2007: A Year to Let Go

Imagine for a moment that you're in a rowboat a mile from shore when the boat springs a leak. The bottom is quickly filling with water, and the boat is about to sink. At this point you have three choices: You can stay with the boat and surely drown. You can jump out, abandon the boat, and swim for shore. Or, you can jump out and swim for shore dragging the boat along with you.

An excerpt taken from a book by Joe Caruso, which pretty much summarizes the year 2007 for me. A year of important decisions, changing perspectives, future planning and letting go of a lot of things.

To pick up where I left off before, here are some of the highlights for the remainder of this year.

July

• My Sister's Wedding
• The AOTS Incident
  
• Job Interview
  

August

• The Unofficial High School Reunion
• Resignation

September

• Last Day
• New Job
  
• Jasmine's Resignation
• Corregidor Trip

October

• Glorietta Blast
• My Birthday
• My New Phone
  

November

• JLPT Cram Sessions
• Condo Reservation
  

December

• JLPT Exam
• Palawan Trip
• House Cleaning
  
• UST Paskuhan
• Anniversary
  

It has been a really tough year for me, but I'm really thankful for all the blessings I have received this year. I'm also thankful to all my friends and colleagues, for making 2007 a fun and sensible year for me. Finally, to Jasmine, for being there for me all the time.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

I'm going to end this post with a continuation of the excerpt...

...Put in those words, the third choice sounds pretty ridiculous. But that's exactly what many of us do. We slog through life dragging along outworn ideas, false assumptions, and relationships that we've outgrown or worn thin, and all the while, we're exerting a lot of effort. If you can picture all that stuff as so much useless baggage, I bet you'll also be able to see that it's no more than dead weight that's keeping you from moving through life as effectively as you would if you just let it go. Your own dead weight may take many shapes and forms - including people and dead-end relationships. If you let go of it, your hands will be free to grab opportunity when it arises.

Old Toys: Childhood Memories

I've always reminded myself not cling on material things too much. Not only because I could never bring them with me when I die, but also, most of these things prevent me from giving attention and focus to things which are really important and significant.

A few weeks back, I started cleaning and disposing a lot of things from our house. Most of them barely useful to anyone at home, some decomposing, some just collecting dust particles. My personal things were no exception.

Starting with some of my childhood toys, they are not those which can be considered as collector's items. But it seemed that I was able to keep them for a very long time. Not due to their financial value but probably due to their sentimental value.

Some of them were given to me by my grandma, some by elementary friends, some bought from a different country but was never used. But one thing is common, all of them had once made me happy as a child.

And now, I think it is time to let others experience that happiness. I gave them away hoping that it may put a smile on some child's face somewhere.

I never experienced having a lot of cool and expensive toys when I was a child. Although I envied my cousins and classmates for having those toys, I learned to be contented and happy for what I have or I don't have.

The Old Refrigerator

How long are you going to keep an item you bought 30 years ago, stopped using 10 years ago, and has been lying around for 20 years now?



My mom bought this refrigerator in 1977. If my memory serves me right, we replaced this with a new one around 10 years ago. And just 2 years ago, we replaced it again with another. The 2nd never lasted that long compared with the 1st. But the 2nd was never kept as long.

The 2nd fridge was immediately taken downstairs and was used as a cabinet to store different things. The 1st fridge was never taken downstairs, it was stuck here, in the 2nd floor, rusting, blocking the light and air from our windows, and accumulating dust as time goes by.



This fridge is just one of the many old and useless things that this household just couldn't let go. And for whatever reason, I could not really comprehend. The electric fan in the photo is more than 20 years old now, it broke 2 months ago. It's still here.

For me, this is no longer an issue of wasting money or resources. Everything breaks. You could repair them several times, but there will always come a time when it is no longer possible to repair them. And the only thing left to do is to let go.

Few months back, I made a promise to myself, that 2007 would not pass without me removing that old fridge from this house. Last Sunday, I began the eviction process. It was a daunting task. Because it was too heavy, I had to remove the compressor first. I consulted my dad first because I was not sure if it might blow up or something.

When he learned that I'm going to take it apart, he told me that the fridge is still working, that the parts were all new... Yeah right! The parts were new, 10 years ago! And even if it's still working, it's pretty useless to keep it here if we are not planning to use it in the next 10 or 20 years.

I never really said that to him. He probably knew that it won't stop me from taking it apart so he just told me what to do.



First, I need to cut the metal tubes attached to the compressor and to the body of the fridge. The tubes are quite thick and difficult to snap. I spent quite sometime bending and snapping the tubes.



Next, the compressor body must be unscrewed from the base. The most difficult part was removing the last screw located at the back of the compressor, which I couldn't really see.

After the compressor was removed. My dad used a hand truck to move to a temporary location, until we finally figure out how to bring it out of the house.

The end result...



Everything looks a little brighter now...

But I had to pay some price... T_T

My left knee...



My left thumb...



And my right arm...



That's for being careless and blind... :P

Letting Go

I just had a pretty rough day indeed...

This morning, I talked to Ate May about my resignation next week.
It was really difficult, but it had to be done...
Tomorrow, I'll be talking to Tanaka-san and Sir Gonz.

But... this is not only reason why I had a rough day...

Though this may seem pretty embarrassing for some, I felt I need to put some details to complete my post for this interesting day.

Most people believe that "everything happens for a reason". I had weird experience today that can give a little truth to this statement.

As I came to the office this morning, my stomach started feeling weird. It seems that I may have eaten something wrong this morning or yesterday. It was making some weird sounds and was a bit painful.

And though I've already went to the comfort room twice this afternoon, it was still making some noise and getting more painful.

I had to leave the office early in order to reach home as soon as possible. While walking to the MRT, I felt that I should just "release" it right away.

I've decided to go the comfort room in basement of SM. When I got there, all the urinals we're removed and under maintenance. Because of this, all the people are using the cubicles instead. So I told myself that I may still be able to hold it until I reach home.

Surprisingly, the lines in the MRT entrance were short. This perhaps is my lucky day. At that moment I thought I'll be getting home in no time.

After a few minutes I found myself in the LRT station waiting for the train. At that point, I was desperate and trying my best to control it for another 40+ minutes.

After 4 stations, I realized that I really have to let go. I've decided to get off at Pedro Gil station, where there are several fast food chains. Just when I reached the door of the train, the train stopped, there was a technical problem. Talk about bad timing. After a couple of minutes, it moved and the door finally opened.

I went to Jollibee and headed for the comfort room. I won't be talking about what happened inside, I'll leave this to your imagination. After the "release", I bought the new Molo Soup and a glass of dalandan juice to replenish some lost fluids. Then headed back for the LRT.

The 1st train that came was jam-packed so I've decided not to get in. When the next train came, I got in. It was dark since some lights were not working.

After 3 stations, the guy standing on my left suddenly called my attention...
It was Matt! I was speechless for several seconds. Talk about coincidence. Meeting an old friend in such place at the weirdest moment.

Most of the time, we tend to question everything that is happening to us or around us. And most of the time, we fail to get the answers no matter how much of our time and effort we give. And sometimes, we simply have to let go in order to let the answers reveal themselves to us.