#heystripper

I was supposed to make a post about my whole training experience but I preferred to write down the things that actually learned, lessons not just for my future career but lessons about life in general :)

Work is not always about money, it's finding your passion and doing what you really love.

Build a good working relationship with others. It's always the best thing if you're at ease with your work mates. You do not want to have a hate cloud in your work place.

Be professional. And part of being professional is to be productive. Always have something in your hands but do remember to relax from time to time. Talk, laugh, and play around with others.

Work on your communication skills. It's always a big advantage to have excellent communication skills. We can always work on that through active communicative with others, reading books, and listening to a lot of positive conversations.

It's always important to manage your time. 

Multitask without sacrificing the quality of work. Quality is always better than quantity,

You have to think that everyday is a learning process and everybody is your teacher.

"failing is learning in the real world" (found that very inspiring note from my supervisor's cork board)

Surround yourself with positive intellectual people.

Always accept responsibilities wherein you will gain new knowledge and experience

You don't have to know everything, always leave a room for improvements.

I never was any good at writing. I just have a flair for stringing pretty-sounding words together. Really, the only thing I do here is type in what comes to my head, and most of the things I put out are pure, unedited and grammatically inconsistent. But please humor me, and listen to the things I'm gonna tell you right now.

June 4 2010 was the date when I picked her up from Jollibee Dapitan. It was the first time we got to be together, alone. She sent me a text (or Facebook'd me, I forget which) telling me that she was bored and wanted to go by my house. We've been dicking around as friends for the past year, by the way. I've been stalking your Facebook profile (oh, how our generation has devolved), because frankly, I didn't remember much of her, of how we got to be online 'friends', where I met her, all that shit. But then time passed and we started talking more, exchanging flirty PMs left and right, me trying to get to know her better, her trying to push me away (I guess).

All that mindless digital flirting was leading nowhere. I guess I never really did take it seriously (turns out, neither did you). But then, one very un-sober night in a very cold computer shop, I popped a question into her PM box.

Will you be mine?

I'm already yours :">

No, not really. But I'm serious, I'm asking you right now, will you be my girl?

Weh. Lasing ka no?

Yeah.

I guess it started at that. I was actually chatting with another girl at the time, a girl I was chasing after seriously, but then I picked up my phone and called that girl.

Hey ***, ayoko na manligaw sayo.

Ay, ganun ba? Ayos lang.

And that was the end of that. I am a slut, I know. But had I not done that, I never would've chased after her seriously. Her, meaning... her. Still with me?

Aaaanyway. One thing led to another and the next moment I found her and me in my bed, cuddling. Then I asked her the question.

Kelan mo ba talaga ako sasagutin?

And she laughed.

Tinatanong pa ba yan?

And we kissed. And everything snowballed from there.

Now here we are, a year and a half later. We've been through... I dunno. For me, it's a lot because it's the only relationship I've had that didn't last for two months (cause I'm a pimp like dat). We've been through fights, breakups, countless sorrys (mostly from me), fuckups (again, mostly from me), rewind and replays, fun times, times when my bipolar self took over and gave you a hard time, times when I didn't recognize myself anymore, times when you were being difficult, times when everything was hard, times when everything was beautiful, times when we were beyond infinity, times when...

But I stopped counting the time.

I stopped counting the time because I wish it would stop. Whatever we have now, it's beautiful. Sure, it's not perfect. We're not perfect. She's totally not the Miss Universe that every guy dreams about, she doesn't have a contour bottle figure, she has a nose that you might miss if you don't look hard enough, she has messy hair, she has teeth that grow all over the place, she has a temper that might spark any second, she's stubborn, she's difficult.

But I learned to love everything about her. Faults or no, I'm taking... no, I took her for who she is. I'm not really asking to change her or anything. I'm ready to be the one to adjust, if anything. I just love her like that. I don't know, is it love, really? No one really knows what love is. It's just a word we use, right?

But for me, I found love in her. Looking into her pretty eyes, I can see the universe... my universe inside of it. The past, present, future, the infinite worlds that she and I can discover, will discover, even if it takes us an eternity and a half.

Why am I so confident about this? Why am I not scared at all that she really might not be the one?

Because there is no one else I would rather have as my partner. There is no one else I would rather have as a girlfriend. There is no one else I would rather have as a lover, there is no one else I would rather have forever.

I have no idea what goes on inside her mind. I don't know if she's plotting another breakup or anything, but I cling on to a faith that never wavered, even for a tiny bit. I lost faith, but it never left. I was the one who got lost. Now that I've found my way back, there's no going back for me.

Perhaps you people might say, hey, chill man, don't pour yourself out for her too much. I'll say, nothing. Nothing at all. Because trust... well, trust is all I have. I trust in her, I hope she trusts in me, too. And that's all that matters in a relationship.

This thing we have now, it's not perfect. But it's damn near perfect for me.

Happy 18th, Cora Angeline. I'm calling you by your proper name because it's FORMAL. Heh. 

I forgot the three words I was supposed to... oh yeah.

Do you do that face, that cute, pouty face you do when you're asleep? Maybe your hands are tucked underneath your cheeks again. I like it when you do that. You look so cute, like a kid sleeping. Then again, you do look like a kid. It doesn't matter, though, I still think you're beautiful.

The way your hair spreads out evenly, in a very messy and uniform way, as if you were submerged in water and your hair was that of a mermaid's, floating all around you. I wish I could watch you sleep. As the smell of your shampoo wafts into the chilly air inside your room, drugging me, dizzying me, making me think of rainbows and unicorns and all that shit, that smell so nice, so beautiful it is forever etched on my mind as your scent alone.

I wonder how cold your hands are gonna be tonight? You told me once that whenever we sleep together, I should hold your hand to keep it from getting too cold. I wonder, how will you make do without me? Do you feel lonely when it's cold, and I'm not there to hold your hand? Do you miss me whenever you go under the covers and tuck yourself in, do you wish, like I do, that I could be beside you, holding you tight like we used to do?