Time flies so fast it is my 10th year in Dubai!!!

Though it’s been 10 years my excitement and nervous feelings are something I would never ever forget.

It was June 2008 when my feet first landed in Dubai.

Same with any other opportunity seeker I was positive and looking forward to a brighter future.

Before I came to Dubai, I always see myself as an eager, brave and tough lady in many ways. Thinking that I can manage everything in my life, I was so independent.

Things have changed when I encountered the toughest year of my life. It is when I let my broken hearts affect my decisions in career and business.

I even make myself believe that I am still on right track but sadly I started to lose my focus. Even the company that I am trying to build flopped.

A failed relationship was totally heartbreaking plus seeing your dream started to crash is totally a torture. My failed business tests my strength and pressure capacity.

I was so depressed and unmotivated. Starting over again is totally hard, I don’t know how to start at all.

Thankfully my parents are so supportive, loving and understanding. They are always there to guide me and despite my failure, they are still cheering for me. Though you will not hear dramatic and heavy dialogue from them their simple words of comfort truly hit my heart. I can feel that I have someone to turn to when things messed up.

Hey, girl keep it easy your just 23 you can do it! The words that my father always told me.

Yes despite my young age I was so devoted to building myself. Remembering that era of my life shows how much I want to prove myself and to stand alone. I was pressured to become somebody I am eager to be a successful and ideal career-minded young lady.

Sounds good but it was not.

Expecting too much on myself gave me a heartbreak, I always blame my self in every trial I was facing.  I would say that I started to lose my self-confidence.

Sadly I let other people expectation dictates in my life what is the basis of being a successful one. The pressures caused me pain and disappointments. It seems I wasted some part of my younger years comparing my self to others successes.

Then one day I realize yeah they are right I am still young to correct everything. If my goal is a bit hard to achieve in my own land why not try it somewhere else. And here you go the opportunity in Dubai knocks. I was excited as I know I will have a bigger chance there.

I am really thankful for my dearest high school best bud. She helps me to have a chance for a job interview with her manager.

The job offer is totally a big blessing for me, it gave me hope and regain a bit my self-confidence.

However, my growth in Dubai is not as fast as I am expecting.  I was wrong to think that life in here is easier and achieving my dreams would happen in a snap. Contrary to what I imagine life here is more competitive than in Manila.

From my 10 years of working in Dubai I realized that;

• Life is hard no matter where I am, everyone in the whole world has their own struggles. So it is up to me/us how to handle life.
• Never ever compare yourself to others, each one of us has our own unique abilities. Just keep exploring yourself to know your strength & weakness.
• My chosen group of friends has a big factor on how I will see life. If I want to be happy I should be with positive, good and happy people.
• Each people has their own definition of success so let’s not affect ourselves on how they define it.
• At work, I should know when to detach my self. Similar to work contract which has an expiration life in there is not permanent.
• I should know my limitations and accept that not all my plans and wants would happen. But one thing is for sure there is a good reason behind it.
• No matter what I achieve in life I should always stay my feet on the ground. We never know what will happen tomorrow.
• Those people who love to take advantage of the goodness of others never succeed in their lives.
• Life should not always evolve at work, it is true that balance in everything is the key to happiness. Give time for yourself to breath and enjoy life once in a while.
• We have always an option on how to achieve our goals in life. Either to do it in a fair way or a sneaky cheating way seems easy decision but actually hard sometimes.

I am thankful with what I achieved and become in Dubai. This place serves my second home for quite long and became an instrument for me to know myself better.

My working experience here tests my personality and life stand. I always thought that I am a type of person who values most of her career more than anything else. But I am wrong. I was surprised to know that my passion, pride, humanity, and dignity are more important to me.

In this place that most of the people are willing to do anything to reach their dreams. I learned to put my trust not in myself but to God.

This is the best decision I made in my entire working years. It helps me realize what is more important. It serves as an alarm in my mind to do my best in choosing working hard fairly despite any situations.

Thank you Dubai for my wonderful 10 years of experience and memories.

 

Share This: