What I Wish for Christmas…

Sad to say, this year’s Christmas season would be different than the way Filipinos usually spend it. The country’s current situation with the pandemic hinders the majority of us from seeing our families and spending Christmas with them. Gone are the usual Christmas festivities like the house-to-house caroling– this Christmas season, we can only choose the best alternative which is to celebrate it with our loved ones through virtual calls.

It is no surprise to say that this year may be one of the most challenging years we have faced. A series of unfortunate events that affected everyone physically and mentally started to happen as soon as the year of 2020 began; events such as the eruption of Taal Volcano, the outbreak of the Corona Virus which led to the Philippines having the world’s longest lockdown, the shutdown of ABS-CBN that had left thousands of people unemployed, and the typhoons that devastated cities and provinces, these are just some of the things that happened in our country.

Out of all the said events, the pandemic is the one thing that I never expected nor witnessed. And as Christmas draws near, I only have one wish to make– for the pandemic to end. As I think of that wish, I also think of the lesson that it had given us. I hate to think that a pandemic had to happen for us to shift our perspective on things that truly matter and the things that don’t– but it did take a whole pandemic to make most of us realize that.

Now that we are unable to spend the Christmas season with our loved ones, there’s a feeling inside of me that makes me more agitated to see them– a feeling that I never felt before because I knew there was always a “tomorrow”. The things that were usually taken for granted are now seen with so much value. No longer do we wish for materialistic things, because they do not fill the void that the pandemic had given us– people do. No longer do we wish for new gadgets and new things this Christmas, because we all crave for the company of our family and friends more. I myself realized how much my family and friends mean to me; their voice, their laughter, and the moments I share with them are what I miss the most.

The uncertainty of the future is terrifying. May we use the inability of humans to predict what the future holds be a reminder for us to seize the opportunities that we get to spend time with the people that we love. I hope that in the future, we would no longer take advantage of “next time na lang” or “hindi naman tayo mawawala.” May 2020 serve as an eye-opener for everyone, and let 2021 be a year where we all uphold the lesson of choosing to love the things that truly matter over the things that don’t.

Just like the saying, “you don’t know what you have until it becomes what you had.”

Carpe Diem.
Seize the day.