Gains and Pains in this Year of Rains

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Describing 2025 for me in one word is easy: rain.

Image generated by AI.

It was as if climate change has shown its full force this year. November was still rainy, the most of December's first half, too, and I hated it!

Attitude towards rains is highly subjective. While I do want some rains to break the heat, this year's rainfall was particularly excessive. In fact, just for the third quarter, the Philippines had fourteen tropical cyclones (that's averaging more than one cyclone per week!), with some of them crossing the islands, wreaking havoc to communities and exposing the outright neglect and massive corruption in the country. Not going political here but that is the truth.

My personal take? Sadly, it's more on the negative. As you read through everything, you can see why.

Friendly reminder: this is going to be a long read, and I can't guarantee if this post would make you feel inspired or amused. However, if you made it to the end, I can't thank you enough for hearing me out! 

MC. MC is for Motorcycle.

Back when I was still teaching, I thought, since my school is in Manila, my residence has always been in Manila, I will remain here. It never crossed my mind to dream of having my own transportation service back then. I can do with just commuting since my world at the time would always revolve around my city.

2022 when I decided to abandon my teaching career and looked for better opportunities, and this opportunity was not in Manila unfortunately. I found it in Ortigas, where I landed my first non-academic job in the BPO industry. That quick, my world expanded to more than ten kilometers away from my hometown. Commuting to work became a reality, and through weeks and months of acting like a warrior through this commute, it became apparent that buying myself a motorcycle is a more practical choice.

My tiny "world" in violet dash during my stint as a teacher. Then it got expanded to the zone inside the brownish long dashes when I started to work in Ortigas. Currently (inside heavy red shape) it is significantly larger because of my job in Makati and my girlfriend's hometown, Angono.

No brainer fact: Manila has a bad reputation in vehicular traffic. Commuters take the first hit when things do not go very well: accidents, unavailability of train or jeepney services, long queues and long waits even when you are already in a bus or jeep. Whatever plans you may have for the day can be easily ruined by encountering just one of those reasons stated. In the days of me taking a new breed of public transport, the motorcycle taxi service, I realized I can skip all those inconveniences, bad weather excluded.

Early 2023, I started working in Makati, a neighboring city of Manila but ironically commuting is not better, most especially when the Metro South Commuter service of Philippine National Railways got indefinitely suspended to make way for a more ambitious railway project. From just one direct train ride, I now have to take two to three rides to-and-fro.

Mounting frustrations towards the hellish commute pushed me to finally pursue motorcycling.

To prepare for my eventual motorcycle rides, I enrolled in a one-off bike class as I have not done biking in ten plus years; this is to relearn balancing as it is a must for motorcycle riders. Then I bought a bicycle and started circling around my place and nearby districts. I used this time to get familiarized with the road signs and one-way routes while saving some money for my first motorcycle.

My plan was working well until a year later when I caused an accident by hitting the back side of a motorcycle, smashing against its plate number and signal lights. I did not resume biking since then.

Fast forward to this year, I attended theoretical driving course as currently mandated by the government and applied for student license afterwards. Through the kindness of my girlfriend Shine's uncle, he taught me my first lessons of motorcycle rides a week prior my actual practical motorcycle driving course. I thought I did good so I got boosted courage and confidence entering the motorcycle training center.

But it was a classic expectation-versus-reality example. I struggled controlling the motorcycle and had serious balancing issues. In addition to my agony was the heavy rain, it was July monsoon season. So picture this, my clothes were soaked with the combination of my sweat and the pouring rain and there I was hardly successful making loops inside a small area, being watched helplessly by the instructor and other peeple around.

I got a certification completing an eight-hour driving course but I knew I am still not roadworthy. I am deeply ashamed of myself. Questions I posed to mind were not kind either...

Why am I so dumb to not even consider motorcycling in the past?

Is it a sin to not prioritize my own needs before, in this case, my need to own a motorcycle?

Had I been just a *little bit* rebellious in my younger years, would I be breezing through motorcycle driving today, just like those moto-taxi riders do?

The moto-taxi riders I talked to, some suggested for me to take the easier path, that is to pay a fixer to illegally process a driving license on my behalf. I cannot do that, I told them, I am already this dumb in motorcycling, why deceive myself in securing a license, I am definitely going to be a risk on the road.

My student license still has a few months of validity. I am eager to go on another practical driving course and plan to seek help from Shine's uncle once more. However, the frequent rains of 2025 and a not-so-friendly workload barred me from doing so. I shall continue this quest even if I need to reapply for a new student license should my current one expires without having it upgraded to non-professional license. Learning how to ride motorcycles is just the first step, I also need to learn driving four-wheels as well, but the four-wheels course can be sidelined for now.

MD. MD stands not for Doctor of Medicine, but for Musical Director.

Okay, I am not an expert in music. Never had music lessons since high school and I don't read music notes. I know deep down that I am not qualified at all.

I am not *that* MD you may have seen on TV or concerts. My skills are not even an inch in comparison.

But somehow, I was given this extraordinary privilege at church as assigning musical directors for each team was part of strengthening the worship group's structure as a whole.

I accepted this role in obedience and to make our team be more cohesive when we take the microphones and instruments in front of the congregation. Cohesive in a sense that we are always on the same page, most especially the band, I have stricter standards for them. I handed out copies of guitar chords arrangements so that we can have the same sound the entire time on stage. Because for me, excellence must be pursued. This service is for the Lord, not for us.

Stricter standards were challenged, of course. And at one time, my terror teacher in me was unleashed by uttering heavy-laden words. Sure I became the bad guy but the incident became a turning point in learning each other's strengths and weaknesses, and in abiding by the standards the leaders and I laid down for the team.

