When you hike, you just don’t get to conquer a mountain, you get to conquer yourself with all its weaknesses and fears. There’s just this urge that visits me around when I know I have an upcoming climb. It’s just something that makes me think less and become excited more.

Yes, it could be so much better with my girlfriends in these trips. But I  think that’s just one dream that seems impossible to come true, otherwise, it’ll take about five years.

As we age, plans become more difficult to fulfill, but of course, acting on these plans immediately is what will definitely bring the best results we are eyeing for ourselves. Dreams are planned. They don’t just happen, do they? Dreams demand sacrifices, action, hard work, dedication, and perseverance.

There are so much realizations you have when you get to hike and conquer a mountain. By conquer, I mean, owning what you’re seeing and feeding your soul with more power and happiness.

I started to try hiking when I was twenty. I have had climbed six mountains since then because of my limited days off and scheduling conflicts. My first was in Mt. Pamitinan, Rizal in January 2017. That was the first time I ever appreciated being tired and overwhelmed at the same time. The slopes were treacherous and the height was nerve wrecking which took us two hours to climb. It was rocky and there was traffic above. You get to expect a lot of people during weekends. But as everybody say, it’s all worth it. It was DIY kind of trip. You just have to ride an FX  from Cubao going to Rizal. And ususally, in their covered courts, the registration booths are ready to welcome hikers with the guides waiting for their guests. It was 500.00 every guide. Being early is the key to getting best guides and better view. Less hikers as the highlight if you want to get the best shots.

Second was in Mt. Gulugod Baboy in Batangas. These first two were just minor trails, five or seven out of ten. It was in December 2017. There was a good spot for camping at the top. It rained so it was like sleeping in the mud on our tent. It was indeed very cold in there as there was even a storm that time. There are bus liners in Taft Avenue in Pasay. We rode the Jam Liner bus for an hour and a half, took a jeepney upon reaching Batangas grand terminal, rode another two hours to Mabini, Batangas then registered before hiking. This was another DIY trip and you can climb freely as long as you know the route or if you’re with experienced hikers.

Third was in Mt. Ulap on February 2018. This one is a major. A five hour hike to the top. Unfortunately, the sea of clouds was at the other side of the mountains, still, every view was beautiful. It was a day hike and I am a joiner this time, together with my friend Jie and her boyfriend, Brad. There were three peaks. I can say, watching the sun rise while you’re on top of the mountains is the best. Aside from being priceless, it also wakes up your soul and lets you cling to yourself and even makes you listen to yourself. Number one rule in hiking is to never leave marks and trails. Especially garbages.  You climb to get memories, experience freedom and create inspiration. Because that’s how hiking is supposed to be. Mt. Ulap is located in Itogon Benguet so if you’re a joiner, everything is included from van transfers, guide fee, driver fee, organizers’ fee, food sometimes. So you really don’t have to worry except your climb and trail foods and clothes. It took us about ten hours which includes ascending time, lunch, rest time and descending.

When you hike, you just don’t conquer yourself, if you’re some introvert and you manage to go on this type of activity often, you’ll slightly learn somehow to interact easily, become friends with other hikers and even tour guides and locals. One of the best things about this adventure aside from boosting self love is that, you’ll also get to share your happiness with strangers who are also trying to find their own happiness.

Happiness after all is another version of  success. I cannot define success more than just being happy. We could have all the money, but that does not necessarily define and guarantee happiness within us. If you found what you’re finding, if you’re doing what you love, if you keep that positivity in you, if you get to see the natural creation while standing at a mountain top, then you’re one of the lucky people in the world who has time to define what “real happinness” means.

Pin pointing your passion and what we love to do most is always subjective. Why? Because you only get to decide on your own; Whether it’s who you want, what you want, how do you want it, why you want it, where do you want to do it and when do you want to do it. Familiar? The five W’s and H. These are key questions in again, defining what makes us happy. Your options are always availble to you and it’s just a matter of choosing what works best for you.

