hear ye! hear ye!
Hello you guys...just want to let you know that I will no longer be posting here because I now have a new NESTING PLACE...isn't the kewl?!
See you there!
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Hello you guys...just want to let you know that I will no longer be posting here because I now have a new NESTING PLACE...isn't the kewl?!
See you there!
Thursday, October 12, 2006
the job that pays not only the rent...
My mother is an elementary teacher in our hometown. I believe she's been a teacher for almost 30 years now. I grew up seing her making lesson plans and checking her student's testpapers. I know that as a teacher, my mother has experience lots of ups and downs. For example, I was with her when her classroom was burned down by the NPAs. I think I was 6 or 7 yrs old at that time or maybe younger but I remember we were washing the dishes and a neighbor was rushing to our house shouting "Ma'am Obordo! ang kwarto mo nasunog!" (Ma'am Obordo!! your room is on fire!). I also remember when she got sick because of the stress from work. It was the first time I saw my mother crying but I was so young then that I didn't know how to comfort her, I just cried with her without really knowing what's the problem. I was also there when mothers of honor students accused Mama of favoritism because their kids did not make it to the top 5 or something. Her bout with migraine and pamamaos for talking and teaching the whole day. But I was also there during her high moments. Being recognized as a good teacher, getting her masteral, having major responsiblities in extra curricular activities. My mother is a very well-liked teacher. I'm saying this not because she is my mother but because I practically grew up surrounded by her world of teaching.
I've always been proud of her but what makes me prouder is that she was able to stick with the job despite everything, not to mention, the low salary. I know for a fact that teaching is not my mother's choice of career. It was my grandmother who wanted her to be a teacher. Mama wanted to become a nurse but Lola urged her to take up Education because she herself was a teacher and Education is an affordable course compared to other courses. I believe it was a struggle for Mama then because her other sisters studied their own choice of courses. One sister studied Engineering and is now an engineer and another one I guess studied Business Administration and is now working in an office.
The first course I took in college (Accounting) was my choice but I chose it because Accounting sounded like a great course and lots were saying that you can land a good job with it, not to mention, that an older cousin that I look up to was encouraging me to take the course. But I guess I forgot to consider my weakness in Math or anything that deals with analyzing Math when I finally decided to take up Accounting. My first year in college was the most horrifying year of my college life. You know, you are used to getting high grades and being on top of the class all the time and suddenly you become the lowest. I would cry almost every night because I had a hard time accepting that I wasn't doing well in my Accounting classes and it's the most important class of all. I would study so so hard and even requested my cousin to help me out, something that I've never done before just so I would understand all those statements of account but I really couldn't get it. I really sucked in the subject and eventually failed the evaluation exam that will pave way, supposedly, for me to continue BS Accountancy in my 2nd year. I felt so down and dumb. I bet my cousin who was an Accountancy 4th year student at that time was really embarassed with the result...after all, we share the same last name. I mean he was so supportive, always there to teach me with my accounting assignments and cases and I failed...I failed not only myself but him as well.
I wanted to excel. My heart was there but my head wasn't. My mother on the other hand put up with a course she didn't like. Unlike me her head was there but this time, her heart wasn't. But she passed and I failed. She's an admirable woman. It takes a lot of emotional strength to stay in a position that you don't like. Anyway I moved on and majored in Marketing Management. I found my niche there. I know Marketing is where I belong. The passion is there and yes, I started having good grades in my major subjects. I know in terms of difficulty, marketing is incomparable with accounting but marketing students have strengths that accounting students don't have and vice versa. And of course, it's always great to be with people that you can talk with in the same wavelength. Friends and classmates that understand when you blab about market positioning and all that jazz.
But after the dilemna of knowing the course for you and say, finding it..things doesn't come to a halt. You graduate, you prepare your CV and make yourself marketable the best way you can. You look for a job to earn an income that will somehow compensate the almost 15 years of studying. Then you find one...there are hits and misses along the way but you eventually find one. You find a job that pays for your credit card bills, pays for your food, pays for your shoes, pays for your jewelries, pays for your clothes, pays for your sister's education and yes, the job that pays the rent. You find that kind of job and yet you end up unhappy because this time, there's another set of needs that you want to fulfill. My mother's job did not pay for everything mainly because we didn't have everything. But somehow she was able to stick with the job for almost 30 years.
The last time Mama called us, I heard my sister asking her "Ma pano nga wala ka gid ya kaagi change ubra? Pano mo na nahimo?" (Ma how is it that you've never changed job? How did you do it?") I never heard my mother's reply to my sister but I guess I know the answer. It's because my mother, after all she went through, has found the job that doesn't only pay the rent. She found the job that pays for her self-fulfillment, self-worth, joy and happiness.
I wish that someday I'll have the same job that my mother has. It maybe the job I have right now or who knows...another new job in the future.
Friday, October 06, 2006
let's hold hands...
HAWAK KAMAY
lyrics and music by Yeng Constantino
Minsan madarama mo kay bigat ng problema
Minsan mahihirapan ka at masasabing “di ko makakaya”
Tumingin ka lang sa langit
Baka sakaling may masumpungan
Di kaya ako’y tawagin
Malalaman mong kahit kailan
Chorus
Hawak-kamay
Di kita iiwan sa paglakbay
Dito sa mundong walang katiyakan
Hawak-kamay
Di kita bibitawan sa paglalakbay
Sa mundo ng kawalan
Minsan madarama mo
Ang mundo’y gumuho sa ilalim ng iyong mga paa
At ang agos ng problema’y tinatangay ka
Tumingin ka lang sa langit
Baka sakaling may masumpungan
Di kaya ako’y tawagin
Malalaman mong kahit kailan
(Chorus)
Bridge:Wag mong sabihin nag-iisa ka
Laging isipin meron kang kasama
Narito ako oh, Narito ako…
(Chorus)
Sa mundo ng kawalan
Hawak-kamay
Hawak-kamay
Sa mundo ng kawalan…
P.S. Please watch Pinoy Dream Academy every night in ABS-CBN primetime. These scholars are so so talented. They sing, they dance and they write their own music.