Holy cow... it's already been a year...

*Warning - totally nonpoker post*

Crap... I missed it. My one year anniversary on my blog. I thought I started my blog on the 23rd of December last year... but I was wrong. December 17th was my first post... had nothing to do with poker but that was the day this blog was created. I guess the reason why I remembered the 23rd was because that was the first "real" post... which again, had nothing to do with poker. It was the day my grandpa passed away. It was such a sad day. And I was in the US and I never had the chance to come home for his funeral... nor did I have a chance to go visit him before he passed away. I am not one to have regrets in my life but if there was one, that's the one.

Well, after grandpa passed away, my mom and her brothers went to help grandma clean up and just go through a lot of grandpa's stuff... old photos and such. Well, grandpa apparently liked to keep little notes for himself on small pieces of paper... nothing crazy... just little "life lessons" type of stuff. Who knew? Grandpa was a blogger too... he just happened to blog on little pieces of paper instead of the internet.

In my bedroom here at home, there was this script that was written by my grandpa. He just scribbled it on a piece of paper, probably more for himself than anything else. But funny thing is, it's almost exactly how I am... goes to show how much influence my grandpa had on me... and how similar we were. As lame as it may sound, it's as if grandpa continues to live within me... This is what it said (general translation):

- Happiness is determined by your heart.
- It's easy for anyone to just say it but not everyone is capable of doing it.
- No matter how important, please discard whatever I leave behind... including my body.
- Everybody has struggles they can't tell others. Everyone has sadness they can't tell others. They just keep their mouths shut. Otherwise, they just sound like complaints.

My translation probably doesn't do justice but it was so touching to see his writing. And the principles that I truly live by. People always said I'm so lucky because nothing bad ever happens to me. Please. I live my life just like everyone else... I just don't complain about little things - you know, the bad beat stories of life. Life's too short to focus on the negatives. It was nice to see that there was another person who thought exactly like I did. Too bad he's no longer here for me to share that with.