I QUIT!

People have envisioned quitting jobs they hate. Visions of yelling and giving their bosses the finger and possibly the occasional throwing of corporate Satan’s computer monitor out of the window and hearing the satisfying crash as it explodes into fireworks of spastic sizzling LED bits as it kisses the  concrete. This didn’t happen to me but hey, a girl can dream.

My resignation induction happened on a smoggy Thursday. I stood before my boss in her office explaining to her that I wanted to take time to pursue my graduate studies. That and because of the political unrest between China and the Philippines I feared for my safety and because of these- takes deep breath- I decided not to renew my contract for the next academic year.

In other words, I quit.

I’ve been meaning to quit since 4 years ago. Since starting the blog in 2006, the bulk of my entries were repetitive moaning singles crying to a single theme – “I hate marking papers.”

I hadn’t quit because I couldn’t find another job. Guess I was lucky in 2006 and 2007 when schools in China would accept Filipinos as English teachers. Now it’s increasingly more difficult as Wild China tightens its grip to become ‘respectable’. Also, Japan and Korea were just plain racist. I received this answer when I tried applying for a post in Japan, “I’m sorry you just don’t fit the appearance of what we’re looking for.”

Education is a vocation with the only perk being extended vacations. They say there are three awesome reasons to becoming a teacher – June, July and August. And 6 years in this profession, I certainly raped (that’s right, raped)  the benefits- escaping my prison for three months only returning to serve my yearly 10 month sentence and dreaming again my next escape

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from,” Seth Godin said.

I do enjoy teaching but the endless lesson planning and marking floods of paperwork and mindless bureaucracy of admin just sucked the joy out of it. I’ve already lost the drive years ago and what I see now is just a robot going through the routine motions she’s been perfecting for the past 6 years.

In September 2010, I attempted to escape by taking a semester off to backpack in Australia and look for a job. In my naiveté, I didn’t do enough research and found out the hard way that employers have to pay AUD$2,000 to sponsor your work visa and most were not willing to spend that much.

I returned to my old job in China, broke and disappointed and started all over again. In June 2011, I almost got evicted out of the country because they refused to give me a work visa claiming I couldn’t speak proper English because I wasn’t American, British, Australian or Kiwi. They couldn’t even read my diplomas and certificates in English because they couldn’t speak a goddamned word of my language. And these are the people who decided who couldn’t speak English. Inside I was screaming with the unfairness of it all that my credentials and degrees didn’t matter because of my passport. But most of all the ironic twist that all this time I was trying to get rid of you China and it turns out you were trying to get rid of me.

In the end my college was able to get my visa and I had a new fondness for China seeing how I almost lost her. But almost losing my job had taken me absolutely by surprise. It taught me the hard lesson nothing is for certain. The rug of comfort could be pulled out from your feet. You could stay lying down or you’ve taken precautions to get back on your feet in no time.

After quitting the company I’ve worked at for 6 years, I thought I’d feel elated, pumping my fists and busting into an impromptu rendition of Hall and Oates’ ‘You Make My Dreams’ scaring Chinese migrants from their mahjong boards. That or this growing clawing fear of anxiety, of ‘what now’? tightening its grip around my chest choking my windpipes as the wide chasm of the unknown yawns before me. This time there would be no safety net of my old job and old life to catch me. Instead though I feel a strange calm enveloping me. I feel nothing but the urge to continue moving forward.

Who knows what lies down in the depths of the unknown? When a door closes, another  opens you to many possibilities. There’s nothing to do but jump right in.

Stay tuned.

Photo from Smartly

Other posts you would enjoy:

Just Let Them Go and F— Themselves

Why Real Life Stops You From Going After Your Dreams

Lessons I Learned From Travel (and Pics!)

I had not written in this blog for two years. Let me explain why there was a long period of not writing. Besides getting in and out of a relationship, I suddenly had an explosion of traveling to many different places. It was more of experiencing so many things and not taking the time to sit down and write about them.

