"The" Great North Adventure

We had just opened the last quarter of this year and already 2018 has proven to be the year I had set foot on the most number of places than the previous years combined. The streak has kept me on my toes for months. I am now on this traveling momentum that I would rather not break because I want to run its euphoric course 'til its last grain of pixie dust. My latest stop was in the northwestern region of Luzon, Ilocos. 

GOODBYE, LOLA TONYA

November 20, 2014. It was through an urgent call from my cousin that I had to reject because I was in my first class that early morning and a text message that read “Hi dai, good morning, patay na si lola kagabie pag 10pm” that the news about my lola’s death broke to me. My heartbeat stilled for a moment. I wanted to cry, get out from the classroom and curl up in a ball in somewhere I can be completely alone. But I was 40 minutes late, and I don’t want to offend my teacher by excusing myself from the class. I had only been seated on my seat for barely half an hour. So I remained where I was, body slacked on the chair, the voice of my teacher like a distant echo to my ears while my mind wandered at somewhere else. I was trying hard to keep myself together, to repress my strong urge to just let the tears roll down, blinking my eyes every now and then to keep them from welling up. 

 

     Then the class finally ended. I went out from the classroom quick. But then I met a classmate from a minor subject whose classes I haven’t been attending lately, so I had to get my bearings and approach her to ask the things I missed from the last meeting. After that, I walked on, deciding what to do next. My next class was an hour and a half after the first one, and I still have two classes after that in the afternoon. Part of me wanted to stay and just wait ‘til the day is over so that I could finally mourn for my grandmother’s death, but a bigger part wanted for me to go home, tell my mom about the news, and just be alone at my room while I reminisce. I was torn for a while. Next thing I knew, I was already walking outside the gates of the school, hailing for a jeep, and sitting at the most corner part while I try to dull the ache just a little bit longer. I wouldn’t want to have a crying spree in the jeepney now, would I?

     After an hour, I was finally home. What met me was the sight of my mother with red eyes and a handkerchief at her clasp, crying, and my uncle sitting on the bench at our living room. Apparently, he just arrived from the province to deliver the sad news to my parents and was resting from the long bus trip. I patted my mom at the shoulder and went straight to my room. Surprisingly, the urge to cry was gone. It was replaced by an unexpected calmness. I sat at my usual spot in the room, and thought about what happened for the past weeks.

Joie de Vivre!

Summer is the time for us to take a break from whatever is keeping us busy the whole year and to see and take delight the little things we've been missing. It's certainly the time to have the best adventure for the year:  exploring unexplored places, setting off for long road trips and feeling the cool air against our faces as we enjoy the view passing by in a fast blur, getting lost and ending up asking the locals for directions on how and where to go, sinking our feet on the sands, immersing ourselves in the cool and pristine fresh or salty waters, watching the sky splashing with so many colors from sunrise to sundown, taking pictures of the beautiful sceneries and being at our vainest by filling up our cameras with selfies here and there, exposing the bodies we've been working so hard to keep fit for the past months (hahaha!), eating the local foods and delicacies offered by the residents at our hearts' content, sharing good stories and laughing our hearts out while trying to achieve (or avoid) having tanned and bronze skin, and doing all these things with the people dearest to our hearts.

It's the time where we can unleash our young and wild and free souls, going out in the sun whenever and wherever we can and feeling more alive than we've ever been these past months. And it's also the perfect timing to make sunny and playful memories we can always look back to when the day comes that our souls aren't as young, wild and free anymore. Yes, summer is that time of the year where we can be at our happiest, brightest and most carefree selves. 

And since it's summer today, my friends and I definitely did not bum around at our own houses and bore ourselves to death. Of course, young and wild and free we are, we took off on an adventure at the beautiful Southern Cebu! For the first time ever, I and my best of best friends traveled together this far to Barili, Cebu and went on to discover their beautiful falls and white sand beaches. The locals were so accommodating and the weather was on our side, all the more making our trip our best-est ever yet. :)