I earned my PRC license in 1983 on my second try. I was not really very proud of it then since I was the only one who failed in our first try ( there were 24 of us and one landed 2nd place). It made my parents real proud but unfortunately their dream was not my dream. I did landed a good job, a promising one during that time, since we were assigned at the fore front of the planned water service project that would modernize the entire Metro-Manila. Unfortunately, Cory Aquino came to power and decreed that all Marcos proposed projects are to be shelved and that ended our dream of becoming the future project managers of other project components that were soon to follow.
The new administration that prided itself to be incorruptible bloated the MWSS plantilla from 3000+ to 16,000+ employees in just over a year and it was no surprise that after 4 years, the company went bankrupt and had to be privatized. I ended up in a job assignment that was a poor use of our training while my peers found work in the Middle-East constructing desalinization plants and underground silos for defensive weapons. Having had over a year of experience how lonesome it was to be in a field assignment where you could only go home on weekends, I opted not to go since I was then newly married and yearly furlough to me then was unthinkable. Besides, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't use to playing the kind of game one had to play in a corporate world. My heart was simply not into it and I sought escape from the pressure and stress that managing other people brings.
It was then that I came back to where I started from, having acted as a second to my father in running our fruit business. I opted for a different product though, conducive to my moods and compulsive behavior. And that was how I ended up with the book business. Everyday for the last 27 years I do nothing but read, scrawl notes, watch movies, exchange ideas with customers, and do some writing at the end of the day. I earn from the effort to provide for my family's needs and get to daydream the minutes in between. As Goodrich use to say, " I have earned my Master of Art degree in Daydreaming."
It was a complete turn around from the world I use to live in - and since that day I have neglected connecting with former friends until I found myself detached. I found no need for a cellphone that I stopped using one about ten years ago. My world became my family, my bookstore, and my imagination. My counter became my podium where I get to share the useless information I picked up from the books I read and movies and documentaries I've seen. My suppose to be legacy lies in the volumes of scrapbooks I've kept through the years of notes and cut-outs pasted on its pages. Add to this the blogging and the playlist that I hope my kids would one day find interest playing for them to be reminded me of when I'm gone.
All my kids turned out to be more interested in numbers than the letters I have enjoyed juggling through all my years. But up to this time, they still listen to whatever I have to say and still find my jokes funny. So I guess it would just be a matter of time when they would one day turn the pages of the cartoons and jokes I clipped from the old magazine and newspaper I read. The things I wrote which I never got to say to them, would one day too will be read so they'll know that even when we're not together its them I have in mind most of the time. Never wanted to hold them on a leash, for I thought that the less rules I make, the less I have to worry about them breaking it. To see them laughing, smiling, and home each was more than what could make my day. Hope that maybe when they are gone and had families of their own they'll still try to connect with us. I don't like to bet on that but one thing sure, so I stocked up memories to hang on when I have nothing more to do but ride on my rocking chair waiting for my time to end.
I am not stopping. With visions fading, as well as my troubled hearing, and arthritis crippling my hands, I still continue with my reading, my writings, my cut-outs, and my talking. I have yet to earn my Doctorate degree in caring. I've been down so many times, I haven't really leveled up to a day when I can do more than just share my thoughts. I hope someday I could still have time to connect with the old friends and relatives. I had to tell them that I haven't really forgotten the good times we've had. Just have to leave for a long while to nurse my wounds and once completely healed, get back to them and share some good times together.
Saturday, September 23, 2017
HINDI PALA AKO NAG-IISA
While I was scanning an old Jeepney Magazine (no longer in circulation) I could hardly believe an article I read about an old friend in my high school days. He was no extra-ordinary student during our days but he was a good-looking Spanish mestiso and I would say a great storyteller. It was no surprised to me when we met 10 years after high school already a made man.
He finished B.S. Chemistry and easily landed a job at Unilab as a Med-Representative, and became one of the company's top salesman. On one of his seminars in China ably convinced a CEO of company manufacturing medical equipment to have him as act as the firm's sales conduit in the Philippines. He was given a budget, a fat salary, and all the backing he needed to make good. He was then earning millions even before he turned 30. We had some get together with some other old friends which ended in promises that we'll get in touch in later years. That was the last time I heard about the guy.
That day, some 30 years later, he was featured in four colored pages of the Jeepney Magazine operating a sort of shelter for abandoned and orphaned kids, taking care of their education until they let them go on their own after graduating from high school. There was no glamour in the job, and surely no high financial reward but he sure looked happy with his wife and with what he was doing. That article made me happy too - at least I am not alone in doing the kind of thing I wanted most.
