Monday, September 27, 2010

Home is...

...where the heart is?

I've been very wistful lately. The randomest things set me off and remind me of particular instances of my childhood. Smells, noises, words will remind me of vivid childhood memories that I've treasured for so long. Why exactly is this happening now, I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm still, in a way, getting used to this process of being away from home. Or should I say, my parents' home now since I've moved out. But does home stop being home? Or can one have many homes?

I think it's the latter. My fondest childhood memories will always come from this, my parents' home. Waking up late at night to listen to cars driving by on the then faraway main road. The smell of jasmine in the middle of the night. The early morning sounds. The past midnight breeze. My dad listening to the jazz station until it went out. All of these are precious to me and I've been recalling them more and more lately. I think it's because of going back and forth so much.

I know that in the mainland United States, it's common for kids to go away to college. Over here, not so much. Yeah, you may board at the school, but usually, everybody goes back on weekends. It's tradition. I never went away until I was 26! That's when I scored my first job on the other side of the island. Of course, I was looking forward to it, like any self-respecting young adult should. But it's also made me realize how much I miss my parents. I mean, we are not perfect. Let's just say that we're perfectly imperfect and meant for each other. I've been quite lucky to have them, I've got no complaints now. But it's time to move on and grow up, and this move is a very important part of that.

So now I have a home. And a home with my parents. And I also have a home with Damian because when I'm with him, I feel at home anywhere. (Yeah, you can go ahead and barf!) So I've got more than one home and I'm okay with that. I'm going to have lots of homes and I'm going to keep on building memories that I will remember fondly as I grow older. Because home is where the heart is, and these places are where my heart goes.

27 on the 27.

Today's my birthday and I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I found out a couple of days ago that there will be a commencement ceremony for the grad class of 2010 at my university, complete with toga! When I found this out, I almost burst out into tears since I was told that we would have no ceremony due to the strike and the financial crisis. I'm very happy about this!

I'm also glad I am staying with my family for my birthday. I wish I could spend it will all my friends (both stateside, metro area, and islander amigos), but unfortunately that's not possible due to logistics. But! I will spend tomorrow vegging out, hopefully get some thrift on, quality time with my loved ones and getting my toga! Toga, toga!

I've been really hippie-dippy lately thinking about the past few years. Grad school, friendships, jobs. Health. Despite everything, I feel I've been very lucky, what with the good and the bad. My parents have been great to me and so has my boyfriend. I've got great friends who've stuck with me through the good and the bad. I've been lucky to travel and to finish my thesis, a project that was consuming me for a while, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Now I've got a slew of other things (amongst is which fixing this blog layout) that I want to do. Hopefully, getting in shape will be the next one. Right now, graduating is my top priority right now! And getting a certain someone to finally move in with me!

Anyway, just wanted to drop by and wish you a lovely day! Hope you have a great one. I'll do my best to pop by more often. I want to update about my DC/Virginia/Philly trip, complete with Lady Gaga concert and finally meeting blogger friends. Till then, peace out!

Saturday, September 04, 2010

And I'm off!

Hey kids! Bloggage will continue to be spotty as I'm off to a well-deserved week off in DC to meet up with friends and just all in all have a good time with the boy. Expect shots of me freezing when I come back! (I'm a spoiled tropical bum; 70 or lower is cold for me!)

Let's just hope these silly hurricanes don't catch up to me up there...grr.

Later!