Girl Boss Ph

As a girl boss, i find myself juggling things that male bosses do not neccessarily have to.

All my three other co founders are men. And I have had the genuine privilege of working with such brilliant minds.  But when their work days end or at least wind down, mine is just at the middle valley.  There is another mountain to climb once I get home! Were they kick back their shoes, raise up their feet and reach for the tv or maybe work some more, when i get home, my responsibilities are only half done!

Once I enter my home door hurriedly– always hurriedly because it is already 7:30 and the family is about to starve already ( i already know their body clock ) ; i only have time to change into slippers before heading to the kitchen and cook.

As a working mom, even if i shouldnt, i feel guilty that I cannot devote all my time to my daughter and hub, so i try to overcompensate by making sure i do the dinner cooking.

After dinner, I check my daughter’s assignments, sign the school daily journal and making sure there is no school memo i might have missed. Then its nagging daughter P to take a shower , fix her school bag and genereally do what moms are supposed to do.

Once she is settled down for the night ( by 10nish ) i frankly have no energy left but sometimes have to pretend ( i know right?) to be interested in how hub’s day went and the new funny thing that happened early in the day.

Truth is i just want to plop down the bed, plug in my beloved $400 earphones and watch my Chinese telenovelas ( with subtitle ).

Being a girl boss is tiring, demanding and just really tiring. But knowing that I have 200 souls ( 1000 indirect )directly under my care and responsibility makes my life more meaningful.  Knowing that I am making a difference in their lives for the better and that i am just not living for me but for a higher purpose makes all the sacrifices worthwhile.

So I am a Mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend then a boss. I am everything that makes me who I am.

So this Mom has just gotta soldier on and do the best that she can, knowing that she is part of something much bigger than herself. knowing that she is exchanging her peaceful weekends and weeknights not just for “work” bu the responsibility and improvement of the lives under her care.

#girlbossph  #workingmom

what with the global koreanovela
craze, I decided that I might be better off watching Chinese dramas with subtitles since i might pick up more of the nuances of the story if i understand a bit of what the actors are saying instead of relying totally on subtitles.

I noticed that most modern chinese telenovelas would portray a rich successful Chinese guy owning a super large group of companies. Usually there would be an ” office entrance scene” where the lead actor would enter the corporate office, it would usually be a big shiny building and there would be at least a dozen suited up “greeters” , at least half a dozen ” special secretaries” who will be either following him or waiting for him.

I never really bothered much thinking about it and just enjoyed whatever telenovela I’d be watching. Sure I found it funny but chalked it up as a cultural thing. I’m used to watching American tv shows and movies and it just wasnt what I was used to.

So Im now watching a chinese telenovela entitled “Our Love”, it gets the job done of destressing me from work. So as usual, 1/4 into the episodes, I see the “offic entrance scene” and it suddenly clicked! I wonder why I never thought of it before!

Going back to Chinese History, China was for years and hundreds of years always been under an emperor. then the short Republic before the Cultural Revolution/ Communism.

I guess the years and years of being having emperors and all those pomp and circumstance is ingrained in Chinese culture.

In the portrayal of the successful man with all the poseys, the chinese subliminally goes back in time where the emperors ruled the country.

I see it now in every episode of whatever Chinese drama i am watching. How some rich grand dame would just suddenly slap the help and act as if its acceptable, how in every fight and back stabbing, it is always just a “misunderstanding”, how the masses act helpless and the rich act as lords.

It goes back to the backstabbing in the harems ( or maybe i watch too much cdramas!), the helplessness of the peasant class and the power of the ruling class. I really dont know the current chinese society so this is just my opinion!

#cdrama #girlbossph

So while waiting for my 12 year old daughter to finish swimming and hanging out with her friends, I make a side trip to the Duty free.

Unfortunately, here in the Philippines, we made it a business to export our people. As a premier member, i can go in an out of the duty free without the restrictions of travel. While shopping, i see families walking around with happy faces and then i see THE ONE, the OFW. ( overseas Filipino worker ) The person who through his or her blood sweat and tears worked so hard to provide for their families and bringing them to the duty free shop is the ultimate expression of their love.

I see the gleeful faces of the children as they choose from hundreds of imported chocolates, the half smiles of the teenagers who , at least temporarily, set aside their teenage ansgt and be kids once again and choose from a wide array of electronics. $ 40! $50! $ 80 earphones!

I see the look of gratification from the partner’s faces ” wow at least he didnt choose the $200 earphones” . I see the proud look on the Provider’s face and I see the pain, the hard work and just all the sacrifices he or she has made in order to be able to afford a carte blanche “anything you all want, family!”

I see all these and i have to sit down and shed some tears. Tears for these families who are forced apart due to circumstances. Tears for the OFW who bring their battle scars seen only through their eyes. Tears for the kids who are growing up without one parent, or two parents. Tears because i know these OFW families are the “luckier ones” . Tears for my country.

What is home and who is home? Are we as humans hardwired like homing pigeons to go home?

All i know as i sit here across the counter in the duty free electronics area is that no matter what happens, all roads lead to home.

Mabuhay OFWs!

#ofws  #allroadsleadtohome  #girlbossph #pilipinaskongmahal

Zombie themes seems to be the in thing now what with several zombie themed tv shows like Z Nation & The Walking Dead ( wait, they’re different?!? ) and the more comedic I zombie; and who hasnt watched the “classic” Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?  I must admit it was hard to swoon to another Mr Darcy when Colin Firth is your Mr Darcy!

So let’s create a scenario wherein there is a sudden zombie apocalypse complete with all the gruesome details you can imagine….

You are on your way home probably cursing the traffic when you hear a loud bang! bang! bang! and all the cars surrounding you hitting one bumper to another and everyone out of their cars screaming and shouting for help.

For a moment you pause and observe, then a guy in polo barong jumps at your windsheild with its best “aaaargh!”  and you realize, “shoot! its a zombie apocalypse!”

Before you can react, you are blinded by a flash of white and lo and behold!  An angel comes down from Heaven and asks you: ” you can save only 10 people who would be part of a group that will repopulate the whole world  ( lets assume the angel would go to the different countries and ask someone the same thing ) who will you pick? you have the option to include yourself or not.

The fight or flight response was coined by a Harvard Physiologist in 1915.  It basically says that when humans face stress or danger, we have an in born trigger that helps us to decide whether to fight or get the heck out of the situation- flight.  This is also called the acute stress response or the hyper arousal response.

Man is hard wired to survive and that means YOU will find it hard NOT TO INCLUDE yourself in the 10 people to save!

Everyone has given their opinions on what happened in that infamous dragged off the plane issue.   We now know that both parties have settled for an undisclosed amount already.

This leaves me thinking– How much is my dignity worth?  If I get dragged off a plane like that, what would be a realistic sum for me?

Lets look at some of the side effects of trauma.    First, there are the short term effects like fear, anxiety,  uncertainty and even guilt.  Then there are the long term effects of trauma like aggression or being overly compliant,  depression, emotional instability,  unable to sleep among others.

When uou think about the potentiality for these trauma, it makes it even difficult to put a figure to it.  after all how much is your overall value of good mental health?

Does get one thinking right?  In my opinion, no amount of money can compensate the humiliation and loss of dignity of a person.  But  we do have to be practical and it is a numbers game after all. So, i conclude, if i should get dragged off in a plane, I would say,  a nice round figure of 50 million dollars will do!