Let's catch up on some things...

It's been too long since I last blogged - so here's for catching up for lost time.



School end. It is accomplished! I ended college last April. What a relief! After another hell week - the last hell week - of sleepless nights and sleepy days, I made a victor's exit from school. I was 2nd placer of the Markprof Marketing Bootcamp, elegible for 5th year (but turned it down), receiving calls for job interviews left and right, and at that time, had turned down a few, including a Management Trainee position at Splash Corp. The week after the end of classes, Miko, Bran and I hopped on a superferry charted to get us to Iloilo - in 25 hours of absolute inferno! (note: never again!!!)That was the start of our Great Visayas Island-hopping Adventure - Iloilo, Guimaras, Bacolod, Boracay. It was great! A well-deserved break after 15 years of studying. A day after I arrive back in Manila, I get on a plane with my family and head for Australia and Singapore. What a trip! I saw the animals of Tongga Zoo, visited the Hillsong Church in Sydney, watched The Lion King, and had my last parent-funded shopping spree. That was a glorious cap to parent dependency.

Work starts. So the week I get back from Singapore and Australia, Johnson & Johnson was going to hold the last stage of its Management Trainee screening process. Hectic! It was another hell week of sorts, but this time, the outcome was to directly affect my fate. (At this time, I was desperate for the job - because I wouldn't settle for any other company.) They grouped us up and gave a case study on Johnson's Baby Powder. It was such a unique experience because we had to work as a team but out do each other at the same time. It was a tight-rope balance between teamwork and competitiveness. So we presented in front of the big managers of J&J - Jeff Go, Tim Liong, John Go, and many others. They loved it! And I loved the synergy of my group! We swept the positions, because they got 3 out of the 5 members of my team - me included.

Tacloban. The Tacloban happened. The Management Trainee program in J&J puts us thru 10 months of sales training, 10 months of marketing training, and 4 months of other cross functional training. I was happy with my initial assignment to take my marketing training first... but life isn't that fair. They reshuffled the assignments and asked me to do the sales leg first - in Cebu City. I was dazed the day I found out, calling all my friends and saying my goodbyes, and inviting them to my despedida. Then life took another sudden turn - they asked me to train in Tacloban! Where's that? I had no idea back then. (I'll dedicate a whole portion on my Tacloban experiences later on.) So I'm here, writing this blog entree, in Jose Karlo's Cafe, downtown, Tacloban City, Leyte. Life is peachy.

Graduation. Funny enough, I agreed to start work 3 weeks before graduation. (Well, didn't have much of a choice really.) I didn't graduate with honors, but at least I graduated with a very nicely paying job. So I flew back for that purpose - so early in life I was already feeling like an expat...

25 years. My parents celebrated their silver anniversary this year! We had a blast! We put together a video for them, and I hosted the party with Michael - who clammed up during the whole show. He would have peed in his pants if it was a bit colder up there! Pop and Mom were very happy - and so were their guests. Mae, Miko, Bran and Tin were there - along with Ther and L.A. Us siblings showed the world - or at least my parent's world - the great methods of raising eight star kids, and our methods of growing up our parents.

For now, there will just have to be more to come...