My road to World Youth Day Sydney '08

I just arrived from Sydney and it was such a wonderful experience getting everything on short notice; becoming a World Youth Day Volunteer and of course, meeting my girlfriend. Though we had plans of seeing each other this year which was put on hold for some unforeseen reasons months ago, we never thought that we could end up sooner plus on a far greater event.

Before moving here in Oz, I told myself not to get into a relationship as it would be hard dealing with everything. The distance and all the struggle that comes with it just makes a story fit for drama. But with fate or whatever people might call it, we met each other, 4 months before I migrated here.

The 4 months that we have spent was natural. It’s like we’ve known each other for years, even with the age gap between us. We complement each other. Athens, whom still was trying to explore the world as she was graduating from uni, would be “radical” but “idealistic”. I, who have far more experience dealing with life than her (I’m not perfect and still struggling to become relevant with life), would defuse her urge against life’s imperfections. We just end up half way and try to become civil with what life has in front of us. We took things lightly and enjoyed everything as we go. We love spending time with our friends at the beach, eat out, watch movies or a simple walk around Davao. The 4 months that we had was very special as our friends have seen us grow from our used to be directionless journey to life to “tomorrow’s-a-good-day-to-spend-my-life-with-you”.

What thought to be a fairy tale was cut short in my moving to Oz. I was doing my thing in supporting my family back home in Davao while Athens was finishing her studies. Internet really helped us a lot as we try to make up with lost times. It was hard but we just went with the flow, prayed harder and trust each other.

Things went harder as her plans of moving to New York seem to pick up speed as the hopes of getting together was slowly slipping away. I, for some reason, have tried losing some focus on that only hope. And again, praying harder and asking for more strength in holding the line was one of our everyday prayers.

But what used to be impossible had become within our reach. The World Youth Day celebration in Sydney has become our chance of getting back into each other’s arms. Months before the event, Athens applied as event volunteer and got her Australian visa days after the application. It was an instant hit and everything just flowed easily for us. And of course, to get things on a parallel, I also applied on the same role and got the accreditation few days after I signed in.

I guess, it’s all God’s blessing as I’ve heard some people who applied like months ago didn’t even get a slot for the job. This is one of the best things in our life. Not only did we serve the Lord, we have refreshed our relationship and made it stronger with Him and with each other. Thank you Lord.