Thursday, August 27, 2009

Dancer? Me?

Amidst the bustling city life of Metro Manila, finding something to keep yourself busy with apart from your 8-hour day job can either be really easy or really challenging, depending on your interests. If all you want is a bar with pumping music where alcohol is flowing and girls are dancing, that's readily available. But if you're on the opposite end of the spectrum of personality types such as myself, finding alcohol-free, affordable, good for well-being activities are a little harder to find. Thankfully, I have managed to keep my weeknights occupied with activities and sports that have made me happy, and still within my measly budget.

Every Thursday and Saturday (when I'm not surfing) has been salsa night for me. I took a class with a few friends back in 2007 and have not been able to apply it much since all my salsita friends fled the country. And then I discovered the Salsa nights, and I have been going regularly since June 2009.

Since I don't have much of a day job, this has been the only thing I've been up to that has promised me things to look forward to. I was invited by the head instructor to join their performance group, which of course I gave my immediate YES to. Apart from my newfound love for dancing, it gave me something to train for once again, a chance for me to perform again. It gives my folks another reason to be proud of me.. after 2 years of showing them nothing.

I've been told I was good at it, that I was a natural born dancer. I grew up with dancing being such a normal part of living, as my dad comes from a family of professional dancers. Apparently I have the genes that make up professional dancing, a genetic makeup that I applied solely to sports. Until now, that is.

Anyway, apart from the thrill of training again, I found something that makes me feel good about myself as well, which is one thing I realized I needed, especially now that I'm unproductive and useless to the world. That's probably a big reason I keep coming back.

Well, that and the fact that it really is fun. You should try it :)

Monday, August 17, 2009

Unemployed

For some reason I haven't been inspired to write anything lately.. Maybe it's the interface of blogger.com, I don't know. But too many thoughts have crossed my restless mind lately, and I better get them out here before my head implodes.


So I've stopped going to work.. unless they call me in for a specific task, and until my replacement comes in. I've been staying at home, leaching off my parents' free food and lodging, like many other Filipino youth are doing. (In this country, it's very common to live with the folks until you get married. Although there are also thousands of married couples who STILL live with their folks. Whatever the case, we don't leave family. And hey, I'm not complaining.) As much as I want my old freedom back, where I could go home any time, and sometimes not at all, I'm living under their roof now, and I respect the unwritten rules, even when they don't strictly impose them. Who am I to complain.

My parents are happy I left my job. They never saw it as a real job anyway, which is partly true. Strangely enough, they're not pressuring me (at least not yet) to find a job right away, and I'm so thankful they understand my situation.

Quarter-life crisis, they call it. I'm at that point in my life where the road stops. There is no road to walk down, for I have to be the one to pave my way. I also have to create the different forks to choose from, and then walk down that path, thereby creating my first set of parallel universes. (A parallel universe is the other version of your life, where you chose the other options.)

I am creating my life here and now. Time to make something out of myself. And I have absolutely NO idea what my first step is supposed to be.

That's where I'm at right now, if you can even call that a destination.