Taken August 21, 2016 at an ATV trail up Mt. Mayon in Legazpi City, Albay.
A few years ago─rough estimate is about three or so years ago─when I realized that I didn't want to celebrate my birthday as parties, you know, the kind wherein you invite everyone over to your house and have them feast on your home-cooked buffet. I've done that far too many times that most of my birthdays were spent a blur because either I was too tired from all the preparations, or, too preoccupied trying to host the invited guests. It's like a rerun; year after year, like a stressful annual requirement that obliges you to experience that awkward moment wherein everyone gathers around to sing you the Happy Birthday song and you are stuck there unflinching in front of your cake hoping the torture to end. I mean seriously, what to you do when everyone is staring at you yodeling, "Happy birthday to you!"? My closest friends knows that I'd shut them up the moment they start singing. I like the blowing-off-the-candle-on-the-cake part though, because it means I get to eat the cake right after. Not a big believer of birthday wishes...if you want it done, bluntly ask the parties involved of making it happen, using your birthday as an excuse.
In any case, after much self-refection...I realized that what I want for my birthday is to experience a moment to remember a year by. Three years ago I celebrated it by torturing my friends into jogging with me. Two years ago, it was my first time to zipline at a mountain resort in my home province. I remember how my arms hurt a few hours after because I was holding onto the rope far too tightly. Last year, it was the first time I celebrated my birthday abroad, in Yangon more specifically. This year, it was this, riding an ATV up to the 2006 lava flow of Mt. Mayon. Pre-birthday because it wasn't exactly my birthday...but it was what I will remember most on turning late twenty-somethingish. Also, my fourth time to zipline that day.
It was monsoon season, so it's no surprise that it rained that day. It was one of the unluckiest trip I went on...that story will probably come on my 2016 roundup post under the "Worst Luck Moment of 2016" section. I went to Legazpi two weeks prior, and saw the most beautiful volcano from afar─EVER!!!─not that I've seen a lot though...but I swear on its perfect cone that it is breathtakingly beautiful. On the day of the trail, where we'd go up to the foot of the volcano, she decided to go shy on us and veil herself in very thick clouds. We ended up just seeing a wall of white from the view point at the end of the trail. But despite that, it's the experience of riding an ATV for the first time, up a rugged and puddled path, down to a newly cemented road with the view of Legazpi City below is what mattered. I love driving off to scenic routes, and to be able to do that so much closer to nature, that was awesome.
