Hard Work Bears Fruit

This is the first time I joined on a writing prompt of @JonicaBradley . This is my entry for Writing Prompt # 12: Fruits of Labor.

The Introvert ME

I am an introvert person. I grew up being shy, lack of confidence, and has very poor social skills.

I am the type of person that won't talk when you don't ask me. I do not initiate any conversation. In fact, I am avoiding any conversation (specially the long ones) cause I don't really like that.

I do not like to be the center of attraction. So during my childhood days, I do not volunteer in any school events like Linggo ng Wika, Intramurals, School Foundation day unless my teacher volunteers me. And since I don't like to talk too much, I don't want any conversations, whenever my teacher volunteers my name, I just go with the flow, memorize what I am being asked to and do what they wanted me to do on the stage.

Elementary School : always in rank 4

During my elementary days, every recognition day, I am always present. I usually get the rank 4 (since Grade 1 to Grade 6). I don't know what's with number 4 but during my elementary days, it's always been my rank.

I am not the studios type of student actually. I remember during my elementary days, my mother often told me "Diba periodical test nyo na? Bakit hindi ka nag-aaral?"

During my time, we don't have medium of transportation going to school but our own feet only. My school in elementary was about 2 kilometers away from our house.

High-School: Valedictorian

It changed a bit when I started high-school. I learned how to create "pointers for review" when I am First Year High School cause our teachers urged us to prepare a pointers and they will check on it before they sign your exams permit. That's when I learned that I can easily remember or memorize my pointers by writing them down.

It became my habit during my entire high-school days. Every time we have major exams (long exams, preliminary exams or periodical exams), I usually prepare pointers for review which I used as my reviewer. I read my pointers in between the vacant time, before the next subject starts.

And so I made it! I graduated as Valedictorian.

College: Scholar for 4 years

And that's how I get the scholarship when I enrolled to one of the university here in Cavite. Valedictorian and Salutatorians automatically gets the free tuition scholarship (for 4 yrs) as long as they are able to maintain a passing grade. It was a blessing for me and for my parents. My father is just a factory worker (with minimum rate). As a matter of fact, from first year college to third year college, I only got 1 pair of uniform. You heard it right. I experienced the wash and wear thing. Our uniform is a cream blouse paired to a Green slack. I used to wash and wear my blouse but not the pants. And since we don't have a dryer, I have to iron my blouse every morning before I wear it to make it completely dry.

I am able to maintain my 4 yrs scholarship at the university. That means I maintained passing grades for all of my subjects from First Year to Fourth Year. I survived!.

I am a Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering (BS-ECE) graduate.

Unfortunately, I am not able to take licensure exams cause months after I graduated, I started to work.

Career : I.T. Analyst

I became an Associate Software Engineer in Accenture (my first ever employer).

During my first month in the company, I used to wear office attire clothes I bought from UKAY-UKAY cause I cannot afford that time yet to buy a brand new clothes.

And then my first salary came. I remember, my colleagues are very excited to withdraw their first ever salary to buy PSP. It was an opposite of mine, cause I handed over my salary to my mother. I just took few which are enough for my 2 weeks allowance and enough to buy some new clothes.

I've been in Accenture for 5 years. I left that company as Senior Software Engineer.

My second job is in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) located at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Manila. I've been part of TCS for exactly 6 long years.

I've had a very good relationship with our client. There's actually an instance where there's an open Team Lead position on the other team. So I expressed my interest to my Manager for that role. I am a very surprised on how my Line Manager reacts on that. He even make an effort to send me an email to my personal email address (non-work) and offered to have a heart to heart discussion about my desire to leave my current team and move to a different team as a Team Lead. To make the long story short, they did a re-org and appointed me as Manager. I managed three teams.

I am currently employed at a broker company (TP ICAP Philippines).

I'm here for 2 years and 4 months already. I also have a good relationship with my Manager here. He's very appreciative, very considerate and I can say he's a people person.

You might wonder why we I.T. often jump from one company to another despite of our good status in our current work. Of course, primary reason is the "higher salary" offer. It is common in the I.T. world to pirate employees from one company to another. They tried to offer better amount as a convincing factor for an applicant to accept the role.

Due to my stable working status (Thank GOD), me and my husband was able to establish a small business which I also featured in one of my articles: https://read.cash/@Khing14/the-level-up-story-4f815f02.

Believe me, hard work always bear fruits. So just keep on going!. Don't stop!. Step out of the box and explore your surroundings.

Me and my husband are still working hard currently for our family and for our dreams . Slowly, we are able to fulfill our dreams together. We've got a car now, (mortgaged for 4.5 yrs already) that helps our travels more convenient , a house and lot (mortgaged) and a small business though we're just renting the place.

Our long term goal is to retire without worrying about the M O N E Y that's why we tried to establish a small business.

If you're also interested to join in this writing prompt, here are the rules:

• Just write anything about Fruits of Your Labor.

• It must be 100% original content.

• Your article must consist of 600 words so that rusty would notice you.

• Tag @JonicaBradley

• Submit to PromptlyJonica community.