Girlfriends

I have had several chapters in my life change, but one thing that has remained constant in the past 10 years has been these girls - Carla, Hanna and Reg.

It shouldn't really take a lot for someone to know which relationships should matter and which people are worth calling "friends".

 Girlfriends have a special bond, like sisters, that see you through every rough decision, triumph, and heart ache. We rejoice together and when the occasion calls for it, we cry together too.

In the past 8 months, I have learned to curl up and hide. I've become an expert at pushing the world away. So far away in fact, that only these girls have been able to find me.

I have never felt any more love than through the people who have continued to support me. Carla, Hanna and Reg have been strong for me. When I couldn't seem to bring myself together, they have rushed from all parts of the Metro to catch me just when I've lost my own strength. And best of all, when no one else understood, they did. And even if sometimes they could not wrap their heads around it, they embraced me when I did not know how to love myself.

LOVE is infinite.

I learned that from a homily at the Easter Vigil. Love, the priest said, was infinite because we were capable of sharing our lives with other people despite all the pain we may have been through.

Reg, Hans, Carl and I have certainly had our share of pains in the past 24 years. But it has been in the very way I've watched all three of them make such beautiful things out of their pains that has inspired me to make something just as great out of mine.

When they excelled, I drew inspiration from their successes, and when they stumbled, we taped it to our bulletin board of things to watch out for.

I thank God for each of them.

I thank Him for Hanna, who has inspired me to dance to the beat of God's drum under the tempo of positivity, Carla, who has inspired me to be head-strong and to push for any dream, and my bestest bestest friend Reg, who has inspired me to value FAMILY (among many other things).

Here's to our future girls!
And to looking back, only so often. ;-)

Gisa Paredes, Manila