Baguio City 2600 PH Year 3

Two years (+ 2 days) ago, after somewhat confirming that typhoon Yolanda won't badly hit the North, I traveled 8-9 hrs from Muntinlupa to Baguio for a job interview. I had sent my application sometime in 2012, so I wasn't exactly waiting for a feedback anymore. I remember shamelessly asking the caller:  Why didn't you call me a year ago? "There's a time for everything," the caller said. Turned out I wasn' talking to HR but to one of the two co-owners of the company. (Oops!) #ithappened #arlenialbum Thank you, @RSVP :)

BAGUIO CITY VICTORY LINER TERMINAL - Nov. 9, 2013
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Moments before the interview, I was checking my phone for weather updates. Yolanda had already made 2 or 3 landfalls, and it was about to make another one. Shocked by Yolanda's mad impact, I admonished myself for travelling nearly 200km that day. I knew I could've postponed and asked for a bit more time. The thing is, I had waited for a year already. And that year was just in connection to the job.

In less than 3 weeks after the interview, I was in a lipat-bahay truck,  on a 9-hr trip to my new apartment. (To this day, I am still trying to be an expert in editing and decluttering.)

I first entertained the idea of moving to Baguio in 2007, just weeks before graduation. But as always, I got distracted, tho in a good way.

A friend who believes I'm a nomad by nature had bet I would only stay in Baguio for 3 years, tops. He said this just a few months after I've moved. True enough, I had to leave the job after such a short while. The bosses are awesome, but I'm not really an office person anymore. (Note to self: Have a shirt that says 'I need space' in five different colors!)

Still, I'm pretty sure I could actually stay in one place for 3 yrs, maybe even longer.

Couldn't blame the abovementioned friend for doubting, tho. Barely a month after my mother died in 2004, I moved from Dasma, Cavite to Bicutan, Taguig. Back then it was my BFF who looked for an apartment for us. Requested her to do so a day or two before the funeral. I figured if I had to go thru some spiritual-emotional rehab, I should live with a friend who knew my inner, insufferable monsters and my terrible mood swings. (Godsend, indeed!)

In 2006, I moved from Bicutan to Los Baños, Laguna to finally get my college diploma. That was almost two years of living with my BFF roomie! I also had to leave a really good job back then. I was an undergrad on extended AWOL, managing a small group of college graduates. It felt wrong tho no one complained. I felt that if I didn't stop then, I would never look back to school again. I was, still am, not interested in corporate jobs. I had thought maybe I didn't need to graduate. But there was a nagging voice in my head. It said a diploma might lead to something better later.  'You're fickle, so you should make sure that you'd have more choices later.' (That voice was amazingly right!) So I resigned to finish what I had started in 1996 - my college education in UP Los Baños.

In 2007, I got a job in Alabang, so I left LB, despite my soulmate being there. (I've always been in love with the idea of being in-love, but I'm probably not really a hopeless romantic.) I needed a diploma for that Alabang job, so I was pretty thrilled. (But it was my first distraction from the Baguio plan.) The funny thing is, I moved with the same lipat bahay service provider who helped me move to LB! So the guys told me in jest: 'Til next time! (What a way to build a gypsy-nomad rep.)

In 2008, I got hired by a Korean company that gave me some astonishing travel opportunities. That year, I moved to Mandaluyong -- first in a company condo, then in an apartment in 2009. I wouldn't have enjoyed a bit of Paris, Cairo, Sydney, Mexico City and Seoul -- all for free -- if I had not completed my college degree.

In 2010, just after renewing my rent contract, I got hired as part of an HR team for posh resorts in El Nido and Apulit, Palawan. After only 8 months of overseeing/assisting in staff-management relations & events on the islands, I saw an opportunity to volunteer for a good project overseas. I was never (still not) interested in real overseas jobs (tight contracts and no quick exits are not good for someone who might have A.D.D.) but I was down for a 3-month stint in an exotic, war-torn Eurasian land.

So in 2011, I moved with my BFF again, to a different apartment in Bicutan. (She works in DOST, and she has somehow became my second mom!) I was going to prepare my documents for a project in T'blisi, Georgia. But plans changed. I cancelled my exotic adventure. Instead, I began to plan another adventure that year, only to change my mind (again) a year later. At this point, I realized there's a lot more that I hadn't figured out -- like what or who do I really want, what could I afford to let go or compromise about... I figured one thing tho: I knew the 'where' of my strongest, most consistent desires.

In 2012, BFF and I moved to another apartment, still in Bicutan. This would be the last time we would be roomies while she's still single. That same year, I moved to C5 in Taguig to transition to a new chapter. This time, I was finally ready to move to Baguio. So I applied for jobs online.

I was always travelling to Baguio, commuting once to thrice each year since 2007. But I couldn't tell for sure if there would be a job for me. So I said I'd move only if I got hired.

Two years ago on this day, things turned in my favor -- while a national calamity was unfolding. I took it as a sign that it was a season of big changes. For countless families, the changes came in the form of great material losses and some heart-crushing family deaths. For me, it was time to grow up.

While the country was mourning post-Yolanda, I was starting to build something new. It was impossible to ignore that I had a lot to be grateful for. I had a chance to start again, and I got more to look forward to. And it looked like I've finally found a place where I could retire.

But just nine months after moving to the city, I was invited for a 3-month consult project in Korea. It could potentially lead to more, but I really couldn't imagine myself working for even a year abroad. I feel that I'd be up for depression in that scenario. Three months was long enough. So I decided I'd leave, but I'd keep my apartment.

I came back to Baguio in December 2014 and have never left the city again (except for weekend trips to Manila/Cavite).

I still have a "family home" in Cavite, still have a family home in C5,  another family home in Bicutan, and a fourth one in Biñan. I actually don't have to (and for others, shouldn't) live alone. But I'm most OK where I'm by myself, in a place where conditions are right for my mind, things are relatively within my control every day and the scenery is great for my whims and my dreams.

My Baguio neighbors (and many others) are weirded out by my choices. If there's a way to accurately depict the history and everything in my head I would tell them, just for indulgence. This blog, however novel-esque, is not enough. So, I'd just say I had spent  years looking for the right place for me. It took me a while, but I'm here now.

I've finally managed to stay in one apartment for more than two years and counting. (Ooops, that's from Dec. 1, 2015! My memory sucks. I probably should count out the 3 months I was away, but it was really a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things, anyway.)

And because I actually feel at home, I have been mentally and spiritually stable, even unworried on most days. This is what I had been looking for. I knew it was possible to feel this way. I'm glad I didn't settle anywhere else. [I miss the cities of Muntinlupa (sunrise + Laguna de Bay view from Tunasan) and Mandaluyong (sunset+surise views from Citihomes) -- but not the flash floods!]

I'm still getting to know Baguio. I'm an introvert who doesnt need much outdoor time but I've been going out for walks here. And the important thing is -- and I guess Maya Angelou herself would give a thumbs up from heaven for this -- the way Baguio is making me feel. Sometimes it feels like Paris (quaint bookshops & coffee shops). Other times, it feels like autumn in Seoul. All the time -- in good and bad weather -- I'm feelin' just all right here. And that's consistent since 2007.

This is it. I'm sure. It is still possible for me to leave because of jobs, etc. But if ever that happens (I hope not), now I know where to go back to in case retirement time has truly come.