TWENTY years ago, I probably would have sulked, sat on my butt, and felt sorry for myself.
I lost my job a few months into the global lockdown that followed this pandemic. As much as I took a hit financially, I was somewhat relieved because I was so unhappy with that job.
Thankfully as well, I have this cool head above my shoulders so I was able to pivot and figure out what to do. I went back into teaching and I started doing the communications work for this health-care company. And this is all in addition to doing my usual writing for this column and others.
It doesn’t approximate what I used to earn but I am far happier and more fulfilled.
Going back into teaching which is something I did briefly in the United States and in my alma mater of Ateneo de Manila.
And I have always enjoyed it since I was introduced to teaching, while participating in Ateneo High School’s Tulong Dunong program as a senior.
In the Tulong Dunong program, all high school seniors are required to teach in public schools in the Marikina and Project 4 area once a week for a couple of hours of English, Math or science. By the end of the year, our students—sixth graders—were invited to take the entrance exams for the high schools of the Ateneo, Maryknoll (now Miriam College), St. Bridget’s School, St. Joseph’s and St. Paul’s. Those who passed or achieved certain scores were given scholarships.
And I enjoyed every moment of that. I drew upon that experience to teach Reading Comprehension for a year in a private school in Brooklyn, New York, after which I went into the corporate world doing marketing.
When veteran broadcast announcer and newspaper columnist Sev Sarmenta who also doubled as the Dean of Ateneo’s Communications Department 11 years ago invited me to teach in my alma mater, I took the opportunity. I taught Introduction to Journalism for three years and began giving lectures about journalism, writing and social media in schools all over the country.
So a return to teaching was like fitting an old glove.
It many ways, it was even more challenging as instead of face-to-face instruction it was now online. I had to re-tool what I taught and I believe it has made me into a better teacher. It wasn’t just the rudiments of writing (as well as photography and podcasting), but also teaching on how they could find themselves in this pandemic. Alternative careers. Or unearthing a latent talent.
In my online writing and media classes, I have had close to a hundred students who moved up to several modules. I have also taught communication and social studies in this college in Pampanga where I have handled five different sections. All in all, that rounds into about 220 students (including my writing classes) across 10 classes a week.
I spend my mornings attending to my consultancies and writing and teach in the afternoons (sometimes, they go all the way up to 9pm), and do four podcasts spread across the weeks during evenings.
In between, I find time to relax, watch something on YouTube or Netflix, catch up on my reading, walk my dog around the neighborhood for 30 minutes, talk to friends, and get some sleep.
There isn’t much time to feel down or bad because all of that either entertains, fulfills and tires me. So when you can’t feel bad, you feel good.
During my much younger years, when I was down, I stayed there, and waited for someone to pick me up. Going to live and work in post-9/11 New York is one of the singular life-changing decisions in my life because it made me more resilient, flexible, smarter, compassionate, and well, a thinker. In the midst of the turmoil, I found myself and the clarity I sorely needed.
You can sum it up by saying, that was the ultimate bounce back and I have constantly drawn upon that experience to rally when the world is spinning out of control.
It is only for two weeks out of these last 14 months where I felt a slump. But I would chalk that up to seeing many friends, classmates, work colleagues, or even people I admired shift this mortal coil whether to the virus or natural causes.
Even then, I knew I would be fine. I went about my work during that two-week span where I felt lethargic, in a state of limbo, with some anger creeping in.
Like the real and metaphorical storms that hit, they too, must pass. And they did.
I have always taught my students both in school and in my online classes to express themselves in some form, to learn to look at life and situations from another perspective, and that a problem is always an opportunity for one to do his or her best.
It will probably take us another year and change to rid ourselves of this virus. And perhaps even longer for the economy to rebound.
But I, you, we have come this far.
You’ve got this. #WEGOTNEXT.
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