I don’t know if it’s a girl-thing, but I have this peculiar ability of attaching memories to places. I remember places by the way they once made me feel, or by memories I thought I already forgot. It’s a curse and a gift at the same time. Curse, because even when I don’t want to remember what happened here or there, I can’t help but do. Gift, because that also means that I get to contain memories in places, hence avoiding those places will ultimately make me forget and help me move on.

Exhibit A. Sometime in 2006, I had to avoid Greenbelt for one whole year because I had to forget a college boyfriend. Typical, I know, but effective nonetheless. Exhibit B. In 2007 when my Dad died, I had to avoid being in his office for a couple of months because it’s impossible to be there and not cry over the reality that we’re never going to see him there ever again. Exhibit C. In my last day in New York in 2008, I had to ask the cab driver to pass by 34th street on the way to the airport. Just one last ride through my most favorite spots in Manhattan, I thought, because I knew that after that ride I would start to forget. And that time I didn’t want to forget just yet.

In the past 5 years that I lived in Ortigas, Pasig, my moving from one apartment to another was characterized by some huge transition in my life — my Dad’s death, that big career move, a relationship that ended badly, etc — as if it’s become a coping mechanism of sorts. Consciously or unconsciously, I wasn’t quite sure. I just know that for me to be able to transition, I had to start over in a new place, akin to flipping a fresh new page in a notebook.

Six is the number of apartments here in Pasig that I moved in and out of in the span of 5 years. Anyone can beat that record? If moving is a degree in college, it would’ve been time for me to graduate by now. But I guess it’s not time to graduate from this moving around just yet.

In all this apartment-hopping, Delgado Place was where I stayed the longest. Not only was this low-rise condominium the prettiest and the most secured I’ve ever lived in, it’s also the one place that actually felt like second home to me. The guards and caretakers have become an extended family. “Adobo To”, that karinderya (eatery) across the street, has become my most favorite lunch hangout.

I loved living here. I honestly believed I would stay longer, that this was going to be my last stop, but hey, life’s funny that way. Often, the things you thought you were so sure of, you find out later, are just mere phases in your life. Nothing is certain, I learn over and over, so you’ll have to be ready to pack-up, leave the unnecessary baggage behind and go when God says it’s time to go.

Tomorrow I make my 7th move. I have been feeling sentimental about it the past two weeks, boxing up everything in this room that once made it feel like home. But I’m almost ready, and excited to make new memories in the next city I’m going to conquer.

“..and with that, we say goodbye to Delgado Place,” Mae tweeted after she & Joni spent one last night here in Delgado with me. Glad to know I’m not the only one sad to leave this place behind.

So yeah. Thank you, Delgado Place, I just had to say (and blog). It was lovely spending 2008 and 2009 under your roof.

There’s something undeniably refreshing about being around kids. Sure, they can be little monsters in their worst days and can be quite a handful at times. But their silly questions, wide-eyed curiosity, and their ability to make you appreciate the simplest of things is a real source of joy — that I can attest to.

You see, I started handling a Sunday School class in church yesterday. And for the next couple of Sundays, I get to have this wonderful job of sharing Bible stories to pre-schoolers, thinking of activities that they will enjoy, and babysitting them while their parents attend the Worship Service.

I didn’t really think I have the patience and attention span required to handle such responsibility, but time calls forth little changes in this life of mine and I have to make conscious efforts to get out of my zone and do stuff I was too complacent to try. Sad to admit, quarter life has so far made me bitter, overly serious, lonely and overworked, and I srsly need something to take me out of this rut I’m in.

So yeah. I signed up for this job in hopes of getting some sunshine back to my once-sunshiney self.

And trust me when I say that I see something wrong with that too because hey, as a Sunday School teacher, you should be the one putting something on the plate and ministering to the kids, right, and here I go looking at these kids as if they’re a bunch of therapists. Perhaps that’s the thing that has drawn me towards this ministry — you reach out to these kids hoping that they pick up little somethings out of the Bible stories you share to them and your funny interactions in class, but in hindsight, they’re actually the ones making a huge difference in your life. And the fact that they’re actually unconscious about it (that they’re instrumental to bringing forth answers to your adult life’s issues and dramas) makes the whole thing even more.. heaven-sent.

Sunday School to me is an answered prayer in every way.

Time and time again I get to be reminded why Jesus loves little children, and why He wants us to keep that childlike faith. Because children are happy little people. They have the most genuine smiles. They listen attentively, laugh much, say what’s in their minds. They ask a lot of questions, they seek for answers. They cling on and ask for help when they don’t know what to do, without any pretensions nor pride. They trust blindly, believe wholly, love easily.

I’m happy for the opportunity to have some of their sunshine rub in on me.

Edit. Thanks, Ate Jam, for sharing this verse:

1 At that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them,

3 And said, “Truly I say to you, unless you repent [change, turn about] and become like little children, you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all].

4 Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 And whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me.”

Matthew 18:1-5