My Grateful Thoughts When You Walked Away

Date Written: March 21, 2020

It was painful but I was grateful.

It was sad but I found new source of happiness.

It was dark but I discovered new light.

My world has been shattered but I have explored the other side of it.

My heart was broken into million pieces but I became unbreakable.

I thought I will never move on but I have moved forward.

At first, I don’t know what to do but in the end; there’s a lot of things to do and I can still do!

I thought that half of me was lost, but in reality, I was more of I can be.

Thank you so much when you chose to leave, thank you when left me broken and lost. I’ve got another chance in life that I never thought that I can have.

It is really true that when we got our heart broken, we will try to do different things and we will go to different places that we have never been yet. We will also have the courage to meet new people and to escape out of our comfort zones.

When the love of my life left me, I finally had the courage to dare myself to do what I really wanted to do.  All of those things were just on my bucket list and I have found the very perfect timing to one by one tick it.

Here’s some of the things I have done while healing my heart:

-        To volunteer. I went on a slum community, to feed hundreds of kids, to teach poor children and to give love, happiness, care to those in need. It wasn’t easy. I got scared to go alone. It was scary to go to place I am not familiar with and to meet other people.

-        To meet new people.  I have discovered that outside what I was used to, there’s a lot of people who grew up differently from mine. Their norm was different from my norm. Their lifestyle and family background differed from mine. But even though we all came from different walks of lives; I was fortunate to befriend some of them. It was such a fulfilling feeling to befriend strangers, to be an extrovert once in a while. I have also learned that people will really come and go into our lives. Some will stay but most of them will just pass by.

-        To go to the places, I have never been yet. Travelling nowadays is the latest trend. Most of the people my age as young as they can be, invested on travelling. Experience will always be better than material things. Beaches are my greatest escaping zones.

-        To conquer mountains but actually, it is myself that I am conquering. Hiking also became a hype. From weekend night clubs into mountain summits just before the sun rises. People switched to hiking and camping instead of partying at bars. Views from the mountain top are better than disco lights. I was fortunate to hike more than 30 mountains as of this writing and I thank God for always protecting me whenever I go to another adventure. Through hiking, I also got to meet new people and some of them even became my friends.

-        To travel alone. This is scary but I was happy that in this lifetime, I’ve tried it. It is really scary but thrilling. And at the end of the day when you got home, you will be proud of your self and be thankful for everything.

-        To write more. When I was broken, I was able to write more stories and it was even got approved! I have regularly updated my blog as well. Through writing, I have expressed my true feelings and thoughts. This has been the best tool that I had when healing my heart.

-        To cherish more people who are around me. It is true that when someone leave you, you will more appreciate those who chose to stay for you. We are more than lucky by having friends and family whom we can run and will never ever leave us. We can also share our griefs with them to lighten the burden we are feeling.

-        To learn new things like the Korean language. Crazy enough, I enrolled on a Korean class. And because of this, I have learned their alphabets and can read it. I may not fully understand yet what I am reading because it takes a lot of time to memorize their dictionary but it felt proud that somehow, I have learned a new skill.

Dear My Love,

Thank you for leaving me as I was able to do things that I thought I will never do and meet new people I thought I won’t have to. I’ve been to places I didn’t imagine to go without you. I’ve also got to experience life from another perspective. I thought my whole world was you but I’ve discovered that you were just a small part of it and there’s more to it. I’ve grew up! And became a better version of myself.

I will be forever grateful.

Yours,

Diwata Blog

TANGLAW FOR TAAL

2-day Outreach for Taal Evacuees

Feb. 22-23, 2020

Last January 12, 2020, Taal Volcano erupted and a lot of people living nearby were affected. We even experienced Ash Fall here in Metro Manila on a Sunday night.

On the following days, relief operations from the government, private companies and individuals flooded in. Donations and different campaigns or fundraisers for the victims and evacuees kept coming. The true spirit of Bayanihan for the Filipinos was once felt again on a crisis like this.

I found a Facebook Post looking for volunteers and sponsors for a two-day outreach that will focused on kids affected by Taal and a medical mission. And so I joined this group which called themselves as Tanglaw or Tayo ang Ilaw (We are the light). Tanglaw in Tagalog means light.  

