#GoingSolo

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller” – anonymous

a view of Hagnaya from the boat

It was just a silent wish not so long ago, until last week, April 13,2019 when I finally dare to pack my bag headed to the bus terminal at 5 in the morning. Technically, this ain’t a new thing for me, almost every other weekend I would travel south to either for a quick breathe of fresh air, to unwind or take a peek at my little farm back home. The only different is that I’d be crossing seas all by myself, the first time ever in my whole existence. Isn’t that a sound adventure right there？

                           

 I did not do any research before I set my mind to go solo except for the travel time which I googled a day before. I just relied on my memory from 2 decades ago when our family went for a summer vacation. In my memory , we rode a bus and headed to a certain Pier in Bogo where motor bancas docked, travel for some time , then were at the destination. I did not consider the length of time that has passed since then, plus the developments of course.#assuming　

At 5:30 am the bus to Pulambato finally departed, almost four hours later I arrived at the bus stop heading to Pulambato pier. Few minutes later on a habal-habal I was finally at the pier and confirmed that there’s only one boat that sails at 12 mn, I was way too early for the next trip but being on a three days off , that is a waste of time。

Nevertheless, missing the 6am boat somehow turned into a blessing in disguise. I called my uncle whom I just knew over the phone this past two years. He fetched me at Polambato pier and that is how I made a side trip to Medellin, which was definitely not a waste of time. I get to know my uncle in real life and meet some of our relatives there as well. More than that, I was able to learn a new skill too. I spent the day with the little community at my uncle’s candy shop and helped in packing.

As early as 4:30 the next morning , we hopped unto my uncle’s motorbike and headed to Hagnaya Wharf. About an hour or so on the road we’re finally at the pier, got my ticket and bade goodbye to Tito Beling. I had my smile from ear to ear as soon as I set foot on the boat. Excitement ruled over me, I had my assigned bed at the boat but chose to go to the deck  (not sure though , if it is the correct term) and feed my eyes with the picturesque sceneries as the boat sailed to Cawayan, Masbate.

Six hours later at Cawayan port, I had my aunt, cousin and my grandfather waiting for me. We did not exactly knew each other, I was only 10 when my family visited them, but as I made my way through the crowd, I recognized them right away. My aunt Maricel looks almost exactly like Mama, while Lolo Digo looks like my Tito Beling. A few chitchat and beso-beso and hugs we set off to my aunt’s place in Guiom where I had feast of fresh seafood every meal!

Things I learn on the trip:

- Bring a book when you travel

- It's okay to travel alone, in reality you will not be alone at all, you get to meet new friends

Now that I have done it, I wanted to do some hardcore solo traveling in the future #bucketlist

freshly caught straight to the table

the best part of my trip - getting to know the other side of my roots

my sunset view at my Aunt's home

　

It’s Over, but not the End

 "Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened".Dr. Seuss

I am not trying to be sentimental, but.....

It has been my home for the past year where my perseverance was tested beyond limit. At some point, to quit the game was my option ( glad I did not).

I wouldn’t have me wonderful people who somehow made my journey worthwhile. In as pan of one year I’ve been into 3 different teams, where I’ve learned so much, both in work and life aspect.

 I wouldn’t have known that I can also make it in this industry. There are humps and bumps along the way, surprisingly at some point I was also a part of the top! (#akalain mo yun!), truly hard work will never disappoint you.

The past year was indeed one of the colorful days of my life. Yes,I felt sad on the other hand I am grateful for all the learning, the wonderful memories I’ll forever cherish as I flip another page of my journey. Above all, I am grateful for the opportunity,this has proved to me that if you accept what you're lack of and doesn't stop there but strive to overcome it, then you can definitely make it anywhere.

One more thing don't be too harsh on yourself, count every little milestones you have reached,more importantly be of competition to your self and not to anyone else.

Thank you WM that was a wonderful ride with you! See you around peeps!

3 on 3 Memories: PLACES

“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before “- Dalai Lama

Some of the memorable places I’ve been to, some were work related , nonetheless these are the trips I’ll treasure and add some more and more as time goes by.

1. Cawayan, Masbate

My mother’s hometown, also our first family trip together, too bad we ain’t got photos of it.  Should I get there again very soon, I’d like to explore the place, not just enjoy the sea foods like I did when I was young.

