.: Oxymoronic :.

It’s hard to believe things have led this way. A
strange feeling of bewilderment and bittersweet-ness fills me right now. I am
still in shock to find out I am actually the way I hoped for right now.

Fate has definitely played a major and crucial role
in this sudden stroke of luck. Everything just happened so fast. So, fast, I
feel like I have been out of work for so long, and it was just 20 days without
a job. I went on through them thinking that I’ll just keep on rolling the dice
until I came up victorious. Not only did I land to become a Team Lead, I was
hired by one of the most stable call centers in the country and within its
largest account. Things couldn’t get any better. I am starting out well.

My point? One: I knew I definitely deserve getting
here. Being quixotic didn’t seem to be the wrong choice after all. I simply
didn’t allow myself to become a victim of circumstances and chose to get out
and prove myself, and here I am on the first steps. Two: there’s still hope.
So, one piece of advise for the guys who are left – just follow your road and
don’t look back. Your choices in life will make you who you are in the future
so invest no regrets. Lastly, and most important of all: karma does exist and
eventually if you do good, it will come back.

I
just came from my first day at work (that’s right, I do have a new job now,
more on that later). As usual, the day was pretty much slow as people in training
don’t know each other yet. The long day was keeping me off my consciousness
most of the time. Everything seemed to catch up when it was already time to go
home.

My
new office is just a stone’s throw away from my old one. Earlier I had lunch
with Team Tempest just to basically catch up on how everyone’s doing. It was
nice to see that these folks didn’t forget the value of togetherness. Though
Lesley resigned (too bad, but I know the feeling), it was real a joy to gather
around the pedestrian and smoke a few puffs. Just like those days.

Before
heading home, I stayed at the usual tambayan
of my former colleagues. I was lucky enough to bump into a few of them.
Questions were raised as to my latest whereabouts. There it was finally time
for me to divulge that I am already employed to a new company with the position
I’ve longed for, worked hard to achieve, painfully deserved and was deprived of
when I was still there. It was such a nice feeling to hear
congratulatory remarks from them. If anything, that may go to show that I made
the right move.

I
promise this is gonna be the last time I talk about my clamors and bitching of
my old job. Yet, I should make a good last statement. With that, I can
say I am thankful that I was deprived of my growth in the company. It had
become a blessing in disguise for without this slide back I wouldn’t be able to
get the push I have earned for so long.

I
just came from a very revealing medical examination. It was kind of anticipated
but I never thought at such a young age of 22 I’d be suffering from
hypertension. Today, I got the same 130/100 reading. It was clear to me that
one way or the other I’m gonna die either by heart attack or stroke. It’s
almost like a family heirloom. The only thing that really bothers me right now is
that this condition is really dormant. Well, for starters on the surface I look
okay. I don’t pant a lot, and I rarely get sick that when I did, it’s something
major. So to know that I could potentially nurse an exhausted heart in the near
future clearly worries me.

To
be fair, I have taken all the precautionary measures knowing that all of my
uncles and aunts and grandparents from my Dad’s side suffer the same ordeal.
Eversince I knew about the health risks I have avoided fats and salts as much
as possible. The gelatinous fat and skin from sinigang na baboy are not part of
my diet anymore. Fried chicken skin, no matter how irresistible it may be has
been crossed out of my pig-out list. Bulalo, crispy pata, sisig, you name it; I
have eaten them all with guilt. It’s hard not to cheat of course, I still consume
a lot of junk from fastfoods and heavily-salted snacks. Damn, and to think I
have given up a lot. It’s ironic when the healthier the food is, the more
expensive it gets.

I
better get started to curb or do away with smoking even in lesser amounts.
Badminton has got to be a part of my new routine sooner. I have resigned from
my previous job which gives me quite a lot of stress so that’s a good thing,
right? I should be getting plenty more dates to keep me happy. I am a social drinker so no problems there. Maybe, when I
get a loose budget I’ll enroll in a gym, or better yet, I’ll just download yoga
videos and do my workout at home. Coffee will be very hard to give up though,
but I believe there’s really a small percentage of it that plays a part in this
condition. If I die, then I die, but not in an agonizing fashion. Thanks to the
"Grey’s Anatomy" shit I see on TV all the time, I will try my best not to undergo
Quadruple Heart Bypass and die in surgery.

On
one sidenote, do you think more sex can help?

Much of the changes I do
to my hair have been dependent on major happenings in my life. Or perhaps, it
has become a gauge for me whether I’d still wear my hair the same or
differently for that matter.

For the longest time,
I’ve wanted to have my hair long. And finally it did. I didn’t like it. But I
have to live with for I needed to prove a few things. One, I need to conclude
that my hair doesn’t affect my dating life. True, it did not affect my dating
life, for I didn’t get one with the new style. I also needed to take out that
particular superstition that I may never succeed in the corporate world without
hair. So, I kept my hair long and high-maintenance until I went up a notch.
Kinda strange, I might add, but I just believe that new beginnings
require newness in appearance (in this case, new hairdo).

So why do I keep on
talking about my hair? ‘Cos they’re all going away now!