Our Journey To Forever: Happy Birthday, My Little Brother!

May is abundantly celebrated by birthdays. On Monday, Ally's nephew celebrated his first birthday. It was a grand kiddie party celebration! Today is my little brother's birthday. Oh well, "Utog" , as he is fondly and naughtily called by friends is that "little" literally, if you know what I mean, haha!

THE FAMILY'S PRIDE

Utog will always be the family's little kiddo and the family's pride. Why not? He makes the family so proud of his talent. He brought Kuerdas to where it is now. Everytime I look at him performing on stage, I can not imagine him the little baby brother that I looked after and sang to sleep when he was still a toddler. The family never really thought that he could become one of the finest and charming performers on stage. It was a pity though that our late father never had the chance to see him perform :-(

When we were kids, we used to tease him for being the adopted son because his features were a little bit different from us. He has whiter complexion and good shapely nose where nose job isn't needed, haha! He would usually retort back everytime we mock him that our faces is just his bum's equivalent! Can you imagine that??? Duh!

And here's more!

My own father doubted his paternity because of my little bro's physical attributes. DNA testing wasn't known at the time for less privileged families like us. And even if we knew about it, we could never afford having one. So my father proceeded with blood typing without my mother's knowledge. And... he found out that they both have the same blood types! I am not too sure whether bloodtype is a fail proof genetic evidence of a parent's offspring.

PASSION FOR MUSIC

It was in 2003 when my brother next to me, Onyok, urged and encouraged Utog to hone his love for music. He started out playing the bass guitar and later on, when the band desperately needed a male lead vocals together with my cousin Ally as the female lead vocals, he was "forced" to accept the role.

THE LIFEBLOOD OF KUERDAS

I still can imagine him tightly holding on to his seat while performing for their first set. He was feeling jittery and stage fright was too obvious but he was able to conquer it and soon became very confident on stage! He can make people dance and sing along with him. He has indeed come a long way! Kuerdas won't be Kuerdas without him.

MY BIRTHDAY WISHES

Now that the little brother is another year older, I wish him all the best things this life can offer. May God grant him more wisdom in knowing what he wants out of this life. I am truly wishing him a brighter future ahead. My mother thinks that he will forever be the family's baby but she hopes that he won't be like our favorite and little puppy, Budotz ;-)

Happy Birthday, Bunso!