Starting My Steemit Journey

Hi! Haha. What an awkward way to start here in steemit. Oh well! If being nervous in introducing thy self is a thing consider me a follower. And while we're at it, please bear with my struggle in putting into words the individual I know I am.

Let me start with the basics, my parents bestowed me with the name Orchid Joyce Quindao (Kin-duhw/duw) just in case some of you might get confused in pronouncing it. Yes, I am Asian, Filipino to be exact. On every 12th day of June, where every corner of my archipelagic country celebrates its independence from its previous colonizers, my family and I also celebrate my birthday. I surely can't feel more Filipina than any other day of the year.

Let's excuse my sleepy face, shall we? So before I explain how I finally gave my steemit journey a start, I came from a simple and loving household.

We are eight in the family including my parents, and I am the third child and the second daughter. If you found my first name to be quite unique, maybe not that unique, but you know for a person's name it's quite unique. All of my female siblings and I have " Orchid" in our first name and my two brothers both share "Orland" in theirs. If you're wondering why, well, my father's first name is Orlando and my mom is Jovelyn, so you have the OJ. They decide that all their offsprings must bear the same initials, hence our names.
And for someone who shares the same name with three other people, its fun when a friend of one tries to call us out with " orchid" and four of three of us looks around. Haha.

(my hand disappeared! haha my body parts are all fine, don't worry ^^ )

I do not have a rags-to-riches type of story to tell but maybe perhaps it's because I'm still at the starting point of learning the ropes in the real world.

A quick background story about my family, at the age of seven or eight, my father had to go somewhere far from home to earn a living, whilst my mother is a teacher who took her master's degree during the summer vacations. During the daytime every summer I am left to take watch over my three younger siblings because my older sibling would go out on their own leisure in the neighborhood after making sure the house is clean. I was left with three little fun loving very creative not so tidy angels. Can you feel the struggle of keeping the house clean till my mother gets back? It went on for like a couple of summers like that wherein my oldest brother got addicted to drugs. He had to be sent far south of the country for a rehab under the care of my father's younger sister.

Years passed and not too long from when my brother got back home my older sister was sent to the same part of the country with the same relative who offered to send her to college because my parents could not afford to. A couple of years from then news of her being pregnant came to our house. She was not able to finish college and my brother never had the chance to go to one. For the time that both my older siblings were not at home, I had to be the eldest sibling in the household. My mother struggled to take care of us and so did my father in earning a living for us.

Since my mother was a teacher and she was able to secure her first three offsprings a college support fund, I still had the chance to go to college. My parents strived hard to have me finish college without having to send me away from home. They were pretty much both hopeful that they can finally help an offspring get a degree, and at the same time so scared that I might end up like their eldest or that I'll get pregnant like their first daughter. I felt both the pressure with the expectations and the weight of the fear.

Despite the hurdles and everything that the Almighty God gave me to shape my strength and reach my goal, I did it! I was finally able to give my parents what their hardships deserved to get paid with, a degree.

Now here I am, a soon to be professional preschool teacher. In God's grace, that is.
It's a long story as to why I have a teaching degree, it's a different story, but part of that story is me having a free soul. I feel like I have a wanderer for a soul although I haven't dared to go far places yet because in my needs-over-wants situation. But I am very much eager to start a wanderer's life.

I love photography, although I'm not that good at it. I like being on the road traveling to places, I think I already mentioned that. I love climbing mountains even though I only went through one full day journey from a mountain peak down to chasing the nearest waterfalls a couple mountains away. Hmm, that could what my next blog will be about!

So how did I end up taking a picture of me in my pajamas and a ready for bed face? I love writing too! Reading and writing to be accurate, but I never published any of the things I wrote. I used to win the literary contests I joined when I was in high school so that made me think that maybe I can write decently for people(Now you will be the judge of it ^^ .) A friend then told me about steemit and it had me thinking about indulging it since I did not have the confidence to write for many people, and I'm quite a private person. Then tonight as I laid my back on my bed and stared at my ceiling, I decided to maybe extend my comfort zone.

I look forward to growing up and meeting great people in here. May steemit be always in my favor! ^^