“It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived, what matters is how well you’ve lived your life to the fullest in the eyes of God” is a piece of advice I got from my Ate du
ring my birthday. My twenteenth birthday was celebrated in a simple yet a remarkable way with my family.
It’s Friday! As soon as my mother got off from bed, I noticed she kissed my forehead and said “Happy birthday dai” and that made me smile. I continued sleeping and when I woke up, father greeted me and gave me a big envelope. Wow! I screamed at the back of my mind. An envelope and greeting cards came in my mind. Indeed, I was right. When I was about to open and read the contents, I found myself teary eyed. I can’t help it because I know they have sacrificed way too much for me but still, they gave me something so special. When I first read it, the words didn’t mark in my mind and in my heart and so I set it aside and told myself I will reread it before I will sleep.
I wasn’t that thrilled during the first part of the day. It’s as if it’s just an ordinary day after all not after my mother bought some ingredients for “bam-i” and some bones for “linat-ang bukog”. A little celebration for my very day!
Before eating our dinner, they sang a birthday song for me. At that instance, I felt grateful for everything. Something stirred my heart. I appreciated the simplicity of life and the gift of having such family by my side. I was alive again! After eating our dinner, we had ice cream. A birthday celebration atmosphere! Simple yet joyful.
When I was about to sleep, I remember I have to read the letters again. After reading it, I head to bed but I found it hard to sleep that night. I asked for Mama’s phone and I texted my two elder sisters about my day and I also thanked them for remembering my special day. I then go back to sleep because we will go to the city the next day.
Tic-tok! Tic-tok! Tic-tok! It’s time to wake up and prepare myself for a family day and part two celebration of my birthday. Heeeeee!
The itinerary would be first offer mass in Sto. Rosario Church then we’ll go to SM for lunch, movie and games and rides. We found out there was no 10AM mass so we went straight to SM and had our lunch at Cabalen. Extravagant restaurant once in a while according to Ate. :D After having a sumptuous meal, we continued the next plan and that is to watch a movie. We chose This Guy’s Inlove With You Mare for the reason that we want to have a good time laughing and just laughing. My hopes didn’t go down. It was indeed a very humorous movie! We just laughed and laughed to the pick-up lines of Vice Ganda and the comical scenes of the rest of the casts. The movie ran for almost two hours. We really had a great time watching. And now the last part of our original plan was to play games and have a ride. The exciting part! I will ride the bump cars this time and play my favorite game, the shooting or basketball game. Aweeeee. Bumping other cars was a lot of fun. Sometimes, I hit them or the opposite. Next stop is the shooting game! I reached stage three and my hands were already shaking and hurt. I also played other games including the piso machine and I gained lots of tickets. After playing, I then presented my tickets to the counter to redeem the points. Mama chose the Anchor milk worth 727 tickets and exchanged the rest for candies. Poof! It’s getting late. It’s now time to offer mass at Basilica del Sto. Nino. Sad to say, when we arrived there, the next mass is scheduled one and a half hour later. So we just prayed there and finally head home. I felt relaxed and complete.
Now that I have reached the line of twenties, I should formally bid goodbye to my teenage days, my childish ways and everything unbecoming for a lady. I thank God the Almighty for letting me reach this age, for all the blessings He bestowed unto me and my family and for the upcoming blessings too. I praise God that because of my depression, I discovered more about myself. I am grateful for having an imperfect family yet a family that will never ever abandon me. I am indebted to those friends of mine who didn’t judge me right away. At the present, I am still working things out in my own way. I am building again myself and my personality. Step by step, I know I can make it for there is no wrong time to do the right thing.
To God be the glory!
