Full disclosure: I'm really glad I have friends to fangirl with. It's only this year 2021 that I became an ARMY (BTS Fan). Last year I was sort of in denial, because I've never really been into Kpop. 

Another disclosure: It's also this year that my friends got on board. These are not just watching-their-vids, listening-to-BTS-on-spotify, kind of fan. These are paying ARMYs, those who buy BTS fan membership, legitimate BTS merchandise, watches paid content, and most importantly, a Tita one at that! Hahahaha! 

Sharing BTS memes and BTS fan pages are part of our love language. We were supposed to go on backyard camping, inspired by BTS In The Soop series (again, a paid content) and gush over BTS the whole day together, but Ms. Delta Corona delayed our plans. So while we wait til everything is okay, we have this BTS Tita in Zoom for the meantime.

I never thought my first podcast guesting would be in my own podcast. It was Eisen and Aya's idea and on the day of the recording we had a surprise guest Yeye.  I overshared bits of me in my crazy twenties, my realizations now, what I learned and came to peaceful terms with, and my thing about birthday blues. I guess it's a good idea to time capsule that season of my life. Before, I used to just read what I have been like through my blogs, now I get to hear myself in other seasons too. 

I'm back after a few weeks hiatus. It got a bit overwhelming at some point and I went on and concentrated on my other "lives". I intentionally wanted scheduled the return on Thanksgiving Day, but instead of the actual day publishing, I just lived the whole day being grateful. So how have you been?

Before I close this podcast sessions for a season break, I saved this spot for a topic close to my heart. 

I've known Mini Malabanan as this pretty, smart, and funny lady that I've known since childhood. She's well-educated, well-travelled, has a loving family, great friends, and a thriving business. So how can a fully functioning individual, have a mental health concern when the environment seems everything was in her favor?

In this episode, Mini shared how she came to decide to seek professional help and how she was finally set free. Thank you Mini for trusting me with your story and for not being afraid to speak up and advocate for mental health. It's about time that we have this kind of conversation in our society. 

P.S. I know it's not easy to recognize if we need help, but just in case you want to try taking the first step, help is available online and for free. Check out https://www.mhfirstresponse.org/. This is not sponsored but something that I have tried out myself. 

My friends Eisen and Aya are back and this time we reminisced our mean/bad/naughty/dark days from grade school to the real world. While my stories are more of Karen Smiths to Regina George (of Mean Girls), until I became intentionally mean at some point in my adulthood, here we discussed our turns of being mean and how we’ve come to some realizations at some point and why is it important to acknowledge and manage our dark sides.

Two years ago, Paully and I would meet over dinner and coffee on a Friday night. This time we spend our Friday night, straight from our working hours, on a virtual catch up. This episode, we reminisced how it was like when we catch up after work, talking about frustrations after a long day, and simple practical tips how to deal with it. 

Joining me in this episode is my long-time friend, Cecile Devaux-Villamar, who is one of those economically resilient people that I know. We’ve been friends for so long but it is only in this episode that I learned when her business streak started. She shared why she doesn’t want to be employee, her lessons learned as a business owner, with a little life crash course in between.

Thank you Cile for granting my advance birthday gift: agreeing to be in this podcast! 

I only read it in instagram captions: Quit your job, pack your bags, leave the city. Then you would see those words printed on top of the backdrop photo of a relaxing island, enticing corporate workers tied to their desk jobs, nudging them to look towards the calendar and plan their next vacation. The whole idea was a seductive narrative for me that I doubted if anyone actually lived it, until I remembered my friend, Rob Garcia.

Rob had it all: condo, car, career and cash, until some life twists had him wanting to leave Manila. Like a true city boy, he was initially planning to move to another city outside the country, when out of nowhere he randomly made a decision to move to an island he's never been to before, finding happiness he never imagined attainable. For better context, listen first to Episode 15. 

Thank you once again for this, Rob, and thanks for co-hosting with me, Charm. 

Reuniting after 17 years, I "met" with my first ever work friends, Rob Garcia and Charm Pangan. In this episode we took a trip down the memory lane as young adults navigating our adult formative years, our first jobs, and where we've been. Charm was an overachiever, straight A student who was in law school when we met, but quit on her third year. Rob was an in demand, client-favorite, hot shot, rockstar trainer in the Business Process Outsourcing industry who gave up his successful city life to move to an island. Years later since we last sat down for a good talk, they shared how their breaking points turned out to be their breakthroughs, and why, after everything, it was so worth it.

Rob and Charm, spending an entire afternoon with you guys felt like a vacation. Thank you so much! 

Such good content if I say so myself. Make sure to listen to episode to 16.

When asked what's the most annoying question a single woman gets asked, my friend Aya Montesur says this question tops her list. This episode covers girl talk about being single, the annoying questions we get asked, why some dating style didn't work for us, our experiences in trying online dating just to get it over with, and coming to our own terms and enjoying independence.