27

You know the feeling of wearing a new pair of shoes for the first day of school?

That is exactly how I feel: Excited, confident, and ready for the rainy day.

Everything is brand new. From the timezone to the food I eat, from the language barrier to the strangers I now call friends, from living alone in a countryside to planning for the “next step”. 

I took a bold move when I left my stable job and comfortable life in the Philippines in exchange for an unknown career in Thailand last year. Fast forward today, I’m happily wrestling with bundles of kid-monsters in a government school here in Chiang Mai and I live in a very peaceful ricefield-district far away from the city buzz. Is this how I expected it to be? No. But what I have and what I’m experiencing now are so. much. more.

My Prathom-3 Science Class.

I don’t regret one breath from that life-changing decision. It was not exactly the easiest but it led me to a path of self-discovery and a lot more unexplainable things in between. It was the best decision.

Gloy and I, post Sushi.

My birthday celebrations this year were amazing, to say the least.

I had a simple Japanese dinner with my Thai friend who I met through a yoga class. After our meal, the restaurant staff handed us papers where we can write our wishes and hang it on the “Bamboo Wishing Tree”. I won’t go into details on what I wrote because I don’t want to jinx it (haha!), but what I can share is this part:

“Someday, I will come back to Chiang Mai and remember this moment and I will tell myself that I finally did it!”

Japanese dinner and whisky. Live blues music. A couple more glass of gin tonic. Lousy dancing. Birthday cupcake. It was a great night to be 27.

I might not be able to go to church for a more sincere expression of thanks, but I endlessly bowed for gratitude to the thousands of gods in Bali. Yes. Bali. Indonesia. My birthday celebration there was ZE cherry of all the cherries on top. I can go on with the superlatives but it will just channel to the same direction: BEST.

It’s amazing how a year can change a person and how a week can morph into the highlight of your life existence thus far.

As my current life-trend, I’m embarking on a brand new journey in a couple of months to further test my limits and to continuously follow what’s important above all–Happiness. It’s an undertow of yet another uncertainty but it’s nothing I have not surpassed before. Plus, I have a new pair of shoes, remember? 😉

The past year has revealed to me what it means to be entirely free and to be simply happy. We never get old, we only get better. We never fail, we only become wiser. We are not lost, we just chase happiness… or love.

For everything else in between,

Charlene