Year-end Thoughts

Today, the last day of 2013, will usher a new start. Another beginning.

It is, with a happy feeling, that we can start anew - change what needs to be changed and start doing the things that are in your bucket list. Or perhaps, this year is the time to make your own bucket list.

2013 is a hard year, well i guess, for all of humanity, Filipinos most especially. We have been shaken literally and metaphorically.

Convincingly, 'twas a hard year but it made me, well, a better or wiser person.

First of all, i have learned to be more grateful. After all the destructive calamities that hit the country, I am spared. I am alive. Thank you God. And my thank you note to Him comes heeding the opportunity to help. We were spared because we are called to help. I have learned that gratitude is an action word. It means being emphatic. It means going out of your room and help. It means giving up, temporarily, your comfort zone. To me, it even means, not listening to critics and just continue to do it. In the arena or life, the critics should not matter. What will matter is you and your intentions. When we organized the dinner for a cause for the victims of typhoon Yolanda, we gained supporters and critics. I was deeply disturbed. I saw apathy. I saw indifference. But that only fueled our wanting to help. That only gave us the formidable strength to just do it. And we made it. I then realized that critics are there because of two things - first, to give you more focus and second, to make you stronger - thus you end up victorious. That's it. Thank you to all our critics.

I have also learned that we live in an interdependent world - one that is fragile. I have started advocating for Climate Change this year. And I regret to realize it quite late. My facebook profile pic depicts the Earth on Fire. It really is. Climate change is so real. We dont need to look for evidence because the evidence is already in front of you - before your own eyes. We should realize that our Earth is a fragile ecosystem. The fast rising of the temperature on Earth, if not stopped, will make this world, unlivable. And the rate is fast moving. And it will take you and me to do it. We should stop thinking that China activities will only affect China and US activities will only affect the US. We live in a world without walls. We all live in one world. We affect one another.

I have learned that I am growing older. (Smiling) I used to think that youth is forever. Until later this year, I need to slow down a bit because my body feels the fatigue. I realized that things are not the way it used to be. When I arrive in the house and watch news, I only realized that I have not watched anything at all when I wake up in the night with uniform on, and TV showing already the late night news. Haha. I have confessed this to a friend within my age group and we said "Cheers to Old Age". Growing old is fun.

Lastly, I am convinced, that Life is only temporary. No one lives forever. For another passing year, we should be comforted by the fact that we are all passers by. No one holds the distinction of being the richest, most famous, most beautiful, most successful, best actress when we die. What people remember are usually that good things that you have done. How you have affected them. How you have inspired them. How you have loved them.

Cheers to a happier 2014!