Anyway, I was playing with my kids yesterday (Sunday) and I thought about my career in the last two decades. Yup, I’ve been working that long but to tell you the truth, I don’t consider myself successful in the conventional sense; I’m not a senior officer as compared to my peers.

In the non-conventional sense though, I’m absolutely proud of my achievements – having been able to shift to a career that I want, being able to pursue personal projects that I love, being given the opportunity to raise a family, and so on. I actually love the things that I do on the side, but I also do my best to achieve career enrichment.

Nevertheless, I’ve also accepted the fact that I’m not cut to take on leadership roles. I don’t have the acumen to lead a team and to be the person that other people will look up to. I’m an individual contributor – a term that I’ve just recently discovered – and I thrive being that type of professional.

Up to now, I still think about the possibilities if I followed my passion during college. I think it would still be a good boost for one’s career if the course that they took is somehow related to the career path that they followed simply because they would have the edge from the technical knowledge gained from school.

I still think about my potential if I pursued medicine or at least Biology, my favorite branch of science. What if I pursued journalism or any writing course? Or what if I knew what science writing was? Would my path be different? The ultimate question though is, “Would it give me the career satisfaction that I was longing for so long?” Probably not since no work is ideal.

In the end, I just want a quiet life if that’s even possible. I want to own a farm and be a farmer, in addition to writing non-stop.

I miss old-school blogging and I’ve been babbling over and over about it for so long. I miss the days when we wouldn’t have to depend on search engines (algorithm updates!) and social media just for our content to get discovered. I remember the days when I would just write about my thoughts and experiences and get random thoughtful comments from readers on the web.

I miss the old blogging days when it wasn’t about competition on who could do videos better or who had the best feed of photos. Old-time bloggers were appreciated for their genuine opinions and thoughts and not just for their pretty poses and advanced camera tricks.

I get that social media is the norm these days and is more entertaining, but I hope that readers will still appreciate the rich information from long-form content. I know many long-time bloggers who share the same opinion, so I hope they don’t get disheartened by the dwindling support from readers.

Come to think of think, the last two weeks have not really been completely uneventful, at least in the house of my in-laws where we also live. My brother-in-law passed away; an untimely demise due to a brain aneurysm. As such, the general atmosphere at home is still mournful. We are still in shock, but the event is a reminder for us to spend our time wisely with our loved ones and spend each moment with a grateful heart.

In the end, I still do my best to be thankful for whatever I have – financial stability from my work, the opportunity to pursue my passion on the side, and the time that I can spend with my family.

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