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| Me (wearing white) and my mom (wearing purple) "climbing" the debris which covered Magallanes Street. |
Why I was AWOL
Friday, November 8,
2013. This was the day that Super Typhoon Yolanda struck my region, my city
being the hardest hit one. Believe it or not, I had a shoot for my blog the day
before that. I was ready with a new post. I'm not going to delve deep and try to
revisit the occurrences during and after the typhoon in detail but I'll share a
few that contributed to my "absence-without-leave" from Camera and
Cheese.
After the typhoon,
my family, in fact everyone in the city, was literally in the dark. We were
isolated, had no food, no signal, and no electricity. If for a few hours after
the landfall I thought we've already suffered a lot, I cannot even begin to
describe what I saw the next day - devastation and death. What's worse, my
boyfriend Charles and his family lost their home as they were living very close
to sea. God gave them a chance and they survived the storm but leaving their
house hallow. My mom and I jogged from my house to his the next day and saw the
horrible effects of Yolanda. People were walking in the streets not knowing
where exactly to go. I offered shelter for my boyfriends' family for a few days
then they left for Cebu. Charles ended up finishing his last semester at the
University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu.
My father was not
with us during the typhoon and he only came to our rescue a few days after. We
were also extremely worried for him only to find out that our hometown was not
heavily hit. After seven days, my family and I finally travelled to Eastern Samar.
We had to make sure that our damaged roof was securely covered with tarpaulin,
doors and windows were sealed, and that we had enough fuel to travel. After spending some time in the province, I
decided to go to Manila to get fresh air and to work online since our classes
were to resume on January. I lived with my cousins at their condo for three
weeks, then travelled to Cebu to meet up with Charles and eventually went back
home to the province for the holidays.
Finishing my last
semester at UP Visayas Tacloban College was tough. I was always busy and had to
juggle work online, internship, and thesis. There was also very limited
electricity and internet connection. Blogging was the last thing I was thinking
of. I just had to survive.
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| Me in my graduation costume. |
Eventually,
everything started coming into place. The city and its people were once again
back on their feet. More businesses reopened, people who left came back home
again, and I finally graduated! I was starting fresh. The week just right after
my classes, I landed a job as a volunteer at an International Non-Government
Organization. Come July 1, 2015, I was eventually hired as an Administrative
Assistant.
Now, I have a whole
new perspective in life. I have new sets of priorities. But I always feel like
there's no avenue for me to channel my inner writer. I can only share so much
on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I figured, why not go back to blogging? This
question led me to this very post.
What's new?
For a few days, I
revisited my blog, read my old posts and realized that it was too concentrated
on selected content. It wasn't very dynamic and quite frankly, the design and
layout were boring. So now, I'm introducing my new interface. I'm not 100% satisfied
with what I have but It'll do for now.
I've also decided to
add more categories aside form beauty and fashion like art (photography and
videography), music, travel, technology, lifestyle and most especially, Jesus.
I'm also going to add more segments since I'll have more categories to write about.
All these are basically fragments of my life that I want to personally share. I
hope to be able to reach out to more readers and share as much useful
information as I can.
I won't share all of
my segments and content categories all at once in this post since I'm still
conceptualizing on the artwork and articles I want to put out. Plus, there's
still an element of surprise which is always nice.
I've also been on a
strict "diet" and decided not to buy makeup for a while. I want to
focus now on reviewing the products that I have, and making the most out of
everything before spending money impulsively. Although occasionally, I get that
feeling of urge to buy things but I always contemplate on whether I really need
them or not.
I'm am of course
very busy with work and school (master's) and I still haven't figured out
regular schedules for my posts. I guess spontaneity would also be good so I
won't have any feeling of obligation. Obligation makes me feel uneasy and
pressured.
Ciao!
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