The Never Delivered Letter of Intention

____ __. _______
Officer-in-Charge
___ - Sultan Kudarat
_______, Sultan Kudarat


Dear Ma'am ____:

I am writing this letter to express my humblest and purest intention not to be renewed as a Business Counselor.

Being a Business Counselor is one of the best upturn that happened to my life. But as time passes by, I realize that I become selfish of only thinking of the benefits I have acquired and will acquire through this experience. I always forget to remember who I was, when all I thought about was serving the people. Now, I only think of reaching the targets and not considering how I affect to the persons I meet everyday.

This experience has changed me a lot, and part of these changes is my continuing self pity and self depreciation. I believe that I am never competent for the career. I am less than what you expect me to be. All this time, I try to push myself to do better but every time I try harder, my heart and my mind resist the changes. My heart tells me that I am misplaced, really misplaced, in this endeavor. This is not me and this will never be me. To put it to perspective, I feel like a fish that is too ambitious to learn how to walk and breathe outside the waters.

After all, I prayed for this. To be honest, I first prayed to be part of DTI. God gave me what I prayed for and maybe this is His way of gradually exposing me to the realities of this world. That we should fit in to what skill and talent He gave us.

I am not deserving for this job. There are better persons who will really fit for this. No matter how hard I try to fix my besmirched esteem, I come to the point of falling more to the abyss of the all consuming void of my depression.

To make it clear, none of the people in our workplace contribute to this dilemma. This decision is powered by my own desire to be free of the standards I put to myself. This is my only opportunity to unleash myself with this burden I created. This is my only chance to start to love myself again.

Please help me bring back myself. Support me, Ma'am, in my decision. Thank you for understanding.


Respectfully yours,


JBA

Insecured

Early this morning, I woke up dull and exhausted. I did not know why I felt that way. Hours later, a sudden thought came to my mind: I am not good enough. I am no good at all.

This is my greatest insecurity. I am not smart. I feel like I’m always left behind by people who are far better than me. I feel alone. I always feel that I am useless. I always reach for the ideals of this society and I always fail. I envy people who succeed in whatever they undertake and I always blame myself for not doing better. I don’t even know how to do better or what’s better.

This insecurity is too much. Why do I always fall?

The Success Story of Elaine's Highland Products

The Humble Beginning

Entrepreneurship has already entered to the senses of Mrs. Roselyn D. Salazar during her early days as she had started buying and selling dry goods with her mother—one of the pioneering entrepreneurs in Masiag, Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat.

In 1996, she undertook financing business for farm inputs with an initial capital of 300,000 from her own equity. This project lasted for twelve years before she engaged herself into mini grocery store in 2008 with an initial capital of P1,000,000. In 2008, she merged the grocery store to her newly opened bakeshop and registered it in the name Elaine’s Bakeshop and General Merchandise.

On April 2016, she started venturing into processing and selling of organic food products with an initial capital of P100,000 that was used to invest for additional cooking equipment and pre-operating expenses such as licenses, packing supplies, and inbound logistics of raw materials. Her supplies of raw materials come from her farm at Masiag, Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat.

Issues and Challenges

She now concentrated on her organic products. On the early stage after the opening of her new venture, she began contracting sari-sari stores around the neighborhood. She planned to enter malls, eateries, and restaurants within Isulan and Tacurong. She also saw the need for expansion after a certain period of processing when she already could not cover some orders as she also aimed more and more sales.

Negosyo Center Intervention

Mrs. Salazar has attended a couple of seminars conducted at the Negosyo Center of Isulan. One of which was the Seminar on Costing and Pricing where she learned how to derive the cost of her products and how to use these costs to formulate a mark up enough to cover all costs and expenses. The other seminar was on Packaging and Labeling where after such, she introduced to the market her new labeled products. After the her labels were presented, she penetrated Isulan Central Plaza, Bidz Inasal, Carlitos’ Chicken, and Fitmart Tacurong.

On November of 2016, she reached out to the Negosyo Center of Isulan to make her products be included in the mounting of trade fairs in Kalimudan Festival. Fortunately, with Negosyo Center of Isulan, in partnership with the Local Government Unit of Isulan, the request was approved and it paved way for her products to be displayed at the said event. She earned more than P90,000 in this trade fair.

Aspirations

Elaine’s Bakeshop and General Merchandise will expand production plant in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat. The proposed location of the plant will be inside the idle space of the owner’s house. Mrs. Roselyn D. Salazar started to participate in the “Kapatid Mentor Me” Program by the Department of Trade and Industry last October 2016 up till December 2016 and this program has helped her formulate business improvement plan with the active assistance of the Business Counselors of Isulan assign for her.

