The Construct

Would you look at that. It’s May already. A third of the year’s done. How quickly time flies. And surely, the first four months of 2010 hasn’t been without occasion.

I have to be really thankful that I’ve finally bagged my master’s degree. I actually consider it my consuelo de bobo as many of my friends are now living my shitty pipe dream of being a lawyer. No point in wallowing in self-pity. It took me five years but, at least, MA’s in the bag.

I haven’t really broadcasted it yet outside my friends (and through Facebook) but the bigger thing that’s happened to me so far is that the Dearest and I are engaged. Yup. Wedding bells a ringin’. As for the wedding date, it’s still yet to be determined. It’s going to be a long engagement but at least we’re one step closer to being together.

Now these leave me with the future to take on. It’s quite tricky really. UP wants me back full time. But going back means pursuing years of study for a PhD and getting a PhD means a life sentence to the academe. Quite honestly, I haven’t really figured if I want that.

For now, my motivation is preparing for the future especially with the financial part. Married life isn’t a joke. I wasn’t really able to maximize my money-making efforts working on my MA for the past five years. Now that’s done, maybe now I can.

People just love to give unsolicited advice. They’re annoying as they are but one thing that I really don’t like with people who do so is how many of them lead with “Tingnan mo ako…” (better translated as “Compare yourself to my case…”). These people just don’t factor in what can be a fundamental disconnect between their situations and others’.

For example, this one acquaintance of mine asked me why I don’t put up a business of my own just like what he’s done. “Ako nga nakaya ko, ikaw pa,” he said. (“I was able to do it, you should too.”) Fact of the matter is he had help from his upper middle class family to put up the capital and the ground work. He should know he was talking to an orphan from a lower middle class family who never had assets or wealth to be inherited.

Or this other acquaintance who dispensed advice (to do this and to do that) without even hearing the real deal behind my situation. Not like she’d be able to relate anyway. Trust fund babies just can’t. People who haven’t tasted failures (note the plural) or faced desperation and adversity really don’t have much to offer in terms of “wisdom.”

Lifehacker tips work because they’re oriented to cater to a wide audience. You can’t be too surgical with a shotgun. Not because you’ve been able to catch a mouse with cheese, means that you’d be able to bait a cat with it. Even if mice and cats are both mammals. Context counts.

And as a know-it-all who has every tendency to be the type of person I hate, I’ve decided only to give personal advice to people who ask for them.

Here’s a pretty good article from 30 Sleeps on dealing with unsolicited advice.

That’s it folks. Just a few hours from now, 2010. And what a year this 2009 was. To sum it all up for me, it sucked. Had to go through quite a lot of curve balls for the past year.

But there’s no use in pining over how shitty it is. Not tonight. Shouldn’t greet the new year with all that negativity. Good thing in life, you never really strike out.

Every new year offers opportunities and possibilities. In an effort to be optimistic, I do think that there’s always one thing you can do to make things even just a tad better. No plan is ever bulletproof. The real 2009 lesson’s more of knowing how to improvise and wing it when need be.

I’ve had it with resolutions. Resolutions presuppose underlying faults and whatnot. Not that I’m saying I’m perfect but I’ve learned to deal with my character flaws anyway. It’s all about learning.

Cliche as it may sound but 2010 will be the start of the rest of my life. I got a loving girl, a few caring friends, and a bottle of apple juice. What’s there not to look forward to for 2010?

When I was still active playing football, I really loved using stepover nutmegs to get past defender. That and rocastles. In any case, nutmegs usually provide the most effective results. Either I succeed in fake them or they miss tackles and clip me instead. Free kicks for us.

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I work as a marketing man for my company, an IT company at that.

When I go about rounds with colleagues visiting clients, I usually get the usual questions “How old are you?”, “Where did you graduate? (sic)“, and the classic question, “So, ComSci ka, hijo?”. Those questions are strung in a such a fashion due to three factors. One, I look unusually young to be handling certain responsibilities required by my job position (Yes, I am only twenty-two). Two, Filipinos just do give a hell lot of premium for the university from which you graduated. I graduated from U.P., thank you very much. Haha. Three, I work for an IT company.

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