I am a magnet for the unusual…

…hence the title of this blog. What does it mean exactly? It basically means that in the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that I seem to attract more and more unusual experiences whenever I travel.  Whether it be observations from an outsider’s (mine) point of view, conversations that take surprising turns, people with really interesting backgrounds and stories to share, I want to record all of those things in this blog while the memories are still there.  Other than that, I just got back from a 3-week tour in Europe and since I got home, nobody really seemed all that interested in hearing my stories, so I said to myself, f*ck it, I’ll just blog about it for all the world to see, maybe one or two people might find it interesting.

A bit of a disclaimer, though: I am not sure whether some of my more unusual experiences are unique to me or whether they’re even worthy of any sort of reaction. I sometimes wonder if I am too overly excited or passionate about sharing some of my stories and experiences. If my closest friends can confirm one thing, though, it’s that I do have a buttload of stories to tell (and if you’re fortunate/unfortunate enough to hear them personally, it’s told with much relish, drama and passion).  I cannot claim that they will always be incredibly interesting or wow-worthy, but I will try my best to share all of these with the most accurately descriptive words I can use.

“Bitte Lebn” or “Live life please” written on a building in Berlin-Kreuzberg. A theme I can very much identify with these days.

At this point in time, I am currently trying to figure out what the next step is in my life and am currently devising different plans and options I could take if some of them don’t work out.  Starting this blog is sort of part of my whole spiritual journey and personal growth. To give a brief background: It’s 2012, and I decided that I didn’t want to live my life the way I’ve been living it over the past 3 years or so.

It started with a new haircut at the end of 2011.

Then, I took a couple of days off with my family before New Year’s 2012 for a spiritual retreat in Tanay, Rizal (a province in the Philippines).

After that, I started cleaning out my room and throwing out unnecessary things (dead weight) I’ve been holding on to for all of these years, perhaps a good 13 to 15 years worth of accumulated stuff. Throwing out some of it was bittersweet, but I knew it was a necessary step.

Then on January 16, 2012, I personally gave in my resignation to my boss who flew in all the way to Manila from Munich, Germany. This was a surprise not only to her (as well as our top boss who flew in from Frankfurt) but to many of my colleagues. A surprise, basically, because they thought I wouldn’t have done it so soon.

I also resigned without the guarantee of a job elsewhere. At the moment, I am still searching.

After resigning for that job, I decided to submit an essay to the St. Gallen Symposium two weeks or so before the deadline. I knew about it already from November 2011, and with all the things going on at work, I almost decided not to join.  But deciding to join at the last minute and cramming an essay for that thing was one of the best decisions I have made this year. (And I have to admit, that was a pretty good essay, if I may say so myself. Just don’t make me describe or summarize it because I’m pretty bad at that).

February 16, 2012 was my last day at work. This was my first job out of university, and I was there for a total of 2 years and 9 months. Incidentally, this day was also my brother’s birthday. I had two things to celebrate on that day. Yes, I use the word celebrate because I have never felt so free in all my life (the last time was when I graduated from high school – and it was a Catholic all-girls school at that). My mother told me that I was just radiating on that day. I did have this huge smile on my face, that I cannot deny.

On March 11, I got the news that I got accepted to participate at the 42nd St. Gallen Symposium in St. Gallen, Switzerland. I basically get an all-expense paid trip to meet other “Leaders of Tomorrow” and “Leaders of Today” and discuss the topic “Facing Risk” in a picturesque Swiss town. Hells yeah, I confirmed my participation immediately!

My last time in Europe was in 2008. I wasn’t sure whether I could get the chance to go there all-expenses paid in the near future again (seeing as the Philippines is almost halfway around the world), so since the organizing committee said it was possible to extend the departure date as long as I took care of my own expenses from May 7 onward, I decided to backpack around Europe for 2 weeks after the symposium. I had some savings from my last job. And while I did worry about the expenses for a while, seeing as I had no certain job prospects lined up at home (I applied for something like 7 jobs from February 2012-April 2012 – none of which materialized), I eventually reconciled myself to the idea that the people I meet, the places I see, the experiences and memories I get will all be worth so much more than the money I spend on it. Besides, I have always loved to travel, and I promised myself that this year, I will let go of things that I hate/things that make me unhappy and focus on doing the things I love and the things that make me happiest.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I now declare this photo as a symbol of me trying to stay positive and only focusing on things that make me happy.

And now, I’m back in Manila, trying to get back on the horse, so to speak. The main dilemma right now is: what’s the next step that I should take? I have all these ideas, and it’s proving to be problematic right now because they’re all so disparate and I’m also quite indecisive, so I’m currently in limbo as to what to do.

So, there. There are still so many things I don’t know and I’m not sure which action I’m supposed to take next. But that’s exactly why I backpacked through Europe alone: I was trying to find myself. And while I didn’t get to answer all the questions I had about where my life is going, I am glad that I got to know myself a little bit better on this journey.

Featured photo taken from the blog Twitch and Whiskers. Image further modified by myself.