A year after saying yes to the invitation from my friend Excel for a feature story in a finance magazine, I received another message from him asking if he could interview me again. This time, it was for Family Matters, a Catholic magazine published by Don Bosco Press. I’ve known Excel since we were colleagues back when we were still writing for MMLDC Highlights so it’s easy to say yes to his invitation.
Just like the previous appearance that I had for July-September 2017 issue of MoneySense magazine, I was invited by Excel to discuss about my day as a paralegal for the Youth Talk section of Family Matters magazine.
Next to being able to help others with the duties I perform in my career as a paralegal, one of the things that make me happy for having a challenging and interesting job are opportunities like this; because being a subject for feature stories such as this one not only allow me to give readers a sneak peak in my day-to-day life at work but this also gives me the chance to impart knowledge to people (in this case, the youth) as well.
Family Matters magazine is available at the religious store of St. John Bosco Parish, Antonio Arnaiz cor. Chino Roces Avenue in Makati.
There are two personal projects that I have always wanted to try and accomplish myself. First was a 30-Day Photo Challenge and the other is this thing called Gratitude Jar. I was able to hurdle the first task sometime last year (which I will write about in this blog next). The Gratitude Jar project sounded interesting but the plan was pushed aside for a while.
Reviving the said project almost did not happen. At least not until two things happened: First was coming across this note that I found outside the parish one morning during my daily visits on the way to the office.
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| Grateful people are joyful people. |
When I thought that reason was not enough, the second one came during the early part of this year. When we have to go through and face an ordeal which I would describe to be something I never expected we would ever experience as a family.
I decided to give the project a go not really thinking much about it. In my mind, I was asking one thing: How and where can you find something good when a day and situation turn out to be something bad. Yes, I know it sounds pessimistic so I thought I'll go through this project one day at a time.
I know for some people, they would think of a Gratitude Jar as just a basic fragile container filled with sappy notes. Admittedly, I used to think of the same before; which was a reason why I shelved the idea for quite some time. But as days passed, I just realized it helped me with something -- to form a habit of finding something good and beautiful out of a day -- no matter how simple, complicated, tiring and toxic it might be. This activity also allows me to recall a number of random acts of kindness that were done to me by strangers that I meet. And just thinking about those is enough not just to leave me with a pleasant memory but with a different kind of happiness as well.
The other thing I learned while doing this personal project is the importance of celebrating each success no matter how big or small it is. My gratitude jar has also become a vessel of appreciation because I realized I wrote not just memories but milestones as well.
The Gratitude Jar Project will entail daily effort. It's a 365-day activity. I've yet to count the contents of my jar but just seeing it filled with happy, positive memories that I can read through by the end of the year is enough for me to pursue and continue to get going. It might just be a little personal project but somehow, it gives meaning to the 24 hours each day that I'm blessed to have.
