The week that was (Last Part)

June 27-29 - It was party time once again! The UP Mountaineers was celebrating its 37th year. And I was celebrating my 10th year as a member. It's a milestone year for me. I can't believe I'm stuck to one thing this long (my longest relationship so far. hehe). I have a lot to be thankful for from the organization.

Ticking Off My ‘Bakit’ List

(This was an article I was asked to do for work last year, as a "special interest" piece. I'm posting it here as another "throwback" entry)

Ever since they came out with that film, The Bucket List[1], people have started doing their own list of things they wish to do before they kick the bucket (i.e. pass away, expire, go kaput, you get the idea). I am no different from them. I call mine the Bakit List.  Bakit being the Filipino word for “why”. Things on this list are mostly those that, when you are out there doing it, will prove to be agonizing, sometimes crazy, sometimes life-threatening, but ultimately rewarding—assuming you survive to reminisce about it. Like running a marathon or ultramarathon, or travelling from north to south of the Philippines on a bike, you will ask yourself over and over again, “Why the $^@#& am I doing this?  Bakit?”

In the past two years, I was fortunate enough to tick two items off this Bakit List. I remember them with sentimental fondness, now that I’m past all the suffering.

Our group on top of Kala Patthar (18,192 feet), the best vantage point to see Mt. Everest (the black peak with the plume of clouds at the center).