2022: It was the best of times, it could’ve been the worst of times
The year 2022, to me, was like the morning after a typhoon. People were picking up the pieces of their displaced lives and livelihoods after the howler that was COVID-19. But the sun was radiant.
COVID-19 shook the very rafters of one’s existence. One was never sure if one would be still standing in the wake of its devastation. I had lost two close friends in the early weeks of the lockdown in 2020. A classmate lost her husband. Many businesses were shuttered and the question lurking at the back of one’s mind was — even if one had saved up, would there be food to buy? And even when fully masked, how was one sure one dodged the COVID bullet while buying medicines in the drugstore?
Some nights during the worst months of the pandemic, before I drifted off to sleep, I would think of tomorrow as an abyss whose bottom I couldn’t see or fathom. I would just let my deep faith be my measure of tomorrow.
But in January 2022, the sun was shining bright again, the way it does vibrantly when it re-emerges after a storm. Life was renascent. Vaccines were saving lives and livelihoods.
We started going out of our homes and meeting up with friends anew. In the office, we started doing press work, face-to-face, more often, albeit with masks and other safety protocols in place. I had my first major haircut and color in January 2022, and stylist Jing Monis was stupefied at how long my hair had grown!
The government reopened the country to fully vaccinated international travelers in February. In March, Metro Manila and key areas in Luzon shifted to the lowest level of pandemic restrictions, as daily COVID-19 cases averaged below 1,000. Businesses and public transport were allowed to operate at full capacity.
In March was a K-lig moment when my favorite reel and real couple Hyun Bin and Son Ye Jin of Crash Landing on You fame tied the knot, making me believe in happy endings! And now, they have a baby!
In June, I took my first trip abroad in two years! I had so longed to walk the aisle again — the aisle of a plane, that is, and hear the intonation, “This is your captain speaking.” When I did, it was like a blessing, an affirmation that life had gone back to normal.
After being cooped up for months, many Filipinos took to the skies with a vengeance — “revenge” travel. Airlines received a bonanza. Many of those displaced by the pandemic regained their sources of livelihood, like the mostly-Filipino crew of the Silver Cloud, the luxury cruise ship I took to the Arctic last summer with travel executive Shan Dioquino-David and broadcast journalist Karen Davila.
It was my first expedition cruise ever, and I took it in 2022. In six days, I learned to ride a Zodiac, a sturdy rubber boat that can forge through the ice; had champagne from a floating bar in the middle of a fjord; beheld stunning glaciers, a polar bear, and a “huddle” of walruses and seals; and sailed on an ocean of ice as big as refrigerators.
I was also over the moon because PeopleAsia magazine, which I have been editor-in-chief of since 1999, received a Quill Award for Excellence, and a Quill Award for Merit. The Philippine Quill is the country’s most prestigious awards program in business communications.
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Then in October came a moment when I could have lost my life. But I like to think of it as a moment when I regained it.
During a hike down a gravel hill near Tara in picturesque Montenegro in the Balkans, where some former classmates, friends and I had gone for a tour, I slipped. Some gravel had pried loose from the earth on which I stood and I slid down the hill. Instinctively, I used my feet to break my fall, steady myself and protect my head and hips.
It happened in a split second, and no, I didn’t see my life flash before my eyes as the hill was unravelling before me. What I saw was my bent ankle and I was horrified.
That “twist of fate” occurred after we had visited the Ostrog Monastery, a place of prayer. The thought would later cross my mind — I had just visited a holy pilgrimage site and this happened? But then I thought, it could have been worse. A thousand and one angels probably braced my head and cushioned my hips as I slid down the gravel hill.
After receiving first aid in a hospital near the mountains, I was taken by ambulance to a bigger hospital in Podgorica, the capital. I wasn’t in any significant pain at all. Yes, it could have been worse.
After a total of 8,846 miles in three days from the Balkans, to a stopover in the Middle East, to the Philippines, I was home safe.
The only way I survived my ordeal miles and miles away from home, aside from having supportive friends, was to take each day, one day at a time. One foot forward at a time, even if one was in a cast.
I remember the sage advice I received from a virtual stranger many years ago: “Don’t take life as if it was an apple. Don’t take it in one big bite. Take it like an orange, piece by piece.”
I am off my cast and now wear a walking “Aircast” boot. I have been slowly attending parties again. My husband Ed has been my strength all this time.
The year 2022 is a playbook of realizations — life will deal you good days and bad days, and some days that you think will be your worst.
But you can let your worst days transform you into your best self. They can illumine you, not bend or disfigure you. It’s not that life will always be a walk in the park, but now you know what to do if you trip — literally and figuratively.
The darkest nights can lead to your best mornings yet.
Happy New Year, everyone!
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