Realization Roadtrips

We celebrated New Year's Eve in Dasmariñas Cavite, an approximately 2 hour travel from my home in Angono, Rizal. Turns out we had relatives there. And I feel very much ashamed not knowing this beforehand- not knowing that some family roots were within close routes. I felt better after learning that mom and dad have not gone there yet as well and that it was a first time for our family of five (plus grandpa who was with us as early as December 30). So on December 31, at around 8:30 am, we started our roadtrip with only bread and coffee in our stomachs and a text message serving as tour guide. If it wasn't for my father being a driver and all, we would've circled the entirety of CALABARZON without even reaching our destination. Lost is what we were, indeed. We had to stop and ask a number of people a number of times. Thank God they were gracious enough to give us a fraction of their time. Too bad their directions put together were not. We were all wide-eyed for landmarks and ignorant of bathroom breaks. We each had our moment of being Henry, the Navigator. We sound-tripped to each other's music. And of course we had to pay the price of being lost courtesy of toll gates- which starts my random ramblings now.

You see, we had to go to through three toll gates during that day. With fees of P24, P24 and P64 respectively. Thing is, coming from the Christmas season, you can expect people to have their peso bills still crisp and pungent. And as far as I know, there has always been that human instinct to preserve all things pretty- and in this case, it is quite the noble sacrifice for my one of my two worn out P50 bill to take one for the team and substitute for my mom's rather delicate P100 one in the payment process. The first P50 bill covered the first two toll gates and the second one found its way in my mom's purse. For the third toll gate fee, since it was the costliest one, my dad had to ask for another P100 bill from my mother since none of us had P14 pesos to go with the remaining worn out P50. Mom informed us it was either the crisp bad boy we were supposed to use a while before or nothing. Good thing, my sister stepped in and save the day by handing in a P100 peso bill not in mint condition, to say the least. So for two instances that lucky paper bill, survived its own Hunger Games. But then, the Circle Of Life did not get famous for nothing. If there's anything I have come to realize for 2013, it's that: if something or someone is meant to be, it will be. “Que Sera Sera”, right? Because in a single lapse of logic, we forgot that there was the toll gates going back home to worry about. So this time, none of us had bills to spare. It was the P100 peso bad boy's cue. It was his time. We may have prevented its departure for a while but there is no cheating fate. What will be, will truly be. It's an ironic humor of life tossing and turning us in the way but still motioning us to the path truly meant for us. Whether it was a job you thought you did not get or a rejection of your life-long dream. It all happened for a reason. It would have happened no matter what.

What about you? Will 2014 be a year of being okay whichever toll gate your crisp paper bill goes into?