I swear, I always learn things the hard way! Maybe a lot of you can relate to that. I write for a small airline's onboard mag and I love the job. Love meeting and talking with different kinds of people. Most of them are pretty darn interesting too! I love doing research, more so on topics that are personally interesting. Some topics...well, let's just say I've had private chef Michael Prado laugh at me for calling him out of the blue asking about aphrodisiacs he can recommend and where these can either be bought or eaten! Though we come out with our mag only once every two months, our production schedule's tight since we're a lean, mean fighting machine, err, team. One other great thing about it is that everyone in the team gets along pretty well with everyone else. But I just had to take on more work, duh! I said yes to doing freelance work for a major lifestyle+fashion magazine since the topic was interesting. Assignments and deadlines from our travel mag AND the other publication started gushing in and next thing I know, I'm drowning in a sea of articles to research and write. Uh, what about my social life then?! The most fun I have had during that time was doing the rounds of Manila museums, parks and malls with relatives visiting from the U.K. Well, that and learning how NOT to fall off a skim board along the beach of Boracay's Station 1 just last week. I have screamed at myself in the bathroom for my seeming inability to manage my schedule and commitments. You know...after those moments when you finally snap out of the hypnotizing rhythm of brushing your teeth up and down a million times since your younger sister is already banging on the door asking what new, intricate form of personal dental hygiene you're practicing! At the end of it all, there's nothing else to do but LAUGH, SHRUG MY SHOULDERS, PICK MYSELF UP AGAIN and CHALK IT UP TO EXPERIENCE.  It's so uncanny but Alanis Morissette's lyrics always seem to capture most of my hard-(l)earned lessons, and they do so excellently in this case.
I recommend biting off more then you can chew to anyone / I certainly do / I recommend sticking your foot in your mouth at any time / Feel free! /
Not that she's giving anyone permission NOT to be smart about one's affairs, a'right! What probably really counts, after all the stupidity, is tenacity. In the Natalie Goldberg book I recently read (yeah, I actually had time to finish reading an entire book, hooray!), "Long Quiet Highway", she recounted her Zen teacher Dainin Katagiri Roshi admitting in one of their classes that he had felt an unbearable pang of loneliness just a day or two before. "But I didn't let myself get tossed away by it," Roshi said. Alanis isn't one to get all preachy, but I think that's somehow what she wanted to impart. Or something along the lines of, say, Just shrug it off and get on with living, damn it!, just to get her point across loud and clear, ha ha! Now THAT"S more her style.
So no matter how many times I mess up, no matter how many times I forget my "lessons", the lyrics still stand true and bring comfort: You wait and see when the smoke clears / You live, you learn / You love, you learn / You cry, you learn / You lose, you learn / You bleed, you learn / You scream, you learn. And for persons like me who were simply born stubborn, there's always the repeat track button of an mp3 player or iPod to drive that message home. ____________________________________________ If you know of someone else who''s stubborn and needs to read this blog entry, do pass it on to that person. May he or she get some good from it. Or not. Either way...
 | Hahaha! Welcome to the world of adults! This is just the kind of thing that we so-called-adults have to put up with everyday. Well, of course, bumming around is still an option. I do have friends who have chosen that path, and they're still bums at age 40. But i think you're on the right track. you'll learn to manage yourself soon. And making dumb choices is really part of the process. Stretching yourself almost to the breaking point is as much a part of it as well. Just don't forget to enjoy the ride. |
 | Everybody makes choices they regret sometimes, and they also say things they regret the moment they say them. All part and parcel in life and just something we all have to put up with.
Sometimes the things we say or do can be laughed off easily, but other times we do get ourselves into trouble for it.
As Marvin the Paranoid Android says in 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' on more than one occassion: "Life? Don't talk to me about life!"
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 | hey, busy life, huh? but sounds fun n exciting.
enjoy your life~ hmm, i think you're already doing it, so just keep it up! =) |
|  Can I quote you on this one, sir Caloy? He he. These things I've also learned and re-learn the hard way and through stick-by-you-no-matter-what friends and family. I just wish society as a whole is as encouraging, especially to young people. So that more and more of them don't get "tossed around and let go" before they know they should just hang on and enjoy the ride. :)  Sure, you can quote me on that. But i need to temper my statement a bit. It is absolutely essential to be on the right track. To be climbing the right ladder. To be following your "true north." Given this premise, then by all means go for it like crazy, even to your breaking point. But there's no sense doing that if you're on the wrong track, if you're climbing the wrong ladder, if you're going farther and farther away from your "true north." Being tenacious wont get you there. Trying harder is just dumb. The point of all the trial-and-errors, making those dumb choices and learning from them is to find the right direction. You didn't get a road map to life when you were born, you discover who you are and what you were meant to do only as you live life. Scriptures are a fantastic guide to life, they're essential to discovering who you are and what you were meant to do. Talking with wise old mentors (not necessarily the most successful ones by the world's standards, but the most fulfilled ones, i would say) would be very helpful as well. Being sensitive to who you are in God's eyes and how God created you to be is vital. So, given all that, and once you're pretty sure you're pursuing who you ARE and what you were meant to BE and DO, then go for it, girl! I'll be rooting for you! |
 | lately i've been so stressed with work, too... and just this afternoon (after conducting trade check on a sunday), i was listening to my jagged little pill album.. i sooo can relate to the songs... and as for you learn, yeah, you pray, you learn / you ask, you learn / you live, you learn.... |
 | lately i've been so stressed with work, too... and just this afternoon (after conducting trade check on a sunday), i was listening to my jagged little pill album.. i sooo can relate to the songs... and as for you learn, yeah, you pray, you learn / you ask, you learn / you live, you learn.... Good morning, Mids! So great to hear from you again, and the fact that you also find comfort in listening to the wisdom of Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" album. :) (I wouldn't have known about Alanis myself, really, if it hadn't been for a good friend of mine back in college who introduced me to her music.)
I know all about "working weekends" and boy did they take a huge toll on my health and overall happiness. :) Like a lot of other people, I'm only now learning to give work the space and time it is due so it doesn't crowd out all else in life. "Balance," as sir Caloy wisely put it. Hoping and praying we'll all work to have more of that in our lives for more peace, love and fun. ;) |
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