There’s nothing wrong with playing games or wanting toys. It’s when you forget about your responsibility that’s the problem.

We’ll always be kids at heart, but we must always remember the consequences adulthood brings. Maturity comes at a price. Immaturity gets old very fast.

Soon there would be no time to play games, but we can always go back to relive our childhood.

Everybody has to move on.

The time to part is near. The signs that points to the end has long been apparent. Our efforts to rebuilt what once was, was all for naught. It’s not to say that it wasn’t worth it, but it’s time to go our separate ways.

It’s clear now that we follow different paths. I can never be what you want to me to be, and you will never become the person I’ve always envisioned you to be. This parting is tearing me apart, but deep inside, I am beginning to accept that it’s time to leave and move on.

It has been a wonderful ride. I don’t regret any of the things that happened. It’s just sad that we have to say goodbye.

It’s always a big decision. Should I buy this or not?

Here’s the situation: I want to upgrade my phone. There’s nothing really wrong with it; I can send and receive sms and calls. But it doesn’t have a camera, GPRS and media player.

Of course, the main purpose of a mobile phone is to keep me connected to friends, families and business contacts. My current phone does that. While I do have a pretty good camera, I like having a phone camera for days when I don’t feel like bringing my camera with me. Another upside to having a camera on a phone with a GPRS is that I can send the picture, and have it posted in my blog. As for the media player… well, I like lsitening to the Ievan Polkka when I’m on the go.

The $200 question is, will mobile blogging improve my blog? It’d be fun to take a photo of where I am and then post it to show off to my reader the amazing place I’m exploring while they’re sitting in front of their computers. But this can also be stalker fodder, and I sure as hell don’t want to feed them more information than I’m already giving out.

Do I really need this phone?

I don’t know how I know,
But I’m gonna find my purpose.
I don’t know where I’m gonna look,
But I’m gonna find my purpose.

Gotta find out.
Don’t wanna wait.
Got to make sure that my life will be great.
Gotta find my purpose.
Before it’s too late.

I have found my purpose. Well, JustWandering’s purpose anyway.

I did start the blog with the intention of monetizing it to fund for my trips. I would write about my travels, as well as travel news. In the course of monetizing it, I have gotten lost along the way. I was posting news that aren’t really interesting to others (just me, and you know how weird my taste is), travel deals, paid reviews and such.

However, now that I’m traveling more, I actually have material to write about. So I’ve delegated the travel news links to Twitter, which shows on my sidebar, travel deals are no longer making an appearance (except if it’s Seair’s), and paid reviews are no more. Well, not really.

I’m liking the path JustWandering has taken from its conception in 2006. It showed my growth and my stumbles along the way. I admit there are entries that makes me cringe, but like the wrong choices I made in my life, they shaped JustWandering into the travel blog it is now.

After two years, I finally saw what I want JustWandering to be. It’s going to be my personal memoir of my travels, as well as an online destination guide of the places I’ve been to. I like to think of JustWandering as my small contribution to promoting the Philippines as a great travel destination, not just for foreign tourists, but for Filipinos as well. There’s plenty of awesome destinations in the Philippines that a lot of Filipinos overlook, and I want to help highlight these destinations by sharing my stories, photos and providing a guide on how to go there and how much money they need for the trip (which I find is a big factor when deciding on a trip).

Yup, that’s my purpose. Everything really do happen for a reason.

It seemed at the beginning of the year that I’ve lost the desire to travel. Well, it’s there, it’s just that unlike the previous years, I was more laid back. Whereas before I’d spent countless hours and days of mad research, I’m now content to sit back and just go whereever I feel like going.

No long term planning, no checking to see whether the stars and planets are aligned just right on my travel dates. I’m happy to stay put in Manila.

This sounds pretty contradicting to what I’ve been writing about in my travel blog. I’ve been to a couple of trips out of town, but they’ve been organized by other people. Frankly, I don’t mind taking the back seat and letting other people take charge and make the decisions for me.

The upside was that I’m making an effort to explore Manila. Whereas before I dread having to go to Manila, now I’m looking forward to it. In the past five months, I’ve been to Manila more times than I’ve been in the past five years. The dirt and chaos that I’ve always complained about are the very things I love about this city.

But now I get that feeling stirring inside. That old wanderlust, which I thought I’ve lost. I kinda feel like a traitor, but I suddenly got this strong feeling of homesickness for Melbourne. I guess I loved Melbourne more than I thought. But Melbourne can wait. Manila needs me.

Why do I travel? I find myself asking that question over and over.

This was prompted by encounters with people who also travel. One travels because she loves animals and loves seeing them in their natural habitat. Another goes out of his way to participate in different festivals around the country. Another one got the bug from her father, and travels to immerse herself in the culture.

Why do I travel? It’s not for the animals, I’m not that much of an animal lover, though swimming with the whale shark was an awesome experience. It’s not because of the festivals, unless you count the Sydney Mardi Gras. It’s certainly not because of the culture, because culture for me starts and ends with food.

I find myself lacking the passion for traveling lately. I’ve carefully marked the dates when I’ll have a long weekend and planned on making the most out of them and going out of town. I already know the places I want to go to, but somehow, I can’t bring myself to finalize any plans. The days are coming and going, and I can’t decide whether to go. I’ve come to a decision several times, but I find myself changing my mind and stalling a bit more. Soon, May will be here and I will be left with nowhere to go.

And I don’t think that I’d mind that much. There are so many things on my mind lately, and the only thing I want to do is to escape. That’s why I travel I think. To escape. To leave my life for a moment and for a couple of days, live the life of another person. Only to come back to the same mess I left behind.

I’m always craving for something new. It doesn’t have to be overly exciting; change is enough excitement for me. I don’t really feel the need to travel right now; I just want to escape. And the place I want to escape to is the place that has always been labeled as the last place I want to travel to.