It Doesn't End in Baguio...It Begins There (part 1)

Up until February 26,2009 my life has been somewhat sitting on a standstill. Work has been less than fulfilling and more disappointing, some friends have been less than a friend and more of an emotional burden, and to top it all off, I have been feeling less worthy and more of a nuisance as I go about my everyday routine.

I was told by my brothers and sisters from the SFL (formerly Singles for Christ) late last year that 2009's World Singles Congress will be held at Baguio City and they've encouraged me to join. I, thinking that it would be a great time to spend with them in a vacation place like Baguio, immediately agreed and even assured them that I would be there, as money would be no problem to support for transportation and registration. I basically had an idea of what the Congress would be about, but little did I know that it would create a titanic impact on my life.


And so I went on with the daily grind that was called life. Weekdays was spent working at night, sleeping during the day, and the weekends out with friends or lazing the day away in front of my computer, mindlessly reading through short stories written by people from the other side of the world or if not, writing my own or browsing through the web for anything that might deem itself interesting. You see, it wasn't that I didn't have a life, it just felt like I've established a routine and I didn't dare venture out of it. I didn't realize if it was fear of some sort, all I know is that I had something to do, and I just kept on doing it.


Hours, days, weeks and months passed and 2009 slammed into my face. I swear it's totally different now than when I was younger that I would wish that time would move faster, and now that it does, I sort of wish for it to slow down a bit so that I would have to see what's going on. But as they say, life doesn't wait for anyone, so like everybody else, I tried my best to set new things for myself for the new year.

February rolled around without me realizing it. Vacation leaves have been approved, registration paid for and transportation was settled and so I just had to wait until the 26th came around. Days leading up to that, I was feeling a bit apprehensive of joining the trip at all for reasons I can't really point my finger to. It even came to a point where I almost did not begin packing up until three hours before we left. I was that unsure.

My parents took me to the church where we'd all meet up and wait for the vehicles that'll take us to Baguio. I was almost speechless when I got out of the car to greet the guys and girls. It felt like I didn't belong to their group, being away from so long and not even showing up in so much as a weekly household (prayer meeting). I paid my contribution to the transportation and pretty much tried to mingle as little as possible. I remember desperately wishing that Dhina, one of my childhood friends who invited me to join the SFC two years before, would show up already so that I'd have someone to talk to.

After sometime when everyone was already complete, we said a small group prayer before we left and the proceeded on to board the van that was to take us to Baguio. I got to ride with the girls and our Couple Head, Mommy Leah and most of the guys took the Fiera. I was still feeling apprehensive at this point, but I popped on my iPod and tried to listen to the music to block out those thoughts.

In less than six hours, we finally arrive at Teacher's Camp to a typical cold Baguio morning. We came in earlier than usual so we had to wait about three hours or so before we got to check in to our quarters.

We took a few hours' rest and then headed out for lunch at about an hour past lunch time. We shopped at Mines View before heading back to the Camp to take some rest before the evening's events began.