Surfer's Paradise No More

I’ve always believed that Zambales has been preconceived by God to be a place blessed with jaw-droppingly big waves. True enough, surfers from all walks of life have been going to and from beaches, and would always conclude that Zambales would be among the top choices for good water and big waves. Indeed, they say it’s a surfer’s paradise.

I’m not a surfer but I did encounter the finest waves in Zambales.

I was nearly burnt out from work. I was too drained, but for the sake of the stats, I still managed to convince myself to go. It also felt as if all powers have conspired to make my life completely miserable. Somehow, I felt like a paper dragged by the wind to drift away… empty and miserable.

Our team building saved me. As drama would have it, red curtains have been pulled up to offer a polished stage that would play another scene in my life. Another milestone. Slowly, the scenarios would be enacted as I recollect great memories that made a lifeless, meaningless drifting paper come to life.

Thanks JOANNA for every effort you’ve exerted to make it possible for us to have this activity. Thank you for the unending patience. But I can’t thank you for not allowing us to pull your shirt off so that we can admire whatever it is you’re hiding underneath it.

Thanks PHIL for the techy info you keep supplying our non-techy minds!

Thanks TONY for going with us, driving for us, joking around with us, and most especially for taking it OFF for us.

Thaks DHEL for your gift of speech, your tanning beauty, and for your wonderful cybershot.

Thanks ARCIE for bringing out the child in us. You’ve always been very dear and sweet to everyone. Why didn’t you wear your Osh Kosh B’gosh swimwear???

Thanks LINDA for boiling water for our breakfast. You might’ve waited for the kettle to whistle while looking at the water boiling, but still, you managed to remember that it wasn’t the type that whistles.

Thanks JARRED for staying on the shore. It was nice watching you enjoy yourself, just by being thrown onshore by big waves while flipping your legs.

Thanks KAREN for being the group translator. Because of you, we realized that manang psycho didn’t really want sopas for alms; instead, she wanted “THE VIOLET”.

Thank you SHARON for your front. And JADE for your back. Your voices as well were like mermaids singing and have encouraged us to try videoke, only to figure out that our voices’ caliber would only be at eighty.

Thank you STEPH, aka porcelain doll, for the endless pose you’ve provided our cameras.

Thank you DIANE for bringing Nino along. Am glad he agreed to stay inside your phone. *wink!*

These were the funny things that refreshed my dull and monotonous life. I’ve thanked everyone for the funny things that happened in Zambales, but I also want to thank you for the magic you’ve unknowingly given to me. Before this team building, it was so difficult to fake a cheerful aura at work when your mind is conceiving ending a miserable life. Whatever magic it was you’ve given me, my heart thanks you forever.

Work for me now isn’t a drag anymore coz I know it’s all worth it. When you know that there are people whom you can appreciate and who can appreciate you, people who can bring magic in your life, it all rubs out the misery.

I’ve written the word, misery, on the sand while we were there. Funny, that somehow, like the waves, you’ve managed to wipe it off my desperate mind. I’ll always remember that place not only as a surfer’s paradise, but my own paradise as well because of people like you.