I sometimes wonder what’s it like if I didn’t come to Taiwan. Would life would’ve been any different?

My guess is, thanks to my Atenean degree and my rich leadership background, it would’ve been possible for me to be employed in some of the leading multinationals in the Philippines. In fact, a day after I left for Taiwan, Shell Philippines called me up and asked why my resume wasn’t in their database. Seems that their recruitment mananager still remembered me from a previous leadership training seminar and was interested in hiring me.

One day.

Frankly, I still wonder sometimes what it would be like if I stayed behind and entered the Shell workforce. Or maybe Unilever or Nestle which were amongst my top picks. My, that would’ve been perfect. 2-4 years in the corporate world doing either branding or marketing, and them moving on to an MBA abroad.

The long-term plan was for me to be gainfully employed and gradually accummulate enough experience to do an MBA. After which, I have the option of banking on the agree to get a higher-paying job, or start my own business.

Well… that was the original plan.

Well, life doesn’t really stick to the original plan, does it?

Actually, if you’ve asked me 5 years ago to imagine what life would be now, I doubt it would’ve been anywhere close to living in Taiwan and working for a bank. Being a cough potato back then, I wouldn’t have said that my main interests would now consist wallclimbing and traveling.

First, after 13 years of Chinese studies with nothing to show for it, I’ve had enough of Mandarin. I couldn’t even order food, much less carry on a conversation. The soft insult, “Hwa Na Gong” embodied me.

In addition, at that time, I thought the Taiwnese consisted of bin-lang chewing guys and tackily-dressed middle aged women out to make a few bucks in Divisoria. They weren’t really part of th eupper class back home.

And secondly, by the time I graduated, I vowed never to enter the tech and banking industry, mainly because I couldn’t really stand sitting in front of the computer 8 hours a day and banking, I felt was just dull.

God must’ve been laughing because my first official job in Taipei was for one of the top 5 PC companies in the world. And nobody can mistake my current company for anything other than a bank, as it’s also one of the biggest in the world.

And lastly, I couldn’t have imagined that I’d morph into this active woman who’d be traveling around the world and whose greatest highs are found in the climbing gym. Well honestly, I couldn’t have afforded it given my dire salary those days, and two, given the infamous strictness of my parents, they would’ve died before even letting me do the things I’m doing right now.

So now, as I look forward to another 5 years, I already chucked out the idea of even forecasting where I’d going to be. Been there, done that — 5 years ago, and heck, my aim really sucked.

And yet, it’s just amazing that despite not turning out the way I planned it to be, my life turned out to be so much better than I have ever imagined.

*Kisses God over and over*

Yes, I am truly happy. Happy with my job and my life in general.

And though I no longer know what to expect for the future, I do know one thing — if you work your *ss off and aim high, then it just gets better and better.

Cheers to us all in the new year!