“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” -Mother Teresa

As we officially finished the fifth month of the year 2022, one word to describe it is excitement. There’s a lot of things happened in this month, and every single day is filled with productive activities that really helped me to established healthy habits. As I assess myself today, I can see how I improved in terms of time management, building confidence, setting priorities and putting myself first. The habits that I built in these past months, greatly helped me to develop the right attitude that I should apply in my life now that I’m getting older. At this age, I learned to set priorities on things that will help me in the future. Since I’m pretty aware that life will never really be as easy like we are expecting it to be, it will be ideal to ready ourselves for it. From physical, mental, social, spiritual and financial aspect, we should all consider all of those for us to be secured in life.

The monthly goals that I set for myself this year plays a big part in achieving the life that I wanted to have in the future. I see all of these as a baby step towards my main goals, and as long as I keep working on it, I can eventually achieve it. In order to keep memorable memories through this journey, this monthly recap will provide me those important moments of my life that I can always look back in the future. This monthly recap will serve as my digital diary where I can keep my memories safe and secured.

To sum up the things that happened this month, most of the things that happened are those that made a great impact to me. It’s either it bought me happiness, realizations, sadness and anger but all in all, it is still worth of a story to tell. Every single moment happened in this month gave me an insight on things that I should still learn in life. I know that life is a continuous learning process, and through experience we can develop ourselves to be better. “We should have the right approach in any situations in order for us not to be devour by negativity.” For me, it’s ok to feel emotional sometimes in any situations in our life, but what we can control is on how we can handle those situations. That’s why, in every recap I made, I still make sure I have space for those negative situations that I encountered. This is my simple way to cope up and assess myself through those time.

“Our bad memories and our bad experiences are what make us who we are and what make us grow and allow us to learn, if we choose to see the lessons in those experiences.” -Elijah Wood

Even though I have limited time this month given the reason that we are back in our usual eight hours duty, I was still able to continue what I started last month like the five days workout & online training every Saturday and Sunday. It was really challenging to squeeze all the activities from the limited time I have now, but despite of that, I was still able to successfully achieved it in the end. For me, as long as I finish all the priority tasks I have, my day will be complete. I’d seen a lot of people spending their time in their mobile phones while some are chatting with their friends with negative topics as soon as they reached home from their work. Although that’s their own life, and I shouldn’t have a say about it, for me, there’s a lot of productive things to do rather than doing those. That is why I keep pushing myself to work on something in order not to be like them. We cannot go back in time. Once passed, we can’t undo again what we did. That’s why our choice in life should be in line with our beliefs and goals.

Now that I’m about to enter the half of this year, I need to double my efforts and focus on the rest of my goals. By doing this, I can make sure that I will achieve all of my targets this year and at the same time move forward on the rest of my plans. This upcoming five years will surely be a hectic and challenging period for me. I need to be very eager and focus in everything that I do to make all of my plans happen.

“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” –Vincent van Gogh

Now let’s see the things that happened in my life this April 2022. It will consist of both negative and positive things that I’d experienced and on how I was able to surpass it.

1. Eid Festival 2022!

After a successful month of fasting for Ramadan, we were able to experience the Eid Holiday celebration here in Qatar. It was really an unplanned gathering since I’d been wanting to attend it since before. Since there’s a minimal restriction imposed now from Covid, I hurriedly asked my partner if he can go with me and enjoy the event. We decided to go there on Thursday (May 5) so we can take a rest the next day. That day is really memorable because I was able to meet one of his friends from his hometown. Although I know them by stories, I still haven’t met nor talk to any of them. So, what I felt that time is a little bit nervous and at the same time excited. Far from what I expected, it pretty went well and there’s no signs of awkwardness. We really had fun meeting each other and we also exchanged stories together.

We met at around at 4:30 pm when they pick me up in my accommodation. After we exchanged greetings, we went to Lusail station going to corniche station where the event will be held. Since my partner is also there, he helped us to get close to each other. Upon arriving in the event, we hurriedly took a picture of each other, shoot videos for Tiktok and check out the activities for that day. What we did are:

• Checked out different food stalls and kiosk from corniche station to MIA Park
• Checked out the different carnival games offered
• Watched a Magic Show at around 6pm
• Sea side experienced at night
• Photoshoot to the max!
• Buffet dinner at Shanghai Garden

Here are the pictures that we took that day!

That day is so special not only because I met my partner’s friend but at the same time, I achieved one of my goals this year which is to attend a cultural event. Even though it was a tiring day since we walked for almost four hours without taking any water, we were still able to experienced unforgettable things. We finished that day by having a buffet dinner in our favorite restaurant which is Shanghai Garden. There, I had a chance to talked more with Robert (his friend). He shared different stories about them in the past and I can say that we become close together. We all tried my favorite fried milk, spicy soup, rice noodles, sweet and sour chicken, sushi, salmon and many more foods! It was really a tiring but worth it experience.

