Thursday, January 29, 2009

hey

For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'

These words can describe my sudden philosophical shift

2008 part 2

Ok, part 2 of this post

As mentioned in the previous post, my 2008 was basically divided into 3 parts. I took care of the remaining school thingies so the next part is the unemployment months.

I already did a recap of my work misadventures in another post (here and here). So I wouldn't really go into details. I guess what I would just say about it was that it was quite a humbling experience for me. Doing nothing for nearly half a year was very frustrating. Not to toot my own horn but I always felt that I had the skills to be able to land a job that I would like quite easily. But knowing that I was still unemployed for all those months and seeing my classmates/blockmates/ and other friends finding a job that they like, it really did make me feel inadequate.

It was also one of those times that I truly regretted not giving my all during my stay in school. I always ended up saying that perhaps if I did well enough, or pushed myself to do better and got stand out grades perhaps I wouldn't have too many problems in employment. Now, I realize that grades are not the be all and all of employment but at the time I really felt that if I had graduated with all those honors and recognition thingies, things would have been a lot easier.

Well that's that, for more information just read the previous post.


So the next part would be the working months. I worked at an IT Outsorucing company as a technical writer. As readers may surmise I'm not really that good at writing. I'm more of just typing in white heat and seeing how the words plan out. So to actually earn a living as someone who has to write a bunch of words every day was quite difficutl. However, I guess I worked in that company not just because I needed the money but more on the fact that I liked the company. From the people at HR to the team of writers, and even to the guy who brought us food, I really had fun with the interactions I had with them.

And that's basically the wrap up for the year.

I guess here's the list thing again that I tend to do for every year end post.

Thanks to:

-James Wyson:
Same as last year. It's great to know that you have someone who helps you when you need it.
-Hans Huvalla, Richmond Fang, Alex Junia, Deneb Plazuela, Jelyn Baccay, Micci Venzon:
A combination of my CTK and LS groupmates. The combination of those two classes during the last college months were probably one of the most stressful months of college. Fortunately I had these people as my groupmates. I know that they'd pick up the slack whenever I'm not doing well hehe
-Mich Cruz, Kathy Calilao, Bon Cabiladas, Abbi Luz, Rom Guanzon
Theology immersion was one of the more memorable things in my life,
- Block R2
One of the better things that happened in college was being able to meet this diverse group of people and share the whole college experience with them.
- Mavie Bompat, Pam De Leon, Cathy Moscare
These were the people that I got quite close to while i was working. We spent so many hours together be it in the office or in the videoke rooms. It really made my first job quite enjoyable.
- LWS people

As mentioned before, it wasn't really the work that made me enjoy going to the office, it's the people. Gelo, Josh, Aika, Joseph, Leslie, Erma, Jake, Fritzie, Kathy, Mikay, Mikko, James, Ate Maja, Ms. Kristine, Ate Rachel, IIvy, Chat and Bangge
- Cindy
Just before the year ended, I went to Singapore. And I met an internet friend. It was very nice of her to tour me around and even treat me to some local delicacies, especially considering that it was the first time that we met.





Tuesday, January 20, 2009

2008 part 1

I know this post is quite late but I was fortunate to immediately find work right after the Christmas break that I really did not have the time to post. Well that's not fully true, the thing is, in my previous job and even the job that I'm currently holding, I work as a writer. And well to write a post after writing for so many hours while at the office (or at home in the last few weeks of December) tends to be quite tiring hehe.

I think stripped off all the events, the mere fact that it was the year 2008 would already be highly memorable for me. This is of course because 2008 was the year when I was supposed to graduate, and graduation tends to generate a lot of emotions for someone. Graduation signifies that end to a life of academic education (of course there's masters but let's not get too ahead of the post) and a beginning of a new life, as a student of the "real world."

How was my 2008 like? I would probably break it down into 3 main parts, the final 3 months of my college life, the unemployment period (April to September) and finally finding work (Late september to present).

The final 3 months of college was quite hectic but very memorable. My group mates and I had to submit a CTK paper as well as an LS paper as part of the requirements. There was also the portfolio that I had to create for my drawing class, theology immersion and presentation, and some more papers for my Philosophy and Feature Writing classes. Of course, there are also the exams, both oral and written, that I had to take care of.

Out of all those requirements, I guess what really stands out was the Theology Immersion. I don't think I made a post about it, (probably was too caught up with having to do other things, but I remember posting the pictures here). It was a standout event because I can actually see it as some sort of a culminating activity for my 3 years in SPEED. Being able to play with special kids, and forming a special bond with them (especially the two Pauls) gives me that (corny as this may seem, or even out of character with what people perceive me to be) sense of inner joy and fulfillment. I vividly remember cleaning up with Leslie after a kid who peed on himself, chatting with new found friends at the sari sari store while the kids were sleeping, carrying around a kid on my shoulders as my work out, and of course, racing a wheel chair around the cottolengo grounds during the last day (although we lost the competition). The presentation we did about the presentation was arguably one of my more memorable ones, I don't remember ever having done a presentation where I really felt involved and not just doing it for the sake of grades. The group orals/finals for theo class was one of the best I ever had, hearing Father Pat Giordano saying, "I don't have to ask you any more questions, you can't raise your grade anymore, it's too high."


The task for our classes was one of the more stressful moments I had in college. It was quite frustrating, especially when the two of them are competing with the very limited time a student has for doing school work. This is especially true since LS required a whole lot of reports and was a 7:30 class. At 7:30 it was quite difficult to find time to cram the report. I mean if it was a bit later, we could have probably met during the day and done the parts we needed to do. But through talent, will, and some help from every other student who were in that class, I guess we were able to pull through.

CTK on the other hand was quite weird. It was one of the moments where I was not fully confident in what I was doing. I mean I think my groupmates trusted me but honestly I was not trusting myself. I guess that's why I had to call and email and contact a some of my friends who I believe are well versed in IT and marketing just to do my part in the paper. I'd be lying if I said the defense of the paper was a success hehe. It was one of the more "amusing" moments of all my defense life, I am known as someone who talks a lot, or at least defends whatever point I chose to take but during this defense, I can't find any word to say that can help. As Richmond put it, "that defense left a bad taste in the mouths." Fortunately, while the defense exposed our faults in some aspects, the other parts of the paper were good enough to carry us to an Ok grade.

Lost among the paper work was having to make this huge poster for art class. It was quite difficult since at that time I already lost all my belief that I was an art genius and I just didn't know it. Tracy's excellent work didn't help matters as I found how utterly worthless my works are hehe. But I guess Sir Goco saw the effort that I put into the works that I do (all effort + no talent ) and gave me a good enough grade.

After all the requirements were passed, there was really nothing to do but to wait and see if we would graduate. I guess I did well enough and I graduated :)

This post is going too long, so I'll just post them in parts. Haha the next part would hopefully be posted tomorrow