Eighteen.
That’s the number of years I spent so far. Within those 18 years, I had a number of ups and downs, I shed some tears but more than the tears, I had smiles. The unabashed smile I had on when I was an infant, the smile I made with my two front teeth missing, the tentative smile I had when my crush was around, the wide smile I had when I was having fun with my friends and the confident smile I had when I entered college – all of those spoke of good times.
Eighteen.
I made mistakes and fell down a lot (quite literally sometimes) but there were always people ready to pick me up. The number 18 would never be enough to count the many people who came in and out of my life. The people who stayed and the people who came but left – no matter how long or short the time I had with them, they are all a big part of who I am.
Eighteen.
It also signifies the 18 years of God’s faithfulness in my life. The 18th years of blessings, the 18th years of provision for me and my family and the 18 years of love I received from the people around me.
Today, I would like to take time to mention the people who were with me as I turned 18, the people who made my day extra-special.
First off, the Chars - Mita, Jenelyn (Chen), Jenalyn (Char) and Joy.
November 10, 2011. 12am
When the clock struck 12, these girls were with me. Despite having early classes, they stayed awake and even prepared an impromptu mini – debut celebration.
I was in my pajamas but the girls insisted that I dress up so I went out of the room and changed into my red cocktail dress and silver stilettos (which luckily, I brought with me here in the boarding house).
After changing, I was about to enter the room but guess what? They locked it from inside, saying they had a surprise for me. Chen even blindfolded me.
After a while, they let me in and removed my blindfold. It was dim-lighted (they turned off the light and the only illumination was coming from the light-up toy I won on one of my school field trips and a candle) but I could still clearly see that my pajama-clad friends from less than an hour ago transformed into 4 ladies wearing dresses and such – to match the occasion, according to them. XD
There were music playing on the background (coming from Char’s laptop) and a chair was prepared for me. There was also a mini-cake (Fudgee bar) with a candle on top settled on the low study table.
As soon as they took off the blindfold, they let me sit down on the chair and gave me a bouquet (actually, it was the plastic sunflowers from the sala) and they sang the birthday song for me.
After that, they each gave a message and a pseudo-gift (pseudo because those were actually things they found around the room XD). I really appreciated each heartfelt greeting. At that time, I thought they must be four of the kindest, friendliest, sweetest and craziest persons I will ever meet in my college life. I still think that way up until now.
After the messages, Char played some upbeat music and we danced and partied to our heart’s content. We also took a video of us dancing and we also took some goofy photos through web cam.
We got tired and sleepy around 3 am so we changed back into our pajamas and slept. I, for one, slept with a big smile on my face. I also had a good dream thanks to these 4 char girls.
November 10, 2011. 6 pm
I had class until 5:30pm (urgh) but my bestfriend Aimee wanted to meet up and celebrate my birthday with me so we met up at SM North at around 6pm. It was a short get-together actually because my Discipler/mentor and friend Ate Jen invited me to eat dinner together with our other cellmates.
I and Aimee just ate at Kenny Rogers and had a nice chat, sharing stories and basically, just had fun.
Another thing that made me smile was, while waiting for Aimee to arrive, my Mabinian friend, Julienne sent me a text message saying I should open my twitter account. I opened my twitter account without expecting anything and tadaaaa! Ate MARIEL RODRIGUEZ-PADILLA greeted me in twitter! She even tweeted my whole name. The feeling of being greeted my a host/actress is soooo awesome!!! (fan girl mode)
November 10, 2011. 8:30 pm
I arrived at Jollibee Philcoa (Ate Jen texted me to go there). I found Ate Jen, together with Char and Mita at the birthday corner of Jollibee. But they weren’t alone. Together with them were Ate Sarah and other SOD friends. I was surprised to see them there.
But what surprised me more was the next thing that happened.
I was talking to the girls at our table when suddenly, guys, each holding a Pastillas Rose (which happens to be my favorite), came to me one by one and said kind words and birthday greetings (sorry, I really am bad with remembering names so I won’t mention their names anymore).
Also, before I arrived at Jollibee, I asked Joy and Chen (thru text) if they would be able to come and they said ‘no’. But later, they arrived and gave me a ‘dedication frame’ with my picture on the upper left corner. The rest of the space was filled with messages from my college friends.
They also prepared a cake for me (a real cake this time) with candles that I blew out as soon as they finished singing the birthday song.
Everyone present at that time also gave messages for me and also kind words. It was the first time anyone had surprised me with a birthday celebration and I was really, really happy. For me, it was really sweet of Ate Jen to go through all the trouble of preparing the surprise celebration.
This blog entry is insufficient to describe how I felt that day I turned 18. As words are elusive to me right now, I can only say that I’m grateful and truly blessed to have such wonderful people at my side. With friends like these, I’m reminded every day that indeed, life is beautiful and every day, there is a reason to smile.
0 comments:
Mag-post ng isang Komento