Every week, the admins of a Facebook travel group I’m active in hosts a themed thread to keep everyone well-engaged. I join the conversations on Goals, Where Have You Been, and Motivate the Group threads most of the time, but never the Fears thread.

“FEARS: Travel, personal, whatever your fears are, be open and share it with the group,” the admin would post.

“But what do I fear?” I would end up asking myself.

Three of my many untold love stories

Back in mid-August 2016, my workmates and I had a death-defying trip in Zambales. We trekked lahar-based terrains and crossed four rivers, all in the middle of a storm. We almost got washed away by the strong currents of the river, but that didn’t matter because there was this guy who kept us alive. We were tired from all the legwork but his very presence revived us. We would internally scream every time he talks because it shows how passionate he is for what he does and who he does his work for. He became our happy crush for almost three months. It even came to the point where our men workmates had to impose a five-peso penalty fee for every time we would say his name. Yup, we were onto that high school level of being head over heels for him. And in case you are wondering, it was an effective moving on strategy. I lost PHP 50, while the other friend lost PHP 100, almost every fucking day. See how intense we were? But hey, that helped us save enough funds to buy birthday cakes, pancit canton, and lasagna for a group of five in the office. JLo certainly lied when she said that love doesn’t cost a thing. Damn the man!

In late-October 2016, I fell in love badly for the man I met in Ozamiz. We dated for a month right after our trip. We would always meet after work and stay together until the wee hours of the morning because we can’t get enough of each other. When he “broke up” with me after our trip in Baguio in early-December 2016, I spent the remaining weekends of the same month in the same place to honor our happy moments until I eventually accepted our fate and got over him. It’s a fleeting romance I’d never forget.

On my sixth visit in La Union in late-June, my relationship with the man I met on my first visit in mid-October 2016 changed. We have been pretty steady since we met, but we got intimate when all the mishaps I encountered three months ago led me back to him. Since then, I’ve been seeing him in a different light because the light comes directly from heaven.

Places and Faces

All these and more ‘karupukan’ or fragility led me to start the first series on my blog called “Places and Faces.”

On that Fears thread, I’ve always wanted to comment that “I fear of falling in love for another person on my next travel,” but I never did because I was too scared to show my vulnerable side. What if I fall in love with another man again? What if he leaves me again? It’s terrifying.

But then falling in love is one of the most beautiful things that can happen to a person. Love is the source of unity and happiness, while pain is the source of separation and sadness. The common grounds of the two are inspiration and growth. Through love and pain, we discover our capacities, we improve ourselves, we turn our emotions into masterpieces like poetry and painting, and most importantly, we learn. Love and pain are powerful enough to transform us. There’s no reason to keep the stories behind them untold, may they be a happy ending or not, because they became a part of who we are right now.

When I thought of Places and Faces last month, I immediately reached out to 39 people to write for this series, and the response was overwhelming. Some wanted to keep their story to themselves first, some realized that they can’t write about it because they haven’t moved on from their past, and some joined me in this fuck-it-life-is-short battle.

Places and Faces is a semi-monthly series made to hold untold love stories found on the road. It can be tragic, platonic, romantic—whatever floats your boat. However, my first requirement for joining this series is this: “Write your story in its truest form. Release your emotions. Let the world know your heart’s content.” Go reminisce: cry about it, laugh about it, write about it, let the world know about it. Free yourself. Let your heart give birth to the words it has been keeping.

If you think you can pass this, drop me a line at mikeedpp@gmail.com and together, we will produce your untold love story.

Love and light,

Mikee