While the few rich were doing this http://www.mindanaotimes.com.ph/story.php?id=14944 in Marco Polo, I was asleep beside my boyfriend who was burning with a high fever, in a rented room, at the first floor of a pre-war wood house.

I got up, lighted an incense and a candle while outside, I heard neigbors making noises with their pots and pans, and videoke singing of "Hasta Mañana" repeated many times over.

The question of "Who am I" remains a question to reckon after all these years. I guess, it is because people around one change, the things around one change. Old things die, new things born, life goes on and it is a constant search as to where one must find one's self in all things.

I've got things yet that should have been burned but are still trapped in the nook of my locker. The body passes away but memory remains. We choose what to remember and we choose what to forget. But there are just things that persist, and memories too that persist. What to remember and what to forget?  

2006 was such a year. I have had extreme joys and extreme sorrows. This year has taught me a lot of things. Life is life in itself. Who does not want to be always happy? But then, problems do come. Often, these are problems that are problems in itself because we never thought, not even in our wildest dreams that they would happen.

When problems come, I should always remember what my lola taught me, and of course, Marx – that every problem has a solution.

We have to give to life what belongs to life… and often, these are the things that happen, without us knowing right away, why they happened. It is when we reckon things that we understand, why it happened. And I guess, that's the beauty of living. You understand…