My First Six Months in the Construction World

I can't believe it's already Christmas in 3 days! THREE DAYS!!!

Saying that I have been busy for the past months could be the understatement of the year. Since the construction of our house started last June, it has been one heck of crazy, stomach churning, hair raising ride of emotions since then.

I feel like a newbie soldier that just has come out of a battlefield...bruised, filthy, bloodied to the very core... limping, yet walking slowly away from the crazy inferno. I guess construction life does this to people (at least to me.)

I have learned a great deal more about architecture, engineering, construction, and surprisingly, about business (among others) in the past six months in the construction world. It definitely trumps all those years of slaving around in a 9 to 5 job in front of a computer, with the occasional yells and burns from the boss and annoying co-workers. Although I have been an architect for 4 years now, I can say that I still have so much to learn.

Everyday is a learning process for me. Every client, every laborer or worker I work with, every peso I lost due to my own negligence, every lapse of judgement, every problem I encountered- they are all instruments that could make me better at what I do someday. Who knows, five, ten years from now, I could look back to this moment in my career and still be thankful for all the challenges I was able to surpass, with God's grace.

There were number of times that I wanted to give up, to not go on living. To runaway and leave is the easier route. But in my mind, and in my heart, this is what I wanted to do. I want to build and design people's dreams. I want to give to them their hard earned money's worth (though I learned this the hard way.) I need to fail in order for me to succeed. The lessons I took away are more important than the monetary gains.

There's this quote I have read somewhere that's quite fitting for my first six months of my solo career:

"If you fail, fail fast."

PMS-ing

Depression.

It comes in all forms and sizes. Just browse your facebook wall. Some will keep ranting about whatever crap they are going through - cursing, complaining, fussing about the inequalities of whatever.

For others, well, some just like to sleep all day long, wishing that everything will be alright when they finally wake up. But they never do.

For many others still, they keep buried in work. Tons and tons of work. Until their life is literally sucked out from their veins (Caffeine replaced their red blood cells, perhaps?) Exhausting every bit of energy their already tired bodies could endure, so that they would be too tired to think of their problems. Or to even feel anything.

My Stock Market Journey Starts Now

Today marks the day I finally took a giant leap towards my financial freedom... the most sensible thing I did with P 5,000 cash I earned from one of my projects. No, I did not purchase another gadget, or update my wardrobe (which terribly needs to), or buy tickets for my long-overdue vacation... Rather, I used the hard-earned-literally-sweat-and-tears-and-all-those-sleepless-nights money to buy my first stocks.

Yes, I finally joined the crazy, confusing, scary world of the STOCK MARKET!

3-month Hiatus

Sooooooo..... have I been THAT busy that I have not posted anything for three whole months?!?! Nor have I even had the time to visit my own blog! Whoah! I guess it's time for me to slow down a bit before I go berserk with all these busy-ness!

To keep things up to date, these are the stuff that have kept me busy (and sleepless!) for the past months...
(writing this blog while waiting for my sketchup render to finish-- that kind of busy- busy)

A Sunday Night Convo with Myself

Here we go again... This is all too familiar. I see there's actually a pattern of some sort here. I know you too well that I have an idea of where this is going, or not going.

Arei, this is your brain talking. Follow my advice: Slow down..... slow down!!!

An Oil Cutter Story

Source

This afternoon, I finally found the oil cutter I have been looking for ages. I stumbled upon it accidentally though. It was conveniently camouflaged in various lengths of sachets of Dove shampoo and Creamsilk in one of my parents' drawers. Funny how I never saw it there before, since I open that same drawer everyday before hitting the showers. I guess, I was just not looking.

Anyway, I was excited to try it because I never really tested it out since I bought it 4 or 5 years ago. I got the scrap glass I had lying around, and I prepared to cut a piece for my t-shirt printing business. All the while, my 5-year old nephew, Keyaan, was watching me intently.