When you grow with a particular group that you had given time to, passionately served and is partly responsible for the great things that has happened to you; You feel a sense of gratitude that's just indescribable. You feel a sense of sadness when thoughts of you or your co-members leaving pops in your head. A sense of pride just by looking how much the group has grown throughout the years and probably a sense of horror because when you looked at the mirror, you have literally grown so much you look like Barney the Dinosaur. Yeah, the kind of horrawr!


And just so you'll see what I mean, here's a Before and After photo of me with 4 years and approx. 10kg. gap in between. #SocialSuicide

Hoy! No judgies! May lens flare na yan pang-distract! Hahaha

God! How time flies by so quickly. I'm with the Davao Bloggers for 4 years now, 2 years as an officer and what I can say? I think I've graduated already. In fact, when I entered the hallways of Bucket Shrimps during the DBS Acquaintance Party I posed that 'thinking' to myself. It's time to pass the torch. Char, ang drama lang! Maybe it's an act of adjustment because the Davao Bloggers is turning a new chapter and I don't see myself in it. Aside from the fact that I am no longer an officer there's me with a lot on my plate thinking about lying low for a while so I could focus on my studies and all. Just to clarify, when I said I have a lot on my plate I don't mean an actual plate. Diet ako!

Also, I somehow positioned myself to the past officers especially those who now has their respective careers. Thinking about it made me ask myself "Where do I go from here?". Pocahontas lang ang peg? Hahaha.

So anyway, with that in mind, my ninja skills grew wild that I tried to hide from people who'd probably ask me "How are you Mark?". I was really an uncomfortable and touchy mess that time. At first, I tried to dodge every camera that points at my direction, I even hid in the comfort room during the introduce-yourself-portion - Sorry! - and tried to be as quiet as possible in our table. But then, who am I kidding? Everyone loves me! Char lang.

Seriously though I was not myself that time. Maybe it's the haircut! Which I really like by the way. But fortunately, I've eventually grown tired of acting like a has-been, a snob and a party pooper. If that's my attitude I shouldn't have attended the party in the first place. But you know what made me realize all that? The 'feels' I felt the moment the new set of officers were inducted. Char. It was as though I embodied all those who missed their children's dance recitals in movies but this time I made it - they made it. Yeah,  that's weird! It's just that I think the new officers don't deserve to have someone acting like that in a party they've worked so hard to organize. Clearly, I've been there.

From that moment on I recouped my happy cells. After dinner, I started walking around and then I talked to my friends, acquainted with some of the new faces and participated in the games. I mean, who are they kidding?  It's trivia night! Nobody says no to Trivia Night! For most official Davao Bloggers it's a thing!

So I was reunited with the past and outgoing officers, my Positive Peeps circle and also with my acheche friends after almost a year in a 'Now you see me. Now you don't!' state. Coz you know I've been so busy with school. And I don't know, but I couldn't get any happier that night. Then it hit me! This is why we have Acquaintance parties. I mean when we started it, one of our goals was just to increase our membership but now that we've got a good number it's different. I mean it would still be a good thing that we increase in number but now, it has more meaning to it.

We have Acquaintance parties not just to make new acquaintances or build connections, it's a time of re-connecting, sharing and transformation. We go there to reconnect and catch up to the people we've lost track to, we go there to share the things we've learned and we go there with our new haircut, our OOTD-worthy getup, our new wisdom to show everyone how much we have grown.

And cut!

Now that the torches have been passed I can finally say, I am now eligible to join any contest conducted by the Davao Bloggers Society. So I would like to thank all the sponsors who helped make the event possible! Thank you Smart Communications, Bucket Shrimps, Krispy Kreme, Banana Beach, Tune Hotels, Cebu Pacific, Lachi's Sansrival Atbp and MySkin Origins. :D

P.S. - In case you're wondering, I was not able to take any photos during the party because I forgot to bring our cam and my *old* phone was useless. XD