Down to my fourth climb. A very hot summer in April 2018. It was in Mt. Bira-Bira (binabalik-balikan) mountain in Zambales.  I joined my friend Jie’s first self organized hike. So most of us knew each other. I brought my sister here. It took us four hours to get to Nagsasa cove. A hike plus beach this time. It was also a day hike. My fifth was in Mt. Nagpatong Rock in Maragondon, Cavite. We were supposed to also visit the falls but it was too late as hikers who can’t make to the top or those first timers who have a not so good cardiovascular system and strong endurance are inevitable.

Then my sixth and my first hike this 2019 was in Mt. Batolusong in Tanay, Rizal. I was with Gelo, my high school batch mate. He invited me to this event, together with some familiar friends from my Mt. Ulap trip, Christian. I got to get close to Lyka, Gelo’s workmate as well. See, there’s a lot of people you can get involved with and are willing to have fun. They are experienced hikers so we did not have any problems wth the slopes, heat, and the major trail. It took us three hours to make it to the top, three peaks, just like Mt. Ulap. Duhat was the first peak,  them Plateau (the ‘patag’ ones), and last, Rangyes Peak which you would need a rope to be able to make it to the top. We started at 5:00 in the morning and finished at 8:30 am. We were then able to make it to the jumpoff at around 11:00 am. One of the fun parts as well is when you get to take a bath and feel the cold water running out of the pipe like a baby trying to get her first bath.

All you really need is arrange schedules, at least prepare your body and go for a cardio workout to help condition your body before the hike if you’re not that active in working out, prepare your budget, don’t eat too much on the way up (just becase you can make up for your tiresome hike after you take a bath and eat whatever you want at the jumpoff LOL), bring what’s only appropriate like water, face towel, cap, jacket, and light snacks for trail foods. Though I still struggle with packing lighlty, I am working on it. In addition, you know what you’re craving for when you’re tired. Me, it’s just pancit canton with egg, a very very cold small bottle of coke, my pictures taken by my hike mates, and my neat clothes on after a fresh bath. LOL.

Don’t ever tell your parents how high you’re climbing, you have to first make it before telling them. You know you’re safe when you follow the rules in a hike, when you don’t separate yourself from the tour guides or fellow hikers, and you’re wearing your ready to kill hike outfit! Those are the things I do. And my fellow hikers just thinks I’m weird and funny at the same time that I always interview the tour guide and joke around.

I just had so much fun hiking that I just had today to make a journal like kind of blog about my experiences. Not too many mountains hiked yet, but many more to climb and get astounded to. It’s not only sunrise and sunsets in the mountains that make it best. Because when you live in the city, you barely get to see stars. So I always am in awe whenever I see galactic creatures, wherever province it is where I am.

Lastly, the question I always hear is that, “Why do these young people spend money to get tired?” Well, it’s just priceless when you get yourself to the top. When you’re not too conscious or you haven’t witnessed yet what kind of nature’s beauty  is out there, you actually haven’t seen anything yet.

Not only you will see green all around you, but you get to see through the view. You get to see your soul in freedom and peace. In good condition and health. Most of all, you get to realize how to properly treat yourself. It is to give whatever it demands to have just because you deserve it.

 

Find joy in climbing! Hope to see you beyond the rocks and mountain tops!

 

Please check my photos ON facebook: Meagan Mangoma and Instagram @chasingmeagan. Thank you!

Just Before I turn 22

YOU ARE INVITED!

Just Before I turn 22

Just before I turn 22. Just before you get older that you think highly of your priorities and where you want to go and what you want to do in your entire life. The passion which you think keeps you alive. Just before I turn 22 that I think highly of where I should focus and where I should start.

I have a bucket list: Just as any young person would.

