✨ golden birthday ✨

It's been a while since I posted on this blog. I'm returning to the retroactive posting, so even though it's already the middle of November, I made this entry look like it was posted on my birthday on October 25. Also, since the pandemic is still in full swing and getting quite out of hand, I'm not bothering writing "x days in quarantine" anymore in my blog titles. Quarantine is not a novelty anymore, it is just a way of living. All righty! 

For my much anticipated 25th birthday, aka golden birthday, aka quarter century birthday, the celebrations started at the end of August when I decided to buy myself an expensive gift. Yes. As is what happened with practically all my purchases since quarantine started, I discovered a brand advertised to me on Instagram that I wanted to support. This brand is called Automic Gold, and it is owned by a queer, trans refugee based in New York. They're very transparent about paying their staff fairly and sourcing their materials ethically, and as if that weren't enough, their mascot is an adorable dachshund, and collectively their staff speaks 12 languages (Tagalog included!). When I saw that they did custom jewelry, I knew immediately that I wanted them to make the necklace of my dreams. For years, I had wanted a necklace with a pendant in the shape of Cebu island, but every time I went home to look in the souvenir and jewelry stores, I could never find one. Stumbling upon Automic Gold earlier this year was serendipitous, and the more I chewed on the idea of getting custom jewelry from them, the more I knew I wanted to do it. 

Apart from getting the Cebu-shaped pendant in gold, I knew I wanted Cebu City to be marked somehow, and figured that some kind of gem could do it. While doing my research, another thing I found out this year was that October has two birthstones! I only knew of opal before, and the other one is pink tourmaline. I read up about it, and apparently it represents a love of humanity and humanitarianism. This sold me immediately, so it wasn't even a question what birth stone I would use to mark my hometown on my pendant. What's more, I later found out that the pink tourmaline that Automic Gold uses in their jewelry is sourced from Brazil, which is basically on the exact other side of the world from Cebu. I thought it befitting of the distances I've traveled and will travel in my life. 

Once I decided on what I wanted, I reached out to Automic Gold about my custom order. I gave them a budget (not saying what it is here but I will say it's the most expensive thing I've bought myself that's not plane tickets), and I was thrilled to find out that they could make the pendant and include a gold chain with it. So I placed the order on August 31, and the necklace arrived on September 25. Once it did, I immediately told James to hide it, and after I turned away from him, he placed it above the kitchen cupboards where he knew I couldn't get to it. 

One month later, I woke up to my 25th birthday. I was too excited to sleep in, so I got up a bit after 8 am. I went to the living room and lo and behold, the box was there. Without waiting for James, I opened it and marveled at my amazing birthday gift to myself. 

Not too long after, James got up, met me in the living room, and asked, "Ok can we watch your VidHug now?" 

The VidHug refers to the video of birthday greetings James compiled for me. It wasn't really a surprise, since I had done the same for his birthday in April and he knew that I would want one too, but I was still extremely excited for it. I thought that he might show it to me on our projector like I did for him, but we had already packed our projector (my birthday was two days before the end of our apartment lease), so we just watched it first thing after I opened my present.

The video was perfection. It made me laugh, cry, and squeal with delight. There were greetings and funny videos from more than 50 people representing more than 30 countries. It filled my heart with so much joy, seeing people from different phases of my 25 years of life one after the other wishing me a happy birthday and hearing the many languages they spoke. It also made me really sad not knowing when I would see so many of my friends again and hearing them say, "I hope you get to travel soon." Nevertheless, the video made my pandemic birthday infinitely better, and even a month after I like to watch clips of it again and again (well, mostly the clips of the adorable Bolivian twins, whom I also got to see in "real life"/video chat when my host family called me later that day!). 

Later that day, James and I went to the Georgia Aquarium. It's the largest aquarium in North America and the only one to house whale sharks, so we knew we had to visit it while we lived in Atlanta. What's more, Georgia residents have free admission on their birthday! Since James and I got Georgia state IDs to register to vote in Georgia, that made us residents. We originally planned on visiting for James' birthday in April, but since the Aquarium was closed for the pandemic, we decided to try and go for my birthday. Thankfully, it was open, but you had to buy tickets in advance and wear a mask. That was fine by us!

Watching the beautiful sea creatures reminded me of how much I love the ocean and the animals that call it home. It also reminded me of growing up by the water and of how snorkeling was a favorite pastime. Seeing the divers' bubbles rise up to the surface in the whale shark exhibit made me want to get scuba certified so that I, too, could dive next time I visit, and enjoy seeing marine life around me from a different perspective. As cheesy as it sounds, all of this made me think about how much more there is in life for me to experience, even if I've already lived through so much these past 25 years. 

From my necklace, to my birthday video, to the Georgia Aquarium, my 25th birthday was a combination of the things that have made me who I am and a reminder of what is yet to come. I admit that I've been feeling a distinct kind of misery, more than the usual depression about world events, thanks to the pandemic prohibiting me from planning travels. Before going back to school in 2021, I wanted to visit friends around the world and spend time in the Philippines for the historic quincentennial celebrations; now, I doubt that any of that can happen, and it devastates me. Nevertheless, I consider myself very lucky to have all these people in my life even virtually and so much more I could do that doesn't necessarily involve travel. This next year, I plan on getting back into driving (FINALLY I PROMISE), trying out digital art, and working on a major project like a book or a graphic novel. 

Beyond all of that, I recognize that I'm extremely blessed to not have been terribly affected by the virus or any of the calamities affecting so many people globally. As I've learned throughout this year and my recent career in general, this is not reason to retreat into one's own selfishness, nor is it reason to feel despair. Now more than ever, I need to keep myself happy and rest as much as I can so that I can come out of this ready to contribute my skills and talents to the world's most pressing issues. At 25, I still feel so young and capable of so much more, and I can't wait to see what amazing things life has in store for me next.