2008 yo!

what a year...what a year..what a year...



2007 has got to be the most turbulent roller coaster ride ever!



i...



graduated from high school. met a family i never knew i had. called myself a college freshman. experienced the taste of defeat. lived a month of regret and angst (emo daw ako that time). succeeded in proving myself wrong. met new friends. lost some old ones. rediscovered the ones i thought i left behind. felt the pang of self-pity loads of times. extracted fish juice. lived a constant tug of war between passing and failing. puked on a bus from Cagayan. screamed at the top of my lungs. brushed shoulders with some people i never should have met....



experienced self-inadequacy.

found myself.

and lost myself again.




and made a cheesecake a few minutes ago.









i'm thankful that i've managed to come out alive. scarred and scared. but i survived. with the passing of another year, it probably took a lot of me with it. and that's not just fluff. like i said, it has been a constant tug of war between passing and failing, but as i end the year with mixed emotions, i've come to realize it's more of an internal struggle between remembering, and forgetting who i am. my situation right now could probably generate a novel's worth of drama, but let's leave it at that. but this isn't something cataclysmic. maybe i'm just too anxious to be somebody, and do the things i want to do...and the end result is what i see in the mirror. (this is essentially another story to tell, so let's leve it at that nalang.)









anyway...



i know 2008 holds many possibilities for me. be it a struggle or an opportunity, let's just say i should seriously grab the bull by the horns. it feels weird to be in a situation where you're going further along, and moving onwards to greater things...and getting older and with it, shouldering more and more responsibilities. but i hope that even if it's still a blur for me right now, a clear path would someday show itself.







but in the meantime...



to the people i've always had, and to the ones i've met along the way...



thanks for a great year!





something to ponder on (audrey sent this to me a while ago...)

We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called OPPORTUNITY, and it's first chapter is NEW YEAR'S DAY.

ticking clocks and silver bells

before anything else, i'm proud to announce to the whole world (pfftt..or maybe just the people who've stumbled onto my blog)...that i have finally bridged my multiply and this blog right here. so, that just means i'm gonna be cross-posting in some occassions.


so, boxers, shirts, belts, and a hooplah of gifts made my christmas. but i felt that this christmas held a relatively somber atmosphere...in my case that is.

for one, i know that once i get back from the holidays, a bunch of long exams and lab reports/presentations will be waiting for me with open arms. of course, let's not forget the midterms the following week.

but maybe i'm just being superficial, OR i'm getting too old (ok, an overstatement) to appreciate the little things that make the holidays festive. i have too admit i've missed out on a lot of things that defined my childhood holidays. Cartoon network always had a christmas special, and i would watch from dawn until dusk. a few years ago, ham was consumed on a daily basis. and among other things, i don't have to worry about anything school-related, up until day or two before school actually starts.

but of course, i can't always stay a child forever. i'm starting to realize that i have a few years left before i graduate (hopefully), and join the work force. i keep on reminding myself that once, when i was a freshman in high school, i've always thought the pivotal moments in my life are still light years away. but here i am, writing this after experiencing what seemed to be a movie going fast forward (read: high school). so now that i've learned enough to actually start LEARNING something from life, i can say with confidence that time FLIES. one minute, your stepping into high school, the next, your dead (LOL).

so as i bid adieu to 2007, i want to welcome 2008 with high hopes of what lies ahead for me. i'm not getting any younger, but that doesn't mean i can't enjoy life with the people that matter.

one step at a time, as my friend would put it.

a christmas carol (couldnt think of a decent title)

so this is the first christmas that i would actually take gift giving to the next level. pfftt...whatever that means. well, what it just means that i would give gifts not because of obligation but by choice...to some select people who made my first year of college special (and that just translates to either having lunch together on a daily basis, or the fact that they're my classmates, or both.)

but i enjoyed the idea of going the extra mile to think about what you're gonna give to your friends. and the idea of christmas shopping with your friends makes it even more palpable.

so, yana, camille and neth-chan arrived yesterday, and that would just make my christmas special.

i'm also looking forward to the BerXmas party tomorrow at MJ's house. a mini reunion with the Berx this christmas gives new meaning to..um...some christmas carols that i couldn't think of right now. haha.

i kinda ended the school year 2007 wth a few bruises, courtesy of chemistry and zoology (curse you, fish juice), and i'm seriously sure that the moment we come back from the holidays, all hell will break loose, and things will definitely take a turn for the worse.

but for now,

we wish you a merry christmas, we wish you a merry christmas, we wish you a merry christmas.....and a haaaappppyyyy neeewwwww yeeeaaarrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


presents presents presents!

the ATFest07 photo finish

This was the fiesta where...







colleges were defined..but it seriously didn't make a big difference.





the carnival was in town! (um, in the Ateneo nga lang.)


charades were played, in complete abandon.



..and a "bring me" game, becomes violent and deadly.



a rare photographic moment was captured.



marko tries his best to look fierce.


torches ablaze almost burned some people's hair..



we were called "HS alumni" for the first time.


..and efforts weren't really recognized. *sigh*.

but in a nutshell, i could probably say that this was a great fiesta. and of course, Icecapades and porkchops on a daily basis made me happy. too bad it ended as soon as it began. oh well, next year ya tamen. ^_^