SETTING FOOT

"Never miss an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful." - Janet Hobson

Exploring places you're not quite familiar with is an appealing experience. It's an ideal way to leave your current life behind to pursue a more relaxing or adventurous break. The experience is commonly about venturing out there and bringing back experiences to share. There is this kind of role behind exploring a new place that involves recording the experiences that are different from your common life. I have a belief that the reason for, or the result of checking out a new locale, is to open your eyes; to explore and see what is not normally seen in the daily drive to and fro the city. Does it help you to see better, with more detail, with interest in something different? Yes.

The place that I am referring to here is Downtown Cebu, or as it's famously called; Colon.

Colon is a section that I know because whenever I travel fro and to the province, I always pass by this place as it happens to be near South Road Properties. But if you'll ask me whether I'm familiar with the place or not? The answer is no. I can only recall how many times I have been in Colon, and trust me, it's more or less than five times. Most people would say that it's a "scary side of the city" because of what is going on in there, and what kind of people resides there… But Colon is not a frightening area to be, and I say this with factualness. All you need is a good companion to take you to anywhere around the locale and to teach you the basics about being in an ultra fast-paced neighbourhood. 

REY

With the right person to show me around the place, my exploits in Colon was a very fun one. I didn't get to try and experience the street food there though because the food stalls were long gone since then, so my tour guide and I had a very humbling "snack" at E-Mall instead. He showed me around the very small mall, and pointed out to me where he usually hangs out… As we were just about done, we were brainstorming a new place to go and decided to go to another mall; Metro Gaisano. I am quite familiar to this as this is one of the biggest mall chains here in the Cebu province area. Gaisano is a small mall but it had six storeys all - it is a small mall that had just about everything and anything under the sun. And again, my tour guide and I visited his favourite place to hang out in; World Of Fun - located at the top floor, people can play just about any arcade game they want. Rey, my tour guide, tried to sing since he didn't want to play at the different arcade machines. Seeing how much he wanted to sing, I let him be. After he had let that out of his system, we tried to play some hoops under one machine. HAHAHA. It was fun, because knowing me, I don't really know how to shoot a ball to a very small ring standing 2 meters away. HAHAHA.

After that encounter at the said mall, we went out and tried to go to another place around his neighbourhood. Rey doesn't know where to take me, so we just let our feet decide for us. As Rey and I were walking and talking, it was immediately apparent to me that Colon is not the same as my hometown. The loud and constant sound of cars honking was heard throughout the entire walk. I noticed that it wasn't just the cars that were in a hurry. Everyone in the streets were walking at a brisk pace that indicated a rush to be somewhere. It seemed like everyone there was in a hurry to get to another place. Just standing and watching the people rushing their own separate ways was an interesting observation.

In addition to the people and transportation, the buildings were also an incredible sight. Each street was crammed with buildings that were built side by side with no room in between them, and a number of skyscrapers were present throughout Colon as well. 

As we me made our way to Plaza Independencia, we kept on moving about for quite a while. We sat at two or something benches, he taught me how to play "sungka"  for sometime. When it was late in the evening, the noisy streets and the light began to fade. The silence affected us strangely. Our minds were full of solemn thoughts and colourful memories. It was at midnight where the moon was shining right above us, and the wind brushing off our hair that Rey and I really got to know each other. It was a delightful experience. I never had the chance to get to know someone who's gracious, compassionate, sympathetic and charming... And stepping into a place where he usually spends his time off, was a great deal of occurrence. It was like stepping into Rey's shoes and seeing this exceptional place from his point of view. 

Overall, my trip to Colon was a life changing experience. For the first time in my life, I was exposed to a little taste of what the real world is like. The incredible modes of transportation, the elevated buildings, and all of the thousands of people made me anxious to grow up and perhaps explore new places such as this one. Having been to Malaysia and Singapore, either way, my first tour around Colon was one of the most incredible experiences of my life, one I will always treasure.

This blog piece is for you! 

Thank you - you know who you are!

LAST FRIDAY NIGHT!

10 Things you should STOP doing right NOW

1. Wait for a better time. There is never a good time to do anything especially if that's something you have been putting off for a while. There is never a good time to start exercising or learning a new language... You make the time for these things if they are important to you - make them important enough for the good time to be now.

2. Hate people. It's such a negative emotion and it really doesn't lead anywhere. In most cases, hating someone directly affects you, and you alone - making your mood and your day much worse. By talking behind someone's back and spreading negative energy you'll just push people you actually care about away. Let go of it and make room for good and positive things.

3. Constantly look back. What has happened in the past is now in the past - you have learned, hopefully, from your mistakes and it is time to move on. Until you can let go of the past, you can not live in the present, plan for the future and grow as a person. After all, your life before doesn't define who you are today, your present actions do.