I want to go to a bar alone, chill out without the intention of meeting someone. I always tell my friends I am not into dating at this time. That’s after two consecutive heartbreaks. I see this bar in front of my room’s balcony and I see the people spending their night with some bottles of beer and tacos and enchiladas. And it would be sad to be sitting there alone smoking and drinking. But I’ve learned how to manage being alone. There’s a difference between wanting to just be alone and being lonely.

I want to start cooking certain recipes fo breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then level up to baking and making indulging pastry products. It’s because of this Table For Two book by my all time favorite author, Nora Roberts.

I want to be going out of town someday with this in mind: “No one would hell care what my purpose is and no one knows who I am.” And seems like I’ve been doing that since I worked.

I want to finish my self-written top three songs and play them everytime I jam. I have them already!

I want to learn how to drive a car like no other girl does.

I want to be as sexy as I can be even after eating a bunch of cookies or a bowl of ice cream. Impossible.

I want to enroll in a spanish class because I just want to. Well I have y own app in my phone (wink). LOL.

I want to get my writings published and get paid by doing it. Actually, earning an audience is my goal at this time.

I want to put up a business with a person who really holds to a decision.

In a short time, I want to buy my own space and put up my own place.

One thing I can keep as a promise though, I won’t stop celebrating my life my wonderful parents gave me. That’s the most vivid picture in my mind right now. They've let me become independent. And now I’m making my own decisions.

Sometimes, being too artistic means wanting to know and try everything. As a writer with passion, a singer with character, and a learner by heart, I honestly do not know where I will be. I’ve finished a degree in communication arts. To me, entering the media world sucks. I don’t know anyone and I just have to click ever ‘apply’ button in a job finder website and no one responds to it. I want to know which this leads me to.

The line I won’t ever forget from an employer  from a broadcasting industry was, “you’re just nineteen, how can you cope wih the reporters and field works here.” Really, how can one get an experience if you don’t let them try?

Royale Club 2017

Royale Club 2018

And by the way, I began writing this in front of an infinite pool, mid year. I was also here last year, with nothing in mind but being in love. Can I ask some favor? Will you read this while imagining my voice saying it to you in a poetic manner? Thanks! If you haven’t heard me speak, you can privately message me on facebook @meaganmangoma.

I realized the heat now is more tolerable than the last time I came here. The shower was even hotter. But now, it's more tolerable. I even got to enjoy the heat. And accepted the fact that we're in Laguna, place for numerous hot spring venues with a nature view. And then I came to understand that growing older and growing up at the same time means being able to tolerate what appeared to be very tough and hard before. You learn to manage everything more at your own convenience. I’ve learned how to say no. I’ve learned how to talk back without sounding stubborn.

After the team building, as usual, I went back to work, I haven't had any gym sessions after that because it was so rainy and I had to think more of getting to the office without getting wet from the storm. But my body seriously yearns for pain, so on the seventh day, I did a 40-minute house workout instead. LOL.

At 21, I had to understand that not everything can be done at the same time. Considering the time to be spent, the money that could be wasted and that could be managed. I was thinking everytime I wake up, if what I am doing would really make up something for my future.

When I was in college, I used to dream a lot of what I am living to right now. I wished I was in a band. And I am in a band right now. Though I am not really full time into it. What I know is I want to get a little bit of everything I have been dreaming of. I wanted to learn how to drive a car, and I already got my own car under my name and I don’t even know how to drive yet! I wanted to buy anything I want and that's exactly what I am doing since I started working. From food to clothes to shoes. I pampered myself. I went to my hometown anytime I want and went home to a boyfriend who just cheated on me. I started investing on the seventh month of my work life. That’s getting a return at age thirty. An insurance. See, I am not a fan of fancy signature clothes and stuff, instead, overtime, I learned that choosing items with best quality is what should matter most. And buying one of those branded things won’t hurt for quality’s sake. And I don’t have any intention of showing off what I’ve got, in social media at least. I want to travel outside the country, and after seven months of getting my passport, I have had a scheduled flight to Thailand already for first month of 2019.

