Onesimus was the company I always dreamed of working for. I wanted to apply to that company back when i was a college freshman, studying design. It sounded exotic, rich just like an italian couture brand or something to that effect. So, I had this notion that in-house designers and craftsmen where paid handsomely or something to that extent. These were the designers called for by name to outfit movie stars, politicians, captains of industry, and all those people of the so-called higher social strata.
I've been peeking inside their Makati boutiques since I was a kid. My Dad bought a suit once, i remember. He picked it out of a rack. I gues he didn't have the time or money to have one taylored for him.
No matter what, I just had to be a part of it. Landing a job designing or crafting bespoke products for men and women was Just as I had always hoped for. I promied myself that if i got it, i'd be in it for the long haul. It wasn't just the money I was looking for, I wanted to look, act, talk and dress like those well established designers.
After years, of hesitation, Even more scared than before, I finally inquired if there was an opening for design assistant. Armed with a toothless resume and some old pictures of my works, I came for the interview. Lined up with me were male models. They were tall. These people were the type who didnt need resumes to earn a paycheck. I hated them. Then there were my fellow design professionals. We talked about our recent projects and works, then when I asked about where they got their degree, one said singapore design institute and the other guy next to him said UST. I hated them the most.
We took an exam. It was under time pressure so i hunkered down and attacked each question haphazardly. Honestly, I think I made a mess of that exam.
"Screw the exam results. " I said to myself. I know im good and I feel I can do a better job than them. The interview went well, I think I passed that without any major blunder. I left the building with a heavy feeling in my heart. I kept looking at my folio, thinking to myself if I could outdo those other men.
Please Lord, let me get it. I wanted a corporate job so bad, I would do anything to get it.
I called a few weeks later, praying for a positive result. They told me the position has been filled.
Im nearing thirty. It shouln't be like this. It shouldn't.
"Design Professonal have a shelf-life."
-Parsons
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Haile Gebrselassie King!
Haile Gebrselassie (Ge'ez: ኃይሌ ገብረ ሥላሴ, haylē gebre silassē; born April 18, 1973) is an Ethiopian long distance track and road running athlete. Gebrselassie has achieved major competition wins at distances between 1500 metres and the marathon, moving from outdoor, indoor and cross country running to road running in the latter part of his career. He has broken 26 world records and won numerous Olympic and World Championship titles, and is widely considered one of the greatest distance runners in history.
In September 2008, at the age of 35, he won the Berlin Marathon with a world record time of 2:03:59, breaking his own world record by 27 seconds. This is the first sub-2:04 time recorded for this event.
Gebrselassie was born as one of ten children in Asella, Arsi Province, Ethiopia. As a child growing up on a farm he used to run ten kilometres to school every morning, and the same back every evening. This led to a distinctive running posture, with his left arm crooked as if still holding his schoolbooks.[7]
Gebrselassie gained international recognition in 1992 when he won the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre races at the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul,[8] and a silver medal in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships.
The next year, in 1993, Gebrselassie won the first of what would eventually be four consecutive world championships titles in the men's 10,000 metres at the 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999 World Championships. At the 1993 World Championships, he also ran in the 5,000-metre race to finish a close second behind Ismael Kirui of Kenya. In 1994 he won a bronze medal at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Later that year he set his first world record by running a 12:56.96 in the 5,000-metres, breaking Saïd Aouita's record by two seconds.
