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plenprettyinpink
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Name: Pauline
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Gender: Female
Interests: serving my Lord and worshipping Him, teaching preschoolers, singing, reading, shopping, hanging out, dancing, writing poems and short stories, surfing the Net
Expertise: fiction writing...media, music and performing arts...shopping:)...partying:)...romance and reminiscing:)...being a full-blooded Pinay
Occupation: Journalist
Industry: Media
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  sugaryspicyplen
Yahoo:  sunflower_plen
Member Since:
1/9/2004
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| I'm back on Xanga, and this time, as someone who's officially and legitimately off the market. So what's it been like, you may ask.
I know that many of my closest friends and family are wondering how married life has REALLY been (other than "different," "great" and "fun", which are the answers I most often give) for me. This is my attempt at an answer.
Well, by listing those adjectives I am actually giving a pretty accurate version of the truth. Married life is definitely different in that I can no longer live selfishly; in every choice and decision I make, I need to think of this other person and how it will impact him and our life together. I can no longer truly keep secrets or create a distinctly defined personal space (especially since we share a bed and a closet now). I can't even get up to go to the bathroom anymore without letting him know indirectly because moving off the bed and turning on the bathroom light wakes him up. Lol.
But all that, at the same time, is FUN and GREAT because I never have to do anything alone anymore. The most mundane everyday tasks from making the bed to driving to the store to having dinner have become more enjoyable because I have someone to share them with. I have someone to talk to, pray with and joke around with 24/7. Waking up to him and going to sleep in his arms are my favorite parts of the day. I have a best friend that I share everything with (even a closet), and I get to live with him! It's pretty amazing, this whole concept of sharing a life with someone. I truly feel that one of God's greatest ideas was creating man and woman with a need for each other's love and company and then giving them the (limited) ability to fulfill those needs.
Of course, as with every aspect of life, marriage has its reality checks. One thing it is not is a bed of roses. I learned this shortly after we came back from our honeymoon in Hawaii. Maybe the wedding, maybe the honeymoon, but definitely not life afterwards. A shared life means shared worries, shared debts, shared expenses (I think those are the ones I hate the most). The bad news about marriage is that whatever negative things - baggage, payables, flaws, (even, in my case, a closet full of junk) - the other person takes with him, you will also have to deal with, whether you like it or not. His life is your life now - regrets, mistakes, weaknesses and all. The good news is that the gravity of each problem is diminished and divided by two, because now you have two pairs of shoulders carrying the burden and two minds coming up with solutions. The bad news is that you cannot solve it all on your own, even with combined efforts, but the good news is that with God at the center of your marriage, it will all turn out all right in the end.
And then there's the whole process of learning to get to know, adjust to and eventually love the other person's family. Yes, the in-laws. Let me just say that no matter how kind, warm and loving your in-laws may be (and mine are truly wonderful people, actually), they are still not the family you grew up with, and there is always this awkward phase when you need to learn how to best get along with them and fit into their family...which has now become your family as well. In many cases (mine included), it is not an overnight occurrence in which they become your best friends in the whole wide world. It is a process and it takes a lot of caution and wisdom on your part to be able to adjust well. I, for one, am still in the beginning stages of adjustment, having just spent my first holidays with them. So far, so good.
I could go on and write a novel on my life as a newlywed, but this should be it for now. After all, I still have months, years, decades of learning ahead of me. Suffice to say that I am truly happy and I know for certain that God has brought me the best husband I could possibly ask for. | | |
| Have I really become more American than others like me who live here but really grew up in the Philippines?
A lot of the time I feel that I already prefer Filipino-American culture than just Filipino culture. Being around Filipinos at work everyday, Tagalog-speaking, TFC-watching Filipinos, has just confirmed that.
Have I turned into the stereotypical expat who forgets about their mother culture? The kind I was so quick to judge as a college student in the Philippines? | | |
| For once in my life, after all the doors to a career in journalism have been closed in my face, by a Power greater than the economy or any earthly circumstance, I am considering that maybe, just maybe, I am not destined to be a career woman.
Maybe I am called to a life of full-time ministry.
It has been made clear that God is calling me to work for His Kingdom.
It has also been made clear that, after months of futile searching for a job that's best suited to my talent, education and experience, that there are no open doors for me there.
But oh, what a humbling experience to consider that what I have pictured myself doing and being all my life may not be part of God's big picture. Because in the end, that's all that matters.
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| From Alex's Formspring:
What do you like the most about your girlfriend? Hate the most?
"I like everything about Pauline! I cant really pin point one specific thing because each day she says things to me that I love to hear and every time we get the chance to see each other she does something wonderful. Each time with her gets better and better, building on top of all the things i like about her. SHE IS A WONDERFUL GIFT FROM GOD! =0D
NOW about the thing i hate the most....hmmmmm....to be honest with you I can't really find anything I "hate." She does everything right. I'm a pretty patient guy, but if there was something that I hated I would discuss it with her and talk things out =0)"
<3 | | |
| I am honestly sad to see 2009 end, since it was, without a doubt, MY year.
It was a year of dreams fulfilled and picture-perfect memories.
God was just so abundantly good and faithful, that I don't recall a single moment in the year when I truly felt deficient in anything, depressed or lonely. He has provided and comforted soooo, soooo much, that for most of the year, I found myself not having anything more to ask for.
Here's some evidence:
- I finally got to go on a cruise to another country, something I've been wanting to do for the longest time (Mexico, January 09)
- I finally graduated from college, and even finished with honors.
- I wrote some of best journalistic pieces, landed an editorial position on the school paper and won a couple of awards for my work.
- I got to do everything in my last semester of college: campus ministry, church stuff, travel, community service, roommate bonding, Vegas spring break, PCN, etc.
- One word: Alex. We finally became official! Then followed a slew of beautiful memories together.
- I moved back home, and although at first I thought that wasn't a good thing, it was actually a huge blessing that I got to spend so much time with family and bond with my home church and my bestest friends from LA. And so many good times followed after that.
- I was able to get an office job a little over a month after graduation, and though I admit it's not a real career-starter, it's getting me by for now.
Recession? I noticed, but only because I haven't been able to land a job related to my degree.
In everything else, God has provided in abundance. I thank Him and praise Him for that, as well as all of you dear friends and family who helped make this year the best one ever!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! | | |
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