Our Place, Our People, Our Happy Hours

It has been months that I've been wondering what to blog about, really. With the influx of a variety of blogs which tackle from food to travel to anything, being any other new blog in the market can just be the case to neophytes out there. Readership will be so hard to establish if your blog doesn't talk about something that piques the interest of the online community. You just have to be creative and artistic and all. Blog about your passion, that's one of the cliches I've heard. Blog about the things that bring happiness to you. Something that brings smile on your face after a long day of work. Something that encourages you to do better and go further.

 And I knew that instant that I'm going to be blogging about our place, our people, our happy hours. OUR PLACE? I'm talking about our home, our niche. It's a little barrio in San Juan, Batangas where I was born and raised. It's where the sight of greenery is boundless and its beauty effortless. It's a place where the sound of hungry pigs awaken you every morning. The smell coming from the piggery is the smell of hope because from the pigs comes the livelihood of the people. It's a place where nights are colder than than that in an air-conditioned room. You fell sleep serenaded by the afternoon chirping birds. Rainy days in our place are beyond magical. Our place is simply one of its kind.

 People from our place are plain crazy. We laugh a lot together and we never get tired of being with one another. It's what you called FAMILY. We may have gone to different places due to our careers and studies and all, yet going back to our place every now and then is indeed one of the things that we so look forward to. Holidays are spent just chatting and laughing and chatting some more. We talk about old stories and laugh about it like it's our first time hearing about it. Meals are even more sumptuous when partaken with this people. The aroma of kapeng barako in the wee hours of the morning as we do our catching-ups can't be compared with the smell of the most expensive latte in Starbucks. We are happy being together. THAT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT. 

 Happy hours are always in exaggeration.  It's always in a superlative degree. It can vary from Empe Light sessions, to table tennis, to videoke, to just hanging out by the bridge and laughing and goofing around. Our gang never run out of things to do. You'll be amazed when my cousins strum their guitar and play with the beat box. It's like they're always having a mini concert of sort. And what you'll find even more surprising is they sing church songs like it's the biggest hit in town today. And that's our happy, happy hours.

 It's not about the money that you spend over a gathering. It's never about the chic clothes you'll wear when you're together. It's not about who studied what and where. It's not about who earns how much. It's all about being together and being the happy family that we are.

We've learned to enjoy the silliest things in life. Corny jokes appeal more to us. Everyone seems to have a clown side and it kinda binds us all. Our appetite to simple yet home-cooked meals are what makes the meals worth savoring. We were not raised in a household that was full of grandeur and wealth. We grew up in a neighborhood that is bound by love, by faith, by laughter. 

Our parents are the culprits of what we've become today. Seeing them and talking to them will make you realize the relationship that we have. Seeing them will make you realize that the apple doesn't really fall from the tree. We are so tight and compact. Yes, we are breakable, but we are together willing to put bandage on whoever is injured. We are each other's nurse.

We play a lot. I'm proud to say that though we've been to different places already and seen different atmospheres, our virtues remain intact. The tenets that our parents have imparted on us are still the foundation of every decision and move that we make. We value friendship like we value our family. We value time spent with people who matter, people who know how to say even the simple "thank you."

Members of the clan decrease and increase. Those who have left us were still in our hearts deeply and is surely missed. Those who are new were welcomed with the warmest of embrace. Every expansion in the family is indeed a milestone of some sort.

We are first bound by faith above everything else. We will be forever thankful to HIM for guiding us, giving us peace, providing the means to survive every day, for the laughters that we've shared and we are yet to share. Our awesomeness as one is what makes us powerful. 

Like what we always kid about, saming pamilya, walang tapon. Yeah, that was it. Every unit matters. And that's something, I think, that is so much worth sharing the world. Not all people are granted the gift of a happy family and I'm beyond grateful for this magnificent gift.

I choose to be happy with these people

I choose to be crazy with these people

Thank God I have them.

XOXO

-TUPS