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Culture interests for many reasons but mostly because I believe we are only ourselves because we are at a certain place. Sure, people will always tell you to be yourself wherever you go, but being yourself changes when you go elsewhere and subconsciously undergo a drastic change in character. I honestly like my academic choices. I took up Business all the way like I was built with a strategic entrepreneurial mind. I love computing how much profit I can make out of something. I love how it gives me the feeling that I can actually have something I can internally control. But in the end why do I even want to put up my own business anyway? Because it's my passion - but mostly because I'm in Manila. The city is not the place where you graduate from college and easily find a job you love. If you have great passion for dancing or painting, your parents will most likely stop you from entering that field after high school, claiming they refuse to pay tuition for a course that will not land you an actual living. Almost everyone ends up wanting an office job - probably because that is the most exposed. So in business terms, the market is saturated. Most of us would find ourselves being an underpaid settler. Starting small is not something to be ashamed of but the thing is, not many people make it far as an employee in this battlefield. And I definitely don't wanna sit behind a desk all my life - at least not in Manila, or anywhere in the Philippines. Why? There is pride. But then there's also weighing the costs versus the rewards. Business owners in the SME sector always have the most inspiring success stories.

When I was in kindergarten, we were always asked what we wanted to be when we grow up. Of course it's a pathetic question. You can go as far as getting a degree and still not know what you want in life. Kids will just write down the first interesting thing that comes into their mind without knowing the responsibilities attached to it. We had the most cliché answers, doctor, policeman, fireman, teacher, cashier. It's funny because a lot of kids who wanted to be a doctor find out a few years later that they are terribly afraid of blood. I, on the other hand, always had an honest answer as a toddler. I wanted to be a scientist. And up until now, I stick to my word. In high school, I had an overwhelming interest in Chemistry and I always hit line of 9 in Physics. I was also madly in love with anything about the universe. Everytime I turn the TV on I flip the channel to Nat Geo hoping for a new lesson in astronomy. And since I was always dumbfounded with the new things I learn, I always said that if I lived in the US I will study astronomy, and work my ass off to get into NASA. I say that because the attention given by the Philippine government towards home-grown scientists is close to zero. If I take that path here I would end up having a hobby, not a job. But everyday I live with the frustration and a mental self-pat on the back - maybe in another lifetime. 

Science really captures me in a way but apparently I also appreciate art and literature. I took left brain-right brain tests in the university before, and my results said that my left brain works in perfect harmony with my right brain. One does not overpower the other. It seems great to hear as if I have the best of both worlds - but sometimes it's not. Sometimes I will be given a task and I wish I was more creative or more analytic. Unfortunate how I will always be caught in between. And because I'm in Manila, again, I overuse my left brain in hopes of making it function more because it's what our society demands. Unless you're an heiress or at least a person coming from a family with a plethora of connections, it won't be ideal to go into the arts. There's also another thing... if you're really, really good by nature - which I am not, btw. There are some things you were born with, and some you just learn along the way. But if I were somewhere else like London or Paris, I will probably push my right brain to the limit by taking up fashion design and production and indulge in my fashion fetish. That's something not much people could emphasize while living in a third world country. If I were living in the design capital of the world with an ideal level of interest in clothes, shoes, and bags - where do I go? I will be another version of myself. Will that be at par with losing myself? Maybe. Since we always customize ourselves to feed the demands of society as much as we hate to admit.

If only we were feline and had nine lives, we could be whoever we damn well please one life at a time.