Hey there Steemians!
I decided to quit my office job last April of last year, because I made up my mind to try my luck working at home (online). For almost 14 years, I have been working constantly far and away from home and has lived independently. I paid my own bills while helping out my sister in sending my younger siblings to school, and finance their education. Since my parents were both unemployed at that time, it was a financial obligation on my end to help the whole family survive-- from the day to day household consumption, to the different bills of the household.
I hope it's not too late for me to join this contest. :)
From office uniforms to home clothes, certainly, it's a great switch. (These are pieces of memorabilia from my previous job.)
Looking At My Life Back Then
After I graduated from college in 2003, I landed a job as a faculty teacher in a private school. (I bet everybody knows how the lives of the teachers are.) It was a tough job. Since I started out fresh from the university, I came to terms with reality. It was far from what I had imagined to be. Definitely, it was even harder compared to the OJT and the Practice Teaching that I underwent as a student.
I survived for two years but amidst those years, my first ever teaching job (probably my last one too), has taken its toll on me. Apart from I was getting sick most of the time from the stressful things that the work demands, I was also broke eventhough I was working. My salary was not enough to pay for my rent and helped my family. My whole family was struggling, and we never ran out of debts.
Fast forward to 2005, I decided to resign as a teacher. Even if I had passed the LET and achieved my license already, I decided to shift to a different career. Since BPO was a fast-growing industry during that time and BPO employees were earning more than the basic remuneration, I decided to give it a shot. I applied to several BPO companies but I mostly failed whenever I got to the technical phase of the process.
I almost gave up.
Every time I came home from job hunting, I felt all the more disheartened because my mother was not that favorable about my career decision. She wanted me to continue teaching, and had kept insisting on it that I felt like I was being nagged already.
Just a thought. You might wonder why I took up Education when I never have the heart for it, in the first place. Frankly speaking, we were not an affluent family. I passed the exam of a state university that offers education and nursing courses only, at those times. Since my mother was a frustrated teacher, and we didn't have enough money to support me on the course that I liked, I agreed to follow her dreams of becoming an educator and grabbed the opportunity, just so I could earn a Bachelor's degree.
But, I was still hopeful and I prayed a lot.
Going back to that unemployment stage, I went to a job fair and decided to try my luck there. Fortunately, Western Wats Phils Inc. (now SSI), got me scheduled for exam and interview at their office location. Eventually, I got the job and worked there for almost 12 years. The rest was history.
In the corporate world, I did have a comfortable work station. Now, in the virtual world, I do have several corners at home where I can work conveniently. (I took this photo on my last day of work as a remembrance.)
MAKE OR BREAK on 2017
I had been planning on taking a big leap to a different company since the early 2014 or so. Apparently, I was not happy anymore with work and the department that I was transferred to. I could not focus properly. I had a lot of issues going on within myself, which I couldn't particularly pin point the root cause. There were times that I felt a little depressed as past unpleasant memories had consistently been clouding up my mind and affected my whole work life balance. The environment I was in hasn't helped, all the more, because I felt like the people around me could not understand what I was going through.
I kept praying until one day I was enlightened. At this time around, I could humbly say that we're comfortable with our lives, since my siblings had finished their studies already (to God be the glory!), and my parents although far from us, are well and we could somehow manage our day to day necessity.
I decided to hand over my resignation letter to my manager. I stayed at home and entered the world of online freelancing. I did some part-time jobs to keep me preoccupied for some time, though I earned only a little. I have been through rejections of proposals all over again. Being successful, while still a noob, in the freelance world is quite a tall order, especially that I am mostly unqualified when it comes to experience, plus there's a massive competition among freelancers.
THEN, I FOUND STEEMIT!!!!
It was my sister @koshin who introduced me to the platform. Although, I could write decent paragraphs, I was not at all knowledgeable for the most part. My first few months was almost always $0.00 earnings, that I would really jumped for joy whenever someone would upvote me for $0.01. It felt like a very great achievement on my part already.
I did not take Steemit seriously at first, because I felt like no one was interested in what I was writing, and my upvotes came in 'once in a blue moon', for the first few months.
Later on, I discovered discord chat from some of the Steemians' blog posts, and I curiously joined in. I didn't constantly visit the channel and I forgot already but I think I entered the steemph's chat room. Fellow Filipinos on Steemit were there and very welcoming. Someone (I forgot what her name was) told me she checked on my steemit account and she gave me some tips so that my posts will be curated. I was very thankful to her and still am (I should've remembered her name). I was fairly new to steemit, so I was still exploring on what else to do, and I was not taking note of anyone who I came acquainted with. But, everyone's so warm and friendly.
Never losing hope, I still kept on posting random things about my life and what I have been doing in the past years that my Steemit has become an outlet of throwback mementos. Then, one day, a superhero came to my aid. @surpassinggoogle happened! He stumbled on one of my travel posts and he unhesitatingly gave out a hand. I did not know him at first, and I was so thrilled that someone actually read my post and offered some suggestions on how to improve it.
I instilled it in (everything he reminded) and tried my best to apply it. Few days have passed, I came to finally know him and how he has helped fellow Steemians in this community. Despite his busy schedule and unforeseen events that happened in his life, he is still there to back us up. Like him, I also would like to start my 2018 with a big bang!
Indeed, my 2018 started beautifully, my friends, because of your unending support.
Everyone in this community inspires me to keep going and to hold on. In spite of the harsh inevitable incidents that took place and will take place, I am optimistic that everything will turn out a-okay and great for each one of us.
MY PROFUSE GRATITUDE GOES OUT TO ALL OF YOU!
