Life as AFAC

Growing up, my father would tell me again and again his fave mantra: Nothing is given free in this world. Nothing is coincidental. Nothing is lost.

What I got from it is, every little act of kindness you do will be repaid, if not this life then the next. For me it the first statement also means, everything has a cost. Your career, personal happiness, love life, friendship, success… they all come with a price. The question is, is it worth paying for?

Nothing is lost. If you don’t grab the opportunity somebody else will. Or, my father also says, if you lose something don’t lose the lesson. Then nothing is lost. (Uh-oh, I’m combining different thoughts already, I’m turning into Melanie Marquez.)

My favorite of all three is Nothing is coincidental. “Be at peace knowing you are exactly where you are supposed to be.” This prayer of St. Therese circulating around the net hit home when I got it (again) on my first month in BBH and I was wondering why I moved to China. I had a good life in the Phils, and modesty aside, was doing pretty okay career-wise. Here it’s back to square one. I’m the lowest in the food chain. I voluntarily mount ads for awards shows just to make myself feel useful. Deep inside I know why I came here, I hate complacency. I was getting too comfortable and not as challenged, so it’s time to move on. I am exactly where I am supposed to be, that gives me peace.

It’s amazing how pieces in your life can be so connected, but you don’t know how it will affect the other until it finally happens. For instance, the journey to BBH was a long one, starting in 2005 when I wanted to be cross-posted to BBDO China, only for a couple of months because I had a lot of commitments in the Phils. But a lot of things happened and I ended up not going. In 2006 yet another senior team resigned so I thought the cross posting will never hapen because we are so short in manpower. Meanwhile, the ECD of BBDO China apparently resigned to start BBH. He remembered my work and gave me a call! And it was just perfect timing. The weddings of Alelee and Malen were done. My family day contract with Ayala Cinemas is over. I have no boyfriend to miss. And the opportunities and deal are better than being in BBDO China. God does love me. He gave me more than what I prayed for. (Carl told me to start praying for a good man to love me, hahaha.)

Carl was serious when he said that. He said he prayed for his Ms. Right and though it took soooo long to find her (as in he got his first girlfriend when he was in his mid-twenties), they got married less than a year later and now have four boys! Being my work partner for four years, he’s met both my boyfriends (not at the same time!), witnessed both break ups, and knows most men I’ve dated. Knowing how discerning I am in everything, including men, he is worried the only guy who can meet my standards is the pope. “Yaak I don’t like the pope. He’s old, he doesn’t seem funny, and he looks like Emperor Palpatine.” Having said that, Carl believed the only recourse I have left is to pray.

But you know, nothing is given free. nothing is lost. nothing is coincidental.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 6th, 2007 at 10:52 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.