2. Ubay & Jagna, Bohol

Right after high school, I work as a babysitter and had the opportunity to travel Bohol with my bosses back then. Seafood was great, plus the UBE and Ubay Stock farm, also on my list of places to be revisited one day, specially I ain't got pany memorabilia. 

3.  Pampanga

I was an extra for this trip but it is one for the book to me as it was my first time to hop on a plane. I can still clearly recall how I was feeling back then, just like how I can't forget that first love and heartbreak, chos! It was also some sort of orientation to the business world.

4. Pasay City (One Esplanade)

A break  from work .It was an adventure, was among the few who were chosen to perform at a company event, plus factor was when I witness how a taping is done for a teleserye, not sure if it was so but had my feast with the celebrities I saw back then, #fangirl.

5. La Union

The farthest I’ve been so far and the longest land trip I had. We’ve traveled roughly 7 or 8 hours, too bad I wasn’t able to enjoy the scenery along the way due to motion sickness. Nevertheless, the destination didn’t disappoint good food, nice bed plus picturesque view! Wonder if I’ll ever get back there? Most likely not, coz I wanted to go as far as Vigan and Batanes one day!

6. Baguio

Never had I imagine that I’ll ever set my feet on this place, “ the Summer Capital of the Philippines” which I once read  in one of my textbooks back in grade school. It wasn’t as cold as I expected when I went there, but couldn’t ask for more. There are a lot of beautiful spots to visit that I did surely make the most of it.

7. Simala, Sibonga

I can't remember first time I ever visit this place but I always pass by this town going back and forth to my hometown and the city. Since the first time, this has been one of my healing places.

8. Moalboal

My first out of town trip after I get into the BPO industries had my first island hoping experience. Apart from the fun I had with my team mates whom I consider family, this place has a lot to offer, long stretch of white sand beach, the sardine sanctuary and a whole more!

9. Pandanon, Island

Another island hopping experience for the book, find the place so perfect for a beach wedding. Chos! It isn’t a fine white sand beach, but the clean and clear water did capture my heart. Kudos to the locals who maintained the place!

9 Capitancillo Island, Bogo

An amazing place I would like to get stranded even just for a night. I’m lost for words to describe the place, or better yet words are not enough to describe the beauty of this islet.

10. Boracay

One of the most famous beaches in the whole wide world and I made it there! Sunset was my favorite and the most memorable one.

11. Tabuelan ( Maravilla Beach Resort )

The most recent trip I had just before 2018 ends, a fun-filled day with the gang from work. I like how the vendors carries trash bag.

Cheers to more places and beaches to conquer and thanks to all the  people who made each of my trips memorable!

Back Home

As we find our way towards that space we've been dreaming of, our feet would bring us to a lot of picturesque places, however, there's always this one place we'd always long for no matter how far we've traveled...and that is Home.

It  just occurred to me that my twenties were spent working to meet ends that I somehow neglect going home to where all my dreams began, part of it was also because I was avoiding it for a time. The placed where I had my navel buried in, not until recently when I got the luxury to go home almost every other weekend.

Going back home to your roots, also serves as a great reminder as to why you are working so hard. Of course it's not always a joyous feeling, most of the time I actually get nostalgic, a lot has changed but those were good change. Back in the day, kerosene lamps lights most of the house. I went back to where our old house was...some are of the plants I grew up with are still there, but it's more like of a pocket forest now. Everything has changed, what remains are memories....

How simple life back then...just as how small things brings smile into face during those pink lollipop days. Below are some of the  things I would always miss and would always come back for.

1. Greens

- living in the city and being surrounded by high rise buildings, not to forget the city noise, looking at the scenic view and the greenery calms my heart & mind.

a view from my brother's little farm, where I used to wonder what could be behind those mountains, little did I know I'll be able to explore the other side of that mountain

this was where our house stand before , now... a mini pocket forest, used to be my playground and the very place I started dreaming.

 2. Fresh Air - Fog

- nothing beats the smell of a fresh air. felt like it cleanses my lungs, plus the " fog". Got me feeling being in another dimension ( now that's exaggeration over there! ).

morning view, specially during the months of November & December, our very own little Baguio

you'd be one lucky fellow if you're able to capture that elusive sunrise on a foggy morning

3. Old and familiar faces

- when you are living in the countryside...everybody else in the neighborhood is a relative. Of course you always get a smile from random people whom would always ask " Anak ka ni kuan day?" ( Are you the daughter of...?)

taken during a fiesta celebration, "the-never-gets-old King & Queen"

4. Freshly picked veggies

- utan bisaya tastes even more delicious when you got it in the countryside, which I admit I hated when I was young, maybe because it's a common side dish that is present on the table almost every meal along with broiled dried fish. 

