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

Finally, the last month before my vacation is now about to end! In this whole month, I can’t contain my excitement due to the plans that I have throughout my 30 days’ vacation. During this time, I was also packed up with a lot of inspiration for me to do great to pursue my goals. Compare to the previous months, I feel like I’m so inspired on what kind of future I will have because I keep making goals for myself. I’m currently overwhelm with a lot of plans on my mind right now and I think that’s also the reason why I feel so inspired.  One reason also that changed my mindset is when I learned to shift my mind from jealousy to admiration. Before, I used to feel jealous on other’s success, but I realized one day that I don’t feel any negative things anymore rather it made me more inspired to do my best. I think that I came at this point of my life wherein I wanted to know how far I can go. With all the goals, targets and plans I have in my mind, I wanted to see the journey that I will pass through. I know pretty well that there will be times that I will fail but rather focusing on that matter, I wanted to think of the end results of all my choices right now. As I write my life story through this blog, I’m hoping that one day the future Lea Pearl will be very proud of her past self.  I will continue to pray, hope and be an inspiration throughout my journey.

Honestly, there are still times where I questioned myself. I also feel that I’m not doing well enough like others but somehow, I’m becoming more mature in handling that situations. Now that I’m 26, I think that’s one of the reasons as well why I became who I am right now. The journey that I’d been through pushed me to be stronger than who I am before. The people that I’d met as well, plays a big role in shaping my confidence. I learned to communicate professionally on my field, I learned to stand firm in terms of protecting myself and lastly is I learned to voice out my opinion if it’s necessary to do so. In these six years of shaping my career, I can tell that I really progress and made a change. The time I spent doing everything alone, became one of my motivations not to give up in any challenges I faced. Although let’s say that some of my people I know with the same age is really doing well, but I learned to realized that we all have different path to take. Our story is entirely different from each other. The moment we choose to focus on other’s story, that’s the time that we usually question our own efforts. I’d been there before but I choose to get out from that kind of mindset. There are things which is out of our control. Rather than focusing on that, I found it more productive to just focus on ourselves. There’s actually a lot of things that we can do for ourselves which we usually neglect nowadays. That’s how I decided that this year will be the start of a real change in my life.

“We must use time wisely for our development and advancement; so that when we are old, we can look back and recollect the pleasant memories and deeds that we have achieved.” – Michael Lee

Isn’t it nice to look back and tell ourselves, “You know what? You did great.”. Just imagine the feeling of contentment and gratefulness on our own work. We should get rid of the validity that we seek from the rest, because we actually do it on our own. All the words that I stated here may seems impossible, but let me tell you that everything is possible if you work for it like how I did it. Your story may differ from me, but I wanted to tell you that we can use the same method towards our goals. Life is short and no one can be an exemption from that. That’s why it is important to choose to be productive every single day in order for us not to feel any regrets in the end. Trying is better than giving up. Like how I write my own story here in this blog, I’m doing it for the sake of my future self. Even though no one will read it, that ok for me because whatever I do now is for my own sake. Doing this recap makes me more inspired to seek memorable memories on my journey. Our brain has its own capacity and I wanted to make use of the digital world to store all the important things happened in my life. It all started in a journal, and now, I’m literally writing my own story publicly.

“Science has proven that people who regularly jot down their thoughts in a journal are less likely to have cognitive and memory loss as they age.” – Christian J. Borg

Few years from now, I will slowly look back on what I’d done in the past. This recap blogs will help me to be thankful of the chances that God gave to me. I hope that my future family will have a chance to see this so they can also be inspired on my journey. I may not know until when I will be alive, but one thing for sure is that I will never regret anything that I’d done in my whole life. Happiness, memorable experiences and my loved ones will be the things that will make up my whole life story. Like how the month of August gave me a lot of memories, I’m pretty sure that there will be more of it that I’ll encounter for the next months. I will continue to seek an adventure every single month which I can add in this life story that I’m making. I hope as well that I can have a chance to travel the world so that I can also share all of my experiences here in this blog. Based on the goals that I wrote last 2016, my target is to visit at least three countries before I turned 29 years old. That will be three years from now and I need to double my effort in order to make it happen. My next job will be one of the indications of how fast I can achieve it, that’s why I also need to look for a suitable opportunity for me to greatly help me on it. I will continue to pray and seek guidance that this another chapter that I’m about to take this year will be my big step toward the life that I’d been wanting to have.

