Thursday, June 19, 2025
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Tita ARMY Tours South Korea at Festa 2025
“We were together / Every moment was forever.” — Take Two, BTS
What made it so was many things:
How some of us had been saving up since the Pearl ARMY Festa of 2024, turning this into our ARMY Glow Up project, a dream sustained by intention. How bravely some of us made the decision to travel alone and join a group for the first time, choosing courage over comfort, and community over solitude. How some of us brought family—daughter, sister, niece, to bond, uplift, and support each other’s fangirling. And in the process, we discovered how powerful our desires can become when channeled through creative ways. How we held space for one another at the dining table from the communal and down-to-earth warmth of Yoojung Sikdang to the quiet elegance of Otsu, where stories flowed as freely as soup. How we looked out for each other in crowded streets and alleyways of Myeongdong and Hongdae, when bodies were close but hearts stayed open. The walks we took in forest and stadium, in silence and in laughter. And the way we laughed. The way we wept. Seeing our OT7 together on that stadium screen, dancing to Mic Drop, then collapsing emotionally at Spring Day and Jamais Vu.Team Labas. Team Loob. Team Hotel. Lahat tayo. We were all part of it. We were different but together.
We weren’t just in Seoul for a clique-ish girls’ night out. We came to experience and listen to the city. To bear witness to its character. To understand how it shaped BTS and how BTS shaped us, continuously so, in our own unique ways of expressing ourselves as ARMY.
Thank you Teena Ordoño of Savedbythebest Travel and Tours for making this happen!
Apobangpo! Purple and true!
Monday, June 16, 2025
Kuwentong Bangtan: Our Celebration of BTS FESTA 2025 is a Pilgrimage of Purple Love
This trip is precious to me not only as ARMY but as a mother. Being with Zoe, my daughter who became ARMY years ahead of me, this is a mother-and-daughter journey through Seoul; through light and shadow, memory and music.
I wrote and reflected each step of the journey on my social media pages. Here's everything from Day 1 to Day 5.
D1: Heart and Seoul – We Never Walk Alone
Theme: Arrival, belonging, and walking in their footsteps
Key Stops: HYBE Building, Hyuga Café, Old Big Hit, Hakdong Park, Yoojung Sikdang
Reflection: From fog to warmth, from dorms to dreams, from their footsteps to ours, we were never alone.
D2: Heart and Seoul – Shared Memories
Theme: Reverence, rest, and memory that transcends ownership
Key Stop: In the SOOP Mansion
Reflection: To visit a space where BTS once rested is to understand that silence is a kind of presence. Rest is sacred. Memory is shared.
D3: Heart and Seoul – Why Do You Sound Like Soul?
Theme: Namjooning, city rhythms, and sensory immersion
Key Stops: Myeongdong Cathedral, parks, alleyways, food stalls
Reflection: Seoul isn’t just a city—it sings. And for the first time, I knew the lyrics were meant for me, too.
D4: Heart and Seoul – Born in Seoul, Raised in Ilsan
Theme: Movement, generational role shift, and place as identity
Key Stops: Seongsu, Ilsan commute, Lake Park
Reflection: She leads now, the way I once did. I see the city through her steps—and remember how Namjoon once walked from hometown to dream.
D5: Heart and Seoul – Light and Shadow
Theme: Becoming, motherhood, and shared inner journeys
Key Stop: Gyeongbokgung Palace (Hanbok day)
Reflection: She is growing up and out into the world. And I, once her guide, now stand beside her as a friend, an ally, a witness.
Sunday, June 15, 2025
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Lighthouse Diary #75: Learning Through the Seasons
"Life has seasons and each season has something to teach you… it is during tough times when you discover happiness. Joy does not come from ease. It takes time, meaning and purpose. Trust the journey!” ~ Angeline Tam, Commencement Speaker, ANGKAS PH CEO
The closing weeks of the Academic Year is often laden with events and activities that drum up accomplishments, nostalgia, gratitude and hope. For the first time, I walked with our graduating seniors in their Batch Night bearing witness to the rituals and traditions that define us -- the senior tribute and send off. What was new this year was the recognition of staff and faculty who served in the Academy for a decade and more. This was definitely a surprise.
So, I received a service award. And then some.
Let me count the ways...
1. Working alongside a resilient Advisory Team inspired me to up my game as adviser for the next academic year -- only if asked or chosen.
2. Our senior batch reps step up on their last week of school. I can't be anymore prouder.
3. Our school leadership's tenacity and the intentionality in striving to keep integrity intact is admirable. Beyond compare.
4. This year brought many challenges, "bulaga" moments, surprises that we never expected. And along with it are heart breaks that I thought I was already used to, but... we recognize them. Mistakes and all. And we move forward with grateful hearts.
