For Whatever It's Worth: THINGS I learned before I turned 25. Yes, I am 25 years old starting today!

It was really fun to list down the things I have learned before I reached my quarterlife. Today's my birthday (and not to mention I ditched my classes today) and I finally had a blog entry after almost 5 months.

CHILLCHILL LANG MANTRA. In every nerve-racking, heart-pounding moments, I remind myself and the folks around me: chillchill lang. Why do I have to keep it cool at all times? It’s simple. Panicking won’t help the situation, instead, aggravates it.

THERE'S NO POINT IN HOLDING GRUDGES OVER SOMEONE. Why? Again: holding anger over a person won’t undo the bad happening and memory with that person. Forgive, but never forget. Forgive the wrongness of the act, but never forget the lessons that situation gave you. She could be your ex-bff who was linked to your ex-boyfy but hey, giving her that stare is totally so unbecoming and will lead to nowhere good.

PAIN MAKES YOU A BETTER PERSON. Pain makes you think and reflect about your actions in the past. Why do you deserve that kind of feeling, what you did wrong, how can you make things right, the poor decisions and inactions. You learn, you grow, you mature, then later on realize you are version 2.0 of yourself.

BRILLIANT IDEAS ARE NOT ENOUGH, YOU HAVE TO ACT UPON THEM, NOW. Not after an hour, or tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but NOW. EXCUSES (oh it’s raining, I don’t have the budget, etc) are B---S----s and will just keep you going round and round in circles and you’ll get nowhere!!! Trust me on this.

STRATEGIZE YOUR LIFE. Create a strategic plan of yourself and determine what you really want. Take a SWOT inventory of yourself. My strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Maximize your opportunities by using your strength and avoiding threat by improving your weakness (and you just did a TOWS matrix). I did this the other day, and it serves as a reminder of what I really want despite the opportunities I got.

CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD BAD OUTCOMES. OKAY. So you chose to take this street over the other and ended caught up in a bad traffic. A normal reaction would be that regretful feeling, you should’ve taken the other road. BUT will regret change a thing? Will it improve the traffic situation? Think of it this way: you were destined to be in that street because it could be that, you are destined to be late because there are things that won’t happen if you come in early to your destination. Makes senses?

STOP BLAMING OTHERS. Pointing fingers will get us nowhere! Take accountability of what little action that leads to greater disaster. He could’ve, she could’ve, it is their duty, why didn’t he, why didn’t she…. Quit it! Start it by this: This would’ve not happened only if I am vigilant enough. Everybody’s accountable, stop playing clean, because each one of us is responsible for each other.

CONNECTIONS, NETWORKS AND COLLABORATIONS ARE THE KEY TO MAXIMIZED OPPORTUNITIES TODAY. Pure luck is not very reliable really. Connect, build your network and explore. You’ll never know unless you initiate the talk. Who knows,i t might lead you to something greater? And never burn bridges, because you are crossing them again someday.

YES, again, maximize and optimize opportunities, but NEVER FORGET YOUR ULTIMATE GOAL. Yes, we have countless of opportunities in life, be it directly related to your expertise or maybe not at all. Again, you’ll never know what’s instore for you unless you try. I am, by mind and heart, a tourism marketing professional wanna be. But where am I now? In the academe, and would later on explore the world of real estate because I am optimizing my mom’s expertise on the field. Tourism? Lecturer? Real estate? Lecturer, yeah, still in line, but real estate, is not really. What I’m trying to say is that, I’ve got short term plans with those pursuits, but my ultimate goal is still towards the corporate world, doing some tourism marketing stints.

INVEST ON SOMETHING THAT HAS LONGTERM EFFECTS AND BENEFITS. God knows how I have been painstakingly saving up for my graduate school tuition fee. Whenever I have this feeling of ‘I could’ve bought the latest iPhone, or iPads or nice dresses and shoes with those tuition fees’, I think about this: I am having an intangible investment for my future. When I finish this challenge, opportunities will unlock, and in few months time, the return on investment would double or even triple, I just have to be patient and contented. iPhones, iPads, in a blink of an eye, I can lose possession of, but this education investment I am into, nobody can take it away from me, even comes the day I die.

TAKE RISKS AND CHANCES. You’ll never know what’s instore for you if you keep hiding in your comfort blanket. For the past 4 years of my post-college life, I have been jumping from one job to another (travel agency to medical tourism to airline to academe). Some think I am too impatient with my career’s progress. But I couldn’t help but think, if I have not been assertive when it comes to these opportunities, how can I have discovered my love for marketing? For doing presentations? For lectures? How can I have not known I can somehow be instrumental in shaping other person’s lives? If I stayed in an office, checked my Outlook mail every 30 minutes and booked tickets to places I haven’t been before, for people I haven’t even met. How can I be ME now?

BOYS COME AND GO. Male species nowadays are A VERY complicated human complex. I’ve seen and witnessed enough. Enough said. No more pointing fingers, I have reached this conclusion, so be it. Please respect that.

SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW, WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE IF YOU DON'T SHARE IT? There’s no point in being great at something when you know that people around you are plainly good. Infect others with your positivity and enthusiasm in everything they do. Integrated ideas are always after win-win outcomes, and that is possible when we share our ideas and knowledge.

YOUR ENERGY/AURA AFFECTS THE MOOD OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT. So you’re late for your 7AM class, you blame everyone and everything, from the traffic light, the jeepney driver, the guard, the turtle-slow queue for inspection, the gasoline boy. There are two possible scenarios coming up next: first, you can enter the room, frowning and attracting more negativities, the projector doesn’t work, room clutters get to your nerves and there you go, the students attending the class could’ve posted on their Facebooks (oh the millenials that we all are) how their professor is such a source of bad vibes. ORRR you can just, flash a smile when you enter the room and act as if it was indeed a good morning. Later you’ll realize everybody else is just smiling just like you are, because they got infected by your vibrant disposition. At the end of the class period, you didn’t even notice that you had a rough start. Yes. Because you just countered the negative vibes.

IF YOU NEVER TRY, YOU'LL NEVER LEARN. If there’s one song to represent my entire life right now, it would be: “FIX YOU” by COLDPLAY. My heart’s every unspoken words, the lyrics of this song tell them all.

No matter how much you love a person, there will really come a time that they will hurt, not only once, or twice, but a dozen of times, but at the end of the day YOU'RE STILL THERE FOR THAT PERSON. You cannot impose the changes you want over a person. But rather, accept things the way they are and compromise.

PEOPLE, IN GENERAL, WILL ONLY REMEMBER YOU WHEN THEY NEED YOU. You might feel taken for granted, yeah. But it’s okay, it’s perfectly okay. Just think of it this way: You are planting good seeds in them. In due time, they will bear fruits and let’s all hope that they share that fruit to anybody who is hungry as well. Just pass it on.