“Memory is a record of your personal experience. It is a record of trial and error, defeat and success. Past failures will warn you against repeating them.” – Wilfred Peterson

Without further ado, let’s see the things that happened in my life this August 2022. It will consist of both negative and positive things that I’d experienced and on how I was able to surpass it.

1. Dumb Bell & Hula-hoop Workout

For this month, one thing that I added on my daily routine is doing dumb bell and hula-hoop workout. Every day, I am making it sure that I will have 10 minutes for dumb bell and 15 minutes of hula-hoop. Prior to that, I first look for information about the benefits of doing both workout and upon watching a lot of reviews, I decided to try it by myself. On the first day of doing it, I feel sore especially on my arm muscles. Afterwards, the pain feels like heaven for me because it seems like my muscles has been targeted from every movement I make. I’m so thankful that my flat mate allowed us to borrowed it even though I’m the only actually using everything. Actually, this made me inspired to invest on my own equipment because of course, I also don’t want to rely on her things for so long. There are also times when I do TikTok if ever I don’t feel like doing any workout. As long as it is a physical activity, I will always go for it. What’s important for me is to have at least 30 minutes of any physical activities for myself every single day. My day won’t be complete without it and I’m happy that my body automatically craves for it. Compare to before, I now become so dedicated in working out where I always win over my excuses. I will always treasure this big change that happened in this year. Months and years may pass but I will always continue all the things that I started.

For this month as well, I felt how the environment around me changes as I chose to be productive. It reminded me of that saying wherein progress attracts insecure people. I’d been told a lot of disapprovals which aims to demotivate me of the things that I’d been doing. Despite of that, I chose to continue and disregard all their negative remarks. What’s important for me is myself and the rest of negative remarks are just rubbish. For me, the power of words can define a person. The way he/she talks can greatly show that person’s personality. I’d seen it on my own experiences in life and the best way to address it is to learn not to care and focus on what you’re doing. Like what I did, a lot of people tried to stopped me from what I’m doing, but in the end, I chose what matters for me. You know that you are growing if you’ll gain an enemy who will constantly attacks you just to make you stop. Everyone should learn to divert their mind because in the end, you’re the only one who can help yourself.

Here’s the pictures that I took during the workout:

Don’t let the “good old days” be your memory. Make each day a good day so as you are growing older life is an adventure to be enjoyed not a memory.” – Catherine Pulsifer

2. Healthy meals started!

Another thing which became a good change in my life is when I started to eat fresh vegetables salad every single day! My mom would probably leap from happiness after knowing it because she knows pretty well how I hate vegetables. The consultation that I had last July became one reason that pushed me to go for healthy lifestyle. I was actually quite amazed of myself because I learned to eat the vegetables & fruits that I hate since I was a kid. These are cucumber, tomatoes, onion and watermelon! I actually just tried to have a cup of it one day and I found that I really enjoyed that serving. Afterwards I keep asking the same salad every day which became my lunch. Based on my research, the recommended daily intake is at least 1½ to 2 cups per day of fruit and 2 to 3 cups per day of vegetables as part of a healthy eating pattern (cdc.gov). Upon learning about it, I started to really be cautious on what I eat so that together with my workout, I can finally say that I am physically healthy.

“Live your life one breath at a time. Take a moment to dance in the rain, laugh loudly, and love with every inch of your heart.”

