“WITH everything I do, I do it with passion,” 28-year-old medical representative Joelito Aspan Orencio Jr. said.
JL Aspan, as his friends call him, has been successful in his beauty tourism career, winning the Mr. Lakawon 2016, reaching third runner-up in Mr. Western Visayas 2016 (representing Bacolod), and becoming one of the finalists for the prestigious Mr. Philippines 2017 competition in Pampanga.
During this time, JL Aspan also had the opportunity to initiate modeling, participating in the Bacolod Fashion Week 2017, Negros Fashion Festival 2017, and the Philippines Designers Gala 2018 in Manila.
Aside from being in the beauty industry, JL Aspan is also a licensed teacher who taught for three years in St. Joseph’s School and LCC Gardenville for a year. As an educator, JL Aspan focused on cultivating engaged, positive citizenship from his students and younger people in general: “I am involved and I participate in some of the environmental advocacies in Negros. Especially teaching or educating the youth on how to be aware about climate change, biodiversity, and solid waste management,” he said.
With his successful career, JL Aspan highlighted a key struggle: time management.
During his last year as a teacher in 2017, he recounted the conflicting schedule, from his modelling and teaching career that persisted daily: “I really had this challenging situation where my events and schedule in teaching are in conflict. Sometimes I go out for the event when I had class. I was able to communicate my dilemma well with the administration that they allowed me to attend that event,” he said.
JL Aspan also highlighted the difficulty of working in the beauty sector itself: “It’s very tough to fit in that modeling career: you need to constantly attend workshops, training, and seminars,” he said. Additionally, he mentioned the competitiveness of the field, making it more difficult to land projects and deals with companies.
To cope with this transition in his life, JL Aspan recognized the role of his mentors: “They really taught me how to become a professional model,” he said. More importantly, JL Aspan also attributed the people of Negros, “who really supported [him] in [his] modelling career.”
“They invited me to some of their events, especially pageantry. I also took part in civic engagement, particularly personality development for college students at Kabankalan. I was also a guest in city events like the Masskara Festival,” JL Aspan said.
Ultimately, the strongest factor of his success and perseverance, according to JL Aspan, was his will: “I never gave up. I am still continuing it because it’s my passion,” he said.
Asked about the biggest highlight of his career, JL Aspan said, “I will never forget that I was part of TV shows and commercial.” He acted for White Flower, Knowledge Channel, and even for some banking institutes.
“It was a big help in boosting my self-confidence and a motivation to push through with my dreams,” he reflected.
At present, as his stable profession, JL Aspan works as a medical representative in Bacolod City. When asked to share his biggest lessons of his life, he said, “Whatever things you want in your life, you should do it while you’re still young.”
JL Aspan also heartily added that one must learn to manage his or her time well, a lesson from his life as a teacher and beauty professional at the same time. “If you have multiple schedules or many things to do, manage your time. It’s very important to divide your time to correctly avoid stress and conflict.”
“Make yourself busy every day. That’s a really great thing to know that, at the end of the day, you are able to know who you are because of your work,” he concluded.