By: Neil Urian Secretaria Mabulay
(Originally written on May 4, 2010)
It was 12
midnight when I fell asleep after having a long chat with my aunt from India.
When I fell asleep, I had a dream, it was a very beautiful dream. I was in an
unfamiliar place with a lady beside me. She was wearing a white dress with a
shoulder length hairstyle, she was white, slim, and sexy. In other words, she
was beautiful and she was slightly taller than me. Then she asked me, “I've
never seen you in this place before. You must be new here.” I stared at her
beautiful brown eyes and said, “Yes, I'm from a faraway place. We’re just
having a stop over and we will be going afterwards.” She heard my answer and
smiled at me. When she smiled, I stared at her face once again and I saw the
mole above her nose that made her smile more beautiful. We talked and talked that
night, and for a short period of time, I fell in love with her. When she asked
me to walk with her, I said yes without a second thought. She held my hand and
gave me a tour. She brought me to her favorite places, and told me that she
resides near the church. When I had to go, I asked for her phone number. She
borrowed my phone and typed her number, then she gave me a warm hug. I closed
my eyes and suddenly felt her lips touching with mine. I woke up and realized
that it was just a dream.
I didn't know
what my dream meant, and I didn't know who that girl was. As strange as it may
sound but all I know is that, I had a very beautiful dream.
Two days
later, my family and I had decided to go to Camotes Island for a vacation. When
we reached the port, the ship that we were supposedly going to get aboard got
overloaded, So we were forced to go to the second port to ride aboard another
ship. When we got aboard the second ship, I was surprised and staggered when I
saw a girl that looks exactly like the girl that I dreamt of the other night. She
was sitting on a seat a little ahead of me, on the right side. I couldn’t
believe it, but she was also wearing a white dress like the one she was wearing
when I dreamt of her. I took a glance at her and I knew she noticed it. Was it
destiny or just merely a coincidence? As
a person who strongly believed that there is no such thing as destiny, I couldn’t
fathom what was happening right in front of me.
Couple of
hours later, I went to the cafeteria to buy something to eat. I bought a cup of
noodle soup, and then, I went to the rear side of the ship to eat it. While I
was eating my noodle soup on the rear side of the ship, she suddenly came. She
was holding a DSLR camera and she stood next to me. At that moment I learned
that she was a photographer and she came there to take pictures of the full
moon. While she was taking pictures, she accidentally bumped up against me. She
smiled when she saw that I almost spilled my noodles and then she apologized. She
said "sorry" with a lovely and cute voice, and then there was
eloquent silence. It was very romantic knowing that we were the only people in
there and we were under the bright moonlight on a cold and dark evening. We
stayed there for quite a long time until we reached our destination. We got off
the ship and after that night I never saw her again.
When she left,
I felt sadness and disappointment. I was sad and disappointed about something
that I didn't do. While walking off the ship, I was wondering what had happened
if I said "Hi" to her? That simple greeting, perhaps, might change my
whole future.
It was at that moment when I
realized, that destiny is composed of two things – the chance and the choice. A
'chance' is something that we cannot control while 'choice' is something that
we can.
Chances are
given to us as the result of the choices made by other people and it's up to us
to make a choice out of those chances given to us; and the choices that we make
can open a chance to other people. What happened on that ship was a very good
example. Since it was her choice to go and take pictures of the moon and
because of that choice of hers, I was given a chance to talk to her and get to
know her which I chose not to do it. Had I been man enough to talk to her when
I had the chance, that dream of mine would have come true. But I never did. So
I missed the only chance I had.
