30th Birthday

I just turned 30 last Thursday. Team 2010 offered a Mass for me and I was also given a very simple tribute with a simple merienda that followed. I wrote this that morning while on a break. Just a little scribbling of my thoughts.

30TH BIRTHDAY

It is my 30th Birthday today.

What have I done in the past 30 years?

*Become a University President.

*Marry the Greatest Love of my life.

*Graduate from UP Diliman on time and without any problem to my parents.

*Graduate from Maryknoll (Miriam College) High School with an outstanding library club president award.

*Read the Da Vinci Code and making my faith stronger than ever.

*Become a person of faith.

Truly I can go on and on and count all my blessings but what the only achievement that I can boast is the fact that I have friends and kept them through the years and I have been lucky that these are friends who have been with me through thick and thin.

I am lucky because I do not have to conform for them to love me.

I do not have to lend them money or treat them to dinner and gimiks for them to appreciate me.

I do not have to be thoughtful, God knows how much I have on my mind right now, for them to be loyal and true.

I just have to be me. Without any pretensions. Without any masks. Just me.

As I look on towards the next few years, I think of what more should I do with my life to make sure I do not destroy the purity I have earned through the years and I realized I just have to be my own self and not be swayed by the tides of time.

I still have so many things to do. Not achieve, DO!

Problems are a dime a dozen, and it seems very difficult, but when you look at the half full glass of every issue, you will realize that solutions are a dime a dozen too. It just needs the right amount of leadership and integrity to be implemented. I am not afraid.

30 seems to be a big number. I don’t feel thirty. Age truly is just a state of mind.

I remember walking through the corridors of UNEP and overheard a student talk to another how young their President is. They even said, “Bagana la pa ka igin iginon.”

Others would have felt offended but I just smiled to myself, because that is ME. I am this igin-iginon and transparent little girl who just does what is needed of her. This is who I am. That is my trademark.

As I look ahead and see the work that still needs to be done, I just say,

“Thank you Lord for your belief and faith in me. Thank you for the thirty years of loving family and friends who have nurtured me to be who I am now. Thank you for your everlasting faithfulness. I pray for more.”