Thank you!

On this last day of the year 2009, let us look back to the past 364 days and thank those people who made our lives better.

Of course on top of that list should be the Greatest Sportsman up there, who keeps a close tab on each and every one of us. As we always recite in the oath of sportsmanship, when the Greatest Sportsman writes the score, it is not whether we won or lost, but how we played the game.

To my family that has always been patient with my work schedule, thank you for your constant understanding.

To the management of The Freeman most especially our big bosses, thank you for the opportunity to work with this paper.

To my news sources, thank you for making my job easier.

To my colleagues at work, thank you for working with me so we can achieve our goals.

To my real friends, thank you for being there in both good and bad times.

To those who are not real friends, thank you still for being around during good times.

To the readers, most especially those who patiently follow Full Point thrice a week, thank you for giving me a reason to write.

To those who don’t like this column, thank you for your criticism because they encourage me to work harder and study the craft further.

To those who don’t fall in any category above and are still reading this, thank you for being patient, maybe next year you will find yourself in one.

To everyone, no matter how bad the year may have been, we should always be thankful for pulling through.

Athletes, no matter how great, don’t win all the time, but they never allowed losing to stop them from working hard to win the next time.

There is no shortcut to victory.

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Let me just get this through before we move on to 2010, which is an election year.

The year 2009, no doubt, was another big one for the Filipino champion Manny Pacquiao inside the boxing ring.

I just hope that the boxing champ takes a cue from the response of the people to his movie in the Metro Manila Film Festival that has been reported to be lagging behind the other entries in the box office.

Pacquiao can really thrill us with his ability to fight and probably on stage as a singer during days before or after his big fights, but unfortunately not in the other arenas including politics.

If the movie didn’t bring in the fans, they can blame the leading lady, but if Pacman will lose his congressional bid, he can only have himself to blame for allowing others to use him.

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MILESTONES: Happy birthday greetings go to Arsenio ‘Dodong’ Pelicano, Gina Gabiana-Nacorda, Jocerie Aragon-Martinez and Lyndon Angan, who are all turning a year older today.

Advance birthday greetings to my aunt Marydel ‘Medette’ Quiñones-Miranda and Atty. Jeanette Japzon, who are celebrating on Friday.

Belated birthday greetings go to my cousin Jude Bacalso, who turned a year older yesterday.

More power to all of you!