When My Heart is Filled With So Much Gratitude, My 2016 Yearender

I felt frustrated, unmotivated, uninspired, uncreative, or just plain exhausted in updating this blog. The outcome, my blogging journey took a rest for some time. I had a hard time maintaining it as my mind didn't produce enough creative juices worth sharing with everyone.

However, this month of December I was just surprised, I was getting some energy and enthusiasm to get back to it. My blogging is now moving once more. Maybe it is this season of the year I felt I already have enough materials, stories, and experiences to share with the world.

Before 2016 ends, it's like I am obliged to tell everyone how much I have grown and improved as a person since the last time I wrote about my life. This blog post is also my expression of gratefulness to people who journeyed with in good times and bad. It is an admirable habit to count the blessings instead of our inadequacies and misfortunes. I learned in life that it is not happiness that makes us truly thankful, but rather our ability to be thankful makes us happy.

In the previous years, I detailed on my Facebook post my great adventures as my year-ender event. This time, it is quite different as I'm going to speak more about individuals I met and who made a huge impact on my life. I am forever grateful to these people for making my 2016 an awesome year for me. So let's begin.

1. My Boss

 First up, I am very grateful to have the most astoundingly dependable and caring School Principal whom I worked with in my 10 years of teaching. His name is Dr. Roger Lozada. He is organized as he is nice and friendly. I like his reassuring, patient, and welcoming personality. He is truly a diligent public servant. He doesn't lecture us what a hard-working teacher is; instead, he embodies it so others may just follow him. At faculty meetings, he always motivates teachers and leads successfully in his own particular manners. And mind you, he is extremely shrewd and great at what he does, whether it is overseeing our school or outlining other educational programs. With that, he earned respect quietly.Every time he expresses appreciation, it fills our hearts with joy because we know it is true and meaningful. He gives everyone a space in the academe to act naturally and to use potentialities rather than demanding to imitate him. He doesn't insult or abuse his power as our boss. Rather, he approaches everybody with respect and dignity. For me, he is a good leader, our great inspiration and I am very thankful for him as my role model.

2. Co-Workers

 

There is so much joy working with people in a place that encourages cooperation and mutual respect. These people affect my day, my disposition and my workload. I like my colleagues because they are open-minded and really sincere in their assessment of me. They share thoughts when needed and they listen because they are also willing to learn from me. When you make lapses, they provide you constructive criticisms for your own benefit. They also assume liability whenever there are shortcomings along the way. I am thankful to them for being such a great help at work.

3. The Grade Niners Group

I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to my Grade 9 co-teachers for the amazing involvement with each other this year 2016. Going with them is always fun and memorable. I can simply act naturally when I am with them without fear of being segregated and stereotyped by other individuals from the other departments. I am truly thankful to be surrounded by these wonderful people who are not only creative and proficient but also passionate about their work. With them, I experience honesty in the workplace and genuine love for one another. I wish to spend more time with them as I already consider them my family.

4. Companions / Buddies

This year, I have met a few wonderful companions from different walks of life. I thank my gym buddies, research collaborators for the best time we shared. It was an amazing experience to have known you, folks. Trust me, we will have more opportunities to crack jokes and bond next year.

5. Positive Peeps

To Bebe Mayang, Bebe Haziel, and my other duckling friends (bebes) who refused to be called swans- you're one of the best circles of friends I've had. A few circumstances you prowl in into my private life like you need to make dynamic participation in the majority of my love affairs. It is as though you're the ones who would tell me if the person is ideal for me or not. This year I have great conversations with you and I felt I had the most honest and longest laughter with you all.

I have traveled with you. I never thought you will be one of the best buds I will ever have. You are my travel partners as well as one of my dearest friends. At whatever point I have issues like love issues you're there to listen to my stories. I thank you for the many encouraging words and suggestions on how to handle them.

6. Team Awesome / Friends for Keeps

They are the people who are dependably there to chuckle with and to perk me up when I am down. I thank you all for the most marvelous circumstances, the food trips, the laugh trips. Special thanks to my Friendship Alma Arrubio, To Maam Onie, and to Bestie Mae. You are part of my growing up years in the academe.

