It’s been years since I last wrote a proper blog post online. I figured that since it’s the beginning of a brand-new year, I thought I would try to get back into writing again.
I kind of missed writing annual retrospect posts, so this could be a good time to do so. (Even though I'm publishing it at the end of the month of January.
My word of the year for 2023 was “onward.” It resonated a lot for me because the definition is “to move further on in place or time”. In a way, I pretty much did, in terms of my career and my personal goal.
Let’s start with how I moved onward in my career.
I was already actively searching for a way to grow in my career even before the year 2023 began, but I couldn’t seem to find one right away. An opportunity finally opened up sometime near the end of January for a position in learning and development in a different company, and I immediately did all things necessary to move from one company to another while I was already rendering hours for my last month.
The shift from being a teacher to a trainer was quite challenging. As a newbie trainer, one of my coworkers told me that there is a big difference between a teacher and a trainer. With the guidance of my supervisor, coworkers, and most especially my mentor and fellow pacesetters, I swiftly adapted. The biggest challenge I had was having to deal with paperwork and deliverables, something that was my waterloo five years before. It took months of getting used to, but once I got the hang of it, I began to feel more at ease. As an extrovert, the easiest part was talking in front of people, especially when the topics were about something that I’m passionate about. As someone who was from the theatre industry, I had no problem dealing with nerves, possibly because I’m used to getting that nervous feeling, and translating that nervous energy into the art of gab. Wow, that sounded cocky, LOL. But yeah, imagine how I put extra effort into sitting still and having to accomplish all the deliverables at the end of the day.
As the days, weeks, and months rolled by, I was getting used to having a “normal” day shift that was different from what I was used to for the past several years. Even tolerating the rush hour crowd became bearable, especially at the end of every day. In my previous jobs, I was known for clocking out exactly on time. When I got the hang of my current job, I learned how to manage my time without using my strict ways, and sometimes even welcomed distractions (but not too much) while working on my deliverables, just so I don’t have to drive myself crazy with the evening rush hour crowd. I learned to be a little more chill, yet still set appropriate deadlines for myself.
Now that I’m a regular employee at my current job, I continue to move onward.
In terms of one of my personal goals, moving to a job that supported my dancing helped a lot. I was sick of worrying about whether my leaves would get approved or not (sometimes even at the last minute), or if I still have enough leaves without having to use them for holidays (which I still firmly believe is illegal), or most importantly, if I have enough budget for my classes and competition expenses.
Once I got regularized at work, I had everything all planned out, and by then, I was gearing up for the 4th quarterly national dancesport competition. I didn’t really want to experience another mishap like what had happened the year before. Getting resources this past year was easier, as I realized that the more people you know, the more resources you have. I finally managed to obtain a nice gown I could call my own, even though it was secondhand. I didn’t have to panic about where to get new shoes, because I easily placed an order from where I ordered the previous year. And of course, because of the hair and makeup fail last year, I kept making sure this was intact and set.
One more thing that I made sure of was securing paid leaves to make way for practice time. This was easier than I thought, but what I didn’t expect was the flu season. Even though I filed two weeks’ worth of leaves, I got sick on week one. It took me a long time to recover, but once I felt that I was okay enough to practice, I was back in the studio. I masked up and still showed up.
On the day of the competition, I easily had my hair and makeup done at a reasonable time. It was fortunate that I only had to walk to a unit one floor above me just to get this done. It was quite different from the panic I felt the year before when the person who promised to do my hair and makeup bailed at the last minute.
In hindsight, I realized that just because I learned from the year before about prep time doesn’t mean just working out what went wrong then. You also need to find ways to do better. Because we became lax with my preparation, we were so chill in the holding area that we didn’t exactly go back to the dance floor to warm up prior to our event. I think we got complacent with the fact that we already practiced on the actual dance floor the day before.
All in all, my dancesport competition experience in 2023 was better than the year before. We entered 2 of our previous events—Grade D (slow waltz, tango), Special Event 2C (slow waltz, tango, slow foxtrot)—and one more event—Combined Age 80 (slow waltz, tango, slow foxtrot). I was still kind of nervous, of course, probably because I believe that I didn’t put in enough practice due to sickness, but I still gave it my best and enjoyed myself. I had that good feeling that I one-upped my past self because even though I still have a lot to improve on, I still was better than before. For the first time, we had ranked over one couple that ranked over us in our other event. Even though that said something for me, I knew that our actual competition was ourselves.
As I continue to move onward in my dancesport journey, I continue to improve myself.
When I was discerning what my word for the year 2024 would be, I wanted to make sure that it will be something that really resonates. As I was flipping through reels on Instagram, I came across a reel that let us screenshot what our word could be.
Boom, the word came out. RESONATE.
As a verb, resonate means “to continue to have a power effect or value”. Upon further reading in the Cambridge online dictionary, “If you resonate with something, it feels true or has meaning for you”.
I want 2024 to have more meaning, more breakthroughs, more adventures, and more stories.
It’s time to resonate.