As we all age, I realized that it is very important to take care of ourselves wholeheartedly. No one can be an exemption on the diseases and illnesses present on our surroundings. We need to double our efforts and make sure that we are eating right, having professional consultation and working out consistently. All of these three make up a healthy lifestyle. You can never cheat on one thing while doing perfectly the others. You’ll just end up making fun of yourself because you choose not to wholeheartedly make an effort to live a healthy life. To give you an idea on my usual meals for a day, here below are the details:

• BREAKFAST:          9:00-10:00             Brown Bread & Two Boiled Eggs
• LUNCH:                 11:00-12:30           ½ Mug of Tea & 1 Cup of Salad
• SNACK:                 13:00-15:00           Coffee, fruits (orange/grapes/banana)
• DINNER:                15:45 – 16:30         1 Cup Rice & 1 Cup of Protein Meal

As you can see, most of my meals are more on protein, fruits and vegetables items. Although I’m still consuming carbs from rice, I am making sure that the rest of the items that I’m consuming are enriched with vitamins and minerals. I’m also consuming more vitamin c enriched food items such as citrus fruits in order to strengthen my immune system and improve my skin condition. Actually, this month I decided to stop the whitening supplements that I’m taking after I experienced breakouts after almost two months taking it. Rather than achieving glowing skin by the use of supplements, I realized that it’s better to prioritize strengthening my immune system first. For now, I need to focus on having healthy meal intake every day to improve my body. Together with proper workout, I hope and pray that I will soon achieve a healthy lifestyle that I’m aiming.

“Let’s build wellness rather than treat disease.”– Bruce Daggy

3. Vacation requirements secured!

Due to the pandemic, there’s a lot of changes took place in terms of travelling. To be able to prevent further effect of COVID-19, all of the countries made a strict implementation for all of the travelers. Actually, the whole thing may look like a hassle for the rest, but for me, our government just wanted to have a thorough and swift implementation of things that will help us to address issue that may further arise in the future. Compare to other countries wherein they don’t have much requirements and only flight ticket will do for them, for us Filipino’s, we need to undergo in contract verification, getting an updated official employment certificate, registering in a one health pass for vaccine registration and also downloading the Traze App. Before, I feel so frustrated just thinking all of the process that we need to undergo. But as soon as I experienced it on my own, I feel like our government wanted to be very specific in handling each and every one of us Filipino’s working abroad. Yes, there’s a lot of requirements needs to prepare and on top of that we also need to have an appointment for every transaction, but all of it are for us. All the processes are for our own benefit in order to update our job status in our country and at the same time be an active member of OWWA in order to gain benefits if there’s any challenges that we’ll experience in the future.

Our appointment was last August 18 at 11:00 am. We went there early for us to verify first our contract and then proceed on getting our OEC. Weeks prior to that appointment, I already secured all the necessary things needed for all of it so that we can double check and adjust the other things that we need to have. I also prepared my partner’s requirements so I can ensure that both of us will have a complete document before going there. Since the verification is open at 8:00 am, we went there 10 minutes prior to its opening and the process went on. After we verified our contract, we proceed on getting our OEC at 11:00 and gladly we end at around 12:30. We were both famished after that so we decided to eat after that. WE end the day feeling fulfilled because finally we are done with all of our requirements. All we need to do is to register for a one health pass and everything will be officially done! Just by thinking all of the things that we both went through just to keep our records updated, I feel like it was all worth it in the end.

