today would've been my parents' 29th anniversary. instead of celebrating, they're probably sitting in their respective kitchens, sipping coffee, ignoring the fact that they're both alone, both somewhere between indifference and bitter disappointment, and both trying to forget that because of a section in the 1987 constitution and another one in the family code, they cannot legally divorce.

unlike other children of separated parents, i don't want them to get back together. they've had a difficult marriage, and i know they deserve the space that being several cities apart give them. one day, maybe they'll be friends again. or maybe not. what i wish them both though is that somehow, both of them find peace in the fact that together, they have raised a family, and maybe apart, they can teach their kids a thing or two about love.

at 27 and 28, my brother and i are both still single. i don't know if either of us will ever get married, but we've made a promise that if we're single and middle-aged, we'd get a nice condo and live together - my aunt wants to be with us too! - and make up for all the time that we bickered as kids.

at times, i believe in love. at times, because of what has happened to my parents who i once believed were madly passionate about each other, i don't. discussing my dream wedding with someone, i still believe, but after licking the wounds of a nasty break-up, i don't. good morning messages and long drawn-out goodbyes at night make me hope for love, but the reality brings me back to earth and tells me that there's no such thing.

i know there are more important things than love to think of right now, such as the short month between now and the start of the bar (thank god august has 31 days!). but as i was driving home tonight, with only a shopping bag on the passenger seat where i wish he could've been sitting, i realize that being the hopeless romantic that i am, love and its many permutations will always be on my mind.

my parents' marriage may not have worked, but at the end of the day, had it not been for that brief shining moment where they were majorly in love with each other, i would not be here writing this post. and that fact - according to a good friend - makes it all worth it.