Post Birthday Thoughts

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

We (that's me and Clarisse - my other half at birth) just celebrated our birthday last Friday. Nothing new, nothing exciting. Turning 23 wasn't any different from turning 20, 21, or 22 for that matter. I don't feel any older nor do I feel any wiser (haha). Although a lot has happened since last year, except for the fact that I'll be graduating soon, I think nothing much has really changed. Well, nothing really drastic or BIG anyway. Just like what we'd always do every year, we celebrated by eating out. This year I suggested Makati Shangri La's Red. Nice place, good food. However, they have very limited menu choices. We continued with the celebration the day after via a BBQ cookout for friends.

Birthday cookout!

It started out one day – spur of the moment – during lunch at UCC when somebody (I’m not sure if it was me or Clarisse or my mom) suggested why not have a joint BBQ cookout instead. We’d always have family BBQ cookouts. We’d grill steak, chicken, barbeque, and prawns and we’d also make our own hamburgers and hotdog sandwiches. It was always fun to have cookouts and so we thought it was a good idea. Other than for the leftover food, the cookout turned out alright. I guess our food projections weren’t that accurate. It’s either that or I guess everyone was “nahihiya” or on a diet. Nonetheless, I’m really happy that everyone showed up. I’m not particularly super dooper fond of birthdays because it reminds me of my age (hehe). But seriously, I don’t want people to treat me any differently just because it’s my birthday. As much as possible, I want my birthday to be just like any other day. Don’t get me wrong it’s still a “special day” and it wouldn’t hurt if people were actually nice to you but people shouldn’t be too conscious of trying to be exaggeratedly nice to you (not that people were super extra nice to me anyway last Friday hehe). Simply being remembered on your “special day” is enough as it is. After all, it always feels great to be remembered, most especially by important people in your life – that for me is enough reason already to make me feel special.

Next Move After Graduation

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

My OJT is officially over and done with today. Now that I've finished my OJT and with my thesis under way, I'm all set for graduation on December; although the march won't be happening until February. It's still hard to believe that I'll soon be graduating. Over all, college life didn't seem such a drag to me amidst all the stress and pressures of being a student. To think with a double degree, my college years were even extended to 5 years. I didn't mind though because I wanted to make the most out of my student life anyway before finally moving on to the real world. Well, the real world awaits me now. I'm no longer as scared of what the real world holds. I'm no longer as ignorant of what the real world is like. With the OJT experience under my belt (not that it was that much of a BIG experience hehe), I feel more confident and sure. I may have no idea of what's going to happen to me in the real world but at least now I know what to expect. I had a taste and more importantly, a feel of what the real world is like. The question now is...what does the real world have instore for me? I'm currently contemplating on whether or not to start job hunting. From my sister's experience, the job application process may take a while so it might be a good idea to start looking for job prospects as early as now. I don't want to later on succumb to the pressures of my parents most especially when the time comes that they'd start nagging me about my being idle for too long. In my opinion, I think I'll be needing at least a month's rest before mapping out the journey of my future career but just the same I'm willing to work right away if and when opportunity comes knocking at my door. I haven't decided yet whether to relax and take a break after graduation or to start looking for work as early as now so that by graduation, I'll have a job waiting in the wings. You know what's weird? Day to day nothing seems to change but pretty soon everything changes. No matter how much I wanted to take a shift from the monotony of the daily grind, in my mind...my efforts prove to be futile. But little did I now that slowly (and I hope surely hehe), small things, that for too many times I have taken for granted, are starting to unfold right in front of me and before I even start to realize it, change has already happened.

My OJT Experience

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

After a two-week long hiatus from “blogging,” I’m now back with a vengeance (haha yeah right!). I’ve been too caught up with work as if I were actually a regular employee of the company and as if I were being compensated for my work. I guess it comes with the territory of being a/an practicumer, OJT, intern. I would have preferred it to be this way though rather than doing nothing at all or being made as gophers. I may be swamped with work but at least I’m being a productive citizen of this world (haha). If there’s anything that I’ve learned to do, more than anything else, it’s creating and designing webpages. To some extent, I kind of feel proud of myself. I started out with nothing and worried as hell that I wouldn’t be able to do the job well but here I am now – the webmaster. the guru. Okay fine that was a little bit exaggerated (hehe).

Today was supposed to be our last day of our on-the-job-training. I was already looking forward to extending my sleeping hours in the morning but it didn’t surprise me anymore that again, something came up. So what else is new, right? We weren’t able to say our formal goodbyes with our supervisors. It was lunch time already when we finished and since we had to leave already and could no longer wait for after lunch, we decided to leave a note instead. It wasn’t really the proper thing to do but that was the only option unanimously acceptable and available at that time. Later in the afternoon, I got a text though from my supervisor asking if I could come in tomorrow because he wanted to discuss and make some changes in the Intranet. Since I was assigned to the Intranet and not that I have any other choice to begin with, I agreed to go to work tomorrow. Anne, Mae and Pan will not be coming in for work tomorrow since they have no more work to do. So I guess I'm on my own for now. Good luck to me!
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In sum, the whole OJT experience wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, the 200 hours was a breeze except for those days when I had a hard time waking up, when traffic was really bad and when I was feeling lazy and out of it. Going to work and seeing some friendly faces helped a great deal. Having to do OJT with friends made it a whole lot easier for me. It was also nice to have to go to work together everyday with my sisters (and having occasional lunch outs at UCC or Oliver's). I’m sure the real world wouldn’t always have as many friendly faces but we all, relationships that is, have to start somewhere. Before all the relationships and friendships have even started, we were but strangers in this sea of unfamiliar and nameless faces.