 You see? My year 2016 has been a nice and gentle year for me. It's a year of exciting travel, meeting new acquaintances, and learning from the smooth and rough relationships with family, colleagues, and friends. I traveled a lot of beautiful places I never imagined would be possible and I met a lot of astonishing people who became my great friends and mentors. The highlight for this year was discovering places and learning valuable lessons from the bizarre experiences of these people.

  

To be honest, I'm one of those individuals who are difficult to love yet I give an abundance of thanks to people who have cared for and loved me. Even though at the time I feel they wasted their time for nothing, I have come to realize that they did not. I now love with an open heart and walk with a positive outlook. So I give many thanks to the individuals who show at least a bit of kindness and love to people like myself. I wish you nothing but the best of health and happiness in this yuletide season. Together let's welcome 2017 with a bang!

                                                   

Reasons to Say Goodbye to 2016

These beautiful birds do not belong in this cage. I don't like to see them as prisoners and pets. I'm now letting them go so they can be totally free and do whatever they want to do to enjoy life. In like manner, I am also liberating myself from the bondage of this life and the toxic things that occurred. I want to say goodbye to 2016 and say hello to 2017. But before it can totally happen, I need to say goodbye and resolve some of the important concerns in this current year.

I say goodbye to the voices in my mind that say I don't have the talent to prove my worth or I am someone who is unequipped for accomplishing something. They lie a great deal, and I ought to realize that at this point in my life.

I say goodbye to the need for others' approval or validation. We need approval or validation from time to time but I don't need to continually seek after it. For whatever length of time that I see I am most extremely potential or how far I have become, I do not have to look for anybody to affirm that for me.

I say goodbye to the times I was not proud of myself. I now leave that negative thought behind me because I am not leading a perfect life. I am an individual who is as yet figuring out how to live.

I say goodbye to the promises I didn't keep and realize that planning is everything and great things in life require some serious energy and thinking.

I say goodbye to the instances I questioned myself and my relationship with God and all the pessimism  I had last year. It might not be the cheerful closure I needed, but rather it could be a happy beginning I didn't see coming.

I say goodbye to the circumstances I cried and the circumstances I was suffering because of pain, and give myself a gesture of congratulations for overcoming yet another hurdle of life. Fingers crossed, I will be able to complete the maze.

I say goodbye to the individuals who just dumped me for nothing. They are not intended to be a major part of my life for some reason anyway. I now concentrate on the ones who do and the ones who love me for who I am.

I say goodbye to the memory that keeps repeating in my mind whether great or terrible, the one that is keeping me up around evening time pondering where it went and regardless of whether it will happen once more. I twisted them and delayed them far too often. Now the time has come to discover another thing to watch.

I say goodbye to the dependence I had for my gadgets and social media, or anything I was fixated on. I will invest more energy with nature and educate myself that a lot of anything unproductive will choke me out.

I say goodbye to the expectations I had for myself that at this point I ought to have done this or done that. Life can be chaotic and the exact opposite thing I need is getting connected to its disarray.

I say goodbye to the degrading words people used to describe me which made me love myself a little less. Consider how little these individuals know about me and my story. Consider how a few people jump at the chance to disparage others just to gain attention and favor. I should forever say goodbye to these individuals.

I say goodbye to the circumstances I was childish, out of balance, or had no judgment skills. These are the times that remind me of my earthly nature and that I am still learning like a child does. I should be more mature now and know where I better position myself. I say goodbye to the instances I missed somebody who didn't miss me back. In the long run, I won't miss them any longer, and I will discover that other individuals miss me more than I know.

I say goodbye to the travels I didn't take, or the places I never went to, or the fun I missed out, or the chances that passed me by. Not all things will go as arranged and I do not need to convey the blame with me wherever I go. It is a simple reminder that regardless of how hard we attempt, we won't generally be in control. I say goodbye to every imperfection I saw in the mirror and the times I didn't like who I was looking at. I now have a new mirror that changes the way how I look at my reflections.

At long last, I say goodbye to the thought that one year from now will be the same and that nothing will ever change. I will be free as the birds and choose to embrace all the beautiful opportunities ahead, the wonderful dreams I am about to realize, and the hopes that are so bright waiting for me in the year 2017.