FIRST TIME

You know the feeling. Yup, that nervous and excited energy manifesting itself through clammy hands, heart palpitations (nope, not due to too much coffee), a bit of fidgeting maybe, or you feel that you're about to faint, or worse....cry. I haven't run the gamut of First Times, but I've had my share of them:

• going to the bakery on my own which was quite some distance from our house to buy pandesal when I was 7 years old. I was hungry but our helper said, "mamaya na, pagkatapos ko magdilig (later, after I finish watering the plants). So, I snuck out and went by myself. Bad, 'no?
• first piano recital when I was 12
• having a boyfriend at 15 (dad had said no boys till I get to college so I kept it a secret, hihi!)
• learning to drive at 18
• first job interview at 21
• first broken heart at 22 on account of which I was made to leave the country and head-off to New Hampshire to study some more
• living alone for the next 3 years (yep, we didn't have any relatives in New England)

And just recently, last Sunday to be exact, a client of ours succumbed to Lung and Brain cancer. This experience affected me outside the deaths in my own family because he loved the company so much, he being its President. He shouldered the company's problems as if it were his own, thought a lot about the future of its employees, and we, as one of his Bankers, helped him to think of solutions to keep the company going. He was a good man.

How many First Times are we allowed to experience in our lifetime? I read somewhere that you have to listen to the experiences and mistakes made by others because you don't have time to make them all yourself. Listening will allow you to recognize danger signals given certain situations and thus avoid what could have been a costly mistake. Parental guidance, of course , has always been there to watch out for you. However, I also believe that making and owing up to your own mistakes allow you to come out of the exercise a lot stronger and wiser.

I'm older and I watch out for myself now. I possess a more mature grip on things. It's been a long time since I was 7 years old, and my heart's been broken time and again since I was 22 (no, not all because of love lost). As a First Time Blogger, I still (God-willing) have 50 more years to experience many more First Times (think: join the Amazing Race, hehe!) and through this Blog, I hope to share most of them with you.