Life as I define it

I finally decided to get a life. I went to the office this morning to submit my signed resignation letter. It's just kinda awkward arriving to the office and not being able to go through the turnstile door because my access card had already been deactivated since last week. The one place I feel so comfortable next to home suddenly became a stranger to me. Since I was just there to process my clearance, I had an escort - a house guard,actually - who followed me around from a distance wherever I go. I never even had the chance to finally say goodbye to my QA team and to my dearest friends.

I was still having mixed emotions when I got home. I am sad that the people I have come so comfortable working with and the friendship I have developed with some are now so distant.

My work was putting food on my table but I didn't get to be a real mom and a real wife because of it. I always go home tired. I had no time to fix dinner or review my daughter's lessons with her. In the morning, I had to rush to go to the office again since I live 52 kilometers away which is an hour ride on the bus. I can't wake up much earlier to be able to fix breakfast for my daughter either or to fix her hair before she goes to school. She loves it when her hair is being fixed by mommy. I can only do that if I'd take a leave of absence and it only happens once or twice a month. I also had to take a vacation leave for a day whenever it is her exam week so I can have an extra time to review the exam pointers with her. Thankfully, she always place second on her class when the exam results come out.

I love to cook and make a business out of it. It's even lovelier whenever I do it for my family. Now, I am finally doing it. I would heave a sigh of satisfaction when I am able to finish cooking and ready the table by the time my hubby gets home from his class. I get the natural high whenever my customers would compliment my food and even more when they wonder out loud what I put on my recipes. But most of all, I love the opportunity it gives me to work side by side with my hubby. For the first time, we're working together like real partners. We function in our new business like clockwork. We don't plan what to do. We just know instinctively where to be and what to work on especially when it's rush hour. Sometimes, he would panic when the orders would come in bulk. He tends to burn some of the grilled stuff. I would just gently remind him to calm down because the food will still take it's own sweet time to cook despite his panic attack.LOL! Sure, there are days where only a handful of customers would arrive but, thankfully, it only happens once a week. So far, so good.

Some people, especially my mother, don't understand why I quit. We all need jobs, yes, but it isn't the be-all and end-all of everything once you decide to pack and leave your cubicle. There are still other ways to earn a living. I just decided to take one which allows me to be closer to home and to my family. For me, they are my be-all and end-all.

I got a life. It isn't a life that others would call but it's what life is by my own definition.

The exit

I have mixed emotions towards my decision in finally resigning from my job of 4 years. Well, 3 years and 7 months to be exact. I worked as a Quality Specialist in a BPO company. It's my dream job 4 years ago when I still thought that QA tasks only consist of listening to and evaluating the interaction between the customer and a customer service representative. I didn't realize that there are also some nauseous politics that comes with it...until now. Don't get me wrong but I was happy with my job. I was kicking butt! Not literally,though I wanted to. But then again,it's most of the time,if not always,who you know and not what you know that works in the call center business. I've seen people resort to butt-kissery if they can't hack it using their brains. I thought this practice is only apparent in government offices - no pun intended. So I said to my self, it's time to check some other people's lawn. It's time to check if the politics there is less nauseating and the if the grass of opportunities is much greener.

It's kind of surprising that eventhough I don't earn as much as I did when I was still a QA, I am much happier and content now. I'm just not sure if it's going to last or how long it will. Maybe the stress was too much that's why the compensation didn't matter anymore. Darn, I grew white hair on my forehead in my 2nd year on the job. At first I didn't mind until some officemates of mine started calling me Rogue, a character in X-Men. It only grew on one area. Like a square inch. That's when I decided to had it dyed. When it started to show again, I had my sister pulled it out one by one. Good thing she enjoyed doing it. However, white hairs kept on coming back. A friend told me my stressful job can be the culprit. So I started taking long leave of absences, plus, I was also hospitalized due to hypertension for a week. Amazingly, the white hair started to not grow back from the last time I had it pulled out.

There's also one more thing that came out good about my resignation. Unlike before, now I appreciate the value of P100. I usually spend that much for my snacks alone every day at work. Maybe this is also one way of making me realize and appreciate the value of money no matter how small the amount is.
Sigh! I am surely gonna miss my girls. They're the second and last QA team I was with, and I have been there OIC for the last 7 months of my stay. Surely, there were some of them that I didn't meet eye to eye at first but in the long run I was able to adjust to each and everyone's type of personalities. I guess I'll just be writing about each of them in my following posts. I owe them that,at least, after putting them off guard with my resignation. Long sigh......

Pain Tolerance

It's odd how my very first post will be about the throbbing pain in my ankle. I guess the pain wouldn't let me think of something else but the agony I am feeling now. I have posted about it in my FB page hoping that at least one out of my 450 friends will give me some advice on what to do with it. Darn! It's been an hour and no one has showed me some concern yet. Aaargh! Just trying to stand up is like hell already! I guess what I can do for now is to wish the pain away with the help of a pain-reliever - that is, if I can find where I've placed it - which I can't right now because it is still very painful to just stand up. I guess it's just gonna be me and my bed until my hubby gets home.