Is there really a dividing line that separates 20 from 21? Probably not. But you at 20 and 30 are two different people, or so I’ve been told.

Can I really say that my wisdom has grown in leaps and bounds? Can a day – a single calendar page-turner – really transform you? Not really. Right now, that’s what my 21 year old self believes in. (Thanks Adele, you made two digits sound so…poetic)

I do believe that moments come and go. In the grand scheme of things, I’m can be but a speck of cosmic dust floating around this vast pool of everything.

But of course, that’s looking at the big picture.

It’s when you look at the details, the many strands that bind your life story together, that you don’t see yourself as dust. Dust can’t be loved. But you can. You are. I am.

It’s when somebody would go through all the trouble of sending one whole roast pig from Cebu through cargo, just so you can have a taste of what is arguably one of the best lechons in the Philippines, that you know you must have done something right. You must have also done something right when people who aren’t related to you, set aside a part of their day to spend it with you over good food.

Love is in the most spectacular of moments. Love is also in the tiniest of details – the little things.

Sometimes, life throws you a curve ball. (OK, in my case, most of the time.) Life makes you jaded and proverbially sad. That happens to me sometimes. I admit that I’m reflecting right now because today was the day I was born. And here I am, 21, alive and strong, writing about it. Writing about a moment, where you reach a fraction of your life and begin to pick up little nuggets of wisdom. Like a single piece from a large jigsaw puzzle – it’s not much, but it definitely helps.

A nugget I picked up today? Well, two things actually:

I have been picking up similar nuggets leading up to today, but it doesn’t hurt to make a point: I will always have something to be thankful for. Always. You will have someone, or something to love.

I’ve also realized that a line connects and does not divide, 20 and 21. I think It’s a cue that we have to move through and along this cue. Although uncertain, although dangerous, we have to move. We have to.

And it’s been an amazing day.

(click for the paella recipe)