Usap Tayo

Before doing anything, try to consider what your loved ones / the public might think of you once they find out what you're doing. Will you be able to stomach their reaction, or are you the type to call an attorney and then squirm your way out of a mess? Much of you have read this article,  No One Told Me I'd Be Cutting Ties With Chums After Becoming An Attorney!  and the next morning, my friend sent me a dm(direct message).  I didn't think to reply. It was obvious that she was venting, and that she was hurt. She claims to not care  what other people thought of her, as  if they even knew her . But she forgot that I never  disclosed her identity. And her response tells me she cares a great deal about what people think . Since passing the bar, many people have been adding me on Facebook - most of which are strangers, and some of which are people I know personally. I don't know what it is about becoming a lawyer that projects this image of me as an ATM. I never...

After X number of years leading up to my law degree, I didn't feel the need to rush  in to apply for jobs. I made that mistake after passing the Nursing Licensure Exam. I would constantly compare my progress to batchmates, and think that I was one step behind if I hadn't enrolled in a training program that they had. Ultimately, everyone landed a job or volunteered, and the experience they had acquired over the years was enough to catapult them to employment overseas. So really, I wasn't worried about not landing a job this time around, so much as landing the wrong one . To figure out what job I wasn't suited for I had to answer three things: 1. What do I want ? 2. What don't I want? 3. And how do I envision myself in the next 5 years? To be frank, I can only answer the third one, and even if I had given you an answer it would have been a hazy description. I would give you a collage of images - this, this and that! And the only way to answer the first two questions w...

I had a high school classmate seek advice. She's managing her own travel and transpo agency. She asked me to read  the terms and conditions of the services she was offering. And she also broached the idea about having her clients sign a waiver.  At first glance, that waiver almost seems harmless. But she was asking me if she could exempt herself from liability should her clients encounter any mishap while island-hopping.  So imagine this.  You sign up for a sightseeing tour of the picturesque islands in Southern Luzon. You've slathered on the sunscreen. You're wearing that bikini or those mid-thigh trunks perfectly showcasing the result of months of dieting. You have your pals with you. And you have the summer sun evenly coating you a golden hue. You're on your way to an island, a couple of kilometers from the port. The ocean is a clear blue and you get knocked around your seat from the bumpy ride, waves slapping against the sides of the boat.  Unfortunately, yo...

Lately, I've been posting pictures with veeeeery long captions , so I deemed it best to write one in a blog post. As the elections are drawing nearer, supporters and loyalists are shouting one last hurrah before people shade their ballots. We're caught between two opponents facing each other in the ring - Leni Robredo and BongBong Marcos. The rest are distractions(save for Mang Leody who has managed to keep his cool while eating halo-halo, this man is the real MVP). But instead of hedging our bets on the two contenders, here is why we should direct coequal  attention on the congressmen and party lists that we will be voting for. The latter comprise the legislative branch  of the government- a coequal  branch of the judiciary and the executive . Amongst many functions, the Legislative Branch is responsible for enacting, amending and repealing the law . (Sila ang gumagawa ng batas. Sila rin ang may kapasidad mag-dikta BAKIT kailangan gumawa ng isang batas. Ito ang mga bata...

 I am so relieved I don't have to feel guilty about having fun. When you study law, you're expected to devote every waking moment of your life to studying codal provisions, and digesting cases. If you don't, you increase your chances of flunking a subject, or botching your performance in class. My routine in law school was waking up around 12 noon, hitting the codals or annotations after waking up. Then I would shower for a break, study until about two hours before my class. I would leave an hour before my class, squeeze in 10 minutes to buy a sandwich(which served as brunch in the late afternoon) and often arrive late with carb crumbs on my blouse. Class might finish around 9 or 10 pm, after which I would binge with a friend then head home. I would sleep around 6 am, toss around in bed and then wake up the next day. That was my routine for four years - plus or minus an unsatisfactory recitation in class and exams. I remember feeling guilty that I had to take a few minutes ...

I would say I was emotionally unstable during my bar review. I was living alone, and I had to deal with a bad break-up. My neighbors wouldn't keep the noise down. It was the height of the pandemic, and as much as I wanted to go outside to get some sunlight, I couldn't risk contracting COVID-19 and being disqualified from taking the bar just for such. It didn't matter if my neighbors  knew  that I was reviewing. They would bang the walls, monitor who my visitors were(yes, I was being harassed) and even laugh raucously during their nightly inuman . If they felt like it, they would even play music on repeat just below my study room. One day, I had gotten enough that I threw a tantrum. While slicing up vegetables, I slammed the knife down, hilt in hand, and my right palm slid over the blade. My fingers were still gripping the blade which had sliced through my right ring finger and pinky. I didn't feel anything. But I released my grasp on the blade a little too late.  I wash...

Entrepreneurs focus on what they can control . It's a mindset they had to ingrain in themselves. They hold themselves to high standards and rarely would you hear them blame others for their shortcomings. After all, if a problem lies with them, then they  can readily solve it. That is why some entrepreneurs frown upon politics, or at the very least, advocating their candidates. Navigating the political terrain is a very tiresome task. You would also be focusing on what you can't  control. It's beyond an entrepreneur's control to dictate who will be appointed/ elected to public office, or the platforms politicians will adopt during their tenure.  As an entrepreneur, I don't shove my ideologies down another person's throat. Neither do I openly tell others who my political candidates are.  But I firmly believe that entrepreneurs should  be concerned about politics.  1. Politics is, in itself, a business. Don't kid yourself. As much as we are told that public of...