“MAKE MORE MEMORIES THAT YOU CAN KEEP FOREVER.”

Upon finishing the month of January 2022, one thing to conclude it is it was jampacked with a lot of memorable happenings. It wasn’t what I expected to be, but gladly I still found a way to make my goals possible. There were a lot of challenges present in this month and when I say challenges, it doesn’t only include me but also all over the world. Some usually says that it was a “Deja vu” of the year 2020 because of the similarities while others claim that all what happened is due to our own fault. Rather than looking in the negative aspects of this month, I focuses on the things I learned out of it. This is for me not to feel bad on the current situation and be personally affected by it.

“Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

– Theodor Seuss Geisel.

With all of the things happened in this month, I feel grateful that despite of all the negatives, I was still able to surpass it. It tested my faith and belief, but with prayers, everything finally went well as I end this month. One thing that I realized this January, is “Nothing is constant”, despite of all that you’d planned, you need to ensure that you have a space left for any changes that may happen. You need to be open minded that not all things will go on your way. There will always be changes and challenges because those are the ones that will test you. Without it, you won’t feel the true success of every goal that you set.

“We do not remember days; we remember moments.”

— Cesare Pavese

For me to remember significant happenings in my life, I decided to make a monthly recap of it in my journal and in this blog. I believe that by doing this, it will serve as a reminder for me in every memory that I’d experienced. I can always look back to it anytime I want, and I can also share how I spent my 2022 to my future family. As you know, it’s been my practice to keep memories since I was a kid. My memorabilia back home will be the evidence of it from all the things that I kept throughout my journey. From high school memories up to college years, all the things that reminds me of a certain memory is well kept in my box. Now that I’m working, I do think that this is the right time for me to make my own digital memories.

Now, I decided to put at least 3-5 highlights for this month.  I’ll also include some pictures that I took so that it will really remind me of the things that happened.

Now let’s finally see the highlights of this month!

1. YOUTUBE CHANNEL FIRST VIDEO RELEASED

This month, we finally published our first YouTube video. It was really a very exciting moments and at the same time an embarrassing period because we are not used to promote things in our social media accounts. Especially now that we started our personal channel, we feel really shy to share it to others at first. Gladly, our family is so supportive that they shared it to their friends and also to their Facebook accounts! The moment we shared this became one of our unforgettable memories of our life because we have finally had something to look back once we grow old together. Me and my partner really put a lot of efforts into this from editing, taking the shots and to manage our schedules just to shoot it.

My partner also went beyond the length by making subscription so we can have a quality videos and music with no copyright claim! We decided to just pay in half together so we can at least share the burden of what we’d chosen. Since it is also both for our YouTube channel, I don’t feel bad about paying for it.

Check out our first videos below!

At first, there were six videos ready to be publish already but later on, we both decided to just focus first in travel videos and eventually engage in other video themes. The idea is initially from my partner but I came to agree on that because this will help us to established our target market. Since 2022 is the FIFA World Cup as well, it will be a right choice to focus on travel videos about Qatar. For sure, visitors from all over the world will look for tourist destination here that they can include in their bucket list. With this reason, a travel videos in Qatar will be an edge to have more engagements. As I made my research, there are few but limited travel videos about Qatar, most of the channels are not focus in just one country and they just feature Qatar in just one video.  

In our channel, we focus more in one travel destination in one vlog. With the right description about the place, viewers will easily get the highlights and the details of each place that we feature. The only challenge that we experienced is to manage our time to shoot each vlog. Since there’s a continuous rising COVID cases this month, it was really hard to take a risk to go out. Nevertheless, we were able to ready a total of three travel videos in this channel. Upon doing this, we conclude that being a youtuber is indeed hard! Even though you have the idea about your next content is, it’s still hard to make it possible due to the challenges present.

2. RISING CASE OF COVID19 AL OVER THE WORLD!

Another reason that made this month memorable is the rising cases again of COVID 19 due to the omicron variant. A lot of countries hit another wave due to continuous recorded cases. Even in the current country that I’m residing in, we experienced a sudden rise of cases and I even experienced getting sick in the second week of January! Because of that, I wasn’t able to work out since I just focus on recovering. I’d been sick leave for three days and gladly after almost of week of suffering, I finally recovered.

In this month, there’s a lot of claims in the social media that the 2022 is the same as “2020 too”, due to the similarities of what happened in that year. It sounds funny but a lot of us feels the sense of “déjà vu” as we all start this year. Despite of the vaccines that are now available, covid cases is still unstoppable. Upon experiencing to be sick during these tough times, I can feel the growing anxiety inside of me. Thankfully as I recover, I also helped myself to divert my thinking in positive things. All I hope for is everything will be better as we start again the next month. Since that will also be my birth month, I feel so excited yet nervous on the challenges that will be present. Nevertheless, I will continue to focus on things that I can control and keep my mind busy in aiming my goals.

