Month: September 2016

 

Take The Plunge

 

When we say take the plunge, it usually refers to one getting married.

It talks about going into something whose outcome you cannot predict.

It’s like diving into the murky water and you do not even know  what is beyond it.

All you have — is faith!  Faith that something good will come out of it, even if you cannot see it.

 

Well, a few months ago, I took a plunge!   I decided out of the blue that I wanted to quit my job and start a new exciting life outside the comforts of a career or a stable, monthly income.

This is very uncharacteristic of me. I am known to be this cautious, calculating person who is scared of the unknown.  I am the type who doesn’t really aim for the moon and the stars, but prefers the stability and security of a salary.

 

Yes! For almost two decades, I have worked for an employer.   I never paid my gasoline, my internet and mobile phone bills, and have never bought a single computer for my use. All of these I get for FREE. I was provided a car, a computer, a gasoline and expense card, and a staff to help me do my job.

 

What happened to me?! Why did I decide to stop working all of a sudden?

Perhaps it’s the realization that I am getting old. In less than 2 years, I am going to be forty!

I took a look at my life the past 15 years and I couldn’t really say, it was everything I wanted my life to be.

 

I didn’t have a bad life!  I had a life others might wish to have.   However, there is something inside me that is saying, I still can do more and still be more  outside of the comforts of what I call now as ‘work’.

 

So in between that one and the days I have left from being an EMPLOYEE, I am taking stock of what I have.  I have so many things in mind that I want to do.     I want to expand our business and develop it into three to five folds that what it is now.  I want to start a new company together with some of my business colleagues.   I want to lose weight and finally have the time to go to the gym anytime I want without really feeling guilty over being away from the office.    I want to study, learn new things, earn and save lots of money to be able to travel the world with my family.   I want to provide jobs to  more people!   I want to build a foundation to give scholarships to the less fortunate in the next five years!      I am excited to be finally FREE to do what I want!

 

I am doing this for myself. I don’t want to grow old regretting that I wasn’t brave enough to get out of my shell and try if there is more to life that being a corporate middle manager.

 

My parents have been taking turns calling me and trying to talk to me out of my plans.  They say I have a great  job with a relatively nice income. They say, I might regret this decision in the future and I will only get to appreciate what I have when I lose them all.

 

I told them, they don’t have anything to worry about.  I know I am making one of the most exciting decisions in my life.  It is like deciding to get married with the man of my dreams.

 

I do not know where tomorrow will take me, but I would like to look back on this time of my life one day and say, THank God I was brave to take the plunge!

 

As you must have known in my previous blog entries,  My husband and  I have made my daughter Nicole stop doing volleyball. This was a major and well thought of decision for the whole family as we had to weigh down the pros and cons that might be affecting my daughter’s well being.

Nicole is  not only our only daughter, she is also our only child.  Parents like us can probably imagine our worries and fears  especially when we only have one shot at parenting and we believe we have to do this right.

Before we arrived at this decision, we asked our daughter about our plans to make her stop. She was not agreeable to this at first, but we noticed eventually, she saw  our perspective and eventually surprised us one day, when she told us, she wanted to give up volleyball  to get serious with her studies.

It was a very uncertain time for us right after she quit.   You see, our lives have been so attached to the routines of having a student athlete that it almost felt awkward not  to be doing it anymore.  AS what my closest friends told me, it wasn’t just Nicole who as adjusting, but us too as parents.

Everyday, we would be picking up Nicole late as she was training right after  her classes.   Her closest friends were her teammates so naturally, our closest friends in school too, were the parents of the  kids in volleyball. Weekends were  filled up with so many activities that involved  the team.   If there weree no usual trainings, we would get together and did  something outside of volleyball.   Most of the Moms were close to me, and we would all the time get updated on the going-on  of each other’s life.

Simply said, volleyball was not just a sport, but our life and our family.

I was worried that Nicole will be left without a friend.  I was worried she would become an  outcast.  I was worried she was going to be a nobody because she would lose her identity as a varsity  player.  I was worried that we may regret it in the future as  having a student athlete seemed like a cool idea.

However all my worries and fears didn’t happen.  In fact, I realized now, quitting volleyball was one of the bravest and wisest thing we have ever decided on as a family.

Today I have never seen Nicole so well rested and so happy as a child.   SHe used to be always in a hurry and always pressured with time.   Learning has taken a back seat because everything about school has been all bout compliance.  Today, I noticed that Nicole’s love for learning has come back. She is now fully interested on what is being taught in school and doesn’t jsut go about it to comply to the requirements. I now see her reading her books lazily and finding the time to relax and laugh and listen to good music.   Nicole eventually developed new friendships  with peopele  who may not be sporty, yet are also nice and well mannered kids.   The best thing is, she has kept her friendships with her volleyball teammates which makes it so much better since she has enlarged her circle and got to be with different kinds of people in schoo.

You see, I realized that there is life after volleyball.   When we as parents do not lose sight of what is important as a family and as parents, we will not have a hard time to make decisions.

Volleyball is just there whenever Nicky changes her mind and would want to go back.  But  am just happy that she gets to be a child again, playing with her toys, meeting new friends, having the luxury of time to do what she likes to do.

She lost all that for three years when she got so involved in sports.

As parents, we now appreciate the time we have to bond as a family.  We get to communicate more, talk more and influence our daughter better.  WE nolonger live a life as harried as before.

 

Whatever happens in the future, I cannot tell.  I am just glad it all turned out for the best.