#KennanInBoholPart5

This is my first blog post in a looooooooooooong time due to me having to adjust to the sorcery known as “independent living”. This will be about my 5th visit to Bohol yesterday and today.

I’m writing this sleep deprived, so if I start talking about flying unicorns or something of that nature, it’s probably not true

Every time I go on a nature trip (like Bohol, Palawan, etc), I try to take home a few lessons (which I ultimately forget 2 or 3 days after I return to civilization). This weekened, I learned something that’s already been heavily satirized on television, the internet and other media — people’s obsession with photography and social media.

I would be a hypocrite to deny that I am one of those people. I honestly believe that social media is a great tool (especially for introverts such as myself) in meeting interesting people. However, it’s disappointing to see that people were more concerned about taking self/group photos with tourist spots serving as background instead of actually admiring the very thing you went to see. Don’t get me wrong, I love posting photos on Instagram. Just check out my account (@xkennanx #ShamelessSelfPromotion). It’s easy to justify this with lines that go “a picture paints a thousand words” or “this is for remembrance” or crap like that.

Admiring stuff and taking photos for “remembrance” are two different things. You can admire things without taking photos but you can take photos without admiring whatever it is you are shooting (i.e for vanity purposes). It’s not everyday we get to see some of God’s wonders. Personally, I would stop and look around the beauty before me and ponder about my place in the universe (and other existential questions… loljk). They say you’ll never truly appreciate something until it’s taken away from you. We’ve had that scare last year. That October 15, 2013 earthquake leveled a lot of Bohol’s tourist attractions, and I am not going to wait for another disaster to take away these natural wonders for me to appreciate them.

I promised myself before this trip that I would go easy on the gadgets and gizmos, and although I couldn’t say I 100% succeeded, I’m glad to say that I was able to put down my phone for a substantial amount of time to admire the beauty around me.

I plan on continuing that.

Oh hey, look! Flying unicorns!