Palanca Letters

One of the most amazing thing real friends can bring to your life's table are Palanca Letters. I love receiving Palanca Letters. It's one of the easiest way to determine which of the people in your life are the people who care about you. There are those letters which would say the casual "reflect on your life and hope you come back a better person" while there are the rare letters, of varying length, which would say the usual casual Palanca message and even tell you specifically what you should reflect on, what you should improve about yourself and what you should try to do away with.

Interestingly, today, March 15, 2010, 11:44PM, almost everyone here at home are busy with their own private letter writing corner as we all comply to our youngest's demand for a Palanca Letter for her very first retreat. It's pretty exciting. I'm sure I'm speaking for everyone else if I say that this evening right here is a memory, not just a moment. I haven't started with my own Palanca Letter yet, but I'm about to in a while, after this perhaps? There's only one first retreat; I've got to make it matter.

Anyway, earlier today was my induction to the Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society. Sad, I didn't get to see all of my really good friends today but it's okay. That's what's great about "mature" friendships. You don't need to see each other to feel the loving support. Sometimes you just have to wear each other's gifts to make the positive thoughts resonate through the distance.

I had a great time today. Surprisingly, I've become the "family person" I thought I wasn't or could never be back in high school. I'm not sure if it's because of the many retreats and recollections I've attended but so far so good. I think my family's the most amazing blessing I've ever received and even if there are times when I feel like I don't belong, the times when I realize how wrong I am with that thought carry me through long cold nights of insecurity.

I think it's really important to have good friends that you can treat as family--and a family that you can treat as good friends--because when opportunities for good changes surprise you with a knock, it is these people who'd help you light up the torch that'll light your way. Tonight, I'm about to write a Palanca Letter for my beloved little sister, and because she admittedly told me it's my letter she wishes to read the most, I feel pressured to say the right things.

I... I'm the one she idolize.

-K-

If you have any question, no matter how related or random it is, do fire away at my Formspring page.