Consistently, Q3 is the most difficult period of any given year. The busiest, the the most demanding, and the one that feels most determined to kill me. This year's isn't any different — or no. Actually, 2023's Q3 is maybe three levels more difficult than usual.
But it has a flip side: It is also the most rewarding. For achieving a few things, making past the hurdles, and dare I say for seeing openings and bravely squeezing through them — in the present tense because it's still ongoing? — I gotta admit I'm proud of myself.
July:
- Why do events always take place this month. SONA, GMA Gala, celebrity weddings. So many! Too many!
- Meeting a couple of young Europeans for coffee to chat about the climate. I wanna say it was OK but an uneasy pilit (forced) and bitin (lacking) feeling made its presence known and I don't know what to make of it.
- Heading out to H's on a stormy Wednesday with Mignac and while I absolutely look forward to one-on-ones with Mignac, that uneasy feeling of pilit and bitin made its presence known again. What is this and why?
- A first: A work meeting on a Sunday and at the office conference room at that.
- So much drama at home, with friends, in the office, and I'm just so over it. Where do people get the energy for this? Why can't people get along?
- Getting into The Bear and loving loving loving it.
- Chatting with B after forever. We matched on Tinder a decade ago and became the "best friends that we've never met" and it was, we agreed, better that what the platform could ever give us.
August:
- Going to Indonesia for the bootcamp and meeting a few new people and learning a lot.
- Winning a seat to Sweden, ohmygod!
- That action-packed Saturday — homecoming duties, lunch at Bea's, climbing & dinner
- Getting sick and thinking it was Covid, but it wasn't. But the flu was so strong, I got stuck in bed for five long days and I had to miss Bea's trip to Camiguin. I hate it, I'm so sorry, but I swear my body was just rotting from the inside out.
- Lunch at Kodawari HQ with the Supreme Court ladies
- Seeing Binky live at 78 Salcedo on a Friday night
September:
- The Schengen visa journey is a trip on its own
- Going to Gothenburg for the Global Climate Journalism Conference and meeting people and learning so much.
- H inviting me to join a webinar organized by the European Broadcasting Union because apparently, best strategy was what we won from the IMS bootcamp. (Come on, hire me, Europe!)
- Watching Hamilton, bumping into lead star Rachelle Ann Go, as mom and I head back to our room because we decided to go on a staycation at the hotel. Having Sandro and Lucia come visit us to enjoy the room and the tub.
- Going to brunch with the photographers. What a solid group that is.
- Writing a story on art that intersected with health, climate, transportation, and even urban development that looks like it resonated well on LinkedIn? From my little corner, it looks like it was shared well among my peers based in Europe. (There you are again Europe. Hire me already!)
A quarter left and it's silly how I am so bone-tired but I still want to do more. Maybe that is what these learning trips to do you: It adds fuel to that alleged fire in your belly. Came home from Sweden brimming with so much, too much ideas — for journalism in general and for climate coverage in particular — and I just wanna go ahead and do everything. But so many obstacles in my way, tall walls, petty distractions, one's own limits, and the lack of time. Seriously where did all the time go?
But I suppose that is the challenge. While sick and confined to bed in August, I came across a parkour video that explained how the activity rewires the brain to look at walls not as hurdles to overcome but as platforms to demonstrate your skill, creativity, etc. That insight is nothing new, but I don't know. Suppose it was what I needed to hear. Making past those walls, that distraction, the lack of time and my personal limits is essentially the work that needs to be done.
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