“Pa, have you seen my birth certificate?” and I asked the same question to my grandma… “Have you seen or kept my birth certificate lola?” They both answered they haven’t seen it nor kept it. :c and I don’t even have an idea on where would I start searching for the lost certificate. I badly and desperately needed it for me to be able to claim my ATM card.

I was on my mother’s room searching for the lost document when the lights turned off leaving me on the dim lit room barely seeing the thing inside the bed drawer where I was searching. The electricity was out. It was unpaid for a few months and the disconnection warning slip was given two days ago. So, today, it was out…all out… it made this day disappointing, I cant find the missing document and that means I cant get my ATM card, and the most discouraging part was tomorrow is my birthday and I am planning to celebrate it at the island of Samal for a “pahabol” summer party and at the same time my debut. So, how would I prepare the food without the light? I planned to go to the market after I claim my ATM to purchase the food ingredients that will be prepared for tomorrow, but the big problem is, where will I place the meats in order for them to be fresh until tomorrow?

I am running out of time. The bank closes up at 3pm and it’s already 1pm yet I still haven’t seen my birth certificate. I was so worried that I would not be able to get to the bank on time, meaning, I would not be able to pick up my card. Suddenly, it came into my mind that birth certificate was not the only option; instead, it is just one of the OPTIONS. Thank god I remembered that a Barangay certificate or Barangay clearance would also do to claim the card. So, I hurriedly took a bath and visited the Barangay Hall for the said document. It was almost 3pm when we got to the bank and thank goodness the bank employee was nice and entertained me until past 3! J

The only problem I thought would be the food ingredients, where would I place it and how will we work on preparing the food on a dark night. Night came and so we have no choice but to do it without the light—dark…extremely dark…with just a candle as light, we had the ingredients, peeled, chopped and cooked. Thanks to my ngit, he was there who also helped us on preparing the food even though it was dark. L yet, another problem came when the people I invited aren’t sure that they would come because the place was far. Thank God I was able to convince them and they took pity on me, so they decided to come. I really owe them a lot.

Though it was difficult sleeping without fan, I fell fast asleep because it was a long day for us and tomorrow, it would be a longer day…a summer trip-adventure…my birthday…my 18^th birthday… J