A bag-full of happy memories

Before my brother came here for a short vacation, we had a lot of emails and online chats exchange. It was a process that Pinoy (Filipino) travelers go through when they are going to visit a family member abroad. Let me explain this further. When a Pinoy is going to travel abroad it is expected to meet up with some Pinoy family and friends alike. And this calls for "pasalubong" (presents from home). So I emailed him a list of the things I want him to bring to me when he comes here. They are mostly Pinoy food that I miss so much and are not available in the stores here.

And he did just that. When he came, he did not only bring with him my most-requested food from home that I miss so much but a whole bag of happy memories from the past.

I did ask him to bring some old photos of me from home. But I was surprised that he brought almost everything he could gather from the old photo albums that are rotting in our shelves.

The old photographs of me and my family and my friends are priceless mementos of my growing up years of innocence.

They are reminders of who I am and what I become.

And these will go on a special box that I will surely open each time I feel homesick or to dig up for some "throwback moments" that I go through every now and then.