birthday memories

Today is the birthday of my friend, kuya bjorn daryll manjares oropesa who happens to be a long lost relative of the once famous artist and showbiz personality Elizabeth Oropesa. I really don’t know his age but based on my computation which is either right or wrong, he is now on his 22^nd year as a biopsychosocialspiritual being. Well, one good thing that happened today is that we celebrated his birthday in simple ways with madam Vida as the catalyst and I hope that he is satisfied with what happened especially that Mario Maurer (if I am right) is present in his simple celebration though there is still a part two on the 26^th of August for his post-birthday celebration. Another thing is that after such a long time, perhaps months to be more specific, most of the members of MnT ate in a one long table facing each other sharing some nonsense and no nonsense stories, korni and kwela jokes, walang kwenta and puno ng kwentang kwento and sharing the good old laugh we used to hear when we are eating in a one long table. Busy nga naman ang buhay third year at bukod sa busy ay magastos din. We're just on the starting point and for surem many things can happen within the two semesters.

Going back to kuya bjorn’s birthday, I can’t help but reminisce my last birthday and the last few birthdays that I have experienced. For a fact, birthday is the signal that another year had passed and that a new year comes along. It’s as if a birth and rebirth of a person as an individual. Obviously, I wasn’t able to post a blog entry about my 19^th birthday celebration but let me describe it in two opposing words – DISAPPOINTMENTS and SURPRISES. Yep, I have some disappointment with regards to my 19^th birthday because of unfulfilled promises, no something special factor and the contraposition that as if nature had the whole world by not letting things happened as planned. But disappointments are not new for me in the celebration of my birthday. Just like what I had previously stated, parang nasanay na ako na tuwing birthday ko, maliit ang cake, busy sina mama sa anniversary nila, walang pera dahil enrollment at walang masyadong effort akong nararamdaman. It’s as if disappointments have been my companion every second day of june of the year. Yun tipong barkada kami at yun lang yung oras na nagkakajam kami na sa parating ganun ang sitwasyon ay hindi ko na siya kinoconsider as weakness but rather as just a normal thing that I must faced at the start of the day and leave it as it is when my day ends. But what is different this year that made me expected and made my disappointment bigger than the previous years is that planned didn’t go the way they suppose to go, from planned family bonding and celebration in Legazpi to nothing. It feels like I was robbed with the opportunity to experience something new, to experience something that I never experienced before and perhaps to celebrate what could have been the best birthday of my life with my family. Obviously it hurts and I am hurt but I am not blaming anyone or everyone because I understand that sometimes things don’t go the way they should, siguro nga ay may mas panahon pang nararapat at nakalaan para sa titulong ‘best birthday of my life with my family’ and personally, I blame myself because I expected to much. Tama nga naman talaga si sime, expectation hurts so better lower your expectations.

On the contrary, I thanked God that I experience something new. Something that I am usually a part of but during my day, I am the “beneficiary.” Sa wakas, I experienced a surprise something from my friends. Surprise cupcake, surprise na paglabas nila na may balloon, surprise something and it’s something that I can cherish forever as the first time my friends exerted an effort to surprise me on my special day. Simple yet meaningful and something that I long to experience for the past few years of life. Mafeel ko man lang ang effort ng mga kaibigan ko and it made me feel very special. Sabi ko nga, mabuti na lang at may nangyaring kakaiba ngayon, akala ko just a simple and ordinary day lang ito. Know what? I thank God for giving me those girls and my other friends who exerted effort to make my day something worth remembering and something special. Ako naman ang babawi sa kanila next time. :)

But perhaps the biggest surprise that I got from my day is that the second of June is the day when we first saw the ‘would be symptoms’ of Dan’s (my brother) sickness. I remember that we were in our room in the boarding house having a story telling when I asked Dan about the ‘swell spots(?)’ or bukol in his neck and he shared that he even have some in his head. I am personally alarmed that I asked Dan to force mama and papa to have him examined for any disease or sickness. Masaya pa kami noon, nagkkwentuhan at nagtatawanan. Dan even got the chance to roam at Embarcadero and Legazpi but we didn’t know that something alarming is unfolding without us the knowing. Days later, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia which is for me, the hardest and the worst family challenge we are currently facing. Nakakabigla na tipong in just one click, something can change or perhaps everything change. But still I am quite optimistic that everything will be all right and will soon be back to normal. Pano ba yan? Happy Birthday na lang kuya BEEjorn and may God bless you always!

Postscript: All the things mentioned made my 19^th birthday deserve the title, my best and worst birthday so far.