I highly appreciate my team for their trust. I know some of them are already doing worship leads well beyond mine, but they still chose to believe in my capacity. The solidness of our bond literally withstood winds and rains; we still went on to serve while Manila was under Cyclone Wind Signal 3 last November. Through faith, we survived the year. I praise the Lord for having them!

Moving into next year, I feel excited as I continue to exercise this role. I will be pushed to think about what I should improve and contribute. Good pressure.

ME. ME is for Metabolic Enhancement. Wow, big words!

Not kidding, I may have given myself some physical improvements I was longing to achieve for some time now.

Since coming back to the Philippines from China, I became overweight and had turned obese, and never came back to normal. This has been my case for more than a decade now.

Then in 2019, there was one silly challenge on Facebook, that if that post were to gather 3000 comments, the one who posted should start making efforts to lose weight. I shared it to my feed not expecting much but within a couple of hours my students help reach that by spamming my post with repetitive comments XD, so the pressure was on me to do it. I registered for a YMCA membership in Binondo just to have access to their indoor swimming pool and my swimming activities did help bring my weight down. Not that quick but it did translate to weight loss months later, trimming my weight back to overweight levels.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent periods of lock downs along with it came. My dream of finally reducing to a normal weight stalled, it has remained that way, and I even reached the obese category once more.

Then in 2023, after my sister passed away of medical complications, I decided to seek help from a doctor to see if my body is in good shape. I felt obviously heavy and there was some pain around my ankles when I walk. To no surprise, the lab results revealed something bad. I had elevated uric acid, liver enzymes and cholesterol levels. I am diagnosed with hyperuricemia and dyslipidemia. The doctor prescribed medications to help combat those underlying conditions.

That time, I had already been doing casual biking for a few months, so to do even better on the getting-fit program, I began putting attention to my diet: I cut down on carbohydrates and craved for fruits and vegetables. God bless those fruit hawkers in Makati for their supply of papaya and pineapple slices!

As I commute to work, reaching 10,000 steps in a day is not a question. (As there are currently no direct transportation between my place and Ayala, walking is so inevitable.) I am such a "walker" that I can walk for one hour straight without resting, but I felt I need to do more. Therefore, I also started doing some home exercises with the help of an app presenting a thirty-day cycle of doing a mix of crunches, push-ups, planks, lunges among others.

The results were not evident at first. There were times that I stopped the physical training, but I still carried on with walking and the discipline on diet.

Now in 2025, things started to turn for the better. The weight loss had me concerned at first because 2025 is such a rainy year I can't go out to resume biking, and I cannot do home exercises as I immediately attend to my office work after waking up. I thought I was having indications of diabetes, but thank God so far my blood glucose is still within normal limits. I guess this weight loss is already the result of what I have been doing, or maybe the medications helped, I don't know.

Regardless, I am very glad I am now flirting with upper 70-kilograms for my weight, a feat I last achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chart below records my weight starting from five years ago.

The "obese line" and "overweight line" are according to the Asian standards for BMI. For international/US standards, I am currently categorized as just overweight.

The medications? Only the one for anti-cholesterol remains, but I now take the lowest available dosage for statins; the doctor stopped prescribing the anti-gout pills last September. I definitely feel lighter and no more ankle pains for me.

Now that I am in this favorable momentum, there's no going back to my obese era.

MF. MF means My Fault.

One thing that could have made my metabolic enhancement aka weight loss program even more effective is having adequate sleep.

However, 2025 has not been a good year for me in terms of resting and sleeping, primarily due to inconsistent working hours. Apart from my daytime duties, I have to be up very late as I need to communicate instructions or send updates to my colleagues who works Europe or US hours. I need to do this so that they would not wait for another day to work on my projects. This year's work pressure was exceptionally high as I was handed flagship or big-ticket projects with clients based outside of Asia Pacific region.

I thought I got this, but months passed, stress accumulated, and now I am feeling the consequences. I developed poor sleeping habits most especially in the last months of this year. I feel this is not going to be sustainable in the long run.

My social life was also compromised. Regrettably, going out on a date with my girlfriend became limited to just once a month. I failed to see some of my friends to whom I agreed to meet "hopefully within the year." In terms of travel, this year was my least active, save for the pandemic years. In fact, I have only gone to as far as northern Quezon province, that's the furthest; then I went to Tagaytay, to Rizal and the urban jungle that is Metro Manila. I can blame the frequent rains for the lack of travel opportunities but this for me is not a great sign. It is an indication that I did not allow myself to actually relax.

And I only have myself to blame. The work pile, the choice of entertaining work outside my office hours, I allowed them all.

Sorry, self. Mea culpa. I can only hope next year would be better at work and for my resting time. Kyrie Eleison.

TO END. I firmly believe in what I would always hear at MasterChef episodes when amateur cooks mess up in the beginning but managed to pull some miracles off with their food: it is not how you start, it is how you finish.

While I started the year with not-so-much expectations, I had high hopes that the last months of the year would be rewarding, but that period did not turn for any better either. I had serious issues with work-life balance and time management, and as mentioned in the previous section, I developed poor sleeping habits. The rains were not helpful at all. Yeah, the frequent inclement weather gave valid reasons to not go on commuting and to work from home instead, but it also deprived me of any chance to go outside and unwind.

With that finish, 2025 to me was not a banner year.

To recall in my 2024 year-ender, I stated that I shall exercise cautious optimism for this year. In retrospect, I should have been more optimistic. Law of Attraction, as some peeple might say.

Despite disappointments, I can see that the Lord carried me through. He carried my family through. He carried my loved ones through. There were pains but there were also gains.

Life is a wheel. 2025 was down, praying that 2026 is up.

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MINI BLOG PLUG.

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