The next day, I hurriedly uploaded one picture that we took on that event and it gained more than 1500 likes and 60+ comments in Instagram! I also gained 961 followers from that single post! Amazing right? As I about to come close with my target month of vacation, I will slowly limit my leisure expense so I can buy something for my family. Hopefully I can have enough budget for it so I can somehow relax and unwind just like what we did in this day.

“Sometimes, the most productive thing that you can do is to step outside and do nothing… relax and enjoy nature.”- Melanie Charlene

2. Chinese Drama Period!

After I finished watching Go Go Squid, I became into to Chinese drama and started watching popular series. Before, I thought that long episodes will just make the story boring, but as soon as I finished one, I came to understand that it was really worth to try. Everything started when my sister influenced me to watch Go Go Squid since last 2020. I didn’t try it back then because I was still watching Korean dramas and long Chinese drama episodes doesn’t amazed me. Last month, I finally tried to watch it due to our five hours only duty that gave me more time for leisure. As soon as I finished watching it, I keep asking my sister what’s the best series to watch next. She excitedly gave me a list to watch and here they are:

• Meteor Garden
• Put your Head in my Shoulder
• Hello, Sharp Shooter
• My Little Happiness
• Falling into your Smile

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” -John Lubbock

During weekdays, I only allotted myself an hour and a half to watch drama. I will usually start at 8:00 pm and finish at 9:30 pm. The remaining 30 minutes will be allotted for other leisure and activity and strictly at 10:00 pm, I need to turn off my phone’s WIFI and sleep. For weekends, I will have more time to do it since I made my off as my Lazy Day. I usually start at 12:00pm up to 9:00pm watching series. Although it will not be counted as productive day for the rest, for me it’s my way to refuel and relax after the long weekdays that I pushed myself to do my routine. Based on what I read online and also the podcast I’m listening to about selfcare, it is ideal for someone to have a one day in a week which our body and our brain can have a chance to recover. Rest allows for a body in a catabolic state (state of breakdown due to too much stress) to switch over to an anabolic state (state of building up due to a reduction of stress). (medium.com)

In their websites as well, they enumerate the benefits of having one lazy day which are:

1. Increased HGH Production
2. Increased Learning Capacity
3. Opportunity For Deep Thinking
4. An Opportunity to Ease Relational Pressure

“A body reset is a body that is ready to go.”

For me, giving time to watch Chinese drama allows me to be at ease and stay away from social media world. By means of this, I can inhibit myself to keep scrolling in my social media accounts and absorbed negativity from it. Because of that activity as well, I found a way to relax even if I’m alone. This is also my means to stay away from negative conversation from my colleagues and just focus on things that makes me happy. In this coming month, I will surely watch the rest of the series on my list!

3. 2022 Presidential Election!

One event that made this month memorable is the election in the Philippines that happened on May 9, 2022. After how many months of campaign period where my social media accounts from Facebook up to LinkedIn are all flooded by different colors of their bets, that day finally marked the end of everything (that’s what I thought). For me, I’m done with people bashing ang cancelling each other even their own family members! Compare to the election six years ago, this election is really historical in a way that every Filipino’s patronized their own bets to the point that they hitting each other’s point of view and beliefs. It was really a toxic period that even the election ended, people still can’t get over it and keeps fighting each other.

Another reason that made this election very controversial are because first most of the candidates elected are from one group (Uniteam) and second, the gap between the presidential and vice-presidential candidates is almost doubled than the second place. Meaning, the majority of the votes are for the one group which makes the election questionable to the rest. The large gap between them, makes the rest feel doubt about it. Especially for those who voted to the second place. While the other candidates conceded already, the people supporting them are still in the hype of everything to the point that they organized a rally to questioned the election. To simplify everything that happened in that week is “Havoc”. Even my relatives are so into to it and they’re fighting in their social media accounts.

During this period, I feel sad due to the reason that I can’t vote since I failed to register here in Qatar. Because of the condition in the social media as well, I just chose to avoid getting involved to it. Not that I don’t have any care about what’s happening in the society but I just decided to be a good and responsible Filipino. In that way, I can help my country rather than resisting on what’s the majority has decided. In reality we are really not in control of any of it. Once the election ends, the responsibilities will come to each and every one of us. Will we choose to be a good citizen or oppose our government? We are still in the pandemic and our economy is still striving. If we can only assess the current situation of our country, we can choose to do things that will help ourselves and at the same time the leaders.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” -Abraham Lincoln

In this next six-year term of the elected individuals, will surely be anticipated by everyone. This will be their time to prove themselves that they’re qualified on the position that they were elected. I may not know what will happen in the future, I pray that our country will be in a better standing than before.