I remember him telling me privately how frustrated he was with his job then, having have the play the dirty games of dealing with people who always demand something "extra" for them to approve the permits in importing their products as well as the corrupt doctors who wanted beautiful escort in their seminars abroad provided by the company before they approve the acquisition of the medical equipment. He said he felt "dirty" doing those things. Now, I am very sure he feels "clean".
He finished B.S. Chemistry and easily landed a job at Unilab as a Med-Representative, and became one of the company's top salesman. On one of his seminars in China ably convinced a CEO of company manufacturing medical equipment to have him as act as the firm's sales conduit in the Philippines. He was given a budget, a fat salary, and all the backing he needed to make good. He was then earning millions even before he turned 30. We had some get together with some other old friends which ended in promises that we'll get in touch in later years. That was the last time I heard about the guy.
That day, some 30 years later, he was featured in four colored pages of the Jeepney Magazine operating a sort of shelter for abandoned and orphaned kids, taking care of their education until they let them go on their own after graduating from high school. There was no glamour in the job, and surely no high financial reward but he sure looked happy with his wife and with what he was doing. That article made me happy too - at least I am not alone in doing the kind of thing I wanted most.
I remember him telling me privately how frustrated he was with his job then, having have the play the dirty games of dealing with people who always demand something "extra" for them to approve the permits in importing their products as well as the corrupt doctors who wanted beautiful escort in their seminars abroad provided by the company before they approve the acquisition of the medical equipment. He said he felt "dirty" doing those things. Now, I am very sure he feels "clean".
Friday, September 22, 2017
LAST STORE STANDING
It takes years to build a reputation. To be acknowledged, to be well known was farthest from my mind when I started this business about 27 years ago. I loved it, and after about a year I knew inside that this is the kind of life I wanted. Its true, come hell or high waters, you'll find me at the same place 365 days a year, 8am to 9pm, browsing and scrawling about the old books I had acquired, repairing the torn covers, sanding the edges, and trying to make them worth reading.
The kind of life is very far from the first one I started which I too enjoyed but being in the field of construction and technology is simply not me. I want to appreciate what I have in me every moment and share it with people who too are trying to find answers to questions they are afraid to ask. An older customer once told me that I just don't sell books for a living but I also sell ideas and inspiration to some who needed the push to pursue what they wanted in life. I never thought of it that way - I just love to talk but I learned that to be effective I had to back my talks with a lot of knowledge and information. And in books and movies is where I get it from.
The book business was good to us for I was able to provide for my family and send my kids through college. But like all kind of business, it has its ups and downs, and when you're down and still shining, some moneyed guys want to takeover your business. All the stalls around me had been vacated and empty and my place is now a dead spot in the commercial complex I'm in. Its a make or break deal for me unless I am able to come up with something to show the management that the store is worth maintaining for they are now vent of having other moneyed establishment occupy the space. Moving inside the inner core of the dry goods section would surely mean the demise of our bookstore considering how unfriendly the mall have managed the place and the rent is not really that affordable.
Sad as it may, I am not considering of selling the business to someone who could manage it better - improve the store, better shelves, lightings, more goods to sell aside from books. Considering the number of faithful customers who had patronized my store through all those years that had allowed us to stay in business while all around us was suffering from losses, I believe a much improved bookstore and general merchandise would still make good. For me its not the end of a dream but having a dream live beyond me.
I am open to offers, even as a minor partner if ever I am still needed to operate the store. I still have until the end of the year...
The kind of life is very far from the first one I started which I too enjoyed but being in the field of construction and technology is simply not me. I want to appreciate what I have in me every moment and share it with people who too are trying to find answers to questions they are afraid to ask. An older customer once told me that I just don't sell books for a living but I also sell ideas and inspiration to some who needed the push to pursue what they wanted in life. I never thought of it that way - I just love to talk but I learned that to be effective I had to back my talks with a lot of knowledge and information. And in books and movies is where I get it from.
The book business was good to us for I was able to provide for my family and send my kids through college. But like all kind of business, it has its ups and downs, and when you're down and still shining, some moneyed guys want to takeover your business. All the stalls around me had been vacated and empty and my place is now a dead spot in the commercial complex I'm in. Its a make or break deal for me unless I am able to come up with something to show the management that the store is worth maintaining for they are now vent of having other moneyed establishment occupy the space. Moving inside the inner core of the dry goods section would surely mean the demise of our bookstore considering how unfriendly the mall have managed the place and the rent is not really that affordable.
Sad as it may, I am not considering of selling the business to someone who could manage it better - improve the store, better shelves, lightings, more goods to sell aside from books. Considering the number of faithful customers who had patronized my store through all those years that had allowed us to stay in business while all around us was suffering from losses, I believe a much improved bookstore and general merchandise would still make good. For me its not the end of a dream but having a dream live beyond me.
I am open to offers, even as a minor partner if ever I am still needed to operate the store. I still have until the end of the year...
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