It’s been a year since I landed in Manila, and life has come full circle. I’m back in my old routines but also welcomed some changes along the way. Some of them are: keeping up oral care while I wear braces, maintaining my newly groomed digitally permed hair, reviewing almost every single diner I have been to and being more active in content development, attending to a new church, being more analytical in shopping for garments and honing my presentation skills not only for work but also for events by hosting.
I also muster stronger faith each day in a Power greater than myself. Pouring my sentiments to God and to people I trust will take care of them helps me better comprehend things at hand. When I’m still unsure, I just listen to the Divine Power and pray to be open to what I hear. I can never predict where and when the message will come, so I stay receptive and aware.
Last weekend, I had a talk with myself. It went well. Here are bits of truth and realizations I’ve gathered from experience from the latter half of 2012 to date:
Real Scoop on Life After the Homecoming
1. You don’t know everything. Google might.
Recognize your own lack of knowledge and uselessness sometimes. That requires acceptance. There are so many things to learn in the world that a lifetime may not be enough to know them all alone. You can turn to books, experts, online forums and search engines.
Not knowing doesn’t mean you’re on the wrong track or chose the wrong profession or are hopelessly lazy. You may see yourself as someone small now, but take courage to lift up your eyes and soon you’ll know everything you have to know about your chosen subject.
2. Be yourself. You’re the only person truly qualified.
Be proud of your merits and stand your ground against the bigotry and ignorance around you. stop putting barriers where there shouldn’t be any. Or see shadows where there aren’t. Be confident and think that you are where you are through your own sweat and nobody else’s. You will be okay, whatever the “peanut gallery” may think.
Sit up and pay attention. Sit up and claim the pride that accepts you just as you are… and uses that pride to spur you on. Practice progress, not perfection.
3. When you find an individual or a group who gets to know you and accepts you for being yourself, treasure them. They’re rare.
Don’t settle for people who don’t give you things to say. Forever is a long time to make small talk.
Also, be the type of friend you want to have, even when you don’t feel like it. It’s called maturity. When you feel breathless, it would be instinctive to retreat alone. Sometimes that’s needed and good. Sometimes, it can be your way of grasping for control. So you need to treasure and accept yourself as the best friend you can have in a lifetime.
4. Maintaining a good exercise and fitness regime truly helps!
The type of physical exercise does not matter; just make sure to practice and perform it regularly and as frequently as you can. “No one said that it’s going to be easy. If it’s easy, then everyone would have done it.”
I confess that from the beginning, every time I plan to exercise, I ask myself why do I need to force myself to do it. I’m already satisfied with my body weight and shape, anyway. So why spend hours in training to feel body pain in the next days? Despite these questioning, I kept going.
No matter how hard you try to stay on track, slip-ups are part of the process. To clear your mind and also still have confidence to continue the battle, you have to stay fit both mentally and physically.
If I can’t train at that moment, I still do—in my mind. I swim, somersault, run, jump and fly. Then I remind myself to recalculate and take the next turn, with my inner voice scolding me like a GPS directing me to the right road.
5. Life is not a spectator sport. You have to play and watch concurrently to learn.
No one ever said it was going to make sense, this life. Yet we try to make it so. There’s no one size fits all and there are no guarantees. We may well fail because of having fuzzy, too many or unrealistic goals or simply poor planning. It happens and I’ve got to consider that. But if I do mess up, I don’t want it to be because I didn’t give it a darn good go. I live and still am trying to defy gravity. But I also have to teach myself to realize that a busy life is not equal to a full life.
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