Happy new year, everyone! I'm aware that some countries do not commemorate this new milestone due to their beliefs. But in our country, January 1 is the anticipated moment of our life because we want to celebrate how we passed this year despite numerous failures. I don't know why others share their "New Year's Resolution" for the better. However, most of them are only good from the start. Do you also think about it that way?
Before the New Year's Eve Celebration, I started my day by going to church with my family. It's already in our tradition to attend church twice a week to fulfill our duties as a member of this religion. I hate waking up early, but we don't have a choice since it was only the available time since they rescheduled the schedule in the afternoon.
After our worship services, my parents opted to go here, and it's also where we commemorated our Christmas year-end/reunion. We will also have our get-together with our long-distance relatives, so I hope you can check it out. We only ate our breakfast here while they were discussing gossip. That's not new for me since they already had this kind of bond when I was not yet here.
My New Year's Eve afternoon was boring since I only spent most of my time using my gadgets. Unlike on Christmas Eve, our neighbors are noisier, and I don't know why. I have some neighbors who enjoy singing in karaoke while the kids in our community blow their horn-shaped trumpets (or torotot). The hilarious thing is that some of my annoying neighbors were already displaying their fireworks even though it was not yet December 31. I only did my normal routine, so I assumed my afternoon was not special.
Six hours before the anticipated moment of our life, I decided to enjoy the remaining hours singing in front of my laptop. I only used YouTube videos as a guide and my hand as an improvised microphone. After getting tired, I also streamed my favorite songs while my mother was doing her business preparing food for the celebration.
I wanted to open our television last night, but it was nonsense due to the loud background noise from my out-of-tune neighbors singing karaoke. Therefore, I only opened my laptop to stream the Kapuso Countdown to 2023 with the special participation of Gayo Daejeon. This is the rarest moment where you can watch K-Pop performances on Philippine National TV, lol. Although the performances are only a watch party (it's an obvious replay), I still enjoy it. My favorite performance from the line-up is LE SSERAFIM. I'm a bit disappointed because they didn't perform the recent songs of NMIXX, NewJeans, and IVE. I only watched half of the Livestream, but good thing I can still view the replay.
While enjoying the performance of ITZY, my younger sibling (the girl on my back) called me to change my clothes formally. I asked her if there was color coding, but she said we could wear any color.
I thought that my mother already wore something casual for taking pictures, but she was still arranging the food on the table. As you see, our prepared food is simple, but I am already grateful since I prefer celebrating it with only a few peers. I'll show you the picture in the upcoming paragraphs, and hoping you are still reading it.
Before taking these photos from different angles, poses, and formations, my father led our sincere yearly prayer. His gratitude while saying his appreciation for surviving the challenges is truly overwhelming. I remember that I had been feeling hopeless a few months ago and almost got to the point if I should quit this stupid life. But then, God had a better opportunity for me, and I'm grateful since I didn't attempt suicide. Despite the difficulties we experienced as a family, I'm thankful that we can step forward. 2022 affects my mental health greatly, and I hope 2023 will be nice for all. We're thankful to God since He helped my dad recover slowly from a stroke a few months ago. He can't walk properly yet, but he is showing some improvements!
Thirty minutes before 2023, I successfully took a photo of our simple celebration. We had nothing much grand preparation for this occasion since we only celebrated it with five members. On the left side, there's a pan filled with cheese, homemade cake with no bake made by my mother, and Biko (sweet rice cake). She also prepared baked macaroni with no-bake and, my favorite, Adobong Chicken. I was already damn hungry that moment when my father still insisted me to take photos while they were eating.
Finally, the time that we've been waiting for. Five minutes before the countdown to 2023, I played K-Pop songs in my speaker and wrote this manifestation a minute before 2022 ends. In the Philippines, we have these superstitions where if you jump during the countdown, they say it will make you tall, varying on how long you jump. But in another context, jumping at midnight will bring you good luck. Therefore, while jumping in excitement, I hold these notes and hope to achieve my manifestations this year, 2023.
I don't know what the future brings, so my biggest hope is to encounter more good problems and fewer bad problems. As Mark Manson stated, there's always a problem behind happiness, and it only relies upon whether it is good or bad.