Here are all the requirements that we prepared and also the fees that we paid:

REQUIREMENTS:

1. Original Passport + 2 Photocopies DONE

2. Employer Sponsor’s Qatar ID- 2 Photocopies DONE

3. POPS-Bam Online Printed document/Information- 2 Photocopies

4. Qatar ID + 2 Photocopies DONE

5. Employment Contract – 2 Photocopies

FEES:

1. OEC- QAR 9 valid for 60 Days August 15

2. Contract Verification Fee Qar 40

3. OWWA Membership Fee Qar 93 valid for 3 years

4. Pagibig Membership fee- QAR 30 valid for 3 months/ QAR 120 for 12 months.

TOTAL 262 TRANSPO 50 MEAL 88

Here are the pictures that we took on that day:

It was another tiring and yet fun experienced we had the whole day. I’m happy that I was able to do it with my partner since I can’t imagine doing it all alone. We both shared that hassle together and that made me feel ok despite of it. Now, I’m already familiar with the processes needed for OFW. Next time it will not be a hassle for me anymore and I’m pretty sure that it will all be a swift process for both of us.

“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” — Victor Hugo, from Les Misérables

4. Vacation treats!

Compare to before wherein I always bought a lot of stuffs way back home, now I decided to just go for simple treats and have my grocery there back in the Philippines. I just realized that it’s not that practical to spend money her and then spend again once I’ll be there. So together with my sister, she just helped me to list down things that I can buy here and manage the budget that I have. After we finally finished all the vacation requirements, me and my partner scheduled a day when we can buy the stuffs that we need. We went together with his friend in Lulu Gharaffa and there we bought different items. My budget for it is 700 rials maximum which cost around P10,500.00. To give you some ideas of what I bought, here are the following:

• Chocolates
• Dates
• Coffee and Tea
• Perfume/Mist
• Scented Powder

Here are the pictures that they took on that day:

All of these items are for my family, friends, relatives and my partner’s family. I actually planned it all out in order not to missed anyone. Due to my short budget, I decided to just prioritized the people that I need to give and at the same time choose an item which would they like. It was quite hard at first to list down everything due to the limited budget, but thankfully I was able to finalized it before second week of August. It was my sister who really helped me to check the items that I need to buy. She gets rid of the unnecessary items and helped me to adjust my list according to what we need rather than the wants. After we finished buying things, I slowly felt like I’m really going on vacation. That was the day when it all sink in to me that I’ll be going on August 31 and spend 30 days of vacation in the Philippines.

Finally! I can now feel the excitement growing within me!

5. August 31 flight!

After almost four years of not having vacation, me and my partner is finally going home. Prior to this day, I prepared all of my luggage, documents and OOTD. As soon as I’m assured that everything is ready, I took a nice nap and start the day fixing myself. My flight is at 5:35 pm and we arrived five hours before that time at the airport. We secured our luggage and proceed on the waiting area. Before that, we bought some snacks first for us since we’d been there at around 12:30 pm and we are both hungry already. It took us hours of waiting but it was convenient for me since my partner is with me. We chatted a lot, shared a lot of stories and also took some videos for our TikTok. Now that we are both in the process of being a real influencer not only in dreams, we really started to put efforts in everything that we do on our social media accounts. Going back to that time, we keep updating our family about the status of our flight since they will be the one who will take us home. Every single hour of that time really makes me feel so excited because I keep thinking of our tours and travels for the whole month. I will surely remember all the things that I felt that time.

To complete that day, we took an aesthetic airport selfies for both of us.

“We all have different path to take.”

A lot of positive changes happened in this month of August. This month gave me new inspirations, taught me to become more passionate and lastly made me realized the opportunities that I can still do.

There’s no such thing as limitation for someone who believe on their selves. We can always do great things as long as we don’t stick on our comfort zones. The greatest enemy that we all have is our own mind. The moment that we say no to something is already an indication of giving up on that opportunity. That’s why it is important to create a mindset wherein fear will not stop us on trying things.

It took me time to overcome that situation. As I write this blog, I wanted to inspire others that there are more experiences that awaits us. Everything can change in a matter of time if we choose to fix our mindset. The choice is all ours.

“One of the best ways to make yourself happy in the present is to recall happy times from the past. Photos are a great memory-prompt, and because we tend to take photos of happy occasions, they weight our memories to the good.” – Gretchen Rubin