By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day

Ten years ago, on the first Monday of October, I started my life of a working-class citizen. Yes, Virginia, I’ve been slaving it out for ten years now – a decade of paddling, yet I feel like I’m getting nowhere. Vigorous thrashing and waddling brought me to Singapore, after working for four years and nine months in PhilamPlans; since then I’ve worked in three banks.

Today, another Filipino analyst/programmer in our area left UOB to join yet another bank. We call him Manong Ric, though he looks far from being old (baby head face nga, eh), and in his farewell email he spoke of following one’s “personal legend”. This made me think and question myself: “What is my personal myth?” To be a mother and a wife with a little career on the side?

Back when I was a child, when asked what I would want to be when I grow up, I never really had a definite answer – sometimes I wanted to be a teacher like my Mom, sometimes I thought being an Engineer like my Dad was cool, sometimes I get mesmerized with the brilliance of a doctor, or sometimes I’d simply whisper that I wanted to be an entertainer. I may be a child of the current – one that is following the flow or waiting where the water would take me; but I endure.

As for my personal legend, I don’t have one yet and maybe it’s time to start making one; through that, I might find the true meaning of happiness and of fulfillment.