Due to the recent Holy Week and the observance of Day of Valor, I will be on vacation till today. With the jobs I've had in the past, I've been acquainted to celebrating numerous national holidays of other countries. But this is actually the first extended vacation I've had in years because the institution I am working for now follows Philippine holidays.
Given that it has been months since I last posted to this blog, I considered utilizing the holiday break to catch up on blogging. Instead of writing another text-heavy piece, I'll let the pictures tell you what happened to me during the first three months of the year and what kept me away from this blog.
When my appointment took effect in January, I relocated to a new office. I previously had an office in the space used by the campus SPM coordinator, but when I received my designation at the beginning of this year, I was also moved to the office that went along with it. Funny thing is, even though I refer to it as a "new office," it's not really new. Since this was once the location of the campus publication, where I worked from 2001 to 2005 as section editor before becoming editor-in-chief in my final year.
In spite of my busy schedule in February, I managed to accept requests that involved proofreading and editing. People thought my enthusiasm was strange, but I didn't mind doing it because, despite their belief that the activity is typically a tedious chore, I actually find it to be exciting. In addition, for some reason, the act of marking and correcting sentences and paragraphs in order to produce a sensible manuscript actually helps to calm my mind. I'm aware that it's unusual, but for me, that's how it goes.
Like last year, I continued reading books and keeping a reading list during the first three months of this year. Unexpectedly, the majority of the novels I've finished reading were written by local authors. Just a few weeks ago, I finished reading Getting to You by Jonaxx, and this quarter, I intend to read Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks, which was a gift from a graduating student in February.
Still on the subject of books, I went above and beyond and pulled off some "ninja moves" by surprising Colleen with a copy of It Ends With Us, a book written by Colleen Hoover (coincidentally, the author is her namesake, how cool is that, right?). She was the one who made a kind gesture by giving me a book written by my favorite author. Since some of the famous people I follow on Instagram read and discuss the aforementioned author's books, I am already familiar with Colleen Hoover and her work. The difficulty I had in locating a copy of the book in the bookstore that I frequently visit suggests that she is a very talented author. Fortunately, copies are still available in the Fully Booked online store, so I bought one from there.
After deciding to take in and sort of adopt our neighbor's abandoned cat, I recently became a fur mom. We haven't had a pet in our home in a long time, and while having a pet is a fantastic stress reliever, I initially felt a little worried about our new pet's appearance because its eyes are a different hue. It's fortunate that my friend Miguel is a cat dad and is experienced with cats and these kind of issues since he was able to explain this situation to me.
Just in March, I saw myself beginning another endeavor. After drafting my first story on Wattpad for two years, I made the decision to sit down and begin drafting a second one. But the book I'm presently working on is not a sequel to The Seventh Secret Wish, which I wrote back in 2021, despite what some of my friends thought. The story I'm working on currently features a different cast of people with a different conflict and plot, as I'm already satisfied with how things turned out for the characters Migo and Valerie. But in contrast to my first story, which I finished in four months, this one will take some time to finish because I now have to juggle it with other things.
I had the opportunity to experience what it was like to be an auditee during the internal audit for ISO recertification only two months into my current position. The phrase "there's always a first time" from my former classmate Joy brought up memories of the experience for me. I must admit that it was quite nerve-wracking for a newbie, but the good thing was, my coworkers were there to support me when I needed assistance with a variety of things.
This quarter alone, my body rebelled against me a number of times. I must accept that I am also at fault. People around me kept advising to take things slowly, but I insisted that I needed to learn everything at once. I believed that would be the move I needed to make in order to save my job, but it turned out to be a really bad decision. All that worrying and even showing up for work about three times with essentially no sleep had a negative effect on me. I gave in and took that compensatory time off to get the relaxation and sleep I needed after going through a pretty trying experience during the ISO internal audit. And if there was one thing I learned after that "physiological backfire" that I experienced, it's the importance of listening to the screams of your own body. Being competitive all the time is not always a good idea, and if you keep pushing yourself to your own limits, your body will punish you for it.
The need for a work-life balance is something I've recently realized too. Because of this, I deliberately carve out time for impromptu, unplanned meetups with friends and colleagues, both old and new. Spending time with people in your "proximal zone" can actually be beneficial, whether it's merely a last-minute invitation for coffee or a two-hour convo over dinner. And sometimes, indulging in conversations is the ideal remedy when I need to get hold of the clarity and mental respite especially during those mentally-draining and toxic moments, because honestly, with all that has happened, and given the nature of my work, it's not always roses and confetti-filled days.
Tomorrow is the start of another workweek. That implies a fresh set of duties to complete, and perhaps, because it's also the start of another quarter, it'll be filled with lessons worth considering. I know it won't be all rose-colored glasses, but I'm hoping to learn a thing or two with what I will face in the second quarter.
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