Reading my last entry made me realize how so much has changed for almost a year, with just very little similarities:
a) I wrote the last entry on a Sunday night.
b) I wrote it while I was home.
But other than those two, everything else had already changed. I am amazed by how much life still finds a multitude of ways to surprise us and turn everything around without us knowing it. We keep thinking how stuck we are, how nothing new ever happens... but it's only when we start looking back after some time had passed that we realize how so far out we've gone. Like the moment I read my last entry, for instance.
I am now back in the city. After almost a year and a half of living on the island, I find that I miss Boracay. TERRIBLY. From the beginning, I can't deny that I love the place with a passion... from the very first time I've set foot on it half a decade ago. I've mentally logged it in my things-to-do-before-I-die list, the so-called Bucket List: to live in Boracay at least once in my life. How I got myself there was purely by chance, and how I got myself out was just the same. All by chance. What were the odds that I'd ever live there? I guess dreams do have a way of coming true.
I remember arriving on a rainy morning in Caticlan, first flight out for the day. I had absolutely no expectations, I only wanted to embrace my newfound home with all gusto that my tiny body could handle. Outside looking in, it seemed like the perfect life, a vacation 24/7. It was, don't get me wrong. But the life lessons and experiences that came with every single day, leading to weeks, months, eventually a year was hard-fought and hard-earned. A bittersweet life from beginning to end.
I made friends and lost friends. I found the true ones and held on to them like there was no tomorrow. I fell in love for the first time in my life and right then and there, I put an end to my crazy search once and for all, deciding instead to nurture and grow the relationship with the man I am blessed with. Sometimes, I think Boracay had a big role to play in that tiny, important incident in my life.
Oh, what a beauty it is to fall in love while on the island! To have long walks on the beach while the waves lapped teasingly at our feet. To look up at countless numbers of stars while lying down on the sand with the body of that significant other brushing at your side. To spend sleepless nights talking and exchanging sweet nothings at each other's ear (other times, just screaming out senseless arguments) until the beauty of sunrise out at sea renders us speechless with awe. Imagine spending all this with a man you never thought you'd fall hopelessly, helplessly in love with. I thought nothing else could be more perfect. It wasn't just me who had these moments, by the way; a lot of lovers on the island would probably say the same things and share the same accounts. We all thought something was in the water in Boracay - something that drove people to pits of hopeless romance that even the iciest and coldest of hearts couldn't resist. Nevertheless, people fell in love with love while in Boracay, and no one could ever deny that lure.
I laughed and loved, found myself in occasional moments of loneliness, seethed with anger I didn't imagine I could ever feel, been in countless drunken stupor, worked my body to weariness, yet still found ways to enjoy life every chance I could, normally with the help of music and dance, moonlight and waves, all with a celebrated cocktail in hand. Happiness ran over my body like an electric jolt hitting the water every time I realize where I am. I never got tired of it, never got tired of seeing the same beach with the same waves and the same sand every single day and night. It was the best time of my life, to be in a place where you can be at your happiest, loneliest, craziest, quietest, most vulnerable and most in love... and what made it even better was spending it all in a place I never thought I'd find myself living in.
Oh, what a beauty it is to fall in love while on the island! To have long walks on the beach while the waves lapped teasingly at our feet. To look up at countless numbers of stars while lying down on the sand with the body of that significant other brushing at your side. To spend sleepless nights talking and exchanging sweet nothings at each other's ear (other times, just screaming out senseless arguments) until the beauty of sunrise out at sea renders us speechless with awe. Imagine spending all this with a man you never thought you'd fall hopelessly, helplessly in love with. I thought nothing else could be more perfect. It wasn't just me who had these moments, by the way; a lot of lovers on the island would probably say the same things and share the same accounts. We all thought something was in the water in Boracay - something that drove people to pits of hopeless romance that even the iciest and coldest of hearts couldn't resist. Nevertheless, people fell in love with love while in Boracay, and no one could ever deny that lure.
I laughed and loved, found myself in occasional moments of loneliness, seethed with anger I didn't imagine I could ever feel, been in countless drunken stupor, worked my body to weariness, yet still found ways to enjoy life every chance I could, normally with the help of music and dance, moonlight and waves, all with a celebrated cocktail in hand. Happiness ran over my body like an electric jolt hitting the water every time I realize where I am. I never got tired of it, never got tired of seeing the same beach with the same waves and the same sand every single day and night. It was the best time of my life, to be in a place where you can be at your happiest, loneliest, craziest, quietest, most vulnerable and most in love... and what made it even better was spending it all in a place I never thought I'd find myself living in.
While I will never exchange Manila for any place in the world, I think it does the soul a whole wonder of good to discover and fall in love with other places in the process. I've successfully hauled myself out there and tried living in a couple of other destinations in the past couple of years, and taking a little of something from those places back with me is the best gift I've given myself. It opens up the self and the mind to a lot of possibilities, that there is so much more to life than the usual daily grind. It's amazing how so much energy there is out there, really.
But for now, I'm parked once more in my beloved city. This could be temporary, this could be permanent. Nothing is ever really known, except that I will keep dreaming of new places to be in and new experiences to go through, whether good or bad. If there is one thing that makes me feel alive, it's the beauty of a new place and discovering every unknown curve, every bended corner. But since Boracay gave me the best and most unexpected gift, I wouldn't have to go through anything by myself anymore. :)
But for now, I'm parked once more in my beloved city. This could be temporary, this could be permanent. Nothing is ever really known, except that I will keep dreaming of new places to be in and new experiences to go through, whether good or bad. If there is one thing that makes me feel alive, it's the beauty of a new place and discovering every unknown curve, every bended corner. But since Boracay gave me the best and most unexpected gift, I wouldn't have to go through anything by myself anymore. :)
