To be sixty-something and still feel sixteen

Today is my birthday, and as a baby boomer, I am a dual citizen, considered by many friends and family, associates and peers, as growing old gracefully, and yet, condescendingly, an object of the government's charity. Given grudgingly by restaurants and drug stores some 20 percent discount, I somehow feel that for that measly discount, I have mortgaged my dignity. But that is not the point of this discourse. In my age and status, I am supposed to focus on the brighter side of things. Yes, I am sixty-something but I am feeling sixteen, still passionate, working more than ten hours a day, writing books, teaching Law students, and speaking in big symposia and conferences, where I speak of hopes, dreams, and visions.

I am sixty-something and my true age is a guarded secret because if I tell the truth, I would never be believed. They say that I am full of joy and laughter, joking about my follies and my mistakes, and still looking forward to rectifying all the errors that I have done. They won't believe whenever I tell them of my true age because I am too childlike in my demeanor. I am never KJ and I can even speak the language of my grandchildren, I do a lot of Facebook, Twitter and Viber. I have my laptop, my iPad, and my iPhone. I can surf the web and glide over the clouds and I do a lot of computer applications. I can deal with millennials on their terms or on my own. I am a baby boomer but my soul belongs to this generation.

I can sing, I can dance, I can write, and I can recite poems by Shakespeare and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I can bike, I can walk, and I can drive. I am sixty-something but truly feel sixteen. I can admire women in their bikinis but I just look at those vibrating and gyrating things of beauty and flesh because my wife is proactively on guard. But I feel inspired, motivated, and passionately energized whenever I see women who are very attractive and sexy. I am sixty-something but I do admire the alluring charisma of young girls. I also love music especially the music of the '60s and the '70s. But I also respect, the noises and the cacophony of sounds that the young enjoy.

I love to travel in the Philippines and tour the world. I have landed in Tawi-Tawi and visited Batanes, Palawan, Siargao, Boracay. Samar, Siquijor, Bicol, Ilocos, and the Cordilleras. I toured Europe, the Americas, all over Asia and even Africa. I reached 132 countries and slept in in no less than 207 cities. I went to the Vatican, I entered St. Peters, climbed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Bjorg in Dubai, and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. I went to all the 50 states in the US from Hawaii to Maine, from Washington State to Texas. I lived in Kuwait, Taiwan, and Kuala Lumpur. I am a perennial traveler. I saw the Taj Mahal and the pyramids of Giza in Egypt. I went to Israel where I traced the Lord's footsteps from Bethlehem to Calvary. I went to Mount Sinai and crossed the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.

I am sixty-something and I feel sixteen. My bucket is full and overflowing. And I will be around for a long time to come.