Last Friday, my family (meaning Dad, Mom, and sister), and a friend of mine went out to dinner right before watching some dreadful English play[1]. Just as my sister dipped her spoon into the hot pho soup, her face turned red and tears sprang from her eyes. She covered them quickly with both hands and tried to suppress a strong compulsion to cry.
“What’s wrong?” Mom asked.
“Re-shured ja ork,” Sis mumbled.
“Ano daw?” I asked, too. I didn’t quite hear it at all; her words were jumbling with the vermicelli spilling from her mouth and the clear balloon of beef stock blowing out of her nose.
“Pressured na ko.” She was pertaining to her two-month old stint right after college at an advertising agency. I thought she was choking on her soup.
Ahhhh… The first flush of work. The bottomless pit of nerves that knots tightly like coiled snake, hissing and flicking its double-forked tongue on the ends of your medulla oblongata. Interesting how mounds of work piled on top of another, served by an emotionally-impaired boss, can break your limbs at the mere thought of them. To finish everything on the deadlyline (usually Yesterday), you’d think you’d need to grow more tentacles.
My sister, whom we shall hide by the name Lilibeth, fanned her face with her hands, and pulled herself together in a matter of seconds. She was probably embarrassed to have shown such rare display of breaking down, … more so in the presence of a non-family member, … and in a public place. Instantly, Mom, Dad and I began to pour Chicken Soup for the Soul into her bowl, giving her what we thought were the best ways to handle the situation.
Now, I don’t quite remember anything we’ve said to her (I guess she doesn’t either), but I hope I was able to tell her the best advise anybody ever gave to me. It was one I heard from Rina (my most favorite manager of all time), something she said to comfort me when I broke down under sheer pressure months ago.[2] She just said, “Just relax… Take it one day at a time.”
It seemed so simple, and yet … it works! It may not lessen the amount of To Do’s on your list, but taking everything one day at a time, miraculously lifts the mental load off you, making you clearheaded enough to stop and enjoy the flowers. Or pho soup for that matter.
Here’s to you, Lilibeth. May your boss grow horns on the sides of his head if he ever makes you cry again.
[1] Taming of the Shrew, tickets courtesy of the Office. I say dreadful not because of Willie’s writing (Alas, no!) nor the actors’ performance (quite good, actually), but because of the overbearing English accent the Pinoy actors were painstakingly wanting to get right.
[2] I was pressured that day to deliver two humongous tasks -- a revised pagination that morning (or the Creatives would slash my right wrist for me), and the revised pricing the following day (else Estimating would slash my left).
posted by Elyss @ 7:42 PM
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