birthday – JO and Behold

Hey! I’m back!

I was just busy with things.

Preparing for my thesis proposal hearing was so stressful but luckily my panel let me pass and push through with conducting my thesis then hopefully for defense. Immediately after the proposal work preoccupied me so much since my officemate resigned and I got all her workloads. It was a good kind of busyness though because it got me engrossed at work that I cannot even think it’s already time to clock out! I’m so fully absorbed by the tasks I’m doing that I have no time to revise my thesis proposal. Even though I passed, I still need to revise it. I liked the feeling that I am so busy because even if tires you in a lot of ways, after a day’s work it can get you that sense of fulfillment like eight hours isn’t enough. I know its cliché but it’s really kicking in me.

So okay, so much for the updates! It’s JUNE! It’s my birth month and about to end sadly. Although it belonged to a rainy season, of course I would always love JUNE! I was born in it, molded by it! (haha.. Bane mode) My brother and my two cousins were born in June too. But honestly, we never wanted to celebrate it in one party. 🙂

Okay, so since it’s my 2-5! Oh my gosh, I’m already 25! Hello quarter life crisis, guess you’re really coming in! I’ve been ignoring you lately! Haha..

The 24^th fell on a Tuesday so I opt to celebrate it on a Sunday (June 29th) since I don’t have work on Sunday and its family day. I really thought of what nice ways to celebrate my day, something that would make it very interesting even if it’s just a very small celebration. Then this idea came to have a sort of “kids party theme” was really great. My brother thinks it’s hilarious but he likes it. I asked him to help conceptualize and he was really helpful with it. Here’s it!

invitation

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birthday tarpauline

my brother helped me conceptualized this, he’s ‘the hulk’ 🙂

bday crown

giveaways and cup cake tier

the gang, my lovies!

How I hope it would be like this forever but reality bites telling me to move on! I love my family and friends even if some weren’t there at the celebration, you are still with me by heart. <3<3<3

Cheers to another orbit of my life! 🙂

Last year 2012, I named my birthday album on facebook ‘Air Jordan 23’ because of the obvious reason that I just turned 23 and Michael Jordan a.k.a Air Jordan’s jersey number is 23. I am a big fan including the boys in my family from my father, uncles and down to my brother.

This year, I am a year older, a year wiser and hopefully better. So turning 24, I have decided to name my album ‘Mamba 24’ and so as this blog. I am a big fan of Kobe Bryant or better known for his screen name ‘Black Mamba’. Another thing is that his jersey number is 24, so I decided to continue the basketball sort of theme for my birthday albums. I cut down the word ‘black’ because it’s a birthday theme and I really do think all birthdays must be on bright celebratory colors. I do love black as a color because it signifies intelligence and professionalism but this birthday just seems to be of pastel colors for me. Aside from this theme etymology, I’m a Lakers fan so as my closest friends and I really do want to go to LA. My American west coast dream is LA while the east counterpart is NY! Too fancy? Well you only get to dream for free, make the most of it! The sky is the limit!

So back to my birthday, I just turned 24 last 24^th of June. On my plus one I contemplated on the things that I have achieved in my 24 years of existence. Actually, it wasn’t hard to think about. Here’s my milestone.

I graduated college
Got my first job which lasted for 2 months because I reasoned out graduate school
So yes, I went to graduate school! (I still am!)
Became a part-time barista at Starbucks while attending grad school
After a year of practicing the art of espresso, I quit and practiced my field in human resources and worked as a Training Assistant
Now I’m currently doing my reviews for my upcoming comprehensive exam this August

And oh, I’ve traveled twice in one country, Japan on 2009 and very recently this April 2013.

So far, these were my achievements — it goes on of course! God has so may plans for me, I know it!

Aside from all these achievements I have also learned to be more realistic. When you become older you get to see and view things differently. In my case I always do reality checks, some would say that I’m being negative but for me I’m just avoiding the possible ways of falling down. In life we don’t always have to take risks all the time. That is why we go to school to help hone our decision making skills and through experiences we get to use them. If we fail, we make sure we will learn from those mistakes. But we always have a choice, we just hope we made the right one.

I believe I also became more patient and understanding. I realized how big of an influence my mother is to me that I now get to understand the things she always tells me when I was a teenager. As a young adult, I hope I can make the most of the learnings I got from family, friends. Graduate school greatly helped me at work. I found out that theory is nothing without application and experience is always the best teacher. I always make sure I am being positive but I also don’t forget to be realistic.

The best birthday gift I have received is peace of mind and not all people realize that it is the only thing they need. I hope I could share it.

Here’s a little celebration of my birthday!