I’m OK with it

My friends usually hear me whine about how hectic my schedule is, about how I don’t get enough sleep etc etc. But at the end of the day, I think I actually like it that way. I like the fact that I am productive and I actually contribute to something. I do not need to color my world because my days are colorful as it is.

Take our chapter’s CLP saga: after minutes of personal sermon by our parish priest, we were finally allowed to conduct our CLP in our mother parish. With only 1 week left before The Day, we spared no time evangelizing single people to participate in our chapter’s CLP. It was a full day that started at 8am and ended at 8pm. There was posting banners in the church, giving out flyers to each mass in the village, going to each and every house of possible participants and getting our hands wet with water mixed with starch to place posters in almost all the light posts in the long stretch of our main avenue. Yes it was tiring but it was also fun. I really felt the camaraderie, teamwork and commitment of my chaptermates/friends to make our CLP successful. And so with only one day of evangelization, we were still able to get 15 participants. In East A standards, that is high! I hope more will come in the coming weeks.

And then there’s deployment work in the office. The first days were really a struggle. I had to find a way to do my work while being bombarded with questions regarding the module that I left with the team. I was singled out as a resource here in Manila and I know that puts higher expectations in my performance. In effect, I really have to put in extra time and effort to ensure that my deliverables are given in time and with very good quality. Yes, it is tiring but it’s also fun! I enjoy any chance to learn and to do sometime new. And this is that opportunity. I am continuously learning and at the same time enjoying what I do. I’m pretty OK with technical and functional work. Now, I’m improving my skills in managerial roles among others. I hope I exceed the expectations that I have for myself. I really like testing my limits sometimes.

Oh, and did I mention that I still have GK news bureau work in this very big stage production of our sector, 2 households per week (1 for upper, 1 for lower), diving certification classes coming soon with my AAT friends, out-of-town overnight party with my friends in Ateneo (dunno how to fit this in my schedule), drinking sessions with my barkada (this time they’re La Sallians. hehe) and of course I have to attend to my love life (sorry off limits)!

So there! A very hectic schedule with just enough time for rest makes TA a happy man!

Keeping It Together

Don’t you sometimes wish that you could just walk away from everything that is happening in you life?! Wahhhhh!!!!! There are so many things in my plate right now that I’m having a hard time balancing everything.

1. Newsletter – We are coming up with our very first Sector Newsletter and I am having issues with one of my writers. I needed his article for 1 GK site and at the last minute he backed out saying that he’s not satisfied with the article and will just give the story on the next newsletter. WHAT?!?! We cannot afford to have 1 site excluded from the newsletter. We have articles for all our GK sites except for one! That would appear like we are discriminating that site or that we didn’t do our work enough to get a decent story on the site. It would be like selling a car with one wheel missing for the same price. Nobody would buy it. In the end, we had to wait for that last article. Oh, correction: we ARE still waiting and we are running out of time.

2. CLP – Christian Life Program (CLP) is SFC’s means of getting new members. Through some very rare opportunity, our titos and titas from CFC gave us their Saturday night slot in our chapter parish. This is a big thing for our chapter because it has been a gazillion years since we were allowed to hold our CLP in our home parish where there are tons of interested participants. We use to hold them in one of the smaller chapels in a smaller village. Guess who was tasked to lead that CLP?! Me! It is my first time to lead a CLP and I’m undergoing trial-by-fire. Why? Because for some reason, the letter did not get to the Church office on time. The people, who were supposed to give it, gave it late. Added to that, our parish priest, who had seen our letter a couple of times hasn’t approved it yet. This is important for us because we cannot do anything (invite people, go house-to-house, give flyers, place posters and banners) until the venue is finalized. Our CLP starts on Sept.24 and we are still stuck in step 1. We are running out of time!

3. Household – A household is like a prayer meeting only cooler. Hehe. We are not confined to simply praying. Anyway, being a household head, it is also my responsibility to conduct weekly household with my members. This is one of their main sources of pastoral nourishment. We haven’t conducted any household for the past 3 weeks because there were events that we needed to attend in lieu of household. Now, I couldn’t find time to have a household because of all the things I need to do! And I am one of those SFC who hate not having weekly households because it destroys the momentum and members can start backsliding because they are not growing spiritually.

4. Work – Did I mention I have a full time day job and everything that I enumerated above can only be done on weekends and after office hours? Hehe. I was transferred from fix-it to a deployment role. Actually, this is a welcomed change. This is something I haven’t done before and this will basically end the monotony of my fix-it life. But on the other hand, I know that I will be working more hours to finish my deliverables since there will be higher learning curve on this new role. More time for office will mean less time for ‘other things’. And less time for ‘other things’ is the last thing I want given all the things I need to accomplish.

So lately, everything is touch-and-go for me. I literally have to schedule friends months in advance just so I know how my calendar will turn out.

I am SO trying to keep it together! I know that with the help of my friend upstairs, I will be able to do all his will. Sometimes we try so desperately to hold on to things to keep it together that we forget that the best way to keep it together is to simply surrender everything and offer it to him.

Recuperating

Wow! I actually found time to update my blog. It’s quite a while since I posted anything here.

I was out for 3 days on vacation before the fiscal year of the company I work in starts. I was able to accomplish a lot of things which included having the time to play badminton after a long time of inactivity. We played from 8pm to 11:30pm. This was the start of my temporary physical decline.

I woke up the next day with an aching body. I knew I was supposed to rest but that was the last day of my vacation! I needed to maximize my break. I went out and got a NBI clearance for travel (ehem ehem) and spent the whole day looking for that perfect pair of rubber shoes. At night my whole body was aching more, especially on my legs because of the continued walking in almost all the malls in Manila. The day didn’t end there. I attended our weekly household (more on those on later posts) and got home at about 1pm

The following day, I woke up at 530am (whaaaat?!??! Is that me?!). Just for the sake that it was the first day of the fiscal year and it was my fist day as SE, I thought it would be good if can start a practice of coming to office earlier. Wrong move. Hehe

When I got into the office at 730am, I didn’t know that we were required to render overtime hours! In effect, I got home at 9pm.

It was probably the overused aching body, lack of sleep, working 11 hours straight and below zero temperature in my work area that all contributed to my sickness.

An unwelcome leave was taken the next day – a sick leave. I was not able to get total bed rest throughout the weekend because there were commitments that I had to attend to. But I was able to visit the hospital to get some tests done.

Since I didn’t have enough rest, I was still dizzy the following Monday. Good thing that my body is fighting back and I believe I’m getting better.