Entry 23: My Anniversary at Basa Pilipinas

Entry 23: My Anniversary at Basa Pilipinas

364 days have passed and it’s April 16 once again: same month, same day, different year.

It’s been a year living in Ilocos Norte but it feels longer than that. I can start listing the reasons why I find being deployed here so inconvenient. Being 14 hours away from home tops the list.

Like so many people who feel caught up in the grind, I successfully fell blind of how much of a blessing the past year has been.

It’s easy to fail being optimistic.

364 nights were mostly spent with my face glued to my phone’s or laptop’s screen until I fall asleep. Not much night life, not much friends, not much energy left after a day’s work. Weekends went by working. If not at work, I sleep through Saturdays to recover from a tiring week. And of course, weekdays were consumed … at the office or on official business.

For a time, I felt stuck not being able to physically be with my loved ones. Thank God for technology.  I was a hair strand away from praying for time travel or teleportation.

It’s easier to rant; to see the uglier side of things.

Then again, like many who have come before us have upheld, “easy” is not an ingredient of fulfillment.

It’s fulfilling to see that the same kids who could not even identify syllables a few months before are now reading stories fluently. It’s heartwarming when teachers receive us warmly in their communities. It’s humbling when our office updates us of the number of schools we have reached.

None of those came easy. And when I take a step back, the truth is, none of those also felt like work. In fact, no matter how stressed or wired we all were, we’d still always tag majority of our days as fun!

Learning a new dialect, discovering less traveled roads, experiencing their food, and living their culture – I was blessed to have been deployed in the Ilocos Region. I was even more blessed to have six officemates-turned-family to share the journey with.

The perks did have their banes, though.

There are so many moments when I would also wake up praying I was in Manila, working in the morning, eating out with my boyfriend, and watching late night movies with my parents before I sleep. In fact, I already found myself one day, on the verge of resigning and moving to another organization closer to home. But the circumstances aren’t as generous. Perhaps, the time is not yet right.

In those trying times, when the stinging feeling of missing the warmth of my loved ones’ hugs or hearing their non-Virtual cackles kick in, I just remind myself what I’m here for. I guess, the time to go home has not yet come.

364 days and counting … for tonight, I rest from the day’s work and the year's musings happy and fulfilled. J

Entry 22: Unearthed Thoughts

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Composed by my 24-year-old self circa 2013

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Realizing our Full Potential

Roxy Rolle

"When I grow up, I want to be..." When we were younger, our parents used to finish this sentence for us. In second grade, I answered this with "Teacher". Clearly, that defied what my folks wanted me to say--they wanted me to be a doctor.

In college, I chose a communication course. At the time, my parents still wanted me to be a doctor but (1) they could not afford Medicine School, and (2) I do not have the guts to gut people.

Nonetheless, they were content with not having a doctor of a daughter as long as I graduate on time sans being a teenage mom. I gave my parents that--and a few medals upon graduation.

With a bright resume, many expected me to enter publications, advertising, and journalism. Once more, I was deviant of their expectations. I am not in any of those fields.

"When I grow up, I want to be..." and "After graduation, I will be..." have long been standards of career success. While those might have worked in the past. That is no longer appropriate at present. Those two only prematurely define the youth to shape themselves into available professions.

Children who want to be engineers are motivated to excel in Mathematics. Those who want to be doctors need to be good in the Sciences. Aspiring writers have to build their portfolio early. These are stereotypes. In many ways, forcing kids into stereotypes limits the youth from realizing their full potential.

We live in an age where job titles are as varied as the multiplicity of mobile phones and gadgets. As such, we no longer have to make ourselves fit into a profession (if I want to be an engineer, I have to be good in Math; etc). Rather, professions are now available to fit our expertise. Thereby, all that's necessary is to ensure that we become the best of who we can be--not because we have to be but because we want to.

I used to define myself as a writer. Since I was young, I take pride in my command of the English language. Now, I am 24. I am not a writer by profession. I tried. Financial constraints moved me to choose other more lucrative options. Seven months after graduation, the corporate arena became my resolve in a young industry called BPO.

BPO is enjoyable, fresh, innovative, global, and relatively dominated by young executives. The youthful energy is exciting and inspiring. It feels like school--yet this time, people pay for my ideas.

For me, BPO is where I found equally excellent yet uniquely brilliant people working for diverse goals. Above all, what I appreciate about this field is that I need not define myself based on my skill or profession.

Yes, I can fairly write. Yet my career's success need not be measured anymore by the by-lines embellishing my name. I now find fulfillment in seeing our share of ideas be transformed to daily innovations.

I used to feel bad about leaving the newsroom. Now, I understand that writing is my skill. Ideas are my unlimited resources .... and BPO is a new avenue that we all shape and continuously define. I have found BPO as a free-thinkers' Utopia.

I hope more jobs and industries like this develop. This way, kids of our era need not force themselves into stereotypes.

Let's get excited in this new age where the only ending to "When I grow up, I want to be..." is "a person whose full potential is realized".