In 1995, Gebrselassie ran the 10,000-metres in 26:43.53 in Hengelo, Netherlands lowering the world record by a full nine seconds. That same summer, in Zürich, Switzerland, Gebrselassie ran the 5000 metres in 12:44.39, ripping an astonishing 10.91 seconds off the world record 12:55.30 (established by Kenya's Moses Kiptanui earlier in the year). This world record at the Weltklasse meet in Zürich was voted "Performance of the Year" for 1995 by Track & Field News magazine. At the same Weltklasse meet in Zürich in 1996, an exhausted Gebrselassie, suffering from blisters obtained on the hard track in Atlanta (where he had won the Olympic 10,000 metres gold), had no answer to the 58-second lap of Daniel Komen with five laps to go as Komen went on to win and just miss Gebrselassie's record, finishing in 12:45.09. In 1997, Gebrselassie turned the tables on Komen at the same meet. Coming off his third 10K world championship gold medal, Gebrselassie beat Komen in another Zürich classic on August 13, 1997, covering the final 200 metres in 26.8 seconds to break his 5,000 metres world record with a time of 12:41.86. Komen, in turn, took Gebrselassie's record only nine days later when Komen ran a 12:39.74 performance in Belgium.
Gebrselassie gained international recognition in 1992 when he won the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre races at the 1992 Junior World Championships in Seoul,[8] and a silver medal in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships.
The next year, in 1993, Gebrselassie won the first of what would eventually be four consecutive world championships titles in the men's 10,000 metres at the 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999 World Championships. At the 1993 World Championships, he also ran in the 5,000-metre race to finish a close second behind Ismael Kirui of Kenya. In 1994 he won a bronze medal at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Later that year he set his first world record by running a 12:56.96 in the 5,000-metres, breaking Saïd Aouita's record by two seconds.
In 1995, Gebrselassie ran the 10,000-metres in 26:43.53 in Hengelo, Netherlands lowering the world record by a full nine seconds. That same summer, in Zürich, Switzerland, Gebrselassie ran the 5000 metres in 12:44.39, ripping an astonishing 10.91 seconds off the world record 12:55.30 (established by Kenya's Moses Kiptanui earlier in the year). This world record at the Weltklasse meet in Zürich was voted "Performance of the Year" for 1995 by Track & Field News magazine. At the same Weltklasse meet in Zürich in 1996, an exhausted Gebrselassie, suffering from blisters obtained on the hard track in Atlanta (where he had won the Olympic 10,000 metres gold), had no answer to the 58-second lap of Daniel Komen with five laps to go as Komen went on to win and just miss Gebrselassie's record, finishing in 12:45.09. In 1997, Gebrselassie turned the tables on Komen at the same meet. Coming off his third 10K world championship gold medal, Gebrselassie beat Komen in another Zürich classic on August 13, 1997, covering the final 200 metres in 26.8 seconds to break his 5,000 metres world record with a time of 12:41.86. Komen, in turn, took Gebrselassie's record only nine days later when Komen ran a 12:39.74 performance in Belgium.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The Track and Field Oval
This is my favorite picture of my home track oval . What a wonderful backdrop of the Ortigas skyline behind the grandstand. With the lights on, its a real visual treat.
You can feel the night breeze cooling you down quickly, making you do faster laps. I did my first race here as a kid. thats why its special.
Running here is nothing short of a zen-like experience to me.
My Firm Resolve To Run
Running as a Youth
I loved running. In gradeschool and highscool, I ran for the La Salle green archers boys track and field team. My coach put me up to be the team's middle distance runner and soonafter, assigned me as team captain. I used to run competitively when i was very young, and i loved every moment of it. In college, i applied for men's track and field varsity as mode of entry to state university. It was state U or nothing. I was rejected. My heart sank. It was a dificult pill to swollow but as soon as i gained entry through art school, I came running back to the team that rejected me, pleading that i was made of stronger stuff. In fact I was. I ran like the wind against my oponents, wearing proudly the green and violet stripes of my team. Those were the days of my eventful youth. I cannot stress how important these experiences were during my formative years.
Roots
The other day, I came back to my roots. I ran on a tartan surface again. The rubber-based red surface of an olympic track and field oval for the first time in seven years. All of a sudden, it all came rushing back to me back to me. It felt really good, doing a slow jog around four hundred meter- long lanes- the way i used to do countless times in my youth.
