"It must be that time of year again..."

"...oh, 'cause it's getting warm."

I can't believe that it's been almost exactly six months since I last wrote here. I've got a Tumblr account now [LikeThePrincess] where I can post random thoughts at school when I don't feel like being too long-winded. I'm officially a member of the Double Decades Club, though it's not as prestigious as people make it out to be. Just one more year...

Things since that last post haven't changed too much. I'm older, and thankfully, significantly wiser. I learned the value of lots of hard work, and I found out that when I put my heart and soul into something I really love, the effort shows. Lots of ups, several downs, but all together more things to make into memories.

I went home to the Philippines for winter break. It was sad, in part; Bryan and my dad weren't coming along with my sister, my mother, and me. It was an interesting trip back home this time; part vacation, and part medical mission. I got to enjoy spending the holidays with my family (which I haven't been able to do since I was a very little girl), and I got to help people in my mother's home town that didn't have access to hospitals or proper medical care. Like always, going back to the Philippines is a wonderfully humbling experience. It's easy to forget that there are people in the world that don't wake up everyday wondering whether or not someone wrote on their Facebook wall, or poring over the difficult choice between a white or black iPhone. Some people in the Philippines have to make decisions between eating dinner or buying their children cough medicine. Others wake up before the crack of dawn just to walk to a job that pays considerably less than what we would consider as 'minimum wage'. For just a few weeks, it felt good to be able to help make a difference in these people's lives. When I'm a nurse, I can't wait to be able to do so much more.

<3