The bookends

Kuya Marv and I are the oldest and youngest in the Regalado-Morales clan. So, we were the family's bookends. We were farthest from one another, and were usually on the other end of each one.

Obviously, just like our birth order, we were polar opposites most of our growing up years.

As being opposites go, my Kuya and I fought quite often when we were kids. We'd fight about mundane things like remote controlled cars, who would get the new electric fan, and who would get the bigger room. We also liked very different things. He'd like all those army toys and I'd prefer robots and aliens. He dreamt of becoming a PMA cadet, and I'd dream of becoming an astronaut.

But despite being opposites, we also had similarities. The most glaring being our physical appearance. A lot of people have told me that Kuya and I look alike, the latest being my colleague who remarked that we can't deny that we're siblings.

Since he lives in Makati, Kuya doesn't get to hang out around the house a lot. At least as much as he did when he was just living 5 blocks away. So it was great seeing him - in Bataan, of all places.

And looking at this photo that Princess snapped of us while we were at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar, I can say that despite being bookends and opposites, we're not that different after all.