Long time, no blog. Being active in blogging is one of my new year's resolution for the year 2021. I checked the sites I am managing and I can conclude that I made more content in Your Friend, Maestro than to my personal blog. Even that I am home buddy introvert, there are momentous events happened in to my life this year. However, I was not able to write them here in my online space because of stress, busyness, and procrastination. I have my Friday nights and weekends that I could spend on blogging, but I used those days to sleep, binge watching online videos and TV shows, doing house chores (I hope my family does not have violent reaction to this.), and accomplishing unfinished work- related tasks. There were nights I face the laptop, but I cannot compose good single sentence (even blog title too). Maybe it is the effect of the pandemic that made me a lazy blogger. I am still stuck to 2020. I am still processing the previous year. COVID-19 destroyed my life's momentum. I did not set big goals in the time of quarantine and lockdown as life is full of uncertainties. What matters most for me is to survive. Coping has been my game for two consecutive years.
I finally got the time (and energy) to produce a content and this is like I am going to criticize myself here. I am assessing my life in 2021. It is like my year-end special. Is it really special? If you feel this one will be boring, go ahead. Leave. I am used to it. (Dramatic yarn?) Just kidding. I need you to make this website alive. Spare a time to read my post.
My 2021 is like a movie or drama series with multiple genres. I can compare my life to Squid Game but less morbid, and less money as well. There is no 456 billion won at stake. For the past twelve months, "The struggle is real" is my mantra. Adulting hits hard. I need to hustle for my needs, and Internet connection, and books, and foods (of course). But, I know you will object to how I compare my life to Squid Game. It is exaggeration. I am just a fan of it, and I tried my best to insert it to my narrative.
In my professional side, I was able to garner more certificates from webinars and workshops I attended. Webinar is life. I was able to apply some of what I learned in my job as a teacher. My favorite skill I learned is video editing. I enjoyed producing my own educational videos. I am also applying it in maintaining my own YouTube channel. (Please subscribe).
How about my life outside the school? I was able to achieve milestones. My family and I were able to construct a house. Before doing it, we talked about it as there is a need of planning especially in financial aspect. The house we have been living for more than 20 years have now cracks on walls. We are afraid that it cannot withstand strong earthquakes. So, we decided to build new one. As of now, it has now roofs. We cannot move in yet as it has no windows and doors. We need money to finish the project. I pray we can live there next year.
In terms of finances, I have paid insurance for more than a year now. I also able to put fund on G-Invest. The pandemic taught me to know my priorities and to dwell in the world of financial literacy. Next year, I am targeting to have my emergency fund and to buy stocks.
As a blogger, I was able to achieve monetization of my two sites. After five years of blogging, I have reached my target. I was about to stop during my second year as I spent thousands of pesos already. I admit that one of my reasons I joined the blogosphere because of passive income. I am envious of the site owners who are earning a lot with their content. I was dreaming before of owning a website to share my thoughts online. I learned site building in order for me to have a platform as I am just a nobody and I do not have background in book publishing. After enduring the pains, my hard work paid off. What I need to do is to make blogging a habit and keep on improving. I have not yet the threshold. I need to write more and engage more with my readers. The problem I have in maintaining my sites is procrastination. I need to overcome this for me to breach milestones.
On the other hand, 2021 is my flop era as a trying hard poet. I love writing poems. Since the pandemic, I have bought fifteen poetry books. I am doing benchmarking of poets' styles. I am examining the way they write poems hoping I can mimic their ways. In 2020, I had two poems published by a literary organization, and local newspaper company. Last year, I had no published work as I got rejected twice. Honestly, I feel frustrated about the outcome of my submissions. I was questioning myself, my capabilities. I think I lost my spark in poetry writing. Because of my disappointing performance, I decided to stop doing poems up to December 31st. There were three calls for contribution that I did not join because I was afraid of getting rejected. I need to practice more and hopefully I have the guts to present my works in 2022.
The COVID-19 has instilled fear to all of us for the past two years. Getting colds nowadays makes us overthink. Our enemy is invisible. No matter how you protect yourself, the chances of getting infected is never zero. As a person who has rhinitis and a history of weak lungs, I know I will have a difficult time to fight against the virus. I am grateful to the government for the free vaccines. Even I am afraid of needles, I bravely went to the vaccination drive as it is my way to combat the infection. In my first jab last September, I collapsed due to nervousness. It was embarrassing as I made a scene in our town's multi- purpose gymnasium. The health workers monitored me until I got fine. I prayed that there would be no adverse effect for the fourteen- day period. On the tenth day, I got fever. I was anxious as my rhinitis got triggered. I was afraid about my condition and I was contemplating if I got the virus.
Fortunately, I had only a fever for a day. I just had colds. During that time, I keep on testing my sense of smell and taste. I had no my problem with tongue. My nose was clogged. My allergy made my recovery difficult. After two days, I had cough. I went to the doctor for medication, and I was glad that I do not have COVID. I thought the scare in our house had stopped there. After few days, my family got sick. It was challenging as I need to do chores for them. I felt the world is in my arms. My heart was sad seeing my family weak. I am thankful that our relatives were there for us in those crucial times. They did not hesitate to help us until we got back to our knees. Those days I realized the importance of family and relatives in dealing with life. It made our relationship stronger. When the world is not in your favor, there are people who are standing behind your back, cheering up for you. Without them, I would spent in the valley of loneliness for longer time.
The last quarter of the previous year is what I called my recovery phase. I slowly got back to my activities. Before 2021 ended, I was able to travel in Pangasinan. It was fun. After all the hardships in life, I deserve to celebrate triumphs especially of surviving the horrible days of high COVID cases in the country. Thank you, God for extending my life. I pray that 2022 will be my redemption. I have backlogs in my goals I need to finish. To my readers, thank you for being part of my 2021. I pray that you are going to support me for another year. Happy new year everyone.
0 Comments