Odds and ends from my 22nd year, which is rapidly coming to a close. 
JOBS
I have to confess that of the two jobs I decided to take, money has been a big factor. And that is not something I am ashamed of. When you have responsibilities apart from yourself, you cannot, unfortunately, thoroughly dismiss The Money Factor when taking jobs. But God has a way of teaching us things. I sometimes think that even though there are gazillions of people with different personalities, He knows each of us like the back of His hand. He knew I will never listen to lectures, and theories, and well-meaning yet tiring sermons. He knew that the only way I will learn is by experiencing it myself, and when I didn’t get it the first time, He sent another lesson-slash-experience. And now I know, satisfaction in a job is something that money (although I do not overlook its importance entirely) can’t buy.
WRITING
The only time I can remember myself actually liking being a (pseudo) journalist was during my internship with the Philippine Graphic. I liked my bosses and I was liked as well, and they helped me get my first byline. The Graphic newsroom was not as exciting (or torturous, depending on how you’ll look at it) as it would probably have been had I worked for news daily, but just the idea of being involved in producing in a respected news magazine was enough to keep me on my toes. I loved working there and that job is still a (distant) possibility.
But.. the rest of the time, I hated writing or worse, I was indifferent to it. I took up journalism for the simple reason that I suck worse than rotten eggs at Math, and I am rather good in English. Looking back, at the time I can’t imagine choosing anything else. Writing is something that comes to me as naturally as breathing, what with my nose consistently stuck in books for as long as I could remember. But writing is also tantamount to poverty, at least as far as I can see. And with someone who is not loaded with money in the first place, that requires major consideration.
But.. right now I really can’t imagine doing anything else. Nothing else so far has caused the kind of satisfaction that seeing a minimally-edited copy gives me. And thanks to our gorgeous and intellectually superior (ahem*raise*ahem) mentors, I learn things that my four-year course in journalism never taught me. Nothing else came close to the exhilaration that my first-ever published article gave, and I have finally accepted that I’m stuck with writing, and writing’s stuck with me.
TRUST
There are people you can trust with everything, there are people you can trust with some things, there are people you trust in the meantime, and there are people you can’t trust at all. I’ve been lucky to know at least one or two of these kinds of people, because I can now differentiate one from the other. I have a few of the first kind, and those are the people I keep close–literally and figuratively. The rest, I can more or less do without. I have learned that those people are just clutter, or sources of temporary fascination (it is always entertaining to watch these people). I don’t have to spend a lot of time trying to discern which type a person falls under. Often, I can tell with a single glance.
FORGIVENESS
There are people that you forgive because you must, there are people you forgive because you want to. Also, there are people you forgive because you need to.
But there are some people, contrary to what others might say, you have no obligation to even try.
