(BY: MA. CECILIA FLORES-OEBANDA, FOUNDING PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Of all the things I love-hate the most, it's endings. It's always the last few pages of a book or the last lines of a poem that make me want to stay in it for days.

This was our general feeling as the Skoll World Forum came to a close after three days full of big thinking, discussion and storytellingon the world’s most pressing development issues.

I relished the buzz of energy that came from putting so many people who want to change the world in one place. I enjoyed meeting many young people whose intensity, complication, and crazy-passion for social change reminded me of my own intense dedication to the cause in my younger days.

It was a memorable time too for the rest of the small VF contingent: Kip Oebanda, our Director for International Campaigns and Ailyn Bulfa, one of our trafficking survivors who now actively leads an association of domestic workers in the Philippines.

Both Ailyn and Kip were first-time panelists at the youth-led session called Young People – The New Superheroes Leading Social Innovation.The session marked one of the first times the Forum has featured young people as an integral part of its formal agenda.

I had the deep pleasure of seeing Ailyn conquer her stage fright and tell her story in front of an attentive crowd. I couldn’t help but be nostalgic seeing two of our staff take center stage, even when VF is relatively new to the Skoll community.

I felt great pride as well upon seeing Gawad Kalinga receive their much-deserved Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. We felt right at home with their throng of Filipino supporters who flew in to celebrate this joyous occasion with them.

I was just as overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response of the audience to the VF film featured during the Awards ceremony. The applause went on and on, while Kip, Ailyn and I held on to each other. I couldn’t have been happier to share that moment with them and I’m sure that they, too, were beaming with pride.

Later, when the applause had died down and the magical night came to an end, the Skoll World Forum has this to tweet about Visayan Forum: "It was not the film that caused the stand, but the amazing work behind it."

More than this affirmation for Visayan Forum’s 20 years journey, it’s this relentless optimism throughout the three-day event that I will miss.

When people say it’s impossible, they mean it's so hard that they can't imagine it ever coming into fruition. This year at Skoll, I met 900 people who showed me they could.

If this can-do attitude is what Kip, Ailyn and I can take home with us after the forum, then endings suddenly don’t seem so bad anymore. It could be the beginning of something new.