BEFORE I BECAME AN ENGINEER, I WAS JUST A VENDOR

People say that I succeed because I had an easy college life focused on my studies. Well, they don’t know how rough it was. They don’t know that before I became a licensed engineer, I was once a vendor selling street foods such as fishball and tempura.

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I started to become a street vendor when I was grade 6. My products were hamburgers, waffles, and banana-cues made by my mom and sago’t gulaman and sometimes just simple juices that were made by me.

The small business continued until I was asked to sell fishballs and the like when I stopped my senior high school days. They gave me that responsibility when I chose to drop out of school because of the failed grade I got in Mathematics that was caused by computer addiction. Remember Counter Strike? the rise of Friendster? Hahaha.

Apparently, I continued my senior year and went to college for another 5 years. However, I was still often asked to take care of the business every after I came home. Despite of the busyness and the struggles in school, I thanked God that I still had strength those days to help my family business.

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I want to share to you what products we were selling during those times.

• Fishball
• Tempura
• Squid balls
• Squid Rolls
• Hamburger
• Waffles
• Banana-cue
• Kolo-cue (What’s the English of this? Alemon? Hahaha)
• Sago’t Gulaman
• Halo-halo

Mind you, that was not an easy business. Many times, we came to the point of bankruptcy, lol, due to overburdened needed provisions, bills, and even due to the weather. “If it rains, it pours?” you said? No! If it rains it makes us poor. Hahaha.

By the way, have I mentioned I was also a working student during college? Yes, I was. Yet those challenges I experienced made me more focused on pursuing my dreams. Those motivated me to excel in studies which I did. Those encouraged me to be competitive in terms of quiz competitions and even brought honor to my alma mater.

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The first quiz bowl success.

The last quiz bowl I participated.

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Then came May 2014 when I managed to be an officially registered civil engineer and got the 2nd rank of that board exam. Praise God! After then, I became a full-time civil engineer instructor and had some sidelines like selling books and a part-time job as an associate of a very stable company based in United States. Also, I want to thank Sheila Unabia who invited me to join this platform. That first 24.827 SBD I got from my first post was really big for just having it in 7 days. Hahaha.

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We still have some of those businesses, though. It seems like mama doesn’t want to stop it. She keeps on saying that if she’ll stop, then our neighbors will copy our business. Hahaha.

This time, my brother and even my 11-year old sister, the youngest are helping our parents in taking care of the small business.

I am not saying I am already 100% successful though, but comparing the life we had to our life to date? I could say that this is better and I glorify God because of this.

Challenges in life are normal. Just don’t be discouraged to the state of life you are in now. Like what I’ve heard from a successful man who talked in an event I attended, “No struggles, no success”. What matters most is that we persisted and did not stop despite of the waves and storms of challenges we encountered in this rough life.

I know I’m not the only one who also had a rough life. Maybe some had even worse. Is that you? Would you share to us as well how you managed to overcome the trials you had in your life? I would love to hear it.