Salamat Jesse!

On Tuesday, August 21, as the whole nation remembers a great Filipino who died 29 years ago, we again mourn for the loss of another great public servant. As we commemorate the death of Ninoy Aquino who had served the country with great passion and audacity, we are grief-stricken because of the death of DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo after a plane crash accident in Masbate.

I do not know Sec. Robredo personally but my heart goes out to his family who is in the midst of great sorrow now.I am also touched with the testimonials of people whom lives he had touched through his good deeds as a public servant and as a private individual. His wife and children describe him to be very loving and caring. Indeed, he was a very good family man.  His constituents, the people of Naga City and many other people are telling that he was indeed a good and responsible public servant; a person with innate goodness and integrity. Many are giving him much praise and appreciation because of the things that he had accomplished. Others say that if he had lived longer, he will accomplish more things for the betterment of our country. Many are really saddened because of his passing away but all that we can do now is to be thankful for the fruitful life that he had and pray for his soul and most especially pray for his grieving family.

As the saying goes, death comes like a thief in the night. We will never know when our time comes. Hence, every minute of our lives should not be wasted. Live every moment to the fullest. Let nothing go into waste. There are so many things that you can do so act while you still can. Be the best person that you can be and do good things to other people. In such way, you will always be remembered and loved by many even when you are gone.

HIT THAT GOAL!

       One dreamy night last July, I and a close friend of mine were texting and talking about our dreams, simple and great, as well as about the things that we want to do and accomplish in the future. Consequently, so many things came flashing into our minds. And then, she gave me a list of goals, sort of to-do lists, and challenged me to fulfill those. She categorized it into short-term and long-term goals. So let me share some of those.

Short-term goals: These are the simple and funny things but are also important. 

·         JULY: Earn money!

       For the past few months, she has been constantly asking me to go to Baguio but I’ve been repeatedly telling her that I don’t have money. Well, to tell you honestly, I really want to go there but I’m still prioritizing my earnings for some important matters. Instead of going there and spend money, I would rather save it for other important needs. So the deal was, I should save a part of my salary on this month and use it when I visit Baguio.

·         AUGUST: Go to Baguio!

       So the final plan that has been set is that I and some of my friends working in other provinces will be going up to Baguio on the last week of the month. I am really thrilled with the thought of meeting up with my friends whom I haven’t seen for a long time now. Oh! How I’ve missed them! I really miss their company and I am so excited to share my stories to them as well as to listen with theirs!

·         SEPTEMBER: Celebrate my birthday!

      Well, this is my month! So basically, I just have to enjoy and seize the moment as I turn a year older. 

·         OCTOBER: Read academic books!

       I haven’t read my books for ages! Literally! The last time I opened those was way back when I took the board exam almost two years ago. With that great span of time, I have already forgotten so many theoretical things that we’ve learned when we were in college. Thanks to her, my bookworm friend! I can always rely on her whenever I have questions. She is like a living encyclopedia! 

·         NOVEMBER: Start earning money for Christmas!

       We are both sure that we will be spending much money as the joyful Christmas season arrives!

Long-term goals: These are the ones that are to be considered with utmost seriousness. I’ve been thinking really hard about what I really want in life, of what I want to become in the future.  Sometimes, I try to imagine myself a few or several years from now. Then a wave of mixed aspirations, frustrations, happiness, and loneliness comes splashing into my soul. So let me share three among the many great dreams that I have. It seems that my friend knows my heart's desires so well because these are ones she had included in her list.

·         Find another job and work in a tertiary hospital

       Being in the medical field, I think that the best experience in order to develop your professional skills is to work in a hospital. I’m not saying that to work in a private or free-standing institution  is no good at all but it is in the hospital where you can deal with greater challenges and in a positive way ,hone  your skills by being able to cope up with the greater adversity therein. In the hospital, you’ll be able to deal with a bigger group of people (other health personnel, patients and etc.), and that’s an advantage in such a way that you’ll be able to develop your communication skill as well as your attitude in dealing with people with different personalities. Likewise, a tertiary hospital is equipped with more advanced and complete facilities and equipment necessary for your continuing learning experience. 

·         Work abroad.

       If chances allow me to, I also want to work abroad. When I was still studying, I used to say that I will never work abroad. But when I experienced working, I had this unsatisfactory feeling with regards to the salary rate given to us. Many share the same sentiment. Many of my friends aspire to go abroad for greener pasture. You see, if you try to compare the salary rates here and abroad, they’ve got a big difference.  In a much shorter span of time, you’ll be able to earn more money abroad. But as the saying goes, if there’s no pain, there’s no gain. Surely, you will have a lot of sacrifices, not to mention how hard it is to work in a strange land with strange people and will be far from home and your loved ones. 

·         Study medicine.

       This is perhaps the greatest dream of my life. I want to become a doctor. Since I was little, I already imagined myself becoming one someday. But due to insufficient money, I can’t take up medicine just yet. That is the reason why I also want to earn more money so that someday I’ll be able to finance my own schooling. Honestly, there are times when my hopes get low to a point that I already want to give up on this dream but more frequently are the times when I suddenly have this surge of eagerness to study. I really hope and pray that this particular dream will come true soon, even not too soon.

       Dreams will always be there. After all, dreaming is the freest thing that we can always do. I think that these keep us going on with life. Dreams become our goals. Attaining our goals become our mission. And I believe that there is no dream/goal too small nor big for a person so fervently and courageously willing to pursue it. With enough passion and hard work, and most especially with great faith in God, I am sure that He will bless and guide us towards success and we can hit that goal!

"When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, and all of his faculties say amen to what he is doing, and give their unqualified approval to his efforts, - this is happiness, this is success." --  Orison Swett Marden
 

GENESIS

This is my first time to make a blog. I’ve been planning to make one since the year has started but it took me this long to finally take the initial step. I’ve been reading a few blogs and I’m really amazed on how a single person’s experiences and insights can make such an impact on the other person reading it. There is this one friend of mine who has a blog and as I go through her  blog posts, I was really inspired and moved most especially when she talks about our professional life, about the hardships that we are experiencing in our work as well as wonderful learning that come with it . Those made me think. What if I make my own blog too? Will I be able to inspire others? Why not give it a try? There’s nothing to lose.

I entitled my blog “Cascades”. I thought of so many words but when I stumbled upon that word, I found it perfect. If you try to look for its meaning on the dictionary, one of its definitions goes this way, “something arranged or occurring in a series or in a succession of stages so that each stage derives from or acts upon the product of the preceding”. Since I am in the medical field, one perfect example is the coagulation pathway. The coagulation process entails a series of events wherein different coagulation factors are activated and act upon another in order to form blood clot. That is a vital process in our body system to promote hemostasis. I’m sure some of you are not really familiar with such things and perhaps having epistaxis now. So to make things simpler, I will correlate it with life. We live in this world with a purpose. We may have different ways of living but in general we all have one goal: “To have a meaningful life”. Let’s just say that the coagulation factors are our experiences. Each and every single thing that we experience is vital and has an influence on what we are to be. This may sound cliché, but everything happens for a reason. Random, complicated and countless as these experiences may seem, but these experiences will shape us into what we are destined to be. We experience something and learn from it. As a result, that learning will have an influence on our character and will definitely affect our thinking and dealing with the experiences that are yet to come. So the learning process goes on and on until we find the meaning of life and find that genuine satisfaction and joy of living.

So as I go on, I will try to share some of my experiences and insights in life. I hope that even in a small way, I will be able to inspire somebody the same way as others have inspired me.

I live an ordinary life but I love dealing with the spontaneity of circumstances. I dream big and hope for positive possibilities.