Just Another New Year's Eve

Saturday Stories

December 30, 2017

There is something about New Year that makes my heart sing. I love my life, yet I feel the thrill of each new chapter. 'Tis when my mind plays the Barry Manilow classic "It's Just Another New Year's Eve."

"We're not alone,
we got the world, you know,
and it won't let us down,
just wait and see..."

I love the music of Barry Manilow. "If You Were Here With Me Tonight" was my LSS on the day I turned thirteen. My uncle Freddie gave me some money and it was my first time to watch a movie alone. I strolled the grounds of Alabang Twin Cinema after the last show, marveling at the Christmas lights decorating the trees. I was then living in Las Piñas, my first year in the city. When I got home, I found that my Aunt Sion had cooked a large, whole chicken in a Turbo Broiler for my birthday. My "Papa Freddie" and my "Mama Sion" have, in the words of a friend, "joined the Lord," yet I still remember all those little gestures of love.

"Sometimes late at night,
when the shadows made by street lamps
cast the darkened silver light,
you're drifting to my mind,
reminding me of all I've lost
and all I've yet to find..."

I sang "Somewhere Down The Road" and "Weekend In New England" at the CCP complex in the early 2000s, when they used to have those bicycles for rent and outdoor videokes. I treasure that memory because I was with my close friends Noel and Gilbert, two of the most loyal friends anyone could ever have, who have since both passed away.

"Last night I waved goodbye,
now it seems years,
I'm back in the city
where nothing is clear..."

Happiness is my natural state. I'm like a cork that will float on water if I allow nothing to hold me down. But I've had my share of the blues. I began to see my life in a new light because of Barry's "All The Time."

"All the years,
waiting for a sign,
to think I had it all
all the time..."

I've been through a lot, and looking back, I sometimes wonder how I found the strength to get up again. One of my personal anthems is also from Barry. I've always felt I could have written it:

"I made it though the rain,
and found myself respected
by the others who
got rained on too
and made it through..."

I can't say in words how amazed and grateful I am for the things that happened to me in 2017, and I know that 2018 will be more magical that I can even begin to imagine.

"It's just another New Year's Eve, 
it's just another Auld Lang Syne, 
but when we're through 
this New Year you'll see 
will be just fine..."