"DON'T QUIT EARLY"

Ever felt God was giving you a sign? When you have a certain question running through your head, and suddenly you read a phrase from some random shirt worn by a stranger... And you felt like fate is actually talking to you?

I did.

I lost my great grandmother exactly a week ago. And while we were never really particularly close, we still shared some great memories and I have learned a lot from her. She used to tell me stories of her struggles to send my grandmother and my grandmother's siblings to school, to put food on their table, and make sure they will have a decent place to live. She told me this with a broken voice and teary eyes. And that's when I knew I always need to strive hard to keep my source of income to succeed in life so that I would never have to endure what she had.

But, I became unmotivated.

One Sunday afternoon, I had coffee with two of my college friends. I thought it was just a mere catch up thing, a simple chitchat since we haven't seen each other for quite some time. But things didn't turn out the way we expect it to be. 

I told them I want to look for a work with less hassle and less stress. (Although I am definitely sure this doesn't exist.) I opened up the topic of online writing. Since I was in grade school, I was already fascinated with how I can express myself through writing. The things I cannot say, I put it in words through poems. (And a little trivia, I love Essay during exams.) And that's how the idea started.

We had a premature plan of putting up our OWN website where we can share our thoughts and personal blogs and where we can collate our content for public reading. There's no money in there, right? I have learned online websites gain income through advertisements and I'm pretty much sure that wouldn't be easy.

But we were decided to push through with it. We list the things that we will need (e.g. webmaster, content, theme, etc.) and agreed to invite our other friends to ask for their suggestions for our "dream website".

I was 70 percent sure I wanted to quit my job and do the online stuff instead, but Monday came.

I woke up feeling lazy. I didn't want to go to work, as a matter of fact. My face was low, my mood was bad, and I was thinking how can I figure things out. I am imagining a home-based work where I can just share my thoughts, inspire people, and if possible, gain money while doing it. Sounds perfect, right? Getting to do what you want to do, encouraging people, and earning bucks for it! WOW. But the big question is how?

And then I read an article published online by Rappler. I love reading articles online because I learn a lot from them, and this one has got to be one of my favorites. I was only browsing through my Facebook feed when I saw a friend share the article. I became eager to see its content upon reading its title, "For yuppies who want to quit, a word from Jesse Robredo". It was published March 29, 2014 and was updated December 16 the same year.

I admire Mr. Jesse Robredo for the simple fact that he served our country well. (For those who don't know, Mr. Robredo served as the country's Interior and Local Government Secretary from July 2010 to August 2012.) Given that, plus the fact that I am also losing my appetite for work, I opened the article. It was about Mr. Robredo's advice to his eldest daughter, Aika about her career. The article enclosed the unedited letter of Mr. Robredo to Aika, which was sent through email. And I have to say, it changed how I view my career.

You may view the full article here (http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/54143-robredo-letter-aika-graduation-career?utm_content=buffer8d3f9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer)

 The letter was quite long, but I thought it was meant for me. I have highlighted some of my favorite portions which struck me the most:

"it is too early to tell what you are meant to do. but quitting this early will not be good for you. while you may be unhappy and stressed, there is a better way of coping with it."

"i think sticking on to your job for a significant amount of time is a good idea. it will test your ability to cope with something you are not too happy doing. the sad reality is that we have to bear it because it is part of the learning process."

Upon reading these portions, I felt encouraged. I was thinking maybe God made His way to speak to me through this. And Mr. Robredo added:

"many people would love to take your place, given the opportunity. just look at this stage as the difficult stepping stones in testing your character and patience. probably, later on, with the benefit of hindsight, you will conclude that it was all for the better that you were not too hasty in making the decisions on this matter."

"but as they say, do not make decisions when you are unhappy (or emotional). they tend to be the less logical ones."

Now back to my question: Ever thought God was speaking to you through some weird instance? Well, this is my story. The article was published more than a year ago, and I still found it. I don't know if that's fate, but I certainly know it happened for a reason. With this, I took a deep breath and a minute to ponder on what I just read. "Do not quit early", Mr. Robredo said. 

And I did not. 

Hopefully, I never will.