Career path

I think I'm slowly figuring out what I'm meant to do with my life.

When I was a kid, I would put out a little table and chair, and come up with a menu for Tisha's Restaurant (a very inventive name, right up there with "Adam's Foodhaus" on Tuazon). I'd have hotdogs for P1 and such things on the menu as "banana with condensed milk" (a family favorite--to this day, Carlos has it for breakfast sometimes) and the more experimental "banana in chocolate syrup." I believed I had the cheapest food in town, and often wondered why food in other restaurants had to be so expensive. (Answer: the owners' moms didn't keep a well-stocked fridge that they could raid free of charge.) I've always loved food--whether it was baking it, serving it, or (most especially) eating it.

It was my pleasure, therefore, to take on the Entertaining section of the mag. I'm pretty much in charge of production now. And while I'm not really a great cook or anything, putting this thing together is something I enjoy.

Believing that I needed to have a solid background in food styling to be able to handle this section more competently, I signed up for a food styling class under New York-based stylist Delores Custer. This class was organized by Food Magazine, published by one of our competitors. It was a bit pricey for a one-day class (my wallet is gathering cobwebs as I type), but totally worth it. I learned a few tricks of the trade--and I also learned that there's so much more that I don't know! (Ahh, Philo 101.) It seems I have to be a good cook and a good baker, and I'm ready and willing to learn. Hamil and I are thus currently hunting for some reasonably priced cooking classes.

During a break, a Taiwanese dude started chatting me up. "Are you a model?" He asked. Stop it, you're making me blush. (Those who know me could probably hear my sarcasm.) I replied that I was actually a writer, and that I worked for the competition (tee-hee). "Ah, because when I saw you, I thought you were either a model or a writer, but not a chef." Darnit, I knew I shoulda brought my "Kiss the cook" apron...

But I digress... the dude left early, and I was left to focus on the class in peace, save for the sighs coming from my seatmate, who was rather disappointed because Delores didn't talk about plating. (Um, the flyers and ads were pretty clear that it was a food styling class...) It was during this time that I figured out where I could quite possibly go from here.

I told Hamil recently that I didn't really see myself becoming an editor-in-chief. I kind of like being second in command, and I thought it was the perfect position for me. And while I love the mag that I'm working for, I couldn't really see myself becoming the boss. But when I went to this food styling class, things kind of came together in my head. With the right training and a couple more years of experience, I think I would love to be the editor-in-chief of a food magazine. If I'm lucky, the market would be ready for another title, and our publisher would decide to introduce one.

So all the steps I've been taking, my career moves and everything, are slowly starting to make sense, and it kinda seems like God's plans for me are being revealed. I used to think that I totally had no direction because of my varied interests, but I'm excited thinking that I could actually bring together things I've learned, things I want to learn, things I can do, and things that I love.

Hey, you never know (something that's fast becoming a favorite line). Really, I don't even know what's in store for me tomorrow (aside from a bunch of photo shoots). But for now, I really am quite pleased with the direction I seem to be headed.