Seven Months

Seven months ago (December), I was in the Czech Republic, eating a pint of pity ice cream in -15 degree weather, despairing that I would be leaving Europe and going back to unemployment in the Philippines. I flew back home. I had a lovely Christmas with my family. I spent a wonderful, rainy day at the theme park Enchanted Kingdom with one of my best friends. I had a reunion with my friends from high school, La Salle Zobel.

Six months ago (January), I was applying for jobs in the Philippines and for AIESEC internships all over the world. I was informed that I was not selected for my preference, a social media internship in Singapore, so I applied for another position in Portugal and was chosen. A group of distant friends from my high school accepted me as one of their own, despite the fact I hadn’t seen some of them for years–they took me out and about.

Five months ago (February), after a somewhat lonely Valentine’s Day with my family as we visited Cebu, I received an email saying that the internship in Singapore was available again, and that they wanted me. I weighed my options, and chose Singapore over Portugal. I went to Bohol with my family.

Four months ago (March), I arrived in Singapore to find my hostel reservation was mistakenly booked by the people organizing my stay. Sneezing and sniffling, I went to my first day of work with an allergy attack from the cats residing in the house I was temporarily living in. On the last week of the month, I launched my company’s Facebook Page for the region.

Three months ago (April), my family visited me in Singapore, and I realized that without them, I had a big gaping hole within myself. I had been feeling unreasonably stressed and somewhat unenthusiastic about my future. Sitting outside my apartment building at night, my brother told me about his journey towards a Christian life of faith.

Two months ago (May), I made the decision to explore my religion, which I had felt consciously alienated from since I was ten years old. I re-thought all the Theology and Philosophy lessons that I had ever learned. I thought about values, and what I valued in others. I thought about how I had been traveling, but with no truly meaningful destination in mind. I joined an organization called Landings, which helps returning Catholics come home to the Church. I attended my first religious service since my graduation Mass in a church in Malacca, Malaysia–which turned out to be Anglican.

Last month (June), I was at a huge company event with over 650 people in attendance, doing live tweeting to cover what was going on. I went to confession for the first time in six or seven years.

Yesterday, I was frantically trying to practice for a talk I will be giving for a Communications & PR conference in Shanghai. I decided to procrastinate by writing this, because a friend from the Philippines who had been living in Singapore for half a year had made me overly contemplative.

Today, I will be going to the Changi Airport for my night flight to Shanghai, where I’ll be for a week. On Thursday next week, I will be doing the aforementioned talk, in front of approximately 50 professionals, partnered with the Asia-Pacific Vice President for Communications in my company.

On Saturday, I will be recovering from my night flight back to Singapore. Then I will be going on a 2-day religious retreat that will be the culminating activity of my Landings program–a retreat celebrating the blessings that have been given to me by God.

What a ride life has been, and will be.