5. having a feast on fruits where you ain't got to spend a dime

-most of the time, you can get to eat every fruit you would like in the city as long as you can afford to buy but in the countryside..you can get it and you can get as much as you want. If ain't yours, you can always asked for free.

so this is what they call as passion fruit, but to that little me back in the day this was orange juice or valencia

wild strawberry, locally called "tungaw-tungaw"

locally known as "tambis" best eaten when paired with salt

root cause of all the troubles I got while I was in grade school

These are just few of the things that kept me wanting going back home these. Above all that sense of belonging you wouldn't find anywhere else I should say specially at times where you feel at lost. 

A Year Behind the Phone

Every time I look back to the days that had gone by, I am reminded at how fast time passes by. When  I think about it, everything feels like it was just yesterday.  Guess this has been the most overused and abused line in my blog.

Yung tipong parang kailan lang, I was so scared to try being a cc agent for a voice account after my stint as a chat support. Part of it was because of my insecurities at how I articulate and pronounce certain words, well it has also been engraved in my mind those common feedback I got after a number of interviews I've been, such as how I mispronounce p & f, b &v and a whole lot more. For a time I was thinking, this line of job must just remain in my dream. But hey! it's  magic I've been in the industry for a year now. It was some time on this month a year ago, when I cried after my mock call, it is still fresh in my memory.

If there's one thing, I realized after a year behind the phone : " Men ain't no joke being a call center agent or BPO worker". But of course, there's no easy job on planet earth, but so far this got me like: "ing-ani diay mag call center agent?"

The pressure is real, I am not sure if it's only me, or maybe some other neophyte have gone through the same as well. I mean when you got a score card to maintain, yung feeling na my gaddd I am not in school anymore but I still have to keep up my grades. Well, in each field that I had been performance has always been based on numbers, but I had always felt so much pressure when I get into this business. Thankfully though, I know how to balance it nowadays, syempre when you get to stay a little longer, somehow, knew some tricks , ika nga "ninja moves" ( disclaimer: not the bad ninja moves. ha-ha! #defensive). More than that, I somehow  find a way to embrace the job, that it feels less of a work now, not all the times though, I must admit, coz ang hypocrite naman if I say all the time. Medyo I find a way to chill nowadays.

How I manage to survive a year in this line of job, here are some things that's keeping me sane

1. Compensation & Benefits
  - yep! mukha talaga akong pera. hahaha! Bakit ba? Who doesn't need money? Hello, mahal kaha kaau ang palitonon karon. So I don't have the right nga mag inarte or mag ino-a. And let's face it
  ( borrowed line from one of my TL ), for someone like me who wasn't able to finish a college degree, this is the field so far where I can get more than enough. Better compensation compared to , while I was working in another line of work.

2. The Team / Group / Barkada ( however you call it ) " the team building"
- Truth! so far I have been lucky to be in a team, which somehow  I could enjoy a day's work. So yes, medyo nakakagaan din yung mga ka teammates mong, minsan may kalog, may OOTD queen, may birit queen and so on. Syempre in any field you would be in , if di mo bet mga ka trabaho mo, waley..... Nakaka excite yung team building na kung minsan nagiging drawing, coz you ain't got funds yet

3. The two days off
- Yung ka-ka day off mo pa lang but you are thinking again of your next day off. It's only these days that I get to appreciate day offs and somehow manage to get the most of it.  I used to take if for granted coz I am too focused of earning more, a day off work is a few bucks wasted, which was very wrong mentality. However, I must also say sometimes where you are so sanay na sa two-day straight off, all of a sudden biglang split RD,...that's ewan

4. Laag - Lakwatsa / travel goals
 -Well.., well...if you got good compensation, travel goals ain't that a far fetch. Konting tipid lang sa sweldo, para maka ipon...you surely can get to go to your dream destination. Well I don't have that luxury yet..but somehow I was able to get to places I once just saw on post card ( very old school, lelz), or have seen in travel documentary or variety shows online or on TV.

