About me!

Where do we go from here?

I'd like to think I'm not your average guy but I am in fact, average.

I was born and raised in Cebu City, Philippines by two hardworking parents who made do with what they had to raise 4 kids. I've always thought of myself as smart - I sent myself to school through scholarships from elementary up until university. But I am also someone you'd call lazy. I didn't like studying, doing household chores - but when I was interested in something, I put in the work. The internet was one of those I was so passionate about. I'd make webpages from Notepad (using HTML), stay up all night surfing and browsing, blogging, discovering anime and music - I practically lived on the internet after school. Then I had to grow up and become an adult.

I studied Accountancy from the best university in Cebu (I mean, no arguments here). Then I took the CPA board exams and luckily passed. In the middle of college, I tried to apply for a scholarship in Japan - made it through the exams, but didn't pass the interviews. This was my first big failure in life - and to this day, I still think of how my life could have been if I passed and went that route. 

Then I moved to Manila to work for a company I didn't expect I'd be joining. For starters, I didn't have big dreams really. I thought I'd join an accounting firm, make some money, and live a normal life in Cebu, with my family and friends around me. I guess when you don't have a plan, the plan gets made for you! Fortunately, it was a good plan because I was able to send my siblings to school, pay off my parents' debt, enjoyed life without worrying too much about money. My professional life is nothing you'd write home about though - I was still lazy for the most part so I didn't really focus on climbing the ladder. I wanted to live life. And I did! I got to make friends I now consider family, lived my once dream of visiting Japan, not once but ~30 times already. I've visited places and seen the world, although there's still a lot more to explore. My work has given me that! I'm still here almost 20 years later - grateful, but also now feeling stuck. 

I feel like I should be doing bigger things for the world. But that's just me and my ADHD, which is still yet to be diagnosed. This is also partly why I want to blog again - to have a space to unload my thoughts and figure things out from this point forward.

Blogging has always been my outlet growing up. But social media arrived and killed off blogs. Twitter and Instagram allowed me to put out my thoughts and photos quickly and efficiently. And for a time it was great because I got feedback and interacted with friends and strangers a lot. That interaction died down as time went by, social media culture also changed. I don't need to explain it but social media has become so normal, it's made the world smaller but also distant at the same time. I'd run off to my blog when I felt overwhelmed and go on short social media hiatuses although I keep going back because blogging just takes more effort. And I'm lazy as you now know.

I blog or post on social media mainly because I want to have a place where I can "store" memories and look back on when the time comes. As you grow older, the more you start longing for the good old days. And that's basically what happened to me after crossing 40. I want to blog again. But it has to be barrier-free & easy. I've missed out on blogging so many events, travels, experiences that I actually want to take a look back (through my Google Photos archive) and talk about them here! So, the timeline's going to be messed up but that's what it will be. I also actually like connecting with people - all this time I thought I was an introvert but I realized I really do get energy from interacting with people. So yeah, those are the goals for this blog. I will post anything and everything under the sun, maybe teach you some Bisaya along the way as well. 

If you are bored and tired of social media and want to hang out here, feel free to leave comments and suggestions! I'll try to entertain you, when I'm not lazy. :)

Your average guy,

Jekert

P.S. This blog is AI-free!