To say that 2008 was an interesting year for me would be a great understatement. I have doubts if the entry I’ll come up with could accurately describe the eventful year that I had. So instead, I’ll countdown the top eight things I’m thankful for in 2008.

8. Frupcakes

When we started the business for LS class, we had no idea it would become this big.  We knew it going to be a good product but we did not expect that it would be the success that it is.  We did our best to give the customers the best products, and it paid off.  More than a year later, with Clasa as the only person left, it’s still doing good business and I couldn’t be happier.

7. The bonds that Frupcakes made

I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I joined Clasa and company as a group member for LS. Now I realize that it was one of the best things I did for senior year. Not only did I enjoy the two semesters of Frupcakes-making, but I also got very good friends out of it.  The bonding and bashing moments were amazing, and the laughter-filled days and nights still make me nostalgic until now.  The memories are just fantastic. =)

6. Graduating from college

I had my misgivings about Ateneo during my first year, but now, looking back, I have no regrets.  My stay there was everything I thought it would be and more. I have so much to be thankful for from my four years there, and I grew up well. I made good friends, few but of the best quality. I did well in school, and I got rewarded for the efforts I exerted. I graduated from a very good university. My family and I could not ask for anything more.

5. Going to law school

This has got to be the one of the biggest risks I took this year. I thought I didn’t want it bad enough, and for that reason alone, I won’t survive. I said I’ll take it one day at a time and I’ll find my direction while I take the journey. It was during the first few weeks of school that I realized that I do want this, and that at this point, I can’t imagine myself being happy with doing something else.  Law school is one big torture chamber, but I’d rather have this than working.

4. Good health

The thought that I almost lost someone who is very close to me still scares me. I’m very thankful that my loved ones are doing better now.

3. More experiences, more risks

Toph, without knowing half the things I’ve been doing, can attest to this. I just realized how much I was missing on with life and it was time to soak in a little more experience. I am not a big risk-taker but so much of this year was on taking risks and making sure I don’t fail.  The risks I took, the failures I went through, and the experiences I had taught me a lot about myself and how I have changed as an individual.  It’s been quite interesting finding out about possibilities and limitations, setting boundaries and removing them.

2. Friendship and Love

This was a fantastic year for making new friends, and to a lesser degree, maintaining the ones I already have.  I am surrounded by the best people who have taught me so much, who have given me so much with their generosity and friendship.  I used to think that time was a factor, but I was wrong. Friendship is not measured by time, after all. I have the greatest friends, who are genuine, trustworthy and hilarious and I consider myself lucky because I have them.

And love? Suffice to say that it has been one heck of a ride, and I’m not about to step off anytime soon.:)

1. Growing up

With so much going on, how can I not grow up? I was only fooling myself when I thought I was grown up, ready to take on the world and all its challenges.  If anything, the experiences of this year humbled me with the knowledge that I still had so much to learn, that I was not as ready as I thought I was to take on everything that life will throw at me.  So I’m enjoying this time of growing up, trying on new stuff, experiencing other things.  Because I know that even if I fail, I’ll still get something out of it.

I'm looking forward to 2009 and what it has to offer for me.  There are so many things to be happy about and be thankful for in 2008, and I'm just hoping that 2009 will be just as fantastic and amazing as 2008.

i decided to create a new blog and delete all other existing ones. my old blogspot blog contained crap disguised as writing, me trying to be profound but not quite succeeding. i got bored with my livejournal blog and i never post anything there anymore. so i created a new LJ blog since im used to this already. this time, my goal is have a picture blog. this means, i include at least one photograph in every entry that i will write.

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it seems appropriate that my first entry would be about one of the most important people in my life -- toph. i was with him yesterday at our usual meeting place, ATC. we have this suspicion that we're cousins but we have yet to find physical proof that we really are. still we treat each other as if we're cousins/close friends already. anyway.. i usually like talking to toph. i am more honest with him than with 90% of the people i know. the things that i can't admit to anyone else, i can easily say to him. we have this weird dynamic that can be attributed to our history (we've been friends since grade 5) and the habit we had the last two years of high school. our habit then was to walk around this area in front of our school several times and we'd talk non-stop about everything and nothing. if you heard us before, nakaka-nosebleed because we would speak in straight english. that was rare in our school since most, if not everyone, used tagalog as the medium of speaking. so from many shared experiences and a lot of bonding sessions, we became really really close friends.

i said i usually like talking to him because yesterday, things seemed different. i haven't seen him in two months and i was bursting with stories to tell. more than half of those were left untold. we were preoccupied with our own concerns and we couldn't find this thing that normally we just find so easily. he had a lot on his mind, and i had my fair share of worries too. he gave in so easily and bought this top from Memo. yes, it was a very nice polo, one that i wouldn't hesitate to get for him or my brother.. except maybe for the price which would make me think twice. but he gave in so easily to the impulse, and that is so characteristically him. even during mass, he was giving off a negative vibe that i picked up and couldn't shake off the rest of the night.

toph with his impulsive purchase

but i'm not complaining. i'm just contemplating on the changes that have happened and how different we were from the mai and toph of high school. maintaining this level of friendship during college was hard but i'm glad we did. we're now different people, with more responsibilities and more worries. we have more questions waiting to be answered, problems to be solved and goals to achieve. our lives are not so simple anymore; the gray area, as he likes to call it, has definitely become bigger. the boundaries of black and white have become less pronounced.

i asked him last night how we would be like five years from now, when i'm (hopefully) a lawyer and he'll be a yuppie. are we still going to do the catching up session at starbucks? or perhaps, at that point, we'll be so sick of starbucks already. (haha) are we going to be able to meet less or more frequently? five years ago, we didn't see ourselves being who we are today. we didn't see this kind of friendship we'll have. but i don't feel letdown. this is more than i expected, more than i was able to comprehend back then. in fact, things are just starting to get more interesting. toph, don't think about so much that you will allow it to consume you. you will get your answer. in time.:)