And that is a shame. So below is a summary, an attempt to encapsulate what I had seen these past 2 years and hoping, here’s hoping it inspires you.

1. Travel is not just a dream. It can be reality.

There is no excuse for you to just continue sitting on your couch and moaning how boring life is. We live in an awesome world. Think how many things you could be experiencing right now if you just go out and get it.

I have a Philippine passport. That restricts me to traveling to a 100 or so countries. I need a visa to travel to most of Europe, US, Australia, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and other places. I need to do a lot of paperwork and they make it difficult for us to apply for a visa to travel to those places. I also don’t have a very high monthly income.  Did that stop me?

Nope.

I’ve now been to those countries except for Europe and New Zealand (coming soon!). What drives me to visit as many places as I can is seeing my grandparents unable to climb the Great Wall of China because of their age. Sure you can save money and finally get to visit your dream place when you retire – that is the safest option and that’s what everyone tells you- and it might happen. But what is inevitable is that you won’t be able to enjoy it fully with your 70 year old bones. Heck, my 40 year old office mate keeps complaining about climbing the stairs to our office—and yes, she did skip the Great Wall in China and bungee jumping in New Zealand.

Achieving my dream of seeing Taj Mahal, India

Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Japan. This is where I got the best sushi ever!

2. Travel can open up your mind. You think you know the world? Think again.

A Hindu community lives in this chilly part of Bromo, Indonesia. 

I took a photo of these lovely kids in Xinjiang Province, China. They look Central Asian but no, they’re Chinese.

Cowboy culture in Moron, Mongolia. One of the last and few places that totally captures the free spirit of the Wild Wild West.

Strolling aimlessly by the road, I found this Che Guevara establishment in where else but in Yangon, Burma.

Seeing and touching snow for the first time in Minnesota, USA. I had no idea it would look like shaved ice. 

3. Experience over buying things. Iphones come and go, computer models go obsolete but memories? They last forever. Would you rather stay in your house and watch your brand new plasma T.V. and play your Xbox or would you rather –

-  scuba dive the world’s largest coral reef system a.k.a.  Great Barrier Reef of Australia?

-         paraglide amidst the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal? (My guide and I took this photo of my friend Shirley while we were riding the air currents from above.  Terrifying!)

-   go on a camel ride on the sand dunes of Mongolia? (here’s my friend David with the prettiest camel of the bunch).

-   catch a beautiful sunrise amidst 2,600 temples in Burma?

4. It’s about meeting new friends and spending time with the old. It’s about forming memories and friendships that would last a lifetime.

my best friend, Dbau and I in one of our best trips in Burma

This is our tour group shivering in front of our Russian van in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Spending all those days in the desert without mobile phones, T.V. or internet gave us more chances to talk about our lives and spend time with each other. 

5.  And finally, just live life.  We live in a beautiful world.

Whitsundays in Australia

Swim with the biggest fish in the world- the whale shark in the Philippines (photo from Lovely Adventures)

Marvel in the glitziest area in the world- Times Square, New York City. 

Be awestruck in one of the most beautiful monuments in the world- Hagia Sofia in Turkey (Bucket list!).  Photo from Istanbul Tours

Skydive in New Zealand (photo courtesy of  Scoop)

See the glaciers in the Roof the World, Tibet

See the world’s largest mirror in the Salt Marsh of Bolivia (photo from Beautiful Places).  I so badly want to see this. 

For “the World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine

Free your wanderlust. Happy Travels!

Except for pictures I provided a link to, all photos are from my album.  Please kindly link to this site if you want to use them. Thanks!

You might like to read:

How to Make an Easy Travel Itinerary

Sample Travel Itinerary 

The Quick Pack List

How to Prepare for your Trip the Lazy Way

How To Create a Timetable and Get Rid of Procrastination

Perhaps you’re familiar with the overused phrases, “I have plenty of time.” or “I can do it tomorrow.” As I’m chronos- challenged, I often believe I have that invisible superman power to be able to do all my to-do lists in one single sweep. Five humongous tasks in one hour? No problem.

