My Maid of Honor speech (given on November 20, 2011)

in my family, my sister has always been the princess. in my parents’ eyes (and im sure they will deny this to death), ate kamila could never do anything wrong. and even if she did, all she had to do was open her big, brown eyes, make her lips quiver a bit and silently make her tears fall, so that my mom and dad’s supposedly hearts of stones would melt and let her off the hook.

in all honesty, i have been raised to think that i should always be protective of my siblings and that i should take care of my princess sister in every way possible. i guess this is why i have always considered myself to be the unofficial older sister, and apart from always making sure that she does well in school, every suitor she had had to go through a ring of fire to get my approval. goki was the first one i met. After our high school interaction, my sister went home gushing about this boy ramon and telling me how he seemed like your typical bad boy. ah, bad boy pala. puwes, hindi yan papasa. she eventually told me that he was her best friend, although for me, they have always been lovers from the start. i never really told anyone this, but at that time, i caught them kissing underneath a tree. best friends pala ha! after that, i tried to be there for my sister as much as i can, thinking goki would only inevitably break her ever-so-trusting heart. lo and behold, bubu surprised us all and stuck with my sister the princess, through rough times, different time zones and years away from home, and ate kamila did the same - being so patient, so loyal and so in love.

i cried the day bubu proposed to ate. one, because i’m cheesy like that. two, because i never thought that my sister’s perseverance would really pay off. i remember her always asking my parents if she could marry goki, way before the question ever really came. my parents would always let her down gently, and she would take it in calmly. they told her to wait, and she did. im sure goki asked her to withstand the distance with him, and she did. the thing about my sister that i admire the most is her patience. once she sets her mind on something, expect her to work for it or to wait for it without any reservations at all. if she fails today, she will cry for a bit and try again tomorrow. like all the people in our family, my sister was born a fighter. not the aggressive one we all know of, but the silent one who will surprise and overrun you at the end of the day. I look up to my sister, because she goes after what she wants and gets it, even if the world thinks it’s not going to work out.

i dont really know how to make a marriage work, so i cant give any reliable advice when it comes to that. all i know of is the love that my parents share, which we - the children - always speak about with pride. i wish, ate and goki, that you will have a love that’s as genuine as mom and dad’s. it may be biased, but it’s the kind of love we grew up with, and it’s personally the kind of love worth having 20, 50 years from now. may you also be forever stuck in the honeymoon stage, oftentimes making your future children awkward with the out-of-date cheesiness that you will so blatantly express. may you both never tire of telling each other the most heartfelt ‘i love you’s’ and giving the most heartwarming kisses. i wish for you to grow old together, with your souls forever young. and that your promises be as everlasting as the days that are yet to unfold before us.

one of the most important things that i have learned in law school is the maxim ‘the law is harsh, but it is the law.’ so stay true to your love, because it is not always going to be easy. goki, kindly treat my sister like she is the law. and i swear, you will never go wrong; she and her kind heart will never lead you astray. the last thought i want to impart on you, on this night that you will forever remember, is that i wish for you to always honor your commitment. keep coming back to who you are today, full of hope, optimism and excitement to show each other the love you were destined to live. never stray, never surrender except to each other and always renew the besty and bubu who have been living inside you since time immemorial (or 5 years ago). today, i am happy - proudly, genuinely and calmly happy - that my sister, the princess, has found her prince charming. and all i want in this life we all so closely share, is for ate kamila - one of my first best friends and one of the greatest loves of my life - to live happily ever after with the boy whose game she changed and my brother-from-another-mother, goki.