March 27-30, 2011

Around this time last week, I was in Mauban Quezon with a few friends for this leadership seminar which Bien-Bien spearheaded along with Henson and JQ. Bien-Bien thought of doing Abot Tanaw in Mauban after ASLA 9. Preparations were done with the help of a lot of ASLA 9 participants. It was really preparing for stuff, actually. It was like preparing for the CSO LeadSem, Sanggu-HS LeadCamp, ACTM LTC Trailblazer and I guess it was a sneak peek for the preparations for ASLA. It was quite unfortunate though that there were only 9 of us who were able to go mainly due to logistical concerns. It was a blast though!

Us minus JQ outside the Pagoda restaurant. We were supposedly imitating something, not sure what though. It was in this restaurant that I ate my first suso(snail) and pancit habhab. The latter was really delicious! For the former, it was very exotic for me, but it also tasted good.

When we arrived at the White House, we chilled and did some last minute preparations for the 2-day affair. The whole time we were just planning and preparing more to make the event really awesome and unforgettable.

Come the first day, (March 28) we were set to conquer the potential-filled youth of Mauban.

There were a lot of things that happened in a span of 2 days for the kids. And as much as they have learned many things about themselves and opportunities after school, I also learned stuff about myself. I learned a lot about facilitating from JQ and Henson, truly appreciate those. I would really love to share what happened in Quezon but I don’t wish to spoil the stuff for future Abot Tanaw.

All I can say is that in those 4 days I spent with awesome, crazy friends, co-faci’s, I really had fun not just because we fooled Xab on the way, or because of the fun feeling being faci’s, or because we had how many jump pictures while we were in the beach. More than those…

I found lifelong koo koo friends.

People who are game to be shot in other words, people who love my camera. Haha!

Friends who will be there to help me when I have problems and dilemmas. Friends I know I will hold on to, no matter what.

Friends I can share my dreams with and more than that, I feel that we’ll be helping each other achieve our dreams.

People who will help me cling on to my passions.

I guess looking back at that amazing experience, of sleeping on a couch for 2 nights, of trying my best not to cry during some of the activities, of eating new food, of taking 2000+ photos, of drinking lambanog and a lot more… I found myself to be like a kid who has big dreams, and while on top of a hill wishing to go down from it.

And as I go down, I wish that more friends will go with me as I spread my own ripples.