It's Still My Birthday!

Now it's official: it's not even my birthday month anymore and I'm still celebrating. I've had multiple mini birthday celebrations with my friends and family over the month of May, and honestly, I kind of felt weird about it. haha! And I say mini because I was looking forward to this one. Although this wasn't what I originally had in mind, it was wonderful nonetheless.

It wasn't that easy though. There were a lot of struggles—mostly internal ones that I had to overcome to be able to get to this day. This started as something I wanted to do for my birthday this year since December of last year. Then, it became something I wanted to do with my friends and family so I could share the experience with them. Until it became a real plan around the first week of May. A lot went on, and there were things to consider and even more to reconsider. I had to remind myself countless times why I wanted to do this. I had to tell myself that when I said I would do this, it's not about me or why want to do this anymore. This is now about the people we would reach, whose lives we could possibly touch—whoever they may be.

Even though overcoming my internal struggles is a big step towards being able to do this, it still wouldn't have been possible if not for the people who helped. Huge thanks to all of you! To my sisters for being supportive about this. To Kuya Philip for connecting us to the people of this Sitio, especially their children. To Tito Roland and Tita Lily, thank you for all the help and support, and for the mangoes too. To my friends siblings from the same mother that is Shep Malen (hahaha), thank you for spending your time, and much more for losing sleep just to come and help out. Extra thank you to Kuya Pat for bringing his car and driving for us. Haha! And of course, Shep Malen, ginormous thanks for everything. To be honest, I did close to nothing for this. haha! I don't want this to sound too cheesy, but I know you have a lot of things to do, yet you always manage to go above and beyond for all of it. I'm so grateful for you; you are the best-est! I say they should name you the new Darna for being the superwoman that you are. This is starting to sound like a tribute post, so I'll stop now.

My heart is so happy that I was able to do this for my birthday. Doing this definitely doesn't make me a better person than anyone, but my wish is that we all strive to be our better selves. I've said this before, but I'll say it again (and again and again) because it's true—it is already a cruel world we're living in, I hope we could share more kindness and love. A little kindness won't hurt anyone, afterall. 

Again, thank you to everyone who greeted and celebrated with me for my birthday. Friends and family, until the next one? ❤️