Bittersweet...

November 2014 

After 8 years of working in a R&D Company in Cebu, I finally decided to resign. It was not an easy move. Cebu was my second home that time. I've met great people at work and in life. Still, some important life choices must be made. I resigned last February 2013. After which, I decided to move to Manila to find a new job. Now, I'm here in my small room quietly tucked in a corner here in Taguig. It was a rough start, but thankfully I have friends here who helped me get into my feet. I will always be grateful to Malin and Kieth for wearingly spent two days helping me find a place to stay. And so, I somehow started building a new life here. I meet new friends, mostly my teammates at work. Somehow my lifestyle changed. Back in Cebu, we used to spend our past time at a coffee shop. There we read the newspaper and made fun of the daily horoscope while drinking our favourite coffee. Right now, Manila became my new cup of tea. Literally! Tea! Milk tea! I fell in love right way - from Chattime, Gongcha and SerineTea. I jokingly recall my friends laughing at me on how I call SerineTea as SerendipiTea (like the movie). Well, later did I know that it really does exist! Although I haven’t tried their tea yet but it brings back old, but good memories.

I have options now - Coffee or Tea.

Time flies so fasts. After a year and five months working in Manila, my worst nightmare happened! I lost my job last November 2014. It’s been three months now and I’m still unemployed. I probably submitted hundreds of applications and been into a lot of interviews but to no avail. Oftentimes, I failed. I felt my skills didn’ t fit to their expectations.Now, I feel like I have been imprisoned in my own square room for years. Really! Gone are the days that I need to force myself to wake up just to be at work by 10a.m. Gone are the days that I need to face the heavy traffic and snake my way to queue the tightly packed long lines at MRT. Now, I have the freewill to sleep and wake up anytime I like.

But lately, I started to hate it.

I’m worried. Not to mention my daily expense, monthly room rental and other bills. 

How about that? Very annoying! Monetarily stressful indeed!

Despite all of this, November is sweet. Bittersweet.

And it made me realise a lot of things:

First, my perspective changed. I thought my eleven years ++ experience is my greatest asset to land a new job. Yes, experience helps but it is not enough. The demands and expectations of the workforce is very different nowadays. I realised that my skills are no longer competitive (or I could just be searching at the wrong market). In the interviews I had, I realised that I somehow lacked some skills. I believe, now is the best time to improve on my self by developing on the things I lacked.

Second, I got a break from the hustle and bustle of the metro. After I lost my job, I decided to go home to Ozamis. There, I have the best time with my family. No more time pressure. I was able to do the things I like. I bake. I cook my mama’s favourite dish – letchon kawali. Now, I can spend my everyday meals with them. Every moment spent with them is priceless. Even watching T.V. with them is a memory I'll always treasure. Therefore, in this aspect, being unemployed is a gift, a great blessing even. 

More importantly, I've learned to appreciate life even more. How can I appreciate the beauty of a day if I didn't experience the dark and cold times of night? Believe me! Being unemployed is not easy yet it somehow made me wiser and braver. And yes, I may be unemployed but I believe that my 11 years of working have been remarkable. I became a good provider to my family. 

Right now, I do hope I was able to share with you a part of my wisdom. Yes, being unemployed gave me the time to write blogs and somehow gain enlightenment. But I know there are other ways to get wiser. I wouldn't wish for you to be unemployed to gain these lessons. I'm not sure you'd want it. But regardless if this was due to boredom or otherwise, the lessons that life taught me while being unemployed is priceless. 

P.S. I have no plans to be part of the statistics as unemployed for much longer. Hopefully in time, I will be given the privilege to work again.

Very soon. (Fingers Crossed)

Jimble