Wandering Around With My Imaginary Pen

It's been a year after graduation, and I am about to enter another chapter.

Happy first anniversary, degree! Exactly one year ago, I graduated from college along with a little bit more than a thousand other CvSUeños. After that, my family ate at King Bee for lunch, and that’s all I can remember. It has been an eventful year. It’s true—your 20s is nothing but extreme, there’s no mediocre days. Either you’re overwhelmed with happiness, excitement, and opportunities, or you’re restlessly defeated by problems, difficulties, and pressures. I’ve learned, and still learning, to just make every moment count. Treasure the positives and don’t let the negatives get the best of you because they come and go. Both are gifts given to make you who you are.

I have both enjoyed and suffered my journey as a clueless young professional. I went AWOL, resigned, got laid off, rejected offers, got rejected, got rejected then accepted, and escaped out of interviews. As I look back now to the year I just had, I can’t help but smile. I got to meet great friends, complicated friends, some jerks, and the best boss ever, I got paid for what I love doing, I got sick of what I love doing, I cried, I wasted money, I experienced independence for the first time, and the list just goes on and on. It was an exciting, draining, and fulfilling year.

This year, I got introduced to the reality of life. It’s nice that majority of it all happened in such a beautiful and organized place like Ayala Avenue. I’ve learned how to compromise my dreams and my financial needs. I’m not a rich kid from a grand family, but I do have my blessings from the gracious Him. My dreams are becoming clearer to me, well, most days. I have to learn how to stand firm and constantly do things to make them happen. They’re my dreams anyway—the only person who needs to believe them and has to act on them is me.

Today, I signed the fourth job offer of my life (technically the fifth). It was a long and emotion-filled day. It’s kind of interesting because the process of getting this fourth job involves my three previous employers. Someone from my first company referred me, another one from my third company got in with me, and I (with A LOT of guilt) retracted the contract offered by my second company I just signed a day before. It’s really sad and tragic that the call I’ve been waiting for came 9 hours after I signed the contract. My best friend tried to stop me from withdrawing the contract, but my former boss, being the greatest boss ever that she is, told me to go and grab the opportunity. Her kindness will always amaze me.

The great thing is I have a lot more years ahead of me—to make things right, to continue the hunger for learning, to improve every day, to make my dreams come true (cheesy), and to provide wonderful things for my family. It’s been a year of new ventures and accomplishments, with a lot of hurdles faced and conquered. I know the road ahead is difficult, but I have no choice but to keep going. As Stephen King said, “if God gives you something you can do, why in God's name wouldn't you do it?” The least I can do for myself is enjoy the ride. I can do it. Definitely.