isaiah 55

welp! here, i am, in good ol' philadelphia - west philadelphia to be exact. landing at approximately 6:40am EST, i woke up once during my flight, well twice actually. the first time, my neck hurt on the plane, the second time, the pilot said we were preparing for landing! thank God...but let me back track.

i had a beautiful, amazing sending-off party with some of my most dearest friends growing up through middle school and high school, my college friends, church people, and of course, my LA loves. it was just absolutely amazing - amazing in the sense that it is such a blessing to have such good, good people all in the same place. the party was packed with the roasted pig - for real, lots and lots of dessert incl. my friend angela's delicious carrot cake, and pretty much every type of popular filipino dish. it was just pure awesomeness...i guess you could say it started to hit me, when i had to start saying bye to people...what was i doing? gina asked me, are you really doing this? and i thought to myself. shoot, am i really doing this? and the answer was, yes. absolutely.

the next day was sunday. i woke up at 7am, finished writing some thank you cards to distribute to people who attended my party from church. it was the most quiet my house has ever been, probably because my mom as well as i were both anticipating, but not, what was going to happen at 6:50pm. my philly bound flight. clearly there are a lot of mixed emotions here. i got ready for church, and the tears started to fall when i saw my cousins, andrew and paulo show up to mass to hear me sing one last time at church...seeing everyone at mass, was absolutely beautiful. then i sang sanctuary - everyone knew that i was struggling, mostly because i was trembling and shaking during that song, but it didn't matter - the church knew and God knew that i was about to embark on a new journey, and all these emotions are natural...it went fine. :) how i sounded was not important. i think the people knew where my heart was at...

then hugs, and more prayer, and more well wishes...then the cousins helped me pack. and i got to the exact 50 lb. limit with each of the luggages. perfect! i lounged around the house a bit, headed over to church to say goodbye one last time, and boom, airport time. said bye to the cousins, the fam, the mother...talk about emotional status. whew. so good though, so so good. let the travel begin...

i felt like i was on a tv show where they zoom in on the girl leaving her hometown to embark on a new adventure. yeah, that was totally me. the girl next to me was probably like, wow, this girl has a lot of kleenex, her eyes are super swollen, and she looks like she's 12 in glasses. whatev, it didn't matter to me.

i had a 2-hour stopover in San Fran, and with God's amazing timing, i got to have dinner with my cousin!! woohoo!!! that meant, i didn't have to sit around and do nothing! what a great send-off! ...except for the part where i literally RAN to my gate, got to the gate at 10:15, with the plane leaving at 10:25. YUP. i felt like there was a soundtrack with the renegades playing in the background. i was THAT passenger. that one of COURSE with the seat in the back, i was seriously causing commotion, but it's ok, i totally acknowledged it too...too bad the passengers were not having it. definitely the last person to sit in my seat. hahaha and i got my own little storage bin for my luggage. that was quite drama filled though! i thought i was gonna miss my flight. for REAL. if i stopped running any time sooner, i think i would have. it was like that moment in the holiday where cameron diaz is running back in the snow, took a breather, then started running again. it was funny, especially since we all know crystal hates running.

just finished breakfast, and here i am...HERE I AM! the sisters were excited to see me, my mom wants me to come back home, and i am beginning my transition into this new way of living. here we go kids. i'm safe, it will be tough, but it will also be so good. sending love your way.