Do you remember that time in high school when you have to meet up with your guidance counselor and discuss your potential college course?
My daughter is now a junior high school student. She's a bit confused. She loves music but she is afraid that if she pursues this passion, she'll end up playing her violin in the sidewalks or the subway stations of some big city to earn a meager income. She's looking up to us to push her into some direction, but my husband and I promised ourselves that we will never do that. We will guide and support her to pursue the work vocation that God has destined for her. Easier said than done. This brought me back to my past.
My father is a doctor and my mother a nurse. So back then, it was automatic that my siblings and I would either become a doctor or a nurse. I remembered taking an exam and I was offered a full tuition scholarship by IBM to take up Computer Science in Cebu City. I turned that down. My English teacher, on the other hand, encouraged me to take up Journalism in UP Manila, having worked with me in the editorial staff of our high school paper. I, personally, would have taken Fine Arts major in advertising because of my artistic inclination (having won in many poster-making and art contests) but my father would not hear of any of these. In terms of aptitude, I had it in me to become a doctor and take up nursing as a pre-med course. That was his thought. His one practical reason --- in case I don't end up proceeding to medicine, I have a decent degree which I can use even as a housewife. I can take care of the kids without getting into panic mode when they get sick. That was pretty logical and practical so I heeded his advice. And that was how I ended up with a BS in Nursing degree and got into medicine after two years of soul-searching.
Now, my past is haunting me. I feel I have neglected that artistic side of me and now it's back with a vengeance.
After writing and publishing my book, "Running the Millionaire Lane," a memoir of sort, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life pursuing a writing career. It has been literally just that -- an endless pursuit. I didn't realize it would be a steep mountain to climb. I've had a lot of hiccups along the way. One writing course after another only served to confuse me. From non-fiction to literally works, technical to medical writing, online health articles to inspirational, now, I got lured to copywriting and grantwriting.
It's not until I enrolled in this free online course offered by UC Berkeley at Edx.org that I realized I've been trying to pursue journalism all along. The past that has been haunting me has finally caught up. Have I finally found the right mountain to climb?
Thursday, November 10, 2016
What do I want to be when I grow up?
So I just celebrated my 45th birthday. Am I in midlife crisis because until now, I still feel this inner restlessness?
Serendipity brought me to this blogger account that I have somehow neglected again. And it's not because I was too lazy. We moved to a different state! My husband just got promoted again and his new role required relocation for the whole family. Caught in between boxes and movers, realtors and mortgage loans, buyers and sellers, we've finally settled down. Kids are now back to school and I am happily tinkering at home. I made a lot of Filipina friends, which is a delight. It's just funnier to talk in my own native tongue -- bisaya and tagalog. Everything is falling neatly into place.
I feel happy and contented being a fulltime homemaker. I have made a nice routine for myself. Most days you'll find me cooking Pinoy dishes like dinuguan, kare-kare, and monggo guisado, baking pan de sal and ensaymada, catching up with household chores (when will the laundry ever cease to pile up? The answer is never), driving the kids to school and their other activities, attending mass, and gardening.
But I know the itch to write is an itch I need to scratch, sooner or later. I have finished the first book of my trilogy novel at the last quarter of 2015. And I know I need to start typing the first few words on that empty page of Chapter 1 for book 2. I will get there soon.
For sure, I know what I want to be when I grow up (;b). I want to earn from my writing. I have started the copywriting course, have helped a community-based organization in Uganda with grantwriting, and just today, got enrolled in the journalism online course at UC Berkeley.
You know you're in the right track when the restlessness settles with a certain task at hand. For me, it has always been writing but I am still in that phase of finding the niche that I enjoy most. I have tried medical writing as a freelancer with Demand Media Studios, inspirational writing with Examiner.com, research writing from my previous job as a research nurse (oh yes, that's the job I took when I left dialysis nursing. It was a pretty neat office-hour-weekday-only job. I got to experience how pharmaceuticals develop drugs prior to being marketed to the public. I will write more on that if anyone is interested.), and even resume and informed consent writing. So you see, I really love writing. And I feel this is where God wants to use me. How? That is something that I still need to discover.
Serendipity brought me to this blogger account that I have somehow neglected again. And it's not because I was too lazy. We moved to a different state! My husband just got promoted again and his new role required relocation for the whole family. Caught in between boxes and movers, realtors and mortgage loans, buyers and sellers, we've finally settled down. Kids are now back to school and I am happily tinkering at home. I made a lot of Filipina friends, which is a delight. It's just funnier to talk in my own native tongue -- bisaya and tagalog. Everything is falling neatly into place.
I feel happy and contented being a fulltime homemaker. I have made a nice routine for myself. Most days you'll find me cooking Pinoy dishes like dinuguan, kare-kare, and monggo guisado, baking pan de sal and ensaymada, catching up with household chores (when will the laundry ever cease to pile up? The answer is never), driving the kids to school and their other activities, attending mass, and gardening.
But I know the itch to write is an itch I need to scratch, sooner or later. I have finished the first book of my trilogy novel at the last quarter of 2015. And I know I need to start typing the first few words on that empty page of Chapter 1 for book 2. I will get there soon.
For sure, I know what I want to be when I grow up (;b). I want to earn from my writing. I have started the copywriting course, have helped a community-based organization in Uganda with grantwriting, and just today, got enrolled in the journalism online course at UC Berkeley.
You know you're in the right track when the restlessness settles with a certain task at hand. For me, it has always been writing but I am still in that phase of finding the niche that I enjoy most. I have tried medical writing as a freelancer with Demand Media Studios, inspirational writing with Examiner.com, research writing from my previous job as a research nurse (oh yes, that's the job I took when I left dialysis nursing. It was a pretty neat office-hour-weekday-only job. I got to experience how pharmaceuticals develop drugs prior to being marketed to the public. I will write more on that if anyone is interested.), and even resume and informed consent writing. So you see, I really love writing. And I feel this is where God wants to use me. How? That is something that I still need to discover.
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