Remember December

Hey y'all! First of all, Merry Christmas!  Truthfully, this month has been very hectic.  At the beginning of the month, it was a bunch of cramming of work.  But, I feel as if the best part of December was spending my December in the Philippines.  Honestly, i'm pretty sad that I wasn't able to spend my Christmas and my birthday at home with my immediate family...  However, family in the PI isn't that bad at all (even though I cannot understand half of the things they say lol).  Truthfully, I'm really just going to be summarizing my trip because that is what bulk of my December was.  First of all, when going to the Philippines it was the longest travel everrrr because my mom bought round trip tickets, meaning that it wasn't one way to the Philippines.  So we basically took a 10 hour flight to China, then a 10 hour stopover in China, 4 hour flight to the Philippines, and lastly an 8 hour car ride to Ilocos Norte, where my family resides.  But then when we finally made it to Ilocos Norte, my cousins and my brother made the spontaneous plan of wanting to get tattooed by the oldest woman in the Philippines, at 103 years old... Whang-Od, in this place called Kalinga, that for sure was another 10 hour drive, so long that we had to sleep in some homestay in the middle of the mountains.  Btw, the drive in the mountains was pretty freakin scary considering there was literally no railings and it was all winding roads but the experience was great.  Even going to the village was a great experience since it's literally a 45 minute hike from the bottom of the village to the top.  The hike?  It was like going on a hike in Hawaii, like in a tropical forest...jungle...idk.  But considering it was in the mountain, the hike was very steep... and you know what's crazier?  the villagers hike this thing everyday like it's a casual walk, carrying their children, carrying rice bags on their head, my goodness.  The experience was great, but seeing a 103 year old woman in front of me still being able to walk, communicate, and even so give tattoos was sooo cool (and no, I didn't get one).  In all, despite the long trip, the experience was a great and I'm glad that I got to experience it.  The Philippines is an interesting place, it was nice to reconnect with where I came from and my family.  We did a lot of visiting of family members and mini road trips to places that had beautiful views.  We also ate some good food. Sadly, today is my last day, I'm not sure of what we are doing but I'm pretty bummed.

Advice.  Don't forget where you came from.  Always know where you came from and discover parts of you that you have never known before.  You may surprise yourself, but it's better to know.  Do you know why?  Well, it gives us reason to do certain things in our lives.  Sometimes, we forget who we are and tend to lose motivation, but if you remind yourself where you came from, you can gain it back.  Also, go out and explore.  When you have the opportunities to travel or just to go out galavanting, stop focusing on the unimportant things and cherish the world and the people around you.  It is a great experience.  It will help you grow as a person and be exposed to more ideals, expanding your outlooks on certain things.

Therefore, what I want to work on is to push myself.  Lately, I've been feeling a regression in my motivation, don't know if it's senioritis *excuses* but I just can't really find any reason to push myself beyond my limits.  After seeing where I came from, for instane, seeing that my grandaunts and uncles attended ivy league universities as Filipino immigrants, is such an inspiration.  Though I do not plan on attending an ivy league, I aspire to do great again.  I plan to start small by taking on this third quarter with efficiency.  I need to stop procrastianting and start pushing myself again.