CALLINGS

In my youth, and even in my adulthood, I never knew what I really wanted to be in life. I never found my calling, so to speak, at such an early age. And this led to a few false starts.

In high school, I thought I wanted to be a dentist and so I took college entrance exams designed to let me into a pre-Dental Medicine course. That did not pan out. To stay in the university of my choice, I was left me with two options - to either be a social worker or an English literature major. It was a no-brainer: I opted to become the latter, hoping I would end up a really great writer. During summer breaks from college, I also thought I wanted to be in dance and started training with the likes of Basilio Esteban Villaruz. After a few exposures at Concert at the Park though and toughing it out at the almost daily rehearsals, my dreams of becoming a ballet dancer had to stop. But I also had to audition for the Ramon Obusan Folkoric Group. I sensed this group liked me. After all, the audition master said he liked my form. But I had second thoughts about being a folk dancer.

After graduating from college though, I ended up being a teacher of Communications Arts in English to high school students. Not a far cry indeed. Not two years had passed when I got recruited to become a seminarian. I stayed in formation for about two years but did not end my Novitiate year successfully, obviously.

I went back to the academe, not as a teacher but first as an administrative personnel and then as part of school management. In pursuit of higher studies, I tried to be a lawyer. After rigourous exams and interviews to determine my aptitude in law, I spent a nerve-wracking semester in law school, attending class in the evenings on weekdays and all of Saturdays.

But my employer thought though that I was a good candidate for the English department chairmanship. And so I deferred further law studies and enrolled in graduate school, focusing on English for specific purposes. But before I could earn my MA, I separated from my school/employer and shifted jobs to work as a reporter for a business daily.

Not a year passed when I got the call to be a secretary in Saudi.

And the rest, as they say, is history. He he. Well, not quite really.

I still don't know if being an OFW is my calling. But I feel I am so in a better place in my life now that the discernment of callings somehow has retreated from my consciousness.

For the time being, at least.