I like...

I like rainbows.

I like dirty ice cream and UP Diliman Isaw.

I like intimate conversations with coffee or beer.

I like sunsets and the way they make the sky turn gold and pink.

I like butterflies and puppies.

I love ukay-ukay shopping and treating my youngest brother to pizza.

I appreciate a poem better than a bouquet.

I'd prefer a picnic in a beach over an expensive dinner date.

I love riverside breakfasts. (Bagis for two please!)



My three most favorite places in the world are:

1) the market in Lipa City where they sell barako beans freshly crushed, the scent of which triggers a chemical reaction a lot like falling in love :)

2) the top of Mt. Napulak on a beautiful purple and pink evening...(one day balik ta to ha)

3) Baybay... kay basta lang...



I am in love with a walking contradiction.

And I know it.



I'm about to go into residency training with a heart full of hope and a pocketful of prayers that everything will go smoothly... at least until April.



Life isn't always smooth sailing. I know that.

Life isn't always fair. I know that too.



There are reasons why things happen the way they have. But I also have reason to believe that people who dance in the rain in the middle of the storm shouldn't complain when lightning strikes. Twice... sometimes thrice... It's the nature of storms to be waited out and should be weathered only when needed.



And so much of life is so cliche... like the things I've just written here, hehehe...

But who cares?



When God prepared something for you and only you, there is nothing others can do to take them away, even if you don't do anything at all.



But I'm also a fighter when I need to be. I've weathered my own share of storms. I've stood in the aftermath in the middle of the debris with eyes closed and have breathed in the scent of new beginnings.



I'm not perfect. I never said I could be more than anyone else or better than others or more deserving of things I never asked for... I'm just grateful for the blessings I receive... and for the people who stick around even when they have no more reason to...



I like it when it rains. I grew up dancing there.

I like it when he smiles at me.



Or when he holds my hand like it's always the first time.

Or when he plays me an out of tune "Sea of Love" with his guitar.

I like it when there's suddenly a star peeping out of the city smog at night.

I love the sound of heartbeats through my stethoscope.

And when he touches my face with the back of his hand, I find myself taking a deep, deep breath as though I've forgotten how to breathe.

I don't like how sweetly unfair that is. But I like it all the same.



I just know I believe in Love... not only in the people through which it is manifested but in Love itself... and how Love, by itself is reason enough...



This year has been a telenovela where I have taken the roles of best friend, martyr, villain, maldita (taas kilay), a saint, an unlikely hero, a black sheep, a bitch even. I stood up for those roles the best way I know how. But when I sum them all up, they all amount to only one role now.



One I hope to live up to with everything I've got...



....Happy Holidays...