Earlier this year, I’ve seen a lot of accessories on sale like charm bracelet and necklaces with Chinese symbols, zodiac symbols, and those kind of stuff. I contemplated about buying one just because they actually look good, at least in pictures.I particularly liked the green charm bracelet I saw in a deals website and one zodiac year necklace that sold for only half the original price.
But then again I didn’t buy one. It’s funny because what made me decide not to is this one other “deal” - a sort of earring that is supposed to suppress your apetite. The brand name even had a trademark symbol on it so I decided to Google it, but alas my serach came up with nothing. Then this reminded me of those sports bracelets that real-life athletes are advertising - they claim that those things give inner balance and promotes general health. In the end my cynicism took over. It all just seemed too silly.
I can think of a lot of cliche and hackneyed expressions when it comes to “change,” as I know anybody else can, too. Especially about the way people change. For better or for worse, although of course we always hope we change for the better.
I sort of lost touch with my college bestfriend - and roommate for 4 years - in the last 6 years and finally we were able to meet when I visited Singapore with my sister last month. Because she’s not the type who is into technology and the Internet, and possibly as busy if not more so than I had been, we barely even texted each other or consistently exchanged e-mails over the years. But as I expected, our get together after a long, long time was easy. We got to talking and exchanging stories in no time. But then again we both have changed and it became an eye-opener to me. Like we used to, we talked about emptiness in our lives, and religion. The latter is a particularly touchy subject to me, but metaphorically our situation is like that of two kids served each with different sustenance by our parents but decided to switch plates when we became old enough to decide for ourselves. I think she realized how far I have strayed from my faith, while she gravitated to it and found it to be her lifeline. I alternated between trying to defend my position and thinking if I am really being a “bad” person by not being more “spiritual” as I was taught all my life to be. What can I tell you but that I will continue thinking about it; not many people understand the burden of walking away from something. Freedom is not always easy and not always completely satisfying. I can only be responsible for my choices, but I don’t want to burn more bridges as I seem to have already done.
I do still think about the purpose of, well, everything in life; about God and how I don’t expect Him to give me the answers to my questions because if He does that then people will not be divided into different religions all the while claiming that theirs is the only true one. My bestfriend asked me if I have become an atheist, and my answer is “No.” I think I will leave it to that for now. At least I can still claim that one thing hasn’t changed.
Whoever is behind Cebu Pacific’s “piso fare” promos, I bow to you, Sir – or Ma’am. The first time I heard about these kinds of “gimik,” I didn’t believe it. It took me a while to actually catch the travel fever - mostly made possible by such cheap flights - so I’m just glad to see that they don’t seem to be losing steam nor popularity (on the contrary, more than two airlines now offer such promos all year long).
So as tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I am expecting to see more people booking flights for their summer (and beyond) destinations. The Philippine beaches are waiting; I already have one booked flight on June to Cebu and another one on December to Cagayan de Oro, but I’m still longing to get that much-coveted cheap Boracay (Caticlan) ticket. I guess we’ll see. It’s time to buy sunless spray tan, eerr I mean sunblock.