These are the pictures I took after two weeks of making the same workout. As you can see, there still no changes compare to the first week. This is because, results can only be seen if you are consistent on it for a LONG RUN. Since It’s my only two weeks doing this, I’m aware that I won’t able to see any results from doing it. Nevertheless, I will still click a picture every week for me to remind myself on things that I need to work with. In this second week, my other room mates came back from vacation so it was really a challenge for me to do the workout without any disturbance. The growing COVID cases also had let my anxiety grows fearing the same lockdown that we experienced last year.

This week is indeed a big challenge for us, but it is good that I have something to keep myself busy yet productive.

3. HOUSE RENOVATION QUOTE (Over budget ☹)

This year, I set a renovation budget which cost P150,000.00. Upon looking for the contractors, they came up in almost P250,000-P300,000 amount including materials and labor cost. That came up expected already since I had a talked with my engineering friend and she informed me that most of the materials is currently expensive right now. My parents talked to two contractors and they also had a cost check with a construction supplier. With this, we can derive to the exact amount that I need to save up so that we can finally start the renovation. Our target month of renovation is supposed to be February so we can put it on rent on March.

Despite of the sudden rise of the amount that I need for the renovation, I can still be able to saved up from it by using the emergency fund that I currently have. Since we also stopped temporarily our joint account fund, I decided to just used the money intended for it on my business fund. I need to really push myself in saving so that I can reach my target which is the two-house renovation for this year. It sounds difficult right now since we still haven’t started anything but I know with God’s grace and perfect timing, I can eventually achieve this goal of mine. Just by thinking of it, this goal really makes me feel excited. Now that I decided to be a real estate owner this year, I will really pursue this goal and invest as much as I can. I wanted to make use of the time that I have right now to invest in something that will help me in the future. I think this will be a nice step forward since I can still maximize my saving potentials.

I know that a sacrifice is a must in everything. A success won’t be meaningful if we’ll just gain it easily. As I come up with this goal, I need to exert efforts and sacrifices to make it possible. 2022 will be the start of everything.

I won’t waste this precious time given to me.

I won’t let my focus falter.

This is the right time for it.

4. START OF SELF LOVE JOURNEY

Despite of the goals that I need to focus on this year, one thing that I need to prioritize is myself. That’s why I made it a point that every month, I need to have an activity for my body that I must consistently do. This month of January I officially started my self-love journey which consist of activities such as workout, yoga and meditation. It went well in the first week until I get sick the week after starting it. I start it over again on the third week once I feel well and over all, it was a good start. I also did a blog about it to properly track my progress and ensure that I’m consistent with it. By doing that also, I can have a chance to inspire others to take care of their own self. You can check my selfcare journey this month by the link below:

JAN 2022 WORKOUT PROGRESS

Here also is the summary of the pictures I took for the month of January on a weekly basis and at the same time the videos I did:

5. NEW CAREER GOAL SET!

To tell you honestly, I had a lot of realization in my career as I started this year. As my goals gets bigger, I should not let myself be in my comfort zone since I also need to upgrade it based on what I aim in my life. As I turned 26 this year, I need to be careful and wise in every decision I make, and consider the time that I have right now. Deciding things really requires a lot of guts and consideration. I can’t just come up in something without considering the pros and cons of every option I’ll choose. As I assess everything that I have right now and the opportunity present to me right now, I decided to take a risk and come back in the hospitality industry.

This decision took a lot of courage and time before I officially choose it. I think that this is the best time for me to venture again in the industry that I can have a chance to grow. I’m starting to feel that comfort in my current company and I do think that it’s not yet the right time for it. There’s a lot of opportunities present right now and it will be a waste for me not to take the risk. I know that I still have a long way to go, and the only thing that can determine my future is if I continue to strive for it. It will be another adjustment but I’m now determine to face it heads on.

As of now, I started to assess the current opportunities present so I can choose what’s best for me. I set my target already and I’m currently waiting for that property to open all the vacancies. My target position to apply is Food & Beverage Coordinator or a Food and Beverage Executive. As I wait for it, I will focus on building my credentials for the mean time and also ready myself for the interview.

“TIME FLIES, BUT MEMORIES LAST FOREVER.”

Keeping memories has been my practice since I was a kid. It’s my way to reconnect to a certain special moment in my life. I want to keep memories vivid in my life so that I can always look back into it and feel that moment again. As I grow up, there will be a lot of things that for sure I will forget. That’s why, I decided to have a recap in my blog to serves as digital memorabilia of my experiences.

A lot of memorable things happened in this month and this blog will serves as a little throwback of it. Together with my journal, I will continue to keep special moments safe in my heart.

“OUR MEMORIES ARE THE ONLY PARADISE FROM WHICH WE CAN NEVER BE EXPELLED.” – Jean Paul Richter