Hey everyone! Welcome back to me! hihi. I can barely keep track of when I last posted here. Nevertheless, Happy New Year to you guys! If you're reading this, I just want to say thank you for keeping up with me last 2017. Time flew by very fast and now, we're almost done for the first month of 2018! Gosh, kumalma ka time please. It's too fast!
This post is really late but I still want to do this just to share with you guys what I've been up to for the past weeks that I've been neglecting my blog duties. Here's what made me happy for the last quarter of 2017:
1 I'm Now a Certified Software Tester!
I guess I haven't really told you about what I do outside this little blog of mine. I work as a Software Test Engineer for a Mobile Networks company, Nokia. Apart from their mobile phone business, they have other business lines and Mobile Networks is one of them. In general, what I do is to test the software that they use for their Mobile Networks business. Last October, my manager told me that he signed me up to take the ISTQB Foundation Level Exam. It was the first certification I took after the board exams. The exam was held last December so I only had a month and a few weeks to study. That ate most of my time. And to pass this certification meant that I am competent enough to test software so this is a great achievement for me last year. *Pats myself on the back*
2 My Blog's Little Successes
My blog turned 1 last January 9.(I honestly forgot LOL) It may not be as big as other blogs out there who always get sponsors or is enough for them to be financially stable without their day jobs, but I'm still happy that my blog has achieved milestones last year. One of those is that I got to pay for my domain this year from the money I earned from a sponsored post. Thank you for trusting my blog! hihi. I am also getting traffic from social media sites with Google most of all. You know what that means? My SEO efforts are working! I felt so much satisfaction the first time that I saw one of my posts to be on the first page of the Google search engine. It felt surreal!
But above all these, I think the greatest achievement that my blog has reached is that I am able to fulfill one of this blog's objectives: To share information. Our tour guide during our Tangadan Falls adventure PMed me out of nowhere(I still wonder til now how he found my Facebook account), thanking me for sharing his contact number on DIY Travel Philippines. According to him, he got a lot of clients from there. I never thought I would reach that far. And so this year, I plan to still do the same: To share reliable information and help our local tour guides with their business.
3 Winning My Battle Against Acne
Also on the last quarter of 2017, is when my confidence rock bottomed. I never had acne before and to experience it was really one of my worst days. At first, I was in denial that I have acne. I started to have bumps on my cheeks. Three I think. But then it became worse. They started appearing everywhere and I felt bad that time that I didn't even want to go to work. I don't want to see my face. I felt so ugly.(Please don't judge huhu) But then came a point that I was able to accept it. I sought for professional help. I went to Skin Station(Oops this is not a sponsored post). Luckily, they were able to cure it. I had facial session every 2 weeks plus meds and skin care products. The first 2 sessions were rough. I cried a lot because the pricking was so painful. And my face looked like a battlefield afterwards. There was blood everywhere! I even had to take a leave after the first session because my face is still red the day after. Thankfully, after all the pricking and peeling, my acne situation got better. I don't have cystic acne anymore. I still have scars on my cheeks and still getting treatment. But I'm really glad that I don't feel that bad anymore and my confidence is slowly coming back to its normal level.
4 Celebrated my 25th
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| Sorry for the blurry photo hihi |
I celebrated my 25th birthday last December 8 hihi. #QuarterLifeCrisis I'm actually in crisis last year. I'm feeling so lost. I didn't know what to do with my life. But every worry slowly passed and now, I'm just taking life one day at a time. I just celebrated my birthday with the people I treasure the most, my family. We ate dinner at this super cheap but delicious restaurant near our home.
I also got to celebrate my birthday at The Nook with Chad hihi. We bummed and dined there for a few hours and enjoyed wearing the Slytherin and Ravenclaw uniforms. <3
5 Spent the Holidays by the Beach
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| Paparazzi shots of my Mama, Papa and our baby Sam hihi |
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| Caba, La Union |
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| Turning our Japanese Cousin into a Gyojin!(Fishman in Japanese) |
The Holidays last year was fun. Our Tita(who is also my second Mom) and her son went home from Japan so we treated her to an out of town to La Union last Christmas. La Union never failed to relax my soul. We didn't stay at the famous surfing spot, San Juan, rather we stayed at one of the nearby towns which is Caba. Nevertheless, the beach is still beautiful and the waves are still strong. We enjoyed our stay there. It was just us and the beach. <3
I didn't had the chance to say this last year. But from the bottom of my beating heart, thank you guys for being part of my 2017! I had my fair shares of highs and lows last year but my 2017 ended awesomely. Hope you had a great start of 2018! Til my next post(I'll be sharing my bullet journal setup hihi). Bye! :D
