I haven’t been this tired or read or studied as many business books as I did back in college. I have forgotten that side of me, in favor of other pursuits such as parenting and, yes, writing.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the top stressors that turn your life upside down. On the list were changing jobs, moving homes, ending relationships, or any type of major, life-changing loss.
I live my life in reverse. Where others my age are already planning for their retirement, I’m just beginning again. The last two decades of my life were focused on raising a family, and although I wrote professionally through those years, give or take a few years, I never really worked full-time.
As I write this, I’m in a state of in-betweens. I’m in between moving jobs, from doing part-time and freelance work, to now, at the cusp of hitting my second adulthood, going back into full-time work. In the same breath, I’m in the midst of moving homes, from living in the suburbs, to right smack in the urban zone. In many ways it feels like a new beginning, and rather than stress myself out, I’m trying to enjoy every moment of this major transition.
One afternoon, I was having quiet time at a coffee shop close to work, and could not help but overhear the conversation taking place between two women beside me.
My life is on the cusp of major changes. Half the year is over, and I find myself walking into new doors that I would not have thought would be open to me 15 years ago. A year shy of turning golden and I feel that my life has just begun. It isn’t perfect, but what life is, anyway? It’s still a wonderful place to be, and one that I am truly grateful for.
It’s been a tough month, with one friend after another being diagnosed with breast cancer. Most of the women are my age. Two out of five have a strong history of cancer, the other three do not. One is a vegetarian and a yogi.
In searching for my father over the last few years, I finally stumbled on a story that would make a box-office hit. In the process I discovered the great love my grandparents had for one another.
Fifteen years on Monday, June 3— that’s how long he’s been gone. I was poring through some old photographs the other day when it suddenly hit me that my son has been gone for 15 years now, and a wave of intense longing and sadness suddenly came over me. He was 4 years old when he passed away one rainy early evening in 1998, after having been in a coma for two weeks. His small, newly operated heart finally stopped beating that Wednesday evening, and he returned to his true home.
A separation or an annulment process is never easy—for the person going through it, and for all the family members affected by it. No matter how progressive we have become, there’s still a lot of stigma attached to it, more so in Philippine society.
