BRIGHTER THAN SUNSHINE

“Thank you for calling. How may I help you?” This was the question I had to repeat for-God-knows-how-many-times in my eight hour shift, five days a week, one year life in a one hell of a job.

                It was September of 2008 and I just turned 18 years old. I was in third year college and a little bit confused of my chosen career path, which is Computer Science. Every night before I go to sleep, I kept thinking what would be future. Would an everyday routine of facing the computer and coding programs make me satisfied enough? I don’t even love programming, for crying out loud! And so, my 18 year-old self, confused with life, decided to stop schooling for a while and took the easiest-way-to-earn-money job. I entered the graveyard shift as a call center agent. Did I gain something from it?

                Living alone, staying up on the wee hours, sipping 3 cups of coffee a day, smoking cigarettes, assisting people abroad, drinking alcohol in the morning, sleeping while the sun is up and not having a social life outside my job was my life when I started working. I don’t know if you even call that a life. There was a time that I can’t help but crying because I felt alone. There was no one to talk to. I missed my family. I miss my student life. But I was earning money, helping my parents financially, gaining a lot of experience, and most importantly, learning to live independently at a young age.

                Looking back, I didn’t berate myself from what I opted to and for what I ended up of becoming today. The decision we choose can either make or break us. I was fortunate that it didn’t break me. I made me a person of what I am now, strong-willed and independent. Maybe, I chose to grow up too soon, but what’s good in living is that we can still go back to the time and experience things that we missed out.  You just have to savor it until it last.