Thank You

I recently graduated from Hawaii Pacific University with a Master of Arts in Communication and Law Mediation. As I look back at these past two years of grad school, I've made so many sacrifices to complete my program. I don't regret anything because I've grown into a better person because of those sacrifices. However without the people that were willing to come along for the ride during my journey, I would not be here writing this blog.

My family. My large Filipino family. Even though I hardly saw them and missed out on family events, they were the very ones that would save me a plate of food after a long day of work and made sure that I never lost track of my goals. I wish my papa were here to see how far I've come because he was the very one that sent my mom to the U.S., he was the very one that told me that education was key and was the very one that told me that nothing is ever handed, that you have to work hard to get to where you want to be in life. One year of research doing a thesis and working well over 40 hours a week, during those sleepless night and early mornings those words stuck with me. Iya-iya ten ka pa.

My friends. My crazy but well grounded friends. I neglected them from time to time and often traded nights of quality catch up time with nights at home hitting the books or working. However the ones that truly understood where I wanted to be encouraged me as much as they could and I love them for that. I've learned that in this world, you learn who to trust and learn that people come and go but every person teaches you something. To all of my friends, thank you for the lessons of patience, strength, and friendship.

Then there are my "Lama Girls." We are all now out of college, are living all over the world, are getting engaged/are married and are now career-oriented professionals. No matter what we all go through in life, I know that I can rely on these girls to always be there for me. We have this impeccable way of understanding each other. These are my sisters from multiple misters. Many guys are scared of us because when we are together, we are a force that can't be reckoned with. We have so many nights where we cried, laughed, and drank.  Then there is my BFF since the 1st grade, Chan-chan. Even though we are thousands of miles away, I don't think I could have kept sane without our weekly recaps. lol. love you sis! When I think of my girls, I think of that Drake line, "I got a small circle, I’m not with different crews. We walk the same path, but got on different shoes. Live in the same building, but we got different views."

"If you aint been a part of it at least you got to witness"

Now that this year is over, time to close this chapter and start another. Let's go!

..."It may not mean nothing to yall, understand nothing was done for me. So I don't plan on stopping at all"...

..."Guys are sometimes like bottles of wine. the first taste may not be all that great. So you leave it and let it age. When the time is right, you go back to open that same bottle, to find out if that wine is a perfect pairing to what you have on your table."...

♥Yours Truly

Traits of The Opposite Sex

Recently, several friends have ask me what I look for in a guy and some laughed at me because it doesn't surprise them that my list never changes. Besides the obvious of a person being faithful, here are the traits that I adore when dealing with the opposite sex:

5. Humor
I've always said that if a guy can make me laugh then he is a keeper. Life has its serious moments and humor during those moments helps ease the tension and establishes some sort of comfort. Someone that has a sense of humor shows me that they are optimistic. In life, you need to surround yourself with people like that because who likes debbie downers? Good things happen. Bad things happen. Life happens. If that one person can laugh with me when we've both said or have done something foolish, then that means hours of fun just being in each other's company.

4. Adventurous
I've sky dived. I love the outdoors. I love trying all sorts of food. I love to travel. I feel that life is too short and that we should be crossing everything off of our bucket lists while having the time of our lives. I dislike boring. I dislike not being challenged. So every so once in a while, I seek out adventures to conquer. What makes these adventures a lot more memorable are the people that you do them with. I know that many people have phobias but if you hold my hand while I conquer a fear of mine, I promise that I will do the same. Life should be an adventure. There are many things that may scare us but the one thing that I've always tried to tell myself is this: "Being afraid got no one anywhere."

3. Ambition/Dreams
My guy has to be ambitious because ambition means drive. My guy can't be all talk and no implementation because the ladies can agree with me when I say that an ambitious man with a plan is sexy. The thing is that I have dreams and ambitions too. Things happen for a reason and in this life, sometimes you only have one shot. There is nothing that I love more about a person than their will to support me to help reach my dreams. Get it straight, I will support my man in any way that I can as well, even if it means distance between us or time taken away from us. Why do you say? Because like Wale said, "I like the person that you are but I’m in love with the person that you have potential to be."

2. Family
I come from two huge Filipino families. On top of that, being born and raised here in the islands, family is everything to me. To me, family means foundation. If you don't get along with my families or vice versa then I'm sorry honey, it's just not going to work. I can also tell a lot about a guy by the way he talks and treats his family. Meeting a significant other's family gives me a sneak peak of how he was brought up and how it may be if we were to ever settle down. Like what they say, you are marrying "into the family." 

1. Intellect
I wear many different hats and I inter-mingle with all sorts of people. I have the career-girl hat, the school-girl hat, the fun girl hat, the protective sister hat and more. So my guy needs to know how to converse with all types of people and needs to have endurance to keep up with me. I need to be able to bring my boy out to a friends bbq but at the same time, he needs to dress-up clean too. My boy needs to have a personality that can adapt. The reason why intellect is #1 is because no matter what my guy and I may go through, he needs to respect my mind and must have the ability to bring new things to my table. He and I may not agree on a lot of things but at the same time, I love a person that can hold their ground and explain their reasoning. Nothing intrigues me more than a person that can hold a conversation while enhancing my mind set.

So I don't care if you can't buy me a house with a white-picked fence and I don't care if you aren't tall, dark or handsome. Money doesn't buy my happiness and looks eventually fade with age. So you can throw out those pick up lines and screw those dating rules...because on the real, you need to find someone that compliments you.

I know that in this world, people are not perfect but I'd like to think that there is someone out there for everyone.

..."Oh baby, bring it all to me but I don't need no fancy cars or diamond rings. Oh baby, bring it all to me. Give me your time, your love, your space, your energy."...

I Don't Love You

"You see, I don’t want to l-o-v-e you but I do want to take those letters and flip them backwards so that they could be used to spell the beginning of the word evolve because I want us to grow into something indescribable by just one word."  

“Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.”