My Lola, Moving On, and Life in General

The past few weeks have been filled with various things happening for my career and my family. On the career side, I am about to leave IBM for a small startup company. On the family side, my Lola on the mother's side is ill and has been in the hospital the past few weeks in Manila. Since I can't be in Manila and since my Lola has trouble talking, I decided to write a letter and have my parents read it to her. Here it is, in it's entirety.

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Dearest Lola,

I am really sorry I am not able to be present there in Manila right now. My parents have been updating me regularly about what you are going through and I sincerely pray for the best possible outcome. The past few months have been filled with a lot of changes in my life which I was hoping to personally share with you, but given the situation, I think this would do.

A few months ago, I moved to Brooklyn in New York City. This allowed me to be closer to friends who were already based there. Over the past two years, I have come to the realization that I would not be productive at work and personally happy with my life without being able to share my high and low points with people I care about. Burlington and Poughkeepsie were nice and laid-back places, but they were not for me. It was also very lonely going to areas where I did not know anyone and it was equally difficult to meet people my age since these had very typical middle class American suburb environments with mostly families and retirees. Without any doubt, I feel the move to New York has been one of the best decisions I made during this past year. I am happier that I am closer to Ria in Philadelphia, to relatives in the suburbs, and to friends also based in the city. The neighborhood I currently live in now also has a good mix of "small town feel" with "big city accessibility", since I am just a few minutes from the most bustling areas of Manhattan.

In terms of my work at IBM, it has been almost two and a half years since I joined and I feel it's about time for a change. I have met a lot of very nice people at IBM where I will definitely keep in touch with some of them as real friends. In spite of IBM's stability and name recognition, it has been very difficult to shine and I find it hard to stay motivated to give my best to the job. At the same time, I find that a lot of the most exciting developments in the technology world have been done by much smaller and more nimble startup organizations. In a month, I would be leaving IBM and joining this small private company called Six Apart. In the technology industry, they are well-known for their enterprise blogging software and services. Although they are based in San Francisco, they are expanding in New York because so many of their clients in media are based here. I had a very positive feeling about the people who seemed very smart, enthusiastic, young, practical, and idealistic to really make a difference. There is some part of me approaching this change with cautious optimism, but for the most part, I am happy about this decision and I think it would work out in the long run.

In other parts of my life, I wouldn't say it has been as colorful, though I have had various different experiences over the past few months. Me and some of my friends from Manila who are also professionals and based in the United States have come together to form a non-profit organization. We are supporting this during our free time during the weeknights and weekends. We are hoping to become an online portal which will connect generous donors in the United States to education projects to benefit students in the developing world, starting with the Philippines. My responsibility is to work on the technical infrastructure of the project, specifically the website the public will use to browse projects and make donations. It has been quite inspiring how the collective generosity of people to contribute some time and professional talent has made this project into something that looks feasible, even when we are not working full-time on it.

Aside from that, there really is not much more to say about my life here. I really miss you and the rest of the people back home. I would continue to pray for you and the people around you who have found strength in their own lives through the life you have led.

God Bless!

Love,
Pao