We raised funds and collected donations for a month and the day finally came!

Saturday, February 22, 2020. Day One.

One fine Saturday morning, I finally got to meet all of them and at past 10 am, we were already on the way to Batangas. Our first destination was at Talisay, Batangas.

It was a private resort of a local official that they temporarily converted into a relocation site for almost 100 families.

This day’s program consisted of the following:

-        Repacking of school supplies

-        Medical Mission

-        Buying, prepping and cooking for everyone’s early dinner

-        Puppet show, short film watching for kids, Arts and Crafts and distribution of School Supplies.

-        Feeding

Volunteers were assigned to these different activities and we just enjoyed the busyness of this day. After all, our goal to help was fulfilled.

Repacking of school supplies. Because of the donations from generous and kind souls, we were able to pack 500 sets of school supplies! Thank you so much, dear sponsors and donors!

  

Medical Mission. We have volunteer nurse and doctor on the team and they were able to serve more than 60 patients. We also brought donated medicines and vitamins. These has been distributed to those in need.

 

Puppet show, short film watching for kids, Arts and Crafts and distribution of School Supplies. We also have some teachers on the team! We were in charge of the activities for more than 60 kids. We had a puppet show, then short film watching and Arts and Crafts. Kids enjoyed all these activities that we prepared for them.

School supplies were distributed as well during this time. And theme of our Arts and Craft for this day was Dream Art. They have to write their dreams on the clouds given to them. Most of the kids wanted to be a teacher. Why not? All dreams are valid!

We let them know that whatever trials they are facing right now, they have every right to dream and eventually make it come true. Through this activity, hopefully we also let them realized what their dreams really are.

Never stop dreaming, kids!

Buying, prepping and cooking for everyone’s early dinner. Most of the boys on our team were in charge of the food. Hats off to our volunteers who went and bought in the market, prepared the food and cooked for everyone.

We were done by past 6 in the evening. We left the place with a happy heart. Kids and their parents gratefully bid us goodbye. We were also grateful for letting us help them.

The team had dinner at Tanauan Batangas Market wherein we tried Gotong Batangas. It was my first time to try it and I guess I will never try it again. Ha-ha. Sorry, no offense meant.

Luckily, one of our volunteers have an available house for rent that we can stay for a night. It was in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.

We were all got tired because of the activities that we did for this day but we were happy knowing that we were able to give some love, time and effort to those in need.

Day 2. Sunday, February 23, 2020

After a hearty breakfast, the team was already on the way to our next destination. And that was at Balete, Batangas. It was another relocation site for Taal evacuees. I call this as temporary tent city.

This day’s activity was the following:

-        Grouping of kids

-        Short film watching

-        Arts and Craft

-        Distribution of School Supplies

-        Lunch Time

-        Medical Mission

-        Dinner and Back to Home

Grouping of Kids, Short film watching, Arts and Crafts, Distribution of School Supplies. 
We borrowed a nearby covered court where will conduct our activities for the kids. There’s a lot of kids compared to yesterday that most of our volunteers need to handle at least 20 kids each.

We grouped the kids according to age range so we can manage them well.

Just like yesterday in Talisay, kids experienced the short film watching and the Arts and Crafts. We also distributed to them the school supplies.

We also had some games for them while they are waiting for their turn to watch the short film. Since we have hundreds of kids for this day and we only have a limited space for the film watching, we did it on a batch by batch.

After they watched and school supplies were distributed, we finally proceeded with the Arts and Crafts. We called this the Dream Art wherein the kids were instructed to write on the clouds what are their dreams.

Never Stop Dreaming. This is our message for them. That despite of the crisis they are experiencing right now, they should never stop dreaming and life must go on.

Snacks were also given to them before they went home.

Lunch Time.

The whole team had a lunch a nearby lomihan before going on the second part of the program which was the Medical Mission.

Medical Mission. Our volunteer nurse and doctor were able to serve again more than 60 patients and some of the volunteers who are not even in the medical field assisted.

Thank you so much Team Tanglaw for a two-day outreach well done!

I was happy and privileged to be part of this team. It was nice to meet new people again and to be friends with them! Until our next project!