Reunited after 16 Years

If you ask me why I'm still single at my age I can give you many reasons why. But thinking about it, it looks like choosing to be single or being single until age is already beyond the calendar runs in our blood. You see, in my paternal side, most of my cousins got married at the age of 28 and up. We are carrier-oriented, we prioritized our careers over our love life. So being single even at the age of thirty is still normal to us, being single doesn't matter.

Aside from my cousins, my uncles has the same principle too. One of my uncles got married at 34 and the other one is more than 50 years old now but is still single. Those uncles worked and focused on their careers, they work abroad and are dedicated to helping their nephews and nieces. One of them is too career-oriented that he worked oversees without going home for more than 16 years. But we always had a communication with him. During special days and occasions he never forget about us. He helped my cousins to finish college and there are times that he also gave me some gadgets that I can use for my schooling.

When I was young, I always anticipated for the day that my uncle comes home because it means lots of chocolates for us and of course there will be a family reunion which means I get to meet my cousins who lives far away from us. But after my grandparents passed away, he never went back home ever again. Now, I am no longer excited for him to go home because of chocolates, I'm excited just to see him in person. And finally after 16 long years, we received a news that he is going home.

After days of preparation I finally got to see my uncle, and the first thing he said to me is "Oh look at Shiela Mae, she looked like Korean! What happened to you?!" After a long time, he still look the same, except that he's head is already bald.

Since we didn't see him for a long time, we had a lot of catching up to do which we had to accomplish for a short time because he only has more than one month for vacation. He has to go back after a month to take care of his business.

There's the family reunion which was held at our house. My cousins, uncles and aunts came to visit. It was too noisy at home and I'm not used to having a lot of people but it's fine because it only happens every one in a while.

We partied and drink together. My uncle was fascinated about how we could drink a lot without getting drunk at all. He bought us a lot of alcoholic beverages one night and we all drank together.

I didn't get a lot of photos that time, this is the only photo I got.

We danced that night, but I am not going to share a photo or video here because it is too embarrassing.

That was pre-COVID so we had the chance to visit the beautiful sceneries and local tourist attractions.

We visited the famous Cagsawa Ruins. There used to be a big church here but when the Mayon volcano erupted the church and the people inside were buried and only the high belfry remained. And it is now a famous tourist attraction because here people can see the perfect cone shape of the Mayon volcano. But during our visit, Mayon is shy and hiding.

We also went to Ligñon hill. It is a hill located in the city of Legazpi where you can see the entire city. The place is refreshing and a lot of native products are sold here. There are also a few foreigners who are hanging out when we came. We spent a few hours here, we bought some products, more like my uncle bought native bags for my siblings and cousins.

After eating our lunch at Ligñon hill, we went to Mayon Planetarium and Science Park. We had to climb the steep roads built on the Mayon volcano. And it feels like we are close to the clouds. The place is so beautiful and refreshing, there are fogs even if it is just 2 pm.

We went home tired but happy because we enjoyed a lot on that one day trip.

Before my uncle went back to Saudi, we had another outing. We went swimming as requested by the kids. There was a long water slide where only the adults can play. My uncle took videos of us that he will look at when he is back to working.

I was thinking so hard about what article to write but these days my mind seems to be on freeze again. So I decided to just let it be and maybe one of these days I'll find an inspiration for my next article. Then I went on to my Facebook account and do the usual - stalk my account, because I don't have a crush to stalk LOL. And there I saw album which gave me an idea.