A Birthday to Remember |Livin' and Lovin'

Today is my birthday! I'm probably just gonna go to Starbucks to get my free drink/food item and go out to dinner with my roommate and some friends tonight, but I already celebrated most of my birthday a few days ago!

If you know me, you know how much I've always wanted to have a debut. (Note: Debut - Celebration in the Filipino culture when a girl turns 18 to represent that she is a woman; similar to a quinceañera/Sweet 16) Anyway, I didn't have one when I turned 18 last year because of money and I was away at college, so I wouldn't have had enough time to have one. It's just something I'd always wanted since I was a kid.

My wonderful roommate, Alissa, however, took the initiative to plan a modified version of one for me! Long story short, I got dressed up for the occasion and got blind-folded before being taken to Corona Del Mar State Beach. I didn't know where we were going, and although I'm usually not particularly a fan of the beach, for what Alissa did for me, I think it was perfect.

When I got to our destination, I walked over with Alissa and a few other friends while blindfolded to where we were going to be for the evening. When the blindfold was taken off, there were all my Vanguard friends standing in a line, all screaming "Happy birthday!" to me. I was so touched. Afterwards, I was able to have a photoshoot with all of them as the sun was setting.

Unfortunately at this time, there was still no Darell. About halfway through the shoot, however, I saw someone walking from a distance, and I recognized his walk. I realized it was Darell and our guy friends and I booked it over to them and nearly tackled Darell to the ground. I was so happy that he was there! We took more pictures before Tammy took me over to have my own photoshoot.

After about half an hour of taking pictures of each other, Alissa finally called me over and I came over to a pathway lined with (fake, but still real-looking) candles! Most of my friends were standing on either side of the candles so I wasn't sure what was going to happen. With Darell at the end of it, I almost thought someone was going to marry us.

But no, I walked down the aisle and stood at the end of it. Then, one by one, each of my friends came up with a rose to greet me. The whole setup was a mash-up of the debut's traditional candles and roses. And of course, when we got to the last rose, it was none other than Darell himself. He decided to be a little daring and put the rose in his mouth as if we were going to salsa or something, and everyone was shocked but in a good way. We all loved it and thought it was funny and cute of him to do so.

We ended the ceremony with a dance to our song, A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, played by my friend Paul and sung by my friends Kaciny, Janelle, and May. It was a little awkward cause we were basically "going in circles on rhythm" according to Darell, but honestly, I didn't care. I loved it because Darell doesn't normally put himself out there like that, so I appreciated it so much. He was the only person I really paid attention too at that point.

When the song ended, we took some more pictures as a group before heading to In-n-Out. We had dinner there and hung out with Darell, the guys, my friends Ben and Joel, and Alissa in our room before I left for home with the guys.

Okay, so that post ended up being longer than I thought, but nonetheless, it was an amazing day. It was a night to remember, that's for sure. I did more things for my birthday with my parents and last night, but I'll write about that in another post. I'll just leave you with some great pictures that my friend Tammy took from Saturday to enjoy! They should speak for themselves [: