On the 11th of August, I got a message from my travel twin Celine saying, “Ito na ang ticket mo to Japan!!!” with a link to a contest looking for the next travel influencer. I would’ve ignored it because I’m not usually lucky with those things, and because August has been overwhelmingly busy; but when I felt her enthusiasm and saw that it was searching specifically for traveling pairs, I was on board.
Colleagues and Friends
Celine and I have been working together for almost a decade, but early on, we clicked on a personal level. It was a mission trip to Bantayan in 2011 that transformed our relationship into a sisterhood, and we’ve since been mistaken for sisters more times than I can remember. We have so many of the same interests and views, but nothing lights a fire in both us like marveling at the world and telling its stories.
So after some online brainstorming, and 2 sleepovers leading up to the deadline, we came up with these video entries we uploaded on our respective Instagrams.
While we were scrounging our files for content, we were shocked to see how much footage we’d amassed. Years of trips together, whether for work or vacation, but mostly a combination of both, meant hours of the sights we’d seen, thrills we’d tried, food we’d shared, trouble we’d gotten ourselves into. It would’ve been nearly impossible to narrow those down into a 1-minute video; but we decided that what we want to showcase most of all is the beauty of our own country.
Even then, we spliced and chopped an hour’s worth of snippets into these measly 2 minutes: not quite polished and certainly does not capture the entirety of our experiences, but we hope it entices someone to explore what our mountains and islands have to offer.
Winning at Life and Friendship
We have no idea when the results are coming out, but the creative process and nostalgia made us instant winners. It was a great reminder of how far our friendship had come, and how great this life is we’ve been given, if we only keep getting out there and living the heck out of it. Having said that, it’d be nice to live the heck out of Japan or Korea, together too *ahem*Klook*ahem* ?