5. Eat Outs/ Food adventures
- of course when you a little extra in your wallet you get to indulge and gave in to your cravings without feeling guilty or be worried baka bukas makalawa nga-nga! Eat outs with team mates are one of the memories I always cherish, but of course nothing beats that happiness being able to share the blessings you've received with your family. Kahit once in a blue moon you are able to treat your family, your parents specially.

There are countless things that still keep me going each day despite the struggle of waking up on wee hours to report to work, plus some hard to please customers na kahit binigay mo na lahat kulang pa rin, yung in the end DSAT pa rin c ma'am at sir! Again, once you find a way to embrace your job, somehow you will find your purpose..which eventually will make you love what you are doing.

Tbh, i may have find a way to embrace it but of course at the back of my mind & heart I am still looking for something I'd really settle in one day. One thing is for sure, this is a stepping stone to where I should be.

Random FB Questions ( Did you know.....?)

1. What’s the meaning of your name?

- My name means God is Gracious, Beautiful as per google

 2. If I could live a day of my life in the past, I’d choose

- the day I turned 18. I’d spent it with my family coz that was the last time we were as a whole.

3. If I see someone in the street but I don’t want to say hi….

- I’d look away and pretend to be busy with my phone

4. Between sunrises and sunsets, I prefer

- sunsets

5. My first job….

- a housemaid at the age of 15 while completing high school.

6. A New Year’s Resolution I haven’t been able to accomplish yet is…

 - to loose weight

7. My favorite moment of the day is…

- when I get off from work

8.   I could spend hours and hours ….

-watching Kdrama and Kvariety

9. I learned to ride a bike when…

- I was 15

10. When I was little, I used to think

- the moon is following me wherever I go

Big Five

Getting and Feeling Like Real OG

Hasn’t only been yesterday that I was celebrating my 30^th birthday?

Seriously, am I the only on their early thirties whose actually feeling like this? If I look back and reflect at some points in my life during my teenage and twenties I feel really blessed and so grateful that I reached this milestone. These days, somehow I am really able to enjoy and live my life, not that I wasn’t able back then. It just feels so difference these past years,

Anyways, the writer in me is up tonight...it has been too long since I wrote a blog, though I have been meaning to and there so much that I want to write, it’s just ideas are all scattered in my head and can’t figure out yet how to translate them in writing. So just, last month, I turned 32, as in THIRTY – TWO! Didn’t really had a special celebration coz I saving for something else that time, but thanks to my best who treated me to a birthday dinner at Shakeys, and my bad I did not even bother to take a picture of us.

And I just thought of writing Big Five of the things I am grateful of now that I am thirty-two!

1. Gift of friendship

 I remember a time, I was still on my twenties when I was thinking, that I really didn’t have best of friends or even that close tight circle of friends. My grade, high school and a few of my college we’re so busy making a life everywhere, sure I got some hundred of friends in social but that’s a different case. However, now that I am on my thirties, I am able to see and know who friends really are. We do not see each other that much, but that sense of security, that feeling of belongings, if that’s the correct term.

2. Blessed to have met great mentors in life

If I got to enumerate my grade school teachers up until my instructor in college, I could definitely do. I must say and proclaim that I was blessed to have met such an amazing mentors from school and even at work and I should give credits to them for what I have become today and I will always have high respect for them, wish one day I’d be able to do something in return to them or at least even pay it forward. #fingerscrossed

3. Work

At some point, I had complained that I had just been working all my life that I got exhausted and de - motivated to work but these days I find it a blessing now. Because of all the work I’ve done in the past, I am able to get where I am right now plus I am now able to really enjoy life, which reminds of the words by one of my managers before “ No amount of hardwork will ever be wasted”

4. Sense of Direction

On my younger years like teens and twenties I used to plan a lot, without realizing that I have been planning my life so much that I sometimes forget to enjoy and be in the moment. I pressured myself to really do well otherwise I would fail. At is point in time, I no longer have a plan but rather a vision I know where I am heading to and what I really want in life. I feeling like I am making peace with myself now. I was able to come up with these terms when I started to care less of other people opinion.

5. Family

I ain’t have that picture perfect parent or even sibling relationship but they’re definitely the reason why I am where I am right now.

 Something’s missing?, ohhh well as they say “ You can never really have it all” but I do have a feeling that it will come at the right time, in His time!

 Lastly, yes I’m thirty-two but nahhhh! I feeling twenty-two!