“daddy, look!” i whispered excitedly, clutching the trophy in my arms. it was heavy.

you should’ve seen his face. it was definitely the kind of look a father proudly gives his daughter who has accomplished a little something in this 21st century.

the kind that briefly congratulates and then asks, “what is a blog?!”

lol. my dad’s really cute. i love him so much. =)

so, yeah, i won. and the said trophy sits smugly in front of me as we speak.

BEST CEBU PERSONAL BLOGGER 2014. my name written in script right below it.

to be honest, i never really called myself a blogger. the term made me cringe. made me feel like an impostor. as far as i was concerned, i was just this random chick who happened to write about random shit online for posterity’s sake. i did it (and still do it) because i enjoy doing it. i was as happy doing it then when i only had girly as my follower (bless her) as i am now that it has multiplied four hundred times (bless you).

because of that, i didn’t really feel the need to market my blog. i’m too shy to ask people to “like” or to follow me (although it pleases me to know if they genuinely do). it’s a popularity contest and the limelight hurts my eyes. so much so that girly took the initiative to create a facebook account on my behalf so i can join blogging events and stuff like that which i didn’t have access to until the middle of this year. i guess you can say i was a little too blissful playing alone in my sandbox.

if there’s two people i wanna thank right now for bringing me out of my hermit shell and to embrace all the opportunities that this blog is opening up for me, it would have to be girly and jeff — girly since day 1; and jeff since that day he found out about my blog and started stalking my bikini pics. hahaha. i kid. he fell in love with my brain first. or so he said. i might have to double check on that. lol.

also, i wanna thank each and everyone who graced the pages of this blog with their faces and their memories. rest assured i sincerely plucked out photos of you with your best angles in them, unless they contradicted my angles. in which case, i win. (makes you wanna start your own blog now, huh?)

and, of course, to the people behind best cebu blogs awards — the organizers, sponsors, and participants — everyone who directly or indirectly contributed to the success of the event, a BIG THANK YOU to you all!

oh, and guess what, two of the bloggers i follow won! i am so happy for them. it’s just a really different feeling when somebody you actually know wins. well, not actually know know but, you know. reading their blogs makes me feel like i get first dibs over some aspects of their lives. jump over to their website. they’re pretty cool. =)

• best cebu travel blogger: gian and his “sweetie,” sheila of adrenaline romance. they’re this really cute couple whose idea of a perfect date almost always involves jumping on a plane to somewhere to do adventurous stuff together. (i asked gian over twitter if i can expect a destination wedding soon. guess we’ll just have to keep ourselves updated through their blog. hehe.)

• best cebu photo blogger: jewel delgado of jewelclicks. remember my bric’s post? that’s how i met her. she was so kind as to babysit my trophy for me that night. (thanks, jewel!)

to all the winners, congratulations! (same goes for the finalists too. because win or lose, the fact that you’re all following your passions is awesome enough as it is.)