It’s Good to have Dreams

Patience has been my Achilles’ heel. But time and time again, circumstances have prodded me to see the value of this virtue. Dreams have played a major part in keeping the strength for I find that the latter is indeed vital to see them materialise. Patience coupled with hard work will always bring you closer to your dreams. That is this post’s bottomline.

Growing Up with My Parents
Growing up, my parents have created an environment wherein we, their children, work for the things we want, save for the things we want. From a simple trip to the mall with friends to new shoes or toys, we needed to show them we earned it; may it be doing extra chores around the house to getting the agreed on marks on our school card. We needed to barter our way to getting what we want.

Personally, I had, sometimes, resented it. I would find myself comparing myself with friends or classmates who seemed to have had it easy (pains of going to a semi-expensive private school). Cool clothes and things, freedom to hang out with friends outside school — whereas I had to settle for hand-me-downs and that occasional, close-to-trendy, things. As a kid, I was pathetically retarded like that.

But sitting here, writing this post, I can remember this thing that my mum had said and it was along the lines of, “One of my dreams was to buy a brand new car. I worked hard and I eventually did. I wouldn’t want to take away that opportunity to do something like that for yourself from you.” I don’t know if any of my siblings can recall her ever saying it but it had caused an imprint and had stayed with me.

This next bit is cliche but it’s true and worth celebrating, parents preaching about how we should live life and other stuff we thought unnecessary as a child proved to be valuable as we grew up. It’s only now that I have learned to appreciate how my parents brought me up: work for the things you want, be grateful for the opportunities given, never be satisfied with mediocre, and it’s good to have dreams in life.

All Grown Up.. Now What?
September of last year, I had decided to take on a ‘day job’ since we all know we need to be practical during these trying days. I have to tell you that it was a difficult decision to make since it felt like I’m giving up my passions. Having a day job would mean less time to write and blog, to travel and take photos. And though it did sort of turned out that way, other doors had opened up.

I’m also a Marketer, you see. Probably why the social web had been easy for me to embrace. It had merged my love for writing and interaction. It helped me grow and broaden my skills. The past five years had helped sustain my love for that field and cultivate something in me, fruits of which I’m now beginning to see.

Recently, after months of hard work, I’ve officially taken on the role of Marketing Manager for a popular brand of video game who had recently put up a Philippine-based office. What I love about my work is that every day is a constant challenge of pushing an immovable mountain. Fast-paced, industry-driven, dynamic and best of all, it’s online marketing.

Folks have been constantly asking me why I never chose to work for a magazine (been there, done that) or a PR firm and I would always say it’ll be tagged as ‘conflict of interest’. I don’t want to compromise the independent status of Style Manila. And I’ve been itching to do reports again — real and stuffy looking reports. Crazy but true. I guess being out of the corporate circulation for more than 4 years have caused me to digress and crave for the things ‘normal’ people do at work.

Finding this work opportunity was a dream. Though never would’ve been coined a geek, much less a gamer, working for a company known to have marketed its way to achieving a brand status like none of its counterparts ever could (so far) is quite a privilege. It helps that I’m still working in the field that I’ve been exposed to for the past 4 years — something that I had put a lot of weight on when I was mulling things over. Knowing that I’m capable of learning had helped me overcome the initial feeling of intimidation.

This dream had led to another dream getting fulfilled — my first laptop buy, a MacBook Pro, fondly called MrBoo. If you’ve read that post, you’ll see just how much I gushed over the whole incident. Hahaha.

Another dream I’m currently working hard to get takes the form of one of my prime projects for the company which is building a community through a little gamer community site that we had recently launched. Getting that email from the DEV team had truly caused my heart to jump — FINALLY, we’re live!

Big Dreams, Small Dreams
These things are small compared to the bigger dream that we all have. The important thing is that we are aware of them, big or small, in order that we don’t get lost in the trivialities of life. Problems come, people go but so long as you hold on to the things that matter like the values your parents have impressed on you and integrity, what people think or say will cease to matter. Remember to celebrate your everyday successes. It’s good to have dreams, the sort that keeps you going, enduring and fighting.

Thanks mum for not taking away the opportunity to do it for myself. The things I’ve achieved would’ve lost its lustre and my enjoyment, pale.

What about you folks? What sort of things have your parents taught you that you now value most? Any dreams fulfilled recently? Come, it’s your turn to share.

Photo was taken by a colleague using my camera with me sitting at my old desk in the office; January 2010.

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