4. Think about people who make no difference in your life. Whether they are people from your past or your present, if they don't affect you directly, why waste your precious time on them? This also applies to spreading and listening to rumours, reading celebrity columns and checking people's statuses online. You only have one lifetime, why should you give people you don't really care about any of it?

5. Whine about life, the Universe and everything. Yes, there are days that it's just impossible to smile and take things as they come, but what does whining achieve exactly? What is the point of complaining about the weather, politics or prices - what would that change? Unless you have a clear plan on what to do and how to make things better, why spread the misery and the negative vibes? If you see a problem - do something, do anything! The light doesn't work in your block of flats - fix it or find someone who will. Things that are not under your control and you cannot in any way influence them - learn to live with them and accept them as they are.

6. Play social games. No one really cares about your clothes or your level of intelligence, not really. It's way better to just be authentic and show people who you really are, with all your flaws and true character rather than waste energy on superficial interactions - they don't lead to anything but superficial relationships. Be yourself and be real, let others love you and accept you the way you are. Genuine relationships will make you happier, and you'll only form these relationships once you stop trying to impress everyone you meet and start being yourself.

7. Spend money on things you don't need. We often mistake the "I want" for "I need" when buying stuff just because it seems cool to own it. Things don't make you happy for very long - the moment you get it, you experience joy but shortly after that the joy is gone and the newly acquired item joins the rest in your house. Think very carefully whether you absolutely need of something or you just want to own it.... Invest in experiences instead - experiences that will stay with you in your memory for the rest of your life.

8. Compare yourself to others. Very often we look around and we see people who are doing a lot better than we are and we don't really notice those who are doing a lot worse. At times we look around and all we can see is everyone else having it easier and having it better and we feel bad about our own life. The fact is, it's not easy for anyone, and everyone has their own problems. What you see on the outside is what others let you see, always. Someone else is looking at you and thinking just about the same thing: "you are the lucky one" and they have their own reasons to say that.  By thinking that having someone else's life or someone else's problems will make you happier than you make yourself in the now, you rob yourself of the chance to take joy in what you have for yourself already. We can be happy with very little and immensely unhappy with having it all - sometimes, it's just a matter of perspective.

9. Take no chances. Sometimes we wait for a sure thing to come along for us to follow and then, when it never comes, we wonder why nothing wonderful and exciting ever happens to us. It's true not just in regard of opportunities but also people. Sometimes people also need to be given a chance to prove you wrong. We often overthink, overanalyze and create possible scenarios in our head - then come up with the negative outcome, and end up never trying anything at the end of the day. If you are truly afraid of something going wrong, ask yourself: "What is the worst thing that can happen?" and if you can live with the worst case scenario - maybe you should give it a try.

10. Set no goals. If we set no goals how do we expect to get anywhere at all? Life has the tendency to decide for us and take us down routes we never thought we would ever consider for ourselves - don't let it dictate it all, reclaim some of the control back and influence your future. If you have a plan a good or a bad one, at least you have one and you can guide yourself to a better tomorrow at any rate. We often give up and just let events take over, but reacting all the time is not the same as acting of your own free will. Take control back, set targets and get a strategy for life... Life only has a meaning when you give it one.

SPEAKING OF LOVE

What is love? Love is a very special and meaningful word to each human being. Each human being has his/her own thoughts about love to guide himself/herself to land safely and smoothly into the kingdom of love. Without this preconceived idea of love, people would be acting like a blind person searching for the light with thousands of obstacles in front of him.

What is love? I know this question exists in each human being's mind including myself. If not, it is still waiting to be discovered deeply in your heart. What do I think of love? For me, I believe love is a priceless diamond, because a diamond has thousands of reflections, and each reflection represents a meaning of love. With love I can accept a person's imperfections without any conditions, and able to transfer the way I love myself to another person who I am fancy at. With love I can have the power against loneliness, sadness, and illness, and to be able to change them into my happiness. As well as, having a key to open my heart and look at this world without a mask, to show people who I really am. But on the other hand, my love cannot be a substitute for anything, which means nothing can be substituted for my love. It also means those reflections of the diamond cannot be replaced by any kind of light or reflection.

What will happen if people live without love? In my point of view, without love I may lose my ability to survive in this world with no hope.

SEX.

I am of the persuasion that we are all individuals, that gender is irrelevant, that sexual orientation is a spectrum. Be who you feel you should be; those who accept you as you are will look past your flaws, and see what makes you special and unique.

Sex differences lie on a continuum; behaviourally and physiologically, no animal - human or otherwise - is exclusively "male" or "female".

Some people just get caught. *laughs