Stay-at-home Mom
I have been enjoying a quiet domestic routine for over a year now. Time flies so fast. I retired early from my work in the bureaucracy. It was an opportune time to retire and to finally explore life outside the box and being also a mother to my kid. Do you know why? Coz’ I felt guilty of not being able to fully give time to my only child. I get home drained from work. Everyday. My leave credits as well were almost exhausted then. Having only an on-call house-help can lessen your productivity, from being a motherhood and from being a perfectionist office worker. For the past 7 years of my child’s growth, there is not a single month that she would not get sick. If not admitted to a hospital, we just stayed at home, with me as her home health aide, until her medication is done, and she’ll feel better. Her immune system is weak. She gets sick easily especially when brought outside with crowded environment. Her pediatrician said there really are children who are sickly at an early age. My child is one of the unlucky few then. Her absence from school is also my absence from work. I promised myself last year that if my child will get sick again, I should consider leaving my job on that same year.
You might be asking, why me and my child only in the story? Well, my husband comes home only after 9 months or a year-contract is over as he works as a seafarer. He was around when I left my job, and it was a decision with mutual consent. That was it.
Web Novel, Social Media, and House Chores for a year, and Covid-19!
Ever since I become a full-time mother, my child had never been late in school, but, was absent a few times because of sickness again. Unlike before, last school year’s condition was only a bout of her asthma and allergy especially if she could eat something with chocolate in it. Same condition early this year. She was just finishing her medication the week of the 'Covid-19 outbreak' in other parts of the world.
Back home after sending my kid in school, I savored the feeling of a no-work-pressure life. I allowed myself to enjoy a vacation-like feeling, thus, I spent most of my time reading web novel – seeing and traveling the world right before my eyes, likewise asking myself ‘can I write a novel?’, then I come across a comment that anybody can write so long they will start writing what they are thinking, you will develop along the way…oh… alright then…but yay, I am not confident with myself on that aspect. So, going back, I also am a horticulturist in my small backyard, and I even wanted to explore more on cooking, but ended up making only papaya pickle and garlic-chili sauce. Other times, I also delved into the subject of forex trading. Also, searching for the possibility of working from home online. Seeing lots of sponsored ads on social media, I was tempted to join some webinars – investing on mutual funds from one of the banks, becoming an online agent of one of the lending companies here in PH, and ended up enrolling a course on using Wordpress, and Freelancing Course at the Filipino Virtual Assistance Academy. Course resources came at almost the same time, so I have yet to go back listening to that other program of study when I am done with my Freelancing one.
A sudden realization hit me when Covid-19 came and lockdown was applied to mitigate its spread. I asked myself what the future would be when this plague will never cease to exist. With this catastrophe, I have an apprehension of its effect to economy. Before Covid-19 pandemic, I have some house repairs done and some improvements introduced, which include a garden house. The latter was left unfinished because of the lockdown. I then realized also that almost all the remittance received were used up. A lot of what ifs have played on my mind. I get a grasp that I need to earn some myself. It was a pity I don’t have my own money. But, I want to work from home only.
Sponsored ads on becoming a Freelancer or Virtual Assistant.
Online, I found a lot of articles, even subscribed to free trainings on some aspects like Transcription, but the free lessons given I observed were only superficial. You really need to enroll and pay to really get the desired certification needed for the job. I am hesitant to divulge my debit or credit card especially when the value is in USD because we may not know of any hidden charges, so I ended up not enrolling on the transcription course which I so love to take. Until one day, I came across a sponsored ad, a work-from-home mother who is based in Davao City. She is into an affiliate marketing – yay this side I also wanted to explore that I enrolled on becoming one, but no approval yet as of now. Maybe after this freelancing course is through because I subscribed in the same provider. And so, the course she is marketing offered discounted price. I registered. And, here I am now, currently on the 3rd week of Freelancing Course.
Learning the basics of freelancing
This blog, 😊, to say the least, I was forced to do it to comply one of the requirements of the course on its third week which is Online Writing and Marketing. That is to submit a blog or article to be published on the website that we have also created this week. This blog needs to be optimized so I used a lot of keywords here. Hope this humble writing can pass my Coach standard. Thank you, Filipino Virtual Assistance, for the opportunity to learn something new. Thank you FVA Batch of 47 for all the support, the likes, the connects, and the follows, you know what I mean. 😉. Though I wanted an easy way out to finish the requirements because Coach allowed us to just copy and paste from her website and you just have to tweak some words into it to become somewhat a little different from the original, instead I opted on writing this. I wanted to challenge myself and explore the art of writing. Though I am in the administrative world before, but I do most of the proofreading and editing than writing. Though I wrote EOs, Memos and the likes, some were already formatted, and every aspect is with reference to law always. It is easy to write when you have all the references you need. After all, I like pressing on the keypads of my laptop. Practicing writing and honing typing as well. Hitting two birds with one stone.
Hoping for the best!
I checked my Upwork today. Adding one skill into it. I still have no portfolio in my profile. I want to finish first my course before I submit my finished output from FVA. There are already a lot of job posts which I sensed I am capable of doing, but I hold myself first. I wanted to complete all the portfolio’s required in this study, so I can update my profile at once. I wanted to work armed with skill and knowledge.
I just hope and pray that great opportunities will befall on me when I confidently feel ready to face the virtual world. Aja!