjoy a real conversation with. Everyone is just in a hurry to go off somewhere and do their own thing. Consider yourself lucky if you will meet someone who’s actually genuinely interested in what you have to say or in what you do even.

That is why it’s no mean feat to build real-lationships. We all got our own lives to live, issues and hang-ups to deal with, do we even have the time to bother with someone else’s? Most of the people I meet usually just come and go. I guess some people are just meant to be just that—fleeting, transitory. For whatever reason, they probably came into my life for a (short) purpose that I unfortunately will never know.

Having said all these, I’m still glad though that despite the humongous effort that it requires, I’m able to build a few new friendships along the way and maintain old connections as well. In any given day, I will definitely choose to have a few real good FRIENDs over a thousand of “friends”. In the end it's not really about winning Ms. Congeniality, but rather it's about the special bond that you have with the person.

To my friends (you know who you are), THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. Mwah!