Well, hello there.
It’s been a while since I wrote here, for a number of unavoidable reasons – preparing for and making that life-changing decision, retirement.
It seems only a day ago when I was submitting my application letter for a job with my first employer, the Department of Science and Technology in Legazpi City. I remember pretty well what I said there – I wanted to know the dynamics of working in the government. My parents both were working in the government as far back as I can remember. It was an extension of my respect for what they do that I chose to do it too.
Cut to the present. The curtain is closing. After 21 years, I can fairly say that I learned. And I am thankful for the opportunity.
I learned a lot. I was lucky too that I got to work with co-workers and under the wings of agency heads who made it a point that I understood there was so much to aim for. I did not see it then, but making the move to work in the Agricultural Training Institute was a gift. It was here that I grew substantially as a person and as a worker. It was here too that I learned to love agriculture, which was my mother’s field too.
It feels right that as my mother, in her retirement years, undergo medical treatment – trusting and thanking God for life day by day – I am leaving the Department of Agriculture and ATI for a chance to find another work elsewhere, and I am hoping that wherever it is, I will continue to learn and grow and pursue happiness.
I am hoping for a lot of things – for myself, for my family, for friends and co-workers. Let me not forget please that I should pray too for our workers in agriculture whose plight I learned to hold in awe: our tireless farmers, our valued extension workers, our under-appreciated toilers.
May the Good Lord be with us all as we each go our own way, but looking towards the same goal: a world that values and supports human life.
And I hope many of us will continue to look towards ecologically balanced agriculture for what it is – the most basic, indispensable life-support system.