Despite Everything, It's Still You

Despite everything, I always find myself going back to Marikina. I no longer live there, moved twice, but it’s a place i still encounter almost daily. I’m just lucky i still live nearby. It was a place I called home, still is, and always will be. It’s where I lived half of my life, and maybe the place where I can still keep that little girl I hold dear inside me forever. A place that bore witness to my ups and downs — my achievements and failures, my happiest laughters and saddest days, and memories and people I wish I could go back to and maybe stay there forever. It isn’t exactly the way it looked as it did when I was little — changes are bound to happen — but I still look at it with fond eyes, because yes, despite everything, it truly is still you, Marikina.

So, please, take the hand of the little girl living inside of me, and walk with me around areas within the small place I call home, and I hope you love it as I do.