Goodbye 20's - Timeless Thursdays 6

This Timeless Thursday I am sharing you this very special photo I found at the treasure chest in our house a.k.a. photo albums. Below is a photo of me from 26 years ago.

I can still remember that day this was taken despite my very young age. I think it was Christmas Day and it was a day I got really pissed. When I was a kid, I hate noises and screaming people, and we get lots of that during Christmas. There is a tradition in our family where my Grandpa and Grandma would climb midway on our stairs and would throw lots of coins and paper bills to the living room and all my cousins, aunts, and uncles would all drop to the ground and pick up as much money they can get. With all the laughter and happiness comes massive amounts of screaming which annoys and scares me so much (I don't know why, are some of your kids like that too?).

So to stop me from crying my lungs out, I can still remember how tired I got from crying, my Mom and Dad knew where to bring me. They drove 10 miles from our house to this Economic Zone called "Gateway" where a lot of flags are hoisted. It was an instant pacifier for me. I love flags. That tiny little boy on the picture knew every country, every flag, and every capital in the world at that age. It was my Uncle, he taught me that and my love for Geography and culture had never left until this very day. I can even remember how I would watch Pilot Guides as a kid and I would cry (see I'm pretty sentimental even from before) praying to God that someday I can see France and Thailand and New Zealand and Australia and Romania and Argentina and all the states in the USA and all the countries of the world - countries that kids my age never even knew of existing. So visiting them now one by one is a very big deal to me, they literally are dreams coming true and prayers being answered.

So Yes, seeing all those flags were a treat for me. So yes, they took me there and promised to take a photo of me with the flags and we went home with relief, especially my parents for sure.

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It has been a crazy journey for me in the past 29 years of my life. A lot of tears, a lot of laughs, a lot of adventures, a lot of sadness, but all of it are filled with so much gratefulness. I thank the Lord for a lot of blessings that have come into my life, most of them wrapped in fancy colorful paper in the form of joyful and beautiful memories with my family and friends, but of course some of those blessings are in the form of lessons learned which made me the person who I am today. 

As I view myself today and to describe the product of the past 3 decades of my life, I can shared them through a series of words. Sentimental, Anxious, Jolly, Energetic, Driven, Ambitious, Warm, Grateful, Appreciative, and most of all I think I am Strong. 

I used to be someone who cries at school every time classmates would bully me or tease me based on their own liking, had a fair share of teachers who did not believe in me, and those who really did. Trust me I cried a lot when I was younger, even until high school. But that changed through time and even the hardest of pains just made me stronger, even losing loved ones were challenging but they don't make me cry so fast. But there's one thing about me when I grew up in the past few years. I became very sentimental. Not really with things but with people. Even the slightest gestures make me very happy. I guess it's really in my personality. That people who are just like me who are fond of making other people happy, finds so much joy when it's my turn to be shown kindness and thought. That is something I am very thankful of having, I think that is a great virtue life has instilled in me.

Today, at this very day, I celebrate my 30th birthday and I am very grateful to be celebrating it with you all my blogging friends from around the world. I may live a busy life at work and at grad school, but the love and friendship I have found with all of you is just so warming. With every visit, every comment you have left on this blog and at Cavite Daily Photo, it makes up my day and brings me so much joy, smiles, and a good feeling that I am not alone, never alone. I battled with anxiety in this past few months which brought me very low, but you guys have done a very big part in lifting me up. I just can't thank you all enough for the kind words, the long encouraging emails, for turning yourselves from strangers into good friends who I never even get to see yet. I pray that if I can be fortunate enough, that I may get to see some, if not all of you, in this lifetime. With all my heart, thank you all so much!

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I would love to welcome and invite everyone to join this new Linky that I thought of starting - Timeless Thursdays. (Bear with me for any short-comings, this is my first link ever)

Timeless Thursdays is open for anyone who wishes to share old photos or old thoughts that you would like to share as beautiful memories with everyone. This can be from yesterday, a year ago, or something from your grandma's treasure chest.

This runs every Thursday at 12 am (Manila/Perth Time) until Monday the same time (12 am)

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter