A Star In The Universe

MY COUSIN Jayjay, a registered nurse, once told me that I am still considered as a "fresh grad" six months after Graduation Day. Beyond that, if I still remain as an unlucky job-seeker, that's the time I shall gain the lamentable status "unemployed."

While I choose to believe the former—and bask in being such—I cannot help but already feel that of the latter. It has been three weeks since I graduated from college and I find myself as a "homeboy" (as my friend Tim Aguirre quipped of me on Twitter) doing household chores such as sweeping the floor in the morning and watering the plants during the sunset. Sometimes, I help in the operations of our tailoring and shirt printing business, where I would meticulously trim excess threads and neatly fold T-shirts for delivery. I actually enjoy doing these activities but in between, I would check my email, refresh my inbox from time to time, ardently waiting for replies from the companies to which I have submitted my resume online. More so, I would browse through new job postings in JobStreet.com and other career sites. My plan after this week is to do walk-in applications in my prospect companies. I really want to get a job because I want to start helping my parents with the finances. Aside from that, I am also much excited to apply my four-year study of communication and media into practice.

As a fresh graduate, there is this strange, overwhelming feeling that you are just like a centavo in a P2 billion money, or rather just a little star in the vast universe. I am on my own now, I tell myself, unlike in school where everything is controlled and preset, and students do have daily allowances. How I will shine bright in the cosmos relies heavily on the decisions I make and the courses of action I take today.

Since I have all the time to wait for the much-hoped-for reply from the companies where I submitted my polished CV, and with our pending summer getaway in Batangas still set for next month, I am doing all the personal things I was not able to do when I still had school to think about. Finally I have the luxury of "me" time, which I spend by watching movies, reading books and magazines, trying out random tutorials in the Internet, and posting here on my already one-and-a-half-week-old blog. I make sure that a day won't pass without me learning something new.

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Among the books I'm reading this summer, my two favorites are Young blood 4 and Go Negosyo: 50 Inspiring Stories of Young Entrepreneurs. Apparently, these are books centered on the insights and stories of the youth which inspire readers and add fuel to the belief in the youth as the hope of the motherland. I read an article or two from the two books every morning, and re-read them before I sleep.

I take pleasure in reading Young blood 4 (P375 in Powerbooks), a collection of well-written essays from Philippine Daily Inquirer's Young blood column, because I am somewhat inspired by its writers who wrote stories of compassion, commitment, anguish, joy, bravery, adventure, and realizations with sincerity, vividness and larger-than-life aura. As much as I enjoy reading each article, I also revel in the different writing styles and diction of the authors.

Go Negosyo, on the other hand, is a well of ideas and success stories of young Filipinos who have already reached high in their respective fields, including Mr. Edgar "Injap" Sia II of Mang Inasal whose grilled chicken fast food chain has proliferated like mushrooms in the country. Since we have a small but thriving tailoring and shirt business, I felt like behooved to buy the book (P250 in National Bookstore) because I know that I will surely learn a lot from it, especially on how to cope with failures and to strategize our family business' way to success. 

I just remember what Mama told me before: Mas mabilis yumaman sa pagne-negosyo kaysa pago-opisina. Seems legit—some of the negosyantes of my age in the Go Negosyo book are already millionaires!

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Of course I want to focus on our business soon, but I want first to explore the field of communication and media where I can also broaden my network. As for my job-hunting spree, I am well sure that everything happens for a reason; that if I haven't received any reply in a day, it means that I am blessed with 24 hours to have quality time with my family and with myself. It is just about trusting God and His perfect timing. For the meantime, I indulge myself in this well-deserved hiatus with books, magazines, movies, blogs, T-shirts, household chores, and day-to-day learnings, keeping myself as much as possible from the bum base, while constantly finding my place in the universe.