5. Friends are leaving the Academy and we hold them dear to our hearts as they venture forth to new adventures. Their contribution to the growth and development of the Academy is now a part of Griffin History.
6. On the last few days before graduation, convening as a faculty to reflect and look back at academics, advisory and student life programs to firm up our commitment in maintaining the high standards of teaching and learning.
7. And lastly, I am truly appreciative of the openness and honesty to which we can all talk about what matters to us all -- to continuously become better versions of ourselves as teachers in light of changes and the uncertainty this new age brings.
Academic Year 2025-2026 is waving at the distance, but summer is beckoning. This break, short as it is, is well deserved. I will make the most of it.
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Monday, June 2, 2025
The BTS FESTA 2025 Calendar: Sun, Moon, Compass and New Beginnigs
Sun and Moon as GearsThe orange gear on the left holds a sun emblem, radiating warmth, clarity, and life. It’s unmistakably tied to Hoseok as the last HOTS concert stop comes to a close, with vitality and verve. The blue gear on the right cradles a crescent moon and star, the quiet strength and emotional reflection resonates deeply with Seokjin. The contents he dropped for free and the albums he released post military service galvanize his position as our Moon, the ever faithful mathyhung who believes that love, when it is true, encompasses the universe.
Together, these gears are interlocking, suggesting they’re not just leading this FESTA, they’re driving it, keeping the clockwork of BTS turning even as others serve or rest.
The Compass-Like Clock FaceThe entire poster is framed like a celestial compass or astrolabe, evoking Yoongi’s symbolic role in the BU as the compass-holder. The clock strikes 00:00 (midnight), reinforcing themes from “00:00 (Zero O’Clock)” a time of emotional renewal, the reset point of each day. The design whispers: No matter what today held, we begin again.
Dual Worlds: Day and NightLeft half: warm sky, morning tones, sun-drenched clouds → hope, beginning, the known
Right half: starry night, cool tones, deep galaxy blues → reflection, memory, the unknown
It perfectly captures the feeling of liminality, we’re in the space between return and reunion, light and shadow, then and now. BTS has always dabbled with duality and the juxtaposition of the gears that shift from light to shadow & shadow into light presents balance.
June 13 is Anchored at the Edge of the SunMarking their debut, 6.13.2013 sits boldly in the golden half. The journey that began in light continues through the cycles of day and night reminding ARMY that time doesn’t just pass, it transforms! The BTS FESTA is a gift. ARMY, let’s show up with joy, reflection & reciprocate the Tannies’ promise of returning as 7.
1 is 7. 7 is 1. BTS is 7.Apobangpo! Purple and true!
Sunday, June 1, 2025
When Parents Listen to Their Children
Today is the Feast of the Lord’s Ascension unto Heaven, a Sunday we spent with our marriage and family life community, the Magis Deo Community. We gathered to celebrate God’s promise of peace fulfilled and love everlasting.
Every community celebration is truly special because grace in its varied forms are to be had. And for this, I am always grateful. This Sunday’s ComCel is made even more special because we bear witness to the stories of our Magis Deo Youth about their parents. Four members of our Youth participated with only three guiding questions to spur the conversation. Through the guidance and facilitation of Fr. James Gascon, SJ, we listened to three of our “children” share their journey. What wonderful graces we received because, embedded in their stories are the core values of Magis Deo: Service, Sharing, Stewardship and Simplicity. This is God, actively involved in our lives.
A humbling experience, indeed. An affirmation of faith in action. Parenting is never easy. And this is where community comes in to fill gaps, to empower and to be companions in life journeys.
Fr. James had a fitting closure to the session invoking the community to amplify these graces by listening to our children. After all, Parenting is Listening. And while 4 of the 5 core values surfaced in our youth’s sharing, one S seem to have been missing: Shepherding.
I would like to think, and claim, that Shepherding is present, too in Kuya Val leading the six volunteers of the Magis Deo Youth Choir in singing the songs in the Liturgical service this morning. Yes, you can call my bias. But to sing is an act of courage. And to push, guide and accompany young voices to sing songs for the Lord is shepherding too. Isn’t it?
Maybe. But one thing is clear: God moves in quiet ways, in humble acts of presence, in the gentle but firm guiding hand of a parent, a priest, a Kuya, a community. Shepherding does not always wear the mantle of authority. It sometimes takes the form of harmony, quiet encouragement, and the simple yes to serve.
Today, on the Feast of the Ascension, we are reminded that though Christ ascended, He did not abandon. He entrusted us to one another. He called us to be Church. To be community. And so, in the laughter of youth, the honesty in the voices that dared to share, in the earnest songs offered in praise, we find ourselves lifted not just our eyes to the heavens, but our hearts to each other.
This is Magis. This is grace.
May we continue to listen.
May we continue to accompany.
May we continue to shepherd.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
