If there is something that you want yourself to insist on it is to stay positive in all and whatever circumstance/s there is and are with life. When I took a leave from my 10-year very stable job as a Guidance counselor of high school students in a university, I thought of the beautiful life I could start with in the United States. I went there as tourist after I got a 10-year multiple entry. I felt so blessed since I never had a chance to travel to the other side of the globe.
It felt so good being given such chance. But then it was in that place also where I learned the hardest and humblest lessons of all. Since I did menial jobs as start up, I thought I left my most comfortable life to be in that strange land. I cried at the first housekeeping job I landed (though I earned $130 per day and left after a week hahahah). I also experienced being a nanny, part time in an employment agency owned by Filipinos, and also did caregiving jobs.
It was not an easy life. I felt I traded my profession, career advancement and all other opportunities I had just to earn dollars. I knew of Filipinos who were in the upper class here in the Philippines and are professionals (doctors, lawyers, CPA, teachers, guidance counselor like me, nurses, radio news scooper and a lot more) who take the kinds of jobs I were into all for the comfortable lives and luxuries they could extend to their families (great sacrifice ha).
Well I did the best I can to at least be noticed in those kinds of jobs but to no avail. I rarely, got to last in one job. I would then transfer to another one until before the end of 6th month ( I did not plan to overstay).
All for the sake of an adventure and the search for that “ better life” that I thought I could have if I would stay longer in US (which did not materialize). But then the desire to stay on course was the strongest weapon I had.
Let me put it this way. I was blessed by friends who are not only generous but beautiful souls as well. I had a regular bonding with a ex-nun who happened to be my “surrogate” mother while I was there. I call her ate Ann. Oh, she was such a beautiful person though at times I got a little motherly “spanking” from her which did well as to taming my character. It was from her also that I got to know (shared by her to me from the magazine she read) about a mother that never said anything negative with any of their family’s experiences. Ate Ann stressed further that when this family didn’t have money, the mother would just say something like …”oh we won’t have headache with budgeting…” so on and so forth. This woman … as I understood it always had a way of looking at things the positive way.
So when I got back here in the Philippines, I was so armed with such great armor of strength to go on… The first beautiful response to being positive is the coming of a Jesuit priest named Fr. Frank Savadera (as referred by my first spiritual director Fr. Norlan Julia, SJ) that gave me spiritual direction. Piece by piece I was strengthened even more realizing that that I was broken down as to see the brighter and the brightest side of things. I held on to the challenge to sticking to the little daily “fights” to life….
And so to continue…
The above design is specifically for couples carrying the message WE NOURISH EACH OTHER
While I was in process by my spiritual director, I tried to produce shirts that send the positive messages. They were products of the joy (Joyfully Hopeful) that I have experienced from the “long sleep”. The shirts sold a lot with the help of many individuals that did the distribution themselves including my SD of course Fr. Frank. Though today I kind of suppress a little the marketing side since I and my husband are into innovating it a little and searching for the right people that can help us produce through machine printing. We also opt to finding a supplier that can give us a reasonable costs of shirts so as we could sell a cheap shirt to be able to “market” the messages.
…trying to leap to the second piece of this blog…
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