First days of work.

Happiness. That's all I can say right now.

Well, not really. I have much to say.

The nervousness (or downright terror at seriously demented times) which I have felt ever since finding out I was hired by PhilamLife as a Management Associate trainee was completely wiped out by the events of the last three days of "work." I cannot possibly describe everything that transpired in excruciating detail, but let it suffice to say that I had a most wonderful time.

For one, this year's batch of MA's (as they would like to call us) is a WINNING TEAM (as we would like to call ourselves). Grabe, it's like we clicked all at once. Although we come from different schools (5 from Ateneo, 2 from La Salle, and 1 from UP) and different backgrounds, we had a common bond, and that bond seemed to be all that mattered: Lahat kami mabababaw. In our shallowness, we gained our strength. Hee.

It also didn't matter that I was the only guy in the group. True. As one of the other MA's put it, "the only thorn among the roses." Ha. I felt at ease with each and every one of the girls, even if they had contrasting personalities from one another. And it became apparent, through their banters and pang-aalaska, that they were also at ease with me.

The program and the trainers we had were in themselves commendable. As you might have noticed, I placed work in quotation marks. It wasn't work at all. I am quite aware that in the future, this will change, but the past three days-- not work. Not at all. It was more of a team-building seminar or an orientation seminar for us. We underwent different activities, and then we had discussion about things we learned during those activities. Trust, Coordination, Communication, you know the drill. The important thing about these activities though was that no one among our group ever became a killjoy. Everyone was game. Everyone was willing to be involved.

This Monday, fun will be lessened, and the more serious side of things will be heightened. We will be having classes about insurance. Hee. I can't believe I became very nervous about this. As my Papa said, "It's just like school!"

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P.S. I didn't provide much detail about the events of the past few days, so here's a small list of things done and said: malaking balat sa mukha with hair; getting thrown inside a small square; dancing 98 Degrees' "Because of You" ("you're my sunshine, oh yeah"); chicken legs; imperfect teeth; the power of dreaming; fear of falling and failing; drawing our coat-of-arms; getting blindfolded four times in three days; "Maria goes to market"; Lloyd Umali; hamon at keso de bola; Toni Gonzaga; sadness, wonderfulness, happiness; "True"; mole with hair. There are a lot of things which I forgot or missed out on, of course, but with the list above, you get the idea. :)