friendship

Have you found “the one”? Or has “the one” got “stuck in traffic”? Whatever stage you are at, worrying and rushing won’t really help. Things will fall into place at the right time, just keep the faith… 😉

Valentine’s day is fast approaching so I thought this story might inspire some people.

I’ve been asked a number of times on how I met my husband and how I knew that he’s the one.

My husband and I used to work in the same company together but we were in different departments and hardly spoke with one another. Come to think of it, I mostly mingle with the people I dealt with regularly.

Here’s how our first meeting went:
I was wandering around the office holding a large envelope when he approached me and asked “Are you looking for me?”. (Apparently, he saw his name written on the envelope.)

With a blank stare, I replied with a frosty “No” and walked away.

After several months, we ended up chatting and learned that we both like to watch anime at some point in our lives. We started talking about Ranma ½, Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, Naruto, Slam Dunk, etc.. Exchanging emails, chatting and going out for a hot beverage every now and then led to a good friendship.

At that stage of my life, I was no longer interested in entering a relationship and was planning to be single for life. I was already in my 30s and was seriously considering “the back up plan” (similar to the movie “The Back Up Plan”… check it out if you haven’t seen it yet).

Although he had been single for almost four years, he was a bit apprehensive to start dating again after getting out of a draining 5-year relationship.

Cupid probably worked overtime to get us together because it took awhile before the friendship blossomed into a relationship.

Did it go smoothly?
Nope.

The first three months was a roller coaster ride.

On top of all the typical challenges that a relationship has, we also needed to work out our cultural differences and language barrier. Suffice to say, we had some hurdles to overcome; I prayed daily that the relationship end sooner than later if he wasn’t “the one”.

As they say, if it’s meant to be… it will be.

The key to overcoming our differences was communication, compromise, and saying sorry when you’re at fault.

The rest is history.

After two years of dating, we had our wedding 1.0 followed by wedding 2.0. Why two weddings?

Hmmm…. until next post… 🙂

I was “channel hopping” when I chance upon “Jillian Namamasko Po“, a television show from the Kapuso network in the Philippines last December 2010. Jillian is a doll who wishes to become a full-fledged human being. In order to attain this, she needs to fulfill “assigned” missions. The twists:

she needs to figure out what that mission is
she will only be directed to another mission once the current mission is already accomplished

It struck me that Jillian symbolizes every one of us. Aspirations can be achieved either:

smoothly or
we need to pass through the eye of a needle before attaining it or
no matter how we exert all our effort, it will be futile.

I remember in my first job, I was at the school director’s office every year to submit my resignation letter. Teaching is a noble profession but I wanted to re-align my career path be a software developer… but I can’t seem to “break free”. It’s only on the 3rd year that I was able to get out from it and magically landed on another job… which is teaching. Long story…

Relationship wise, I met someone whom I treasured dearly and was looking forward to spend the rest of my life with… then again, no matter how we did our best to keep the fire burning and work things out, we kept going back to square one. It’s a vicious cycle that drained the hell out of me (and him).

Relationship, work related issues, and friendship may come and go no matter you hold on. Acceptance and pain might be tough but in due time, a new relationship will blossom, a new job can be found, and a new friendship will be formed. However, health condition and family matters cannot be replaced and it should be treasured like a delicate figurine.

Every stages and experiences are all necessary in order for us to become diamonds in our own right. We may not understand the reasons now, but the dots will be connected when the right time comes. Let’s fulfill our designated missions with open heart and open mind as well as forget the “what if” and “should have been” part.

As they say… is it mission impossible or mission possible? Aja!