20-plus

it's year 2007 and that means i am turning 27 too. i never pay much attention to my growing age except for the times when people ask for it. and yes, i become 27. although by heart i feel 20-ish or something.

when i was younger, no make it waaay younger, i used to look up to my aunts and feel really really small. i used to imagine myself living their age. i used to think when i'm 24 im probably married like aunti lita. otherwise, i may be like aunti inday at 27 who asks her nieces for retos (also: mga irereto) so she could get a decent boyfriend and eventually marry. or i may be like my aunti mamay who at 25 is self-sustaining and already owns a refrigerator. i used to want to be like them, in many many ways.

now that i am 27, turning 27, i think of all the used-to's and i look back. i don't feel 27 at all. and i wonder if this is the same feeling they felt when they were at this age? i don't own a refrigerator, yes i have a boyfried but i'm not married. i don't feel 27 as much as i imagined it to be.

but looking back i realized that yes i've aged. i've learned a lot from life --- from the daily lessons to the hard and traumatic tests. i've savored life in a way that made me ready to face another year ahead. and although i don't feel 27 at all (not a bit!!!), i know i've matured more than a 30 year-old would. i've been blessed with experiences that not so many can cherish and not so many can learn from.

this particular experience taught me to count not so much the years that i've lived but the opportunities i've grabbed, the times i fell and stood up, the persons i've truly loved, the sorry's and i love you's, the friends i've made and the stories shared with them and the many God-given blessings that came my way.

how old i am? 27.