I remember the scent of the grass, the bright red color of the tartan and the coushioning feel it had under my feet. The shouts of people scattered around the field, the changing color of the sky, while the sun dipped down to rest late in the day, I took it all in like an over-eager kid on a new playground. My senses heightened and at the same time, my bodily systems went haywire, trying to cope on the stresses i was putting them through. Like said, i 'used' to run a lot but somehow, after more pressing activities were adding up with age, I sort of left the precious sport by the wayside.
There are some things, after taking time to develop, become engrained in you. Like riding a bike, or doing a repetitive skill. I agree with that but with running, My body and mind completely forgot. My sedentary lifestyle was regretable, inflicitng harm to my once chiseled muscles and metronome heart. Technique and mind focusing, skills once so important to me, i completely forgot.
Where I Began to Dream
I heard that in an average lifetime, one travels on foot, a distance equivalent to halfway around the world and to me this seems closer to truth than fiction. I have treaded hundreds- no thousands of miles of Manila roads in my short lifespan, and there seems no end to my travels. On any path, any direction, any surface my life leads me, ill go. running, walking or crawling.
The other day, I felt i was treading on familiar ground. This was home for me and it felt great setting foot back home after a long absence
Ortigas PSC Track Oval had become such a part of me.
I came back to the place i literally grew up in. Back to were I dreamt of winning a simple foot race against my pears. Back to were i trained day and night to succeed. And here, firmly resolve to dream more loftier dreams. This is were it will all start.
I loved running. In gradeschool and highscool, I ran for the La Salle green archers boys track and field team. My coach put me up to be the team's middle distance runner and soonafter, assigned me as team captain. I used to run competitively when i was very young, and i loved every moment of it. In college, i applied for men's track and field varsity as mode of entry to state university. It was state U or nothing. I was rejected. My heart sank. It was a dificult pill to swollow but as soon as i gained entry through art school, I came running back to the team that rejected me, pleading that i was made of stronger stuff. In fact I was. I ran like the wind against my oponents, wearing proudly the green and violet stripes of my team. Those were the days of my eventful youth. I cannot stress how important these experiences were during my formative years.
Roots
The other day, I came back to my roots. I ran on a tartan surface again. The rubber-based red surface of an olympic track and field oval for the first time in seven years. All of a sudden, it all came rushing back to me back to me. It felt really good, doing a slow jog around four hundred meter- long lanes- the way i used to do countless times in my youth.
I remember the scent of the grass, the bright red color of the tartan and the coushioning feel it had under my feet. The shouts of people scattered around the field, the changing color of the sky, while the sun dipped down to rest late in the day, I took it all in like an over-eager kid on a new playground. My senses heightened and at the same time, my bodily systems went haywire, trying to cope on the stresses i was putting them through. Like said, i 'used' to run a lot but somehow, after more pressing activities were adding up with age, I sort of left the precious sport by the wayside.
There are some things, after taking time to develop, become engrained in you. Like riding a bike, or doing a repetitive skill. I agree with that but with running, My body and mind completely forgot. My sedentary lifestyle was regretable, inflicitng harm to my once chiseled muscles and metronome heart. Technique and mind focusing, skills once so important to me, i completely forgot.
Where I Began to Dream
I heard that in an average lifetime, one travels on foot, a distance equivalent to halfway around the world and to me this seems closer to truth than fiction. I have treaded hundreds- no thousands of miles of Manila roads in my short lifespan, and there seems no end to my travels. On any path, any direction, any surface my life leads me, ill go. running, walking or crawling.
The other day, I felt i was treading on familiar ground. This was home for me and it felt great setting foot back home after a long absence
Ortigas PSC Track Oval had become such a part of me.
I came back to the place i literally grew up in. Back to were I dreamt of winning a simple foot race against my pears. Back to were i trained day and night to succeed. And here, firmly resolve to dream more loftier dreams. This is were it will all start.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
