I found love in this not so hopeless place---Bagac, Bataan.

You could make any place magical, if you really put your heart in it.

I believe that the first time that I learned to accept change within my world and broaden my horizon was during my first year of becoming a fully committed Lasallian Volunteer.

One of my favorite places on the top of my travel checklist (I just recently started making one hihi) is Bagac, Bataan.

This is the usual view from our usual tambayan near Jaime Hilario Integrated School - La Salle.

 My first assignment was here at Bagac, in a La Salle school located just beside the beach. I know, cool right? The smell of the sea, the hot sand beneath my feet, the whisper of the flirting wind---everything was new to me, a self-confessed rurban girl for I have never stayed that long or this far away from home. This breathtaking view had been my home for ten full months. 

Bataan has always been known for beach resorts and its rich history, blessed with its geographical location which is a perfect curve surrounded by a huge body of water. The main source of livelihood for their people is of course, fishing. 

I once called this place a paradise. This is where I dreamt that I was a mermaid, literally and figuratively. I thought that the ocean was a lot like human's emotions, in its own unique way. It could be calm and bright and deep..so deep that its depth is naturally inconceivable. At times, it is raging, with its waves dark and powerful that could definitely take man's life, leaving nothing brutally and dramatically without a trace. 

Bagac has been a witness to my joys and melancholy. One of my favorite past times after duty is waiting for the sunset while sipping cold coffee and just...I don't know, over-thinking, maybe.  There was a steady comfort that I discovered in this place. 

Here's an excerpt from my former blog post that I've written during sunset on one melancholic afternoon:

"You thought you went on a journey to find something, yet, as it turns out, it is you that have been on the verge of losing yourself, like the grains of sand scattered on the beach, blown away by the knowing wind. How could you even lose something if you haven't found it? It's as if you laid an innocent bet on life from the moment you were conceived. No assurance. It's either you get red or black, win or lose."

Bagac is beautiful, but sometimes people tend to take beauty for granted once you've grown accustomed to it. I learned to embrace everything in this place, not just the good parts but all of it. This is where I truly and perpetually found love.

Photo credits: Me/FJM

The First

Alright.

I was the perfect definition of a couch potato. I mean, I used to hate everything related to outdoors; sports, dancing, the beach, or anything else that could make me sweat. I was practically a vampire. I'd rather watch movies, or surf the web and cuddle with my pillows and read books even on a perfect weather. Sure, I could risk going out at night to get drunk and go home at dawn. But please, when the sun is up, expect me to be buried in my sheets. I'm that lazy, I think.

Before, it was totally fine. My room was my comfort zone, every thing else was just plain drama or senseless. Eventually, it got boring. Doing nothing was really tiring.

You could say that I snapped out of the bubble, or a monster smacked me right in my gut. I knew that I wanted change. The Mayans might have been wrong in predicting the end of the world, but 2012 sure ended a lot of significant things in my life. Old habits ended, feelings died. I quit my boring job and volunteered to be deployed somewhere nobody thought I would ever go, or do things I would never have done. I did not become a superhero or a pop star. Nonetheless, the people around me were surprised but no one was ever more shocked than myself. That should be the first omen of the greatness coming.

That's where it all started. I went to places. I met someone who helped me see the beauty and depth in all things.

That was when I started to see that I had just mastered the art of breathing and exhaling and just not dying but still not living. That was the moment when I started to realize gradually the worth of life. That was the moment that I started to believe that life—as cliche-ish as it may seem— is indeed beautiful.