And to me, now, quality is in everything, from every person I meet and I already met and knew to clothes to shoes and bags to TIME. The most important thing, the quality of time spent. Again, as they say, it's not the number of years that you've lived that counts, it's how you lived in those existing years you've had. Living is life. And having a life doesn't always mean you've been living. Really. I’d like to think I’m promiscuous. But not the type that’s engaged in a lot of relationships but dreams and adventures. I’d say I’m an adventurous more than promiscuous.

I dreamed of having a book published, at least a compilation of my writings from blogspot.com, I realized I have to search for a very good publisher and have an access to lots of contacts first. Fulfilling our dream will actually cost us a lot. But being happy is everything we are willing to pay for. Tell me, why are all those guys going to bar, travelling, studying hard? It's for happiness. Tell me why do we invest in loving someone even if we're not sure of them? Being happy, I guess, sometimes demands for sacrifice and your time. A lot of time. And still leaves you with pain once you fail. And if failure is a choice, I will never buy that. Instead, I’d like to think everyone who are at my age to turn something bad into something good, a disadvantage to advantage, a misfortune to fortune, a negative to positive, a hatred to love. Reverse the psychology.

And I am thinking maybe that is just one ticket for us to experience a love that's sure and secure. A life that’s full of definition, challenge, and experience. A love that's found its happiness, home, and meaning. A love that does not yearn for other's love but only our love and time. So what are we really talking about when we're talking about love? Happiness, maybe.

It's every little thing that could come in between things you don't even know exist. The intensity in the emotion you have toward that person, the sacrifice you would give for that person, a dream you might give up for that person. But don't ever give your personality up for that person. Because in the first place, you should be accepted no matter who and what you are.

I also wished I had a degree in Psychology, but we don't have to have one to identify and evaluate who we should be and what we should be saying towards others, instead, I had a degree in English Studies major in Communication Arts, as I believed communication is always the key to transposing proper understanding between you and yourself, you and other people, you and the social media world, you and your fantasies, you and your dreams. You and your family. Communication will always be there. And I have to be present in every area I will ever experience, the presence of knowledge of knowing how to communicate with all the types of people there is in this world and understanding what they are, what they were, and who they really are is all that it takes, I suppose.

But I have my ultimate dreams after all. To host a travel show or to sing in front of millions of people. Question is, with everything that I'm doing, do they really help on making me achieve these ultimate dreams? 

I love singing and writing and I want to be famous. Inside me this is what I am saying. Because having a mind that's so hungry for creativity and artistry and beauty around her is sometimes cluttered for there's a lot of things that it wants. Aside from money, it wants every beautiful thing and the hardest part is everything is beautiful because being artistic is being positive with everything that you see, seeing the light in every dark place, seeing the smile in every sad face. Seeing the energy in every tired soul. That’s why I want to see the world, because I know my difference with all those other travellers. It is seeing everything that cannot be seen by the naked eye but the open mind and soul. I’m blessed I have that gift. Not eveyone has that.

 I would say I am very lucky to see the pink in blank. The positive in negative. The happiness in loneliness, the music in silence and the purpose of an empty can. To see the treasure in pleasure.

I have written something that goes like this in my 21st. And thinking how it went, in a year, there were a lot of changes and realizations. Whether it be about love, life, preferences, dreams, goals, achievements, focus and intentions. And then I realized that with everything I've said and everything that I'm doing leads me to wanting to achieve this; to be genuinely happy and financially and emotionally free. That is the dream of everybody isn't it? Whatever we are doing we are doing for the sake of being happy and contented and being able to tell ourselves, "I am doing what I love and what I want."

Drop by my instagram @chasingmeagan and facebook page @meagamangoma and greet me a Happy Birthday on my 22nd this September 29, 2018. See you all there! This serves as your invitation. Welcome to my world and be my guest!

P.S. You can freely comment what you think of this piece I made.

Love, 

Meagan