finding a new love

checked an email from our funding partner. it was a quick read and a quicker forward to manila. nothing much to it. stayed on line for a bit while, you know read emails, let myself be known in ym.

and before i even started this entry, che buzzed me. and before i knew it, everything went second priority and i was pounding the keyboard to answer her every message. before i knew it, she was asking for my cv, offering me the position of cost engineer in her organization in singapore, (that is an assitant to the lead cost control, a job that would be on budget and finance).

i was almost swept out of my chair. i don't know what to say. i told her how i absolutely love finance (she said, yeah, she knows!). that's why i worked for a stock securities company right after graduation and with a financial information company after the first job.

but...

i have to say i found a new love. somehow, working with communities (and in mindanao, for that matter) have made me realize that life is not really about money. damn, eight years ago i was a wide eyed graduate, thinking that i can conquer the world by being in corporate. i'm sure that my chances are high, as my batchmates opt for marketing jobs. i was the only one who thought about being at securities.

three years ago, that perspective changed. and i never realized how it has changed so much as the way i saw it now. for in the same ym chat. i said my regrets to che for i think that this is not yet the time to move. well that was quick.. and decisive... and clear, at least for me.

it is not time to move for i think that there is so much to do with the communities i am working with. there is so much to discover. and there are so many friendships to make.

i was speaking with kapitan toto this afternoon. he was telling the story of how in the years between 2000 until 2003, how gun fights used to erupt at least two times a week. how they have lived out of holes from the ground just to secure their locations. how they have refused to leave their place because the believe that the land is theirs and they would die defending it.

i admired the way he told his warrior stories. and seeing him now as an advocate for peace in their area, made me even think higher of the man.

for these stories, for these afternoons, i think a lucrative job is easy to let go.

che said: sabi ko na nga ba.