4. VACATION PLAN FOR 2022

One thing that made me busy this month is when I started planning my vacation. Since it’s been four years since I last visited my country, I wanted to make most out of this vacation. As much as possible, I wanted to travel and enjoy every single day that I’ll be there. I planned to get only a one-month vacation (30 days) on October together with my partner. We decided to go together so I can visit their hometown and meet his family. Since he already met my family on our last vacation, I would like to take this opportunity to visit them. As of now, I made an excel file so I can organize the things that I must do. By doing this, I can prepare my finances and at the same time give me an insight on the things that I need to prioritized during my vacation. This will be the third time that I’ll be going on vacation and for me, I wanted to make a lot of memories with my loved ones. I learned from my past vacation that the best time of our lives should be spend together with the people you love.

As of May, here are the things I prepared for my vacation this October:

• Vacation Calendar – consist of the task and activities that I must do during the whole month.
• Vacation Budget – consist of the breakdown of my budget for each activity and other things that I must do like grocery, salon, reunion w/ friend etc.
• Bacolod Itinerary and Budget
• Davao Itinerary and Budget

Even though I still have four months to go, I still wanted to take the opportunity to plan well my vacation this time in order to make most out of it. Together with my sister, we both wanted to have an unforgettable vacation since this will be her birthday month as well. We both planned to go in different places such as Davao, La Union, Baguio and Rizal. As of now, she already booked the ticket for our Davao Tour which is on October 12 until October 15. In that tour we will be visiting Davao City, Surigao Del Sur & Samal Island. The itinerary is now ready and I also checked the places in each place so that I can plan my outfit on that day! I also looked for different pose that will be our reference when we get there! Do I look so excited?

Upon seeing the itinerary that my sister did, it gave me an idea to make one as well for my visit in my Partner’s place which is in Bacolod. I set a three days visit starting October 23-25 so I can finally meet my partner’s family and have a chance to see the Masskara Festival on October 24. After I set the date, I watched different travel vlogs and read some reviews in the internet regarding different attraction in Negros Occidental. As I finished making the list, I followed the same format that my sister did and forwarded it to Edje so he can check it. As I plan my vacation, I feel how the excitement grows in me. This time, I will surely celebrate every single day that I’ll be there in my home!

To give you a glimpse of how my vacation would look like, here’s the calendar that I did:

“A vacation helps to relieve stress and boredom, gives us a change of scenery, provides us with adventure, and helps to bring us closer to the people in our lives.” – E. S. Woods

5. Heart to Heart talk at Lusail City!

After our Education City Tour last March, we decided to meet up to check what’s new in Lusail City. Since it has been the talk of town after they launched the opening of Place Vendome Mall, we’d been planning to meet up again to have our photoshoot! At first, we decided to go there on May 27 but due to our salary delay, we decided to move it on the next week. One reason also that we wanted to meet each other is due to the celebration of her (May Ann) Birthday. Now that we are both 26, we’d been wanting to have a conversation about our plans in the future. It all started when we had a talked in Education City. There we shared our thoughts, problems and worries in life together. By means of that, we were able to inspire each other and realized the good thing out of bad situation.

Growing up, we both didn’t come in a privilege family. We both work ourselves out to be in this place that we are having right now. In that journey, different challenges were present and we both almost give up our hopes and dreams in life. After a year of sacrifices, here we are in the same place making our dreams into reality. Talking to each other became our way to destress and let out our thoughts that keeps bothering us. We both keep cheering each other’s up every time we meet, so even though we don’t have much friends to spend with, we still find joy in this simple meet up.

I mentioned in my May 2022 blogs the places that we planned to visit. I found all of this as I watched a vlog about it and when I checked the places nearby in that location. Here’s the list that I made:

1. Place Vendome Dancing Fountain
2. Lusail Marina Corniche
3. Lusail Promenade
4. Lusail Fountain
5. Water Playground
6. Katara Towers
7. Ink Cafe

I also invited her for a dinner on our favorite restaurant which is in Shanghai Garden, City Center branch. We will be together with my partner and his friend so they can join us in checking out Lusail City.

Here are the pictures that we took on that day.

Some memories don’t last long. Despite of how we wanted to remember specific moments in our life, our mind has its own capacity and it can only keep some. That’s why, I aim to write down every single important memory that I’ll experienced in my journey. By means of keeping a journal and this blog, I now have a chance to write down my life story.

Every memory of each month will serve as the moments that will help me to achieved the future that I’m aiming. Even if that memory is a bad one, I believe that it still deserves a chance to be shared. Life will never be a flowery path and challenges will always be present. That’s why in this journey that I am sharing right now, I will not leave any single important thing in my life be missed out.

The memories I gained in this month of May 2022 will stay with me forever by means of this blog.