Holiday Vacation

New Year is a special time for my family, as any other's. OUr activities are simple actually. Every 1st of the year, we from the Lim Clan (Mother's side) get together for a mass at dusk at Lola Loring's place at Mabolo, Cebu. The fun part of the whole thing though is that I get to meet very distant relatives. Lola Loring is the cousin of my grandmother, so the cousin's I meet there would be my second and third degree cousins. I also meet my other grandparents and uncles and aunts. You can imagine how long the process of doing 'mano po' takes.

I have always been a bit withdrawn during these types of occasions as I have never really spent that much time with these relatives, considering how distant-ness our relation is. But the thing that I appreciate most about as I grew older is that these people are family as well and these occassions are meant for us to get to know each other. As always, family will always been there to support us no matter how wrong or bad or deep in shit you have gotten yourself into. Even if you score a hundred in videoke singing My Way or Only You even if you yourself know that your singin was totally out of tune, your family will be there to nudge you to try harder, and with enough support, you gain confidence in yourself as well as appreciation for the help.

Just this Christmas, we visited a couple of relatives (the husband of my grandmother's sister and my grandfather's brother) who are now in not so tiptop shape. What's so special about these visits is that my grandparents as well as my parents and my aunts and uncles care very much about them dispite their inability to move on their own (both are already bedridden). This vacation was a special reminder for me about the importance of my family.

Leaving alone can be tough and sometimes we have got to toughen ourselves in order to live through each day. Leaving alone away from your family while trying to earn enough bucks to support yourself, your lifestyle and maybe a future family can make you forget about what really matters, and that is your present family. Personally, I have already grown accustomed to living away from my family. It has been 6 years since I started living alone during my 4th year high school days.

It was difficult to leave Cebu after this vacation. I miss them already.