She also plans to change the name of her entity into Elaine’s Highland Products in conformance to her newly introduced organic goods such as peanut derivatives, banana chips, turmeric, salabat, and MorTurCo (Moringa-Turmeric-Coco Sugar).

Rest assured that the Business Counselors of the Negosyo Center of Isulan will monitor her success in the coming periods.

The Biggest Irony

I love my job.

I love serving people.

I love teaching them some business stuff.

I love every time I see the smiles on their faces during and after my discussions.

The thing is... I AM TIRED!

I am tired of all the drama.

I am tired of all the papers.

I am tired of my employment status.

I am tired of the dashboards... the targets.

I am tired of all the places.

I am tired of how they hold my neck.

Too irritating.

Too suffocating.

Too stressing.

I have no idea how long can I adjust to these.

Farewell Letter for Boss

October 03, 2016

Trinidad C. Ponteres

Revenue Officer III

Bureau of Internal Revenue

Koronadal City, South Cotabato

Dear Ma’am Trining:

I am writing this letter to formally notify you, ma’am, that I am resigning from my role as your assistant. Thank you for being a part of my professional and personal growth.

For the past nine months, you have been my boss, supervisor, teacher, friend, and grandmother. You have taught things that I would embrace for the rest of my life. Nine months may not be long enough, but what matters is that I cherish every working moment I had with you.

You disciplined me how to love my job. You demonstrated me how to be patient. You showed me how to be prudent. You enlightened me with your humility. You urged me to dream higher. You prepared me to be a person worthy for a profession.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you for your love and support. Thank you for your unwavering belief. Thank you for your encouragement. ‘Thank you’ is not even enough to express my gratitude for you, but believe me, my simplest ‘thank you’ sums up all my appreciation and gratefulness that once in my life, there is one Ma’am Trining who guided me.

This is not goodbye, not even an end of a beautiful book: this is just the beginning of a new chapter.

You are and will always be my Ma’am Trining. God bless you, Ma’am.

Truly yours,

(signed) Jo

What now?

Now I'm torn between "moving forward" and "fighting harder".  I really do not know what to do or where to go. I do not even know what's the pros and cons between the two.

Lessons I have Learned from my Job… so far.

All I planned was to work while waiting for the board exam, just to have fun for (almost) every day that I waste doing nothing.

Now, it’s complicated.

I am under two offices: one, in my employer [the one who hired me] and two, in my workplace [the one where I am assigned]. In the eyes of my employer, I am just an un-appointed job order employee [not even contractual or casual] and estopped as a utility worker. They assigned me in an office not directly related to them.  However, in the eyes of my boss [the one I’m working for], I am her assistant. Yes, by form, I am a utility worker, but by substance, I am an administrative assistant doing what my boss also does except for one thing, to sign.

I love my job.  I never expected that in my first official job, I’d be doing lots of productive things. Every day, I talk to people [the best part of my job]. Every day, I scrutinize and audit papers. Every day, I learn new overwhelming and fascinating lessons—not only the ones I can use in my upcoming board exam, but also, lessons about life.

It’s also very helpful to know that your workplace likes you, your boss likes you.  My boss makes me feel that I can manage, that I am smart, and that it’s very stressful for her without me. She never fails to share her wisdom every day. I take everything she says and never misses the most important ones.

Here are some reflections I pondered in my job:

1. Substance over form. It’s not the position that matters; it’s the responsibility.

2. Love your job but do not be too attached with your workplace.

3. In your first job, it’s not about the money, it’s about the learning and experience.

4. Labeling of others is not important and should be disregarded. They do not know what you do and who you are.

5. Be humble and elastic.

6. Not everybody will like you and not everybody will bother to know who you are. Just do what you must.

7. Our God is never selfish and will never be. He grants prayers in His time. Just pray with a thankful heart, always.

8. Be proud of your skills. Be proud, not boastful.

9. Achievements never have time frames.

10. Focus on the things that interest you.

11. If you don’t know something, ask. Don’t pretend you know everything.

12. Respect is earned regardless of where you stand in the society.

13. Every person is unique. In public service, stay in the middle.

14. Don’t be ashamed of what you do. You are working, you are a taxpayer, and you are not nobody in your community.

15. Your mind and your heart are your greatest weapons.

I Will... Will She?

I will love her still…

Despite all of her imperfections;

Despite how messed up her life was;

Despite how messed up she was.

But the thing is…

Will she ever let me?