i found a few relatives on FB!

Social Networking has become a fad in the cyberworld. It allows you to meet friends both old and new, catch up with the long lost ones, express your point of view or simply let the world know what's new and up with you. I'm one of the many who spent most of their waking time on social networks. I have accounts on facebook, friendster, twitter, pinoyexchange and other fansites which I pay regular visits. You might ask why go through all the hassle of joining these forums, these sites when you can strike a conversation with co-workers, friends and family? Or aren't there interesting things to do besides updating your friendster, playing games on facebook and following other people's lives on twitter? Well, I really dunno! I just find it fun, addictive, habit forming and sociable in a different sense.

Let's talk about facebook. Among all social networks, it's my favorite. Why? You don't need to go ask about it if you're a normal, thinking person of this planet. One time, I browsed on my friend requests when I spotted someone who shares the same family name with mine. As you know my family name is not very common, unless we're talking about nationality here, then I'm certain most Europeans have my surname on their birth certificates. So I probed on his profile and found out we both hail from the same city. I summoned all my nerves to send him a simple message asking where exactly he lives in Butuan and who his parents were. The next thing I know we were exchanging messages, asking proverbial questions and soon enough we both realized we were indeed related. Second or third degree cousins - that I still can't figure out.

Actually, when he mentioned that particular street where they live, I already knew we were relatives because I remember my father kept telling me before that he had cousins on that said location. We were not able to meet them because nobody encouraged us and somehow my grandparents made us feel that way as they kept on telling us that these said relatives are well-off, thus insinuating they are unreachable. That kind of mentality gave us a wrong notion and coincidentally made us think the only relatives we had are the brood of my father's siblings.

I'm just glad I got the chance to know even just one of them. It could be a start and it's never too late to catch up on them. I'm looking forward to the day I'll be meeting them. Reunion sounds a nice idea to me now. It could be my first in this lifetime. So let's see where this encounter takes me...