Not really.

This has unfortunately lead me to rushing my personal tasks year after year. The ubiquitous last minute syndrome. Packing for China an hour before heading to the airport. Packing my belongings into boxes and move to a new apartment two days before rushing to catch my plane to Australia for a 2 month backpacking trip. Thinking I could get a job in another country two weeks before my contract runs out. No wonder I couldn’t accomplish my yearly goals for four years.

This year I decided to change that.

One trick I learned from my teaching field and organizing conferences is the use of a timetable. In one semester, there is so much material to teach that you want to organize and stay on track so you could comply with your syllabus objectives and learning outcomes. See sample below.

WEEK	TOPIC(S)	ACTIVITY
1 6/02	Introductions, Course outline; Formal v Informal	Written paragraph for homework
2 13/02	Paraphrase & Parts of the book	Library Visit?
3 20/02	Paraphrasing Skimming & Annotating	Library Visit?

Likewise, in a conference you cannot afford to stay behind schedule with so many components (budget, accommodations, logistics, guest speakers, sponsors, etc) that a timetable calendar is a must to stay up to date and make sure you’re on top of your game. There is more at stake because you don’t want the event to fuck up- or you for the matter.

Now why can’t they do this for your personal development? We need a syllabus to our life (objectives- purpose) and a calendar with deadlines to make sure we’re on track. Like a conference, there is a lot at stake (our goals) and there will be a lot of changes along the way (flexible calendar needed) but in the end you can see where you’re at and soon will get to the finish line where champagne heaven awaits.  Below is a sample of my timetable with 80/20 prioritization.

WEEK	80%	20%
1 6/02	research Australia
2 13/02	publish 3 blog entries Sleep at 11pm 5x a week Notary- Macau & apply for new Phil. passport on Thursday? Create checklist for OZ requirements	Learn Spanish commands and questions and basic expressions
3 20/02 (slump week- downtime)	Contact schools for copies of Transcript of Records Fill in OZ education assessment application	Return Process Essay

I found using a timetable to be more effective than using David Allen’s GTD 90 Day-Monthly -Weekly system. It takes me less time and more importantly, I can see how much time I have left before my deadline. Also, how each step contributes to the next one tells me how important it is to do them on that week. This helps me stop procrastinating.

Here are the steps to create a timetable

1^st STEP: Break your yearly goals into projects. For example, one of my goals is to try to apply for a migration visa to Australia. The simple steps could be broken down to research, gathering paperwork and apply. More steps could be added as soon as you have gathered more information.

2^nd STEP: Make sure to be realistic and create a plan B and its steps for your goals. A timetable helps me create back-up plans. Should migrating to Australia fail, I’ll try to apply to Canada and New Zealand. If that does not work either, then I’ll try volunteering or study exchange programs. I like to create a Plan C, D, E, F to my Plan B and sometimes none of those happen and something completely surprising will be thrown at you. But you should always keep in mind that whatever plan you take it should be in line with your purpose in life. Mine is to travel, experience and inspire and be inspired by life.

3^rd STEP: Now that you have your steps and back-up plans in place, it’s time to fill in your calendar. You can use Google Calendar or create your own template in a word document. I aim for a 6 month plan which will leave plenty of flexibility for the other half of the year. Make sure to put deadlines to your goals and stick to them. Making the calendar at first would be a bit taxing but it would save you much time and stress in the end. It did for me.

With a timetable, you could also observe which weeks you’d be the most productive and schedule your most important tasks there. Likewise, you’d see which dates you’d likely be in a slump and pencil in some down time. Remember to carry your timetable with you wherever you go to be reminded of your tasks. Lastly, be flexible. There are many things that could happen in life but always make sure you keep the big picture in mind.

Happy Planning!

Photo from 2nd Green Revolution