Compared to last year’s summer where the Hong Kong trip with my brother, aunt, uncle and cousin was the only interesting thing that happened to me, this year’s summer was better than the previous one. Although my summer is not as delightful as it was when I was still a non-working individual (where I have the whole two months to stay up late at night for DVD marathons and wake up much later in the morning) or as it is to someone who has all the money to burn for a trip to the Caribbean, April 2008 and the first few days of May went pretty well with me.

Summer 2008 marked the beginning of the end of long summer breaks for me. I had my last 2-month long summer holiday last year after finishing graduate school. That would be goodbye to the times when I just had to spend the whole months of April and May bumming around the whole afternoon or just sitting or lying on the couch watching TV and DVD’s or reading a pocketbook or spending some time with relatives in the province or going to the beach or pool for a swim. This year’s summer also ended my happy days when I spend my time just thinking of what productive thing I could do for the rest of the week or spend more meaningful hours attending an art class or dance lessons.

This is the first summer where I don’t get to wake up later than 7 or 8 in the morning since I became part of the working population. Although I am normally a morning person (I wake up between 5:30 – 7:30 AM even during holidays and weekend), I can still stay in bed as late at 9:00 or 10:00 AM, especially during summer breaks when I was still a student. However, being an income-earner now, I seldom get the privilege to get up from bed later than my usual waking time.

This, for me, is the end of being a simple ordinary student and the beginning of being a person who just got a more challenging and bigger role in life.

Anyway, as I said, the past month and the first few days of May went well with me. I spent five years in college including graduate studies tussling with the ups and downs of academic challenges. Having gone through the struggle of staying up late to meet tomorrow’s term paper deadline or trying not to mess things up while juggling school, extra curricular and personal issues, I finally landed into a job.

My current job allows me to meet different people from different sectors and levels of society. Being part of the team for four months now, I already find it very challenging to keep track of the number of people I keep meeting as weeks go by.

When I taught History to college students in Ateneo right after graduation, I was also given the opportunity to meet young people from different backgrounds. That was one of the perks of being a teacher, which I love very much. Now that I am exposed to a bigger network, things became more interesting and enjoyable for me (not that I don’t enjoy or miss teaching because I still do and I am trying to find a way or some sort of arrangement where I could teach part-time and still work at my current job).

Now, like I said (and I’ve been saying this since the beginning of this journal), this summer became really interesting for me given the fact that my work involves meeting people from various networks. Being part of various organizations and civic groups, I thought I already have enough friends and acquaintance on my list. However, this exposure made me realize that there is still a lot more in store for me.

This whole new world where I am in (being part of the renewable energy development sector and being part of a global charity network as well as international youth organizations) made me see the bigger world out there. I began to realize that my world doesn’t stop after school. My entire world doesn’t end where I thought things are just enough for me. I began to realize that I can reach and acquire something bigger.

This may be the end of my long summer breaks but in fact, that’s what just ended. In reality this is not the beginning of the end but the beginning of something bigger and new.

My summer highlights…

I thought I might just want to log these things in my digital (online) journal for “record purposes”…

Last April 4, I attended the VSO Bahaginan National Conference. I met representatives from various NGO’s in the Philippines as well as Dr. Steven Rood of the Asia Foundation and Che-Che Lazaro, one of the well-respected prominent journalist in the country.

On April 9 – 11, I went to SM Megamall to have a look at the exhibit of entries for the World Bank’s Panibagong Paraan event.

Simultaneously with that event, there was a conference on renewable energy and energy efficiency for Asia and Pacific-based NGOs and energy developers at the Asian Development Bank headquarters, which was organized by FDC, GVEP and ADB. The theme of the conference was “Financing Village-Level Energy for Development in Asia and the Pacific”. I had to go back and forth to the two events to represent our company and the foundation where I am also part of (but ended up representing the two other organizations I am part of, which makes it four!).

Five days after the energy conference at the ADB, I had to go back with my boss and our coordinator to attend another conference (on energy again), which was later followed by a one-on-one consultation with the ADB representative in-charge of our hydro energy project.

On April 24, I attended the QBP with my bestfriend and boyfriend (which I already posted previously… you might want to check it out and read it as well) and personally met one of the consuls, John Chick and the UK Diplomatic Couple themselves, Amb. Peter Beckingham and Mrs. Jill Beckingham. I was at the party where almost all the consuls and ambassadors from different countries that are presently assigned on a mission to the Philippines were present.

However, even with my busy schedule, I was still able to go to the BEACH!!! to swim, sunbathe, snorkel, ride the banana boat and ride the jetski. Since our company did not plan of having an summer trip out of town, I joined my mom in their company’s trip to Nasugbu, Batangas last April 12-13.

My summer might not be as cool as the other’s who think that summer is all about out of town trips, beach, sun, surf and sand. It’s still better than having nothing at all.