My Cup of Tea

After so many years of making myself safe, refusing to take risks and just taking  slow steps of my journey, I finally reached to a point where I have to think hardly about where I should be heading to reach the intersection of my dreams. I'd lived a life of a crap, you know that stuff when you seemed forever welded in one corner unable to figure out what to do with your boring existence, everyday really sucks, but now, yeah, I felt the momentum, the energy, the excitement and all those fascinating ideas of discoveries. So far I had realized two of my earnest wishes in life. I'd finished my masters degree and traveled abroad for leisure! I felt lucky enough to accomplish those dreams without an anchor except prayers and strong determination. Now, I will be taking another challenge, another risk for the sake of another dream---to join the corporate world. Yeah! Ever since I was a teenager I always wanted to work in the real world, real field. You maybe wondering why

How would you know when death is coming? When that day would be your final journey in this world? No one knows. Not even the most gifted psychic we have around. For death comes like a thief in the night, most often without warnings. It never measures one’s physical strength and weakness. It has its own pace, own timetable.  We can never tell what life awaits us in the future, even if we carefully plan it, who will come to us and gone from us but one thing is very certain, we all have to die. It's everyone's destiny, nobody can escape it. But why it comes as a surprise when it finally happens? The emotion that flows seems impossible to imagine. Sad. Remorseful. Tormenting. But do we have the right to ask God why? My immediate boss in the university from 1998-2001 and 2006-2010 Engr. Reynaldo Deypalubos. A truly inspiring and amazing man. Sir Rene was full of life, very vibrant, active, physically fit  and with an incredible sense of humour. L

Got a taste of real life adventure outside the country! :-D Back in my high school years, I often wondered what's on the other side of the continent, how people lived, what the environment looks like, the culture, the food, the lifestyle and the feeling of being in a completely different place. So I dreamed of going to another land, not necessarily to work, but to satisfy my curiosity and explore new learnings and experiences. Then one day, a good friend, Maribeth Galindo, coordinator of the social science division at UIC, told me to join their group for a leisure trip to Hongkong and Macau after summer break and because my passport will about to expire early next year with no single stamp yet from the immigration, I wasted no time and agreed. For the next three months, I became preoccupied with our itinerary plan, listing down everything I could think for this trip, I also did some research on different tourist spots around Hongkong and Macau and what public transp