MY FIRSTBORN may soon get married. With his recent proposal to his girlfriend, he is getting into a new chapter in life. I have assured him that we, his family, can help turn the pages onto a beautiful story ending.
It’s a new journey for him where there may be bumps along the way. But my son Asher Allyson is known to have taken challenges so well through the years. In high school, whenever me and my wife asked how his studies have been turning out, he would always quip back “easy mu.” It was like him saying “piece of cake.”
That’s my son, who I’m proud of achieving something for himself -- a registered pharmacist with no less than Doctor of Pharmacy degree. He was just promoted at The Medical City-Clark, a JCI-accredited hospital. He is now also an entrepreneur too, with his drug store in Angeles doing well.
Such pride also goes for his personal life -- how he cares for his only sibling, our beautiful daughter Alyssa and us his parents. He might not know how to lift a hammer for a chore, but he sure lifts heavy things with ease when it comes to lessons in life.
Allysa is on med school where she has to sit whole days before a computer for her studies. The challenge for her does not end there. She burns the midnight oil too on her lessons. Petite that she is but she is big on many things -- likeable by peers, friends, cousins, pets and even riders because of tips she gives during deliveries.
Her own journey seems to have been stalled when she could not land a job after graduating as Med Tech at my alma mater (his kuya’s too) Angeles University Foundation few years ago. But as the Bible says -- to everything there is a season and a reason. In retrospection, we are glad that she did not get to work and just remained at home (although she did get to travel as gift to herself). We are glad that being jobless meant her safety as that was the time when the global pandemic set in. We could have been worried sick.
My lovely wife Anet, despite stumbling on a literal hump that fractured her left wrist a week ago, can only be so grateful at how our children have turned out to be nice persons. As for me, I hit not just humps but also dead ends at times but that should not stop me in the pilgrim to success and a blessed life.
Isn’t God wonderful for all the journeys? He gives them to us and he joins us through them. Indeed, there might be some humps, bumps and even ditches along the way. But those are meant for a reason, for our own good, and even for our own strength.
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Our eldest sister Lou’s journey is one that is colorful and amazing too.
Turning 70 this Saturday, she has had travels and travails. They have taken her to many places both the literal and figurative ones. Across lands, across oceans, across joys, across challenges -- she always come out with triumphs.
For one, her four children had bore for her 16 grandkids including twins. For two, she is still without maintenance meds, not even for blood pressure. Perhaps, that joyful and worryless spirit in her keeps her with that remarkable medical condition.
I am saying this not because I was her pet sibling in a family of 10. But rather, I have personally witnessed her indomitable outlook in life. Despite losing business, career, house. Despite familial issues and concerns too. I can count with my fingers the few times she frowned or sulked on even big issues in life.
How I am so blessed with a wonderful family -- both my own and nine siblings from superb parents Lazaro Tulabut and Remedios Gasmen. The journey has always been and will always be amazing.
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Journeys, Stories on the NLEX – A book review.
It might be unusual that a company, private or government, would herald its achievements in just its 15th anniversary celebrations. Especially for a production of a Coffeetable Book (CTB).
Ten years away from its Silver or 25th anniversary where such are produced, NLEX Corporation – concessionaire for NLEX and SCTEX tollroads -- already came up with one which I got hold of just recently.
Journeys, Stories on the NLEX is a compendium and record of achievements activities, events, outreach of NLEX. This book is a remarkable documentation that captured not just the company’s history but its contribution to nation building. It even covers the gloomy period when pandemic sow gloom not just in the revenue streams of NLEX Corp but also to the country and even the world.
Through well-written articles and vivid photos, the CTB is one of a kind — it exemplifies artistry and creativity and well thought and carefully executed concept and design.
On many occasions, I have been involved in the production of books, particularly biographies with mentor Bong Lacson as either publisher or editor. I have also laid out and did the page make-up of 280-page Pinatubo: Triumph of the Kapampangan Spirit. This was a CTB project commissioned to our group by no less than the late Levi P. Laus. With that, I know just the kind of creative juice that one has to squeeze both in text and visuals.
The producers of Journeys did pour out just the exact blend of sap that made them produce the right visuals to text discipline, well-timed topics, apt graphics, and even the right number of pages.
Creativity was superb. I particularly liked the splurged, full-bleed photos especially that contained that burst of a lamppost with streaks of light with silhouette of mountains. What an artistic shot that required the correct exposure and time of day!
The CTB is worthy of read and even re-read as it encapsulates not just the business of running a tollroad, but the heart of people managing and operating it. It is a literary work that represents people from all walks of life who continue to benefit from the road that helps create that intersection of lives, endeavors, and experiences.