Most of my closest friends are abroad. Occasionally they come back to touch base but would fly away again when their vacation leaves are over.

They would always ask me when I would join the ranks of the jet-setting crowd and I would always answer: When I'm done exploring my own backyard! They'd laugh and shake their heads, thinking what was it here that could compare to foreign sights?

Well, if you think about it, there's pollution in the cities, ghastly transportation, bad roads, etc, etc...you can go on forever enumerating why it's hell on Philippine soil and heaven everywhere else. But you can choose to flip the picture and see why so many other foreigners come over to experience our land and our culture.

There are 7,107 reasons to discover about the Philippines. And since I hadn't covered even a quarter of those reasons, I'd like to start explorations here. The wonder of discovering something new and interesting in my immediate surroundings has a world of appeal to me. It's nearer too, I can be home in an hour or three at most, riding a plane from the farthest reaches!

My biggest problem would be not knowing which part of the map I'd visit first. I was actually thinking of throwing a dart, blindfolded, but I might end up hitting the blank wall. I wasn't much of a dart player in college.

Wherever I would end up though, I'm sure to have an adventure and I would find things that are off the beaten track. The people I would meet and the rich culture I would be witness to would give me a better understanding of my heritage.

It would be something I would want to impart to my child/ren: stories of this land, its people and its histories, of which we are part of.

I don't really need to go far to be truly alive. All that matters to me are right here, after all. Everything else is just gravy.