Archive for the ‘personal’ Category
Filed under current events, opinion, personal
I was up until 4 a.m. last Saturday, studying for my Legal History and Constitutional Law classes, while the rain pounded on our glass windows. It had started raining around the time I got off work at 7 p.m, and started beating hard around midnight. It didn’t cease until I fell asleep before daybreak. It was still raining when I woke up and left for school at around 9:30 a.m., but I didn’t think much of it. If anything, I was just a bit annoyed at the rain, because I didn’t have an umbrella.
By the time I reached Katipunan extension, though, the cab had stalled. We were not moving, and I was getting late for class. I found out that another classmate was also stalled. By the time the cab got to the Ateneo area, cars bound for the north were turning back, because the flood had risen to almost knee-level. There were a couple of cars that braved the south-bound lane, but they were swimming in the water. We turned around to look for alternate routes to UP, but then I received a message from my classmate that all roads to UP had been blocked, and that classes had been suspended for the day. We couldn’t go anywhere, so she and I agreed to meet up at McDonald’s Katipunan to pass the time and wait for the rain to stop and the floods to subside.
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Filed under career, personal
I grew up thinking that money was evil and that businessmen were shrewd. It didn’t help that I attended the University of the Philippines, said to be the bastion of the communists. I became a student activist, became an agnostic for awhile, and began to hate imperialist America.
But because of a twist of fate, I landed in the corporate world in a job I didn’t know existed before and never imagined to have. My employer was American, and so it didn’t come as a surprise that I had go to the land of milk and honey to meet the people I worked with and get some training. Anyone in my shoes would have jumped for joy, but I flatly refused to go. I did not want to go. I didn’t see the point in going, because I already knew how to do my job, and I did not want to sign the bond that came with the trip.
Fortunately for me though, I had a manager who had amazing convincing powers. She told me that I would come back a different person–that travel would change me, that there was an experience waiting for me on the other side of the world that I couldn’t get anywhere else. That was what convinced me to go. I signed the papers and packed up. That was how the shift began.
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Filed under law, personal
It’s Friday again. At this time last year, I would either be heading to a hole in the city to hang out with friends, or packing to leave early for another adventure trip the following day. Now I can’t do that anymore. There are hundreds of pages waiting to be read when I get home, and that’s just for one subject, just for one night.
I so miss traveling. I miss seeing the world outside. I miss taking photos and writing about my discoveries. I miss going home from work to just drop on the couch and watch TV, uncaring about what the time is already. I miss waking up after lunch hour on weekends. I miss the trips to the mall, the unlimited blogging, the lazy afternoons, the endless poker games. I miss the unlimited idle time with friends. I miss not having to watch the time.
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Filed under career, people, personal
When I was 19, I attended a career and leadership training wherein the speaker introduced us to the Hedgehog Concept. At that time, like many students about to finish college, I didn’t know where I was going or what was ahead of me. I was very passionate about journalism, but I wasn’t sure where it would take me or if it could support the life that I wanted. The Hedgehog Concept changed that. I applied it to my life, and it hasn’t left me ever since. I still use it in making important decisions.
Today, I think I already know where I want to be for the long haul. I feel immensely blessed that I found my niche early, and that it gives me the challenges that I need and provides for the lifestyle that I want. I am very grateful to that man for sharing what he knew. I was prepared early. I saved precious time.
The Hedgehog Concept is simply a Venn diagram of (1) your passion, interests, and hobbies, (2) specialties and skills, and (3) the job market or the times. Somewhere in the middle, the three intersect, and that is your place under the sun.
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Filed under culture, personal, religion
Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi is a traditional evening mass in the Philippines, held at the crack of dawn from December 16 to December 24. It’s very much a part of the Christmas celebration of Filipinos that people make it a point to be there everyday for nine days. I’m not Catholic, though, so I never went to one. I only read about it in books and heard about it from friends, and to me it sounded like a fun and colorful tradition.
So when my roommate announced that she was going to the Misa de Gallo this year, I volunteered to go with her. She had a laughing fit when I said that; she thought it was a big joke because I usually wake up at past nine, the earliest. The few times that she tried to wake me up earlier than that (sometimes I ask her to–I usually don’t hear my alarm clocks), she would fail, even if waking me up sometimes becomes a physical feat for her (wrist-grabbing, pinching–those stuff).
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