One of the notes I wrote not long ago, to make amends to a past love. He really is a good guy, but it wasn’t the right time.
I never sent him this, and I don’t think he’ll ever find this, but just in case he does, I’M SORRY and THANK YOU!
What late night thoughts I had! LOL. #random #latenightnotes
There was a time in my life when I was out every Saturday night, coming home at almost sunrise, drinking to my heart’s content, and partying like there’s no tomorrow. There were times when I’d go out on a Friday night, and I’d party again the following night. Monday night gigs were my favorite, because there was no need to reserve tables, and it would not be as crowded as a weekend. I didn’t realize that with all the “fun” I was having, I was also “wasting” my life away.
And just like that, I hit 30.
I chose to stop it all at once. I was home on Saturdays, resting and reading. I’d go to church on Sundays, and rested some more to get ready to battle another week at work.
I still went out, not to party, but it was more like the “tame” side of “socializing” – movies, coffee and massages. This was another side of me that I never knew existed. It was then I started to realize, that there was more to going out and socializing, it was then I realized, that I was fine on my own. I am comfortable with silent days, when I didn’t have to converse awkwardly with people. That there should be more to life aside from parties and gigs.
Sure, I miss going out with friends, so I do see them to catch up, the frequency of which drastically changed from 100 MHz to 60 Hz (pardon the ‘engineering’ lingo, hehe). If and when I miss them, I know they’re just a text message / viber / whatsapp / LINE away, and meeting up isn’t a problem at all.
Looking back at the things I did, I cannot help but smile. Five years later, who would have thought that I’d be here? Back then I didn’t have a dream (career-wise), I was swimming with the tide, allowing it to take me anywhere. After all the partying, I’ve climbed the corporate ladder from being a professor, to a professor with admin, to a technical manager, moved to another company to be a network engineer in the largest electronic and voice brokering company in the world. Who said there’s an age limit to moving up?
In my more than 11 years of teaching, if there’s one thing I’d like to teach my students, is the value of time. Time is the only resource that we can not replenish. Some teachers take this for granted. And I, too, am guilty of this at times. How do I become guilty? When I extend deadlines, when I become lenient with late submissions, when I allow students to attend my classes when they are late or when even I attend my classes late.
This discipline is so difficult to teach my students, when even other teachers are also tolerating tardiness. I’ve become frustrated numerous times, because I found myself wasting my day waiting for other teachers and students because they were late and had other things to do. And when they’ve finally “converged”, I was busy doing my job, doing my real job. I don’t want to be the bad guy, but I really wanted to teach them a lesson. That our time is valuable. Not only mine but theirs as well.
Being on time is one step closer to excellence. And I believe that is what we are all striving for.
A Student of Life 