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This way to here

It's crazy, really. For three weeks now I've been shuttling between Baguio and Manila. Mondays to Wednesdays I have to be in this Makati office, Wednesday night I get on a bus to Baguio, Thursdays to Saturdays I do my copyediting for our Baguio community paper and then again I travel to Manila on Sundays. This is the setup at least for this month. Come October, I may (or may not) stay in Manila for good.

It's not a new job. I've been freelancing for this
Fil-Am broadsheet since last year and somehow it has been mentioned that they'd eventually hire me for a fulltime editorial job (main office is in San Francisco but they recently opened a Makati bureau, so they need more people). But I just resigned from an 8-5 job last year, so another fulltime job was far from my priorities, I wanted to explore, to not be tied; so I just committed to being a freelancer.


Still, it felt like the offer will resurface, and honestly, in the past I was kind of hoping it will (in time, when I'm ready for another fulltime job), because I was assuming there'd be travel opportunities, a reasonable pay, and a wider scope -- writing-wise. And so it did, it resurfaced just last month.

But after I decided to live in Baguio and after I got this really cool job at a community newspaper, I kind of had these plans to settle there for longer than a year (I've spent nearly eight months there now) and dodge any regular job for the meantime. I didn't expect that the Makati people will offer the position again this year, the soonest I was preparing for it was middle of next year, by then I assumed I could move on and settle back in Manila again. Not this year.

Thing is, if I reject the Makati job this one time, I'm not sure (and I don't feel) that they'd offer the job a third time. I know, I have to ask them, but something tells me I have to decide on my own terms, NOW. This is a job I know I will regret not getting soon, so I'm giving it a shot. At least I'll know if it was worth rejecting.

View from my house

I wanted to spend the holidays in Baguio. Torture, yeah, because that'll be the first time I'd spend it away from my family. But I wanted to experience spending Christmas alone, just for the sheer heck of it, you know? There were many things I wanted to do in Baguio, until this Makati offer came.

There are many complications but all I can say now is that I am f*cking torn. I think I may have finally found the job in Baguio, and now this other job comes in the picture. What makes it all difficult is that I think I like both jobs, but that I'm telling myself I hate the Makati job because I am enjoying myself immensely in Baguio now, get it?

The Makati boss was asking for me to go fulltime this September, but I said I couldn't leave Baguio yet, so now I'm splitting my time. And taking my time to decide, too. Weighing the PROs and CONs, and thinking of the long term. But the present seems to make more sense than the future, doesn't it always?

outcrop

If I really wanted to, and God knows I do, I could do the split schedule for forever. But travelling twice a week two six-hour bus trips every week will eventually take its toll on me, even if I seem to be enjoying it at the moment. Nakakabisado ko na nga yung mga bahay at bukid na dinadaanan ko sa La Union, Pangasinan, Tarlac at North Luzon Expressway. Sa susunod nga na pag-akyat ko, balak kong bilangin yung mga kalabaw at baka. Seriously, I only have to choose one job.

I'm giving this Makati job another month at the most. If it really doesn't work out, my boss in Baguio has assured me that I can always come back. He is the best. My workmates in Baguio are the best lot in the whole of Luzon. Grabe, pare. I told myself before I went to Baguio, "Don't get too attached, ok?" But now I am. I am.

Nandito ako sa Maynila, pero ang isip ko ay nasa Baguio.


Maybe I'm just saying this because I want to feel better. Maybe I can make myself stay in the Makati job for a year at least. I am so tired of doing things half-heartedly, I am so tired of running away, of always thinking " Madali lang naman umalis kung gugustuhin ko."

"Kailangan, may structure ka rin sa buhay mo," my Makati boss told me. Oh, man.

Until when will I be in the "searching" mode? I don't know and I honestly don't care. All I know is that I am happy in Baguio right now, and I can't leave the place so soon. I can't but I will have to, eventually. Why does that eventuality have to be now?


I don't know why I'm doing this to myself, I've been crying for weeks now. Jang has been very very very supportive and again she's putting up with me whenever I cry in the middle of Session Road and in Mcdonald's, or wherever it is that I feel like crying. I don't know why I let myself do this to myself, I mean, deciding is easy and sometimes the choice is obvious? But I like complicating things and I guess this will be my problem until I am 95 years old, yung tipong alam kong dapat na akong mag-pustiso pero pinipilit ko pa rin kumain nang walang ngipin.

Manila or Baguio?

Everyday I'm finding reasons to hate Metro Manila, I mean, I LOVE Manila, but there are some Baguio matters that I'd choose over Manila in a goddamn split heartbeat. Don't even get me started. Okay, I'm crying now.