The Millennial Writer

I’ve been working since I graduated college in 2011, so to date, I have been an employee for about six years already. With me is a college degree and a post-graduate degree earned five years after, making me an employee earning fairly enough to support myself and the family back home. An employee who’s still able to relax on weekends, pay for bills, meet with friends, buy her needs and sometimes her wants as well, eat the food she craves for, watch movies she wants to see, and save a portion of her salary. A millennial worker.

Most of the people my age has gone through it, too. Discontent, confusion, quarter-life crisis, and all sorts of causes of unhappiness while pretending to be satisfied with a 9 to 5 job providing an average salary. We’ve all been stuck in a routine of getting immediate rewards of temporary happiness so to get by the feeling of dissatisfaction. I thought I will never get through it. I thought my desire of seeking and achieving for more will be unending provided I chose to live in a city where people need to get the latest gadgets, be at the best places, dine at the most popular restaurants and try anything and everything that’s trending. Until I noticed one of my dearest friends who unconsciously taught me to find contentment in the smallest of things.

One fine Saturday afternoon, I was looking outside the window from our loft style bedroom in GA Tower Mandaluyong, trying to appreciate the view of neighbouring condominiums and commercial buildings, while fifteen floors down EDSA, buses and private vehicles were competing and blowing horns, signalling every wheel to keep moving. I reached for my phone tucked behind my pillow and started browsing the net. My highschool classmate, Anna Lou who was so fond of taking selfies and taking photos of just about anything that lightens her heart, surfaced my newsfeed.

I saw Anna Lou posted about her favorite street food: fishballs and kwek-kwek, snacking on these while watching the sunset at the town’s port. I saw Anna Lou posted photos of her daily activities in a school located in a small municipality in our hometown, where she served as a gradeschool teacher. I saw Anna Lou posted photos of their family dogs Kassie and Kimara. I saw her posted about learning how to cook pancakes and hoping she’d do better in time. She posted about her family, most of the time. She posted about her simple yet sweet dates with her beloved Monch. Among all these updates she kept on sharing, I only saw one thing – it was Anna Lou’s genuine contentment. Her serenity with everything she had in life. And seeing how she enjoyed every little thing, kept me grounded and made me believe how relative happiness is in this world.

Anna Lou taught me that simple joys are real. She taught me that you must train yourself to choose happiness every single day. It has to be done over and over again, every day. It’s not easy, but she showed me that it’s possible. She was a living proof that one doesn’t have to find happiness elsewhere, one doesn’t have to leave and reach the farthest of places – one only has to live life with gratitude and appreciation.

Today marks Anna Lou’s first year of being home in heavens with the Father. I sit in my office chair, staring at my computer screen, teary-eyed while finishing this piece. I reach for my phone from under my desk, browsing the net I would see old photos of Anna Lou posted by her friends. I miss seeing her posts about her favorite street food, her sunset viewing at the port, her daily teaching experience, her every milestone, her sweet posts about her family and her husband, and just about anything that makes her grateful heart happy. I wish I was able to tell Anna Lou how she would always made someone like me – an ungrateful fairly paid employee despite having access to everything she wishes to have –  feel better just by being her thankful and contented self. Thank you Anna Lou.