Fortunate Life

As a freelancer / Online Professional, rejection is not a stranger. It is part of the process. We generate leads, send proposals, customize applications, attend interviews, and hope that this time, it will be the one. Recently, I applied for a job that I genuinely wanted. I went through the first interview, then the final interview. I felt good about it. I prepared well. I answered honestly. I showed up as myself. At the end of the final interview, they said they would get back to me because there were other applicants. Days passed. No email. No update. And deep inside, I knew. I was not chosen. As freelancers, especially those of us who work on a project based setup, this is our reality. We do not just work. We constantly look for work. We pitch. We present. We wait. And sometimes, we get rejected. I will be honest. Even if I try to act strong, rejection still stings. It makes you question yourself. Was I not good enough? Did I say something wrong? Was someone more experience...

I’m sharing this not for sympathy, but for awareness. Honestly, I still cannot believe this happened to me. I am usually very careful. I double check names, numbers, and details before sending money. I am the type of person who pauses and verifies. But this time, I was busy. Distracted. Multitasking. And that was all it took. An online friend messaged me asking if I had a GCash balance. Let’s call her Friend A. I said yes. She told me she urgently needed to borrow money and promised to return it the next day. At that time, I was working, so my replies were delayed. But she kept following up, asking if I had already sent the money. What made it convincing was this: after some time, she started asking about work related topics. Exactly how we normally talk. The flow of conversation felt natural and familiar. There were no obvious red flags. In fact, just two hours before that, we were having a completely normal conversation. So I sent the money. She asked for a screenshot. I sent i...

  Last Sunday, we went to Montemaria to experience the glass walk. I had seen photos of it before. People standing on a clear platform, high above the ground, with nothing but glass beneath their feet and sky all around them. It looked beautiful and terrifying at the same time. On the way there, I kept asking myself, “What if I get scared? What if I freeze in the middle?” I have never really considered myself afraid of heights, but it is different when you know you will actually step on transparent glass and look straight down. Part of me wanted to back out. Another part of me wanted the thrill, the story, the feeling of doing something that stretches me. When it was finally my turn, I took a deep breath and stepped forward. To my surprise, I did not feel fear. I was waiting for my heart to race. I was waiting for my knees to shake. But none of that happened. Instead, I felt calm. I looked down through the glass. I looked around at the wide view, the sky, the horizon. I felt p...

  We are taught that change must begin with a blank page. A fresh start. A clean slate. As if becoming better requires erasing everything that came before. But your life is not a notebook. It is a living story. And you don’t rip out all the pages because one chapter was painful. You turn the page. For so long, I believed that growth meant starting over. That if I wanted a better life, I had to become a different person altogether. Leave behind the past, forget the missteps, distance myself from versions of me that didn’t get everything right. But life doesn’t work that way. You don’t wake up one day completely new. You wake up aware . And that awareness changes everything. The idea of a clean slate is comforting because it promises relief. It tells us we can undo mistakes, rewrite decisions, and escape the weight of our history. But real transformation is not about escape — it is about integration. You carry your past not as a burden, but as proof that you lived, trie...

There comes a quiet moment in life when you realize something important: you don’t actually need a brand-new life — you just need a clearer one. It doesn’t arrive with fireworks. No dramatic announcement. No life-changing event that forces your hand. It comes in stillness. Maybe while washing dishes. During a long travel when you’re staring out the window, watching the world move while your mind goes somewhere deeper. Or in the middle of the night when your thoughts won’t rest and your heart finally speaks. You begin to feel it: something inside you wants to shift. For a long time, we are taught that transformation has to look like destruction. Quit the job. Walk away from toxic relationships with acquaintances or friends. Move to a new place. Change everything. We imagine that growth must be loud, painful, and disruptive. But real growth is rarely that dramatic. Most of the time, it is subtle, internal, and deeply personal. It is the decision to stop living on autopilot. Th...

Yesterday, we had a photoshoot. Complete hair. Proper makeup. Coordinated outfits. Professional lighting. Different poses. Different expressions. Different versions of ourselves. On the surface, it was simple—we needed professional profile photos as freelancers. Something polished. Something credible. Something that says, “I take my work seriously.” But somewhere between the camera clicks and outfit changes, I realized something deeper was happening. This photoshoot wasn’t just about images. It was about permission . For many years, I showed up for others—clients, students, organizations, communities. I taught skills, built systems, trained people to believe in their potential. I helped others step into their professional identity, even when they doubted themselves. Yet like many freelancers and trainers, I often put myself last. “I’ll update my profile later.” “This old photo is fine.” “As long as the work is good, that’s what matters.” But yesterday reminded me of an impo...