2015. I set up my brush calligraphy classes to incorporate watercolor. I was relatively new in the watercolor industry but somehow, the people who enrolled in my classes trusted me and my capabilities to help them learn the craft too. People started signing up and Ice Idanan was one of them. She cancelled on her first class because her mom has cancer. I actually thought she wouldn't attend anymore but then she booked for the next class. That was March 29, 2015. The final artwork I asked them to do was to write a movie to add to my #TypeYourMovie series in Instagram. She wrote "Sakaling Hindi Makarating" and said that will be her movie, someday. I just looked at her in awe. Somehow, our souls connected.

A few months later, she contacted me. She said she's finally making the film that she has been writing for so long and that the film will require postcards, just like how the Griffin and Sabine book is. I didn't really think about it, to be honest. Favorite book ko kasi yon. I just said "GAME" immediately. That was August.

The rest of 2015 seemed like a blur to me. I never would have thought that the movie she wrote during our watercolor calligraphy workshop back in March is actually happening, and oh boy, it was happening fast. I was submerged in unknown waters. I had zero knowledge on film making! I was juggling so many things: a broken self, an art career, a lerler and complicated relationship that was nothing but uncertain, a stint in a new industry I never thought I'd really be in. Akala ko masisiraan na ako ng bait, especialy during those LERLER days! I just kept telling myself: Tiwala lang. Repeat. 1 million times. 1 billion times more.

If you must know, back then, I had zero experience in painting landscapes but being my normal risk-taker self, I just said, Game kaya ko yan. So I did it. I remember I was in Dipolog for a series of workshops. Every night, at the hotel, I would paint the postcards for the film. Sabay-sabay, malapit na ang deadilne eh. It was my first time to paint landscapes, and even though I've seen the film a million times, I still feel giddy when I see my artworks to be part of this beautiful love letter to the Philippines. I want to cry, seriously. I guess, when you trust yourself that you can do it, you really can. And of course, if people around you trust and believe in you as well, then the more you will succeed. So thank you, Ice, for letting me be part of this wonderful story of yours. I am forever grateful!

Every time I think about 2015, I smile. That year might have been both the best and worst I've had so far but now I understand that there is a purpose for everything and that the universe brings people together for a reason. This is the reason.

Fast forward to 2017. We finally made it! What a journey this has been. Hindi pa tapos! Today we are screening in 26 cinemas. Tomorrow, I pray, it will multiply by a million!

You can check all the other updates here.

Thank you for watching, thank you because I know you will watch :)

Journey through art