Last Sunday, January 04, 2009, our family trooped all the way to Sta. Rosa, Laguna to attend the annual Christmas Party we have with our friends from way back. We got to know each other around 9-10 years ago when most of us were young, single and unattached. I was (still is) the youngest among the group and they all treated me like their young sister.
This group consists of Pat, Fred, Owi, Tin-tin, Gina, Stella, Teng and myself. The other people who used to tag along but are now out of touch are Mandy, Hector, Pin and Dave. I still remember when we would go on out of town pilgrimages (we still do actually) and summer outings with our families. Our last get-together was during Pat and Fred's daughter's birthday party. Prior to that, we celebrated Christmas at Owi and Tin-tin's brand new house in Merville.
When before we were mostly single, many of us now are happily married with kids of our own. Pat and Fred already have two kids while Owi and Tin have 1 cute boy who is almost as old as our very own Zoe. Stella and Gina are still both very much single. All of these friends of ours are highly successful in their jobs. They are that successful that I could include their names as reference persons when I do my
Resume Writing.
Anyway, for this year, Pat and Fred hosted the Christmas Party at their newly-furnished home in Ayala Westgrove Heights. Their house is huge! Zoe enjoyed every single minute playing with the other kids. We also enjoyed all the interesting stories of what happened to each one during the past year.
One of the biggest news there is the decision of Pat to resign from her highly prestigious HR job in Ayala Group of Companies in order to be a full-time mother to her two kids, ages 7 and 4. She was fortunate enough to avail of a special retirement package that gave her a huge amount of money that can cover the full payment of their house/lot and their new car plus also buy her enough time to be just at home until she decides what she wants to do next. I think she's very lucky indeed!
Pat has climbed the corporate ladder in the field of HR for the past years. Prior to her resignation, she was a HR Business Partner already. So the moment that news leaked that she has decided to retire, many executive search companies already got in touch with her for possible hiring in some other big company. I am sure she has a very nicely written
Professional Resume that can attract any good company. But she told us that even if many companies are now trying to get her, her priorities for now are her husband and children. So even if she has a fantastic
Professional CV format to submit to her future employer, she prefers to take this time off first to de-stress and concentrate on settling down the kids in their new home and new school environment.
We really enjoyed our little get-together with them. On the way home, inspired by Pat, I told one of our friends, Gina, who hitched with us, to help me find job possibilities in her company. Her office is only in IBM Eastwood which is so near our house. I confided with her that if only I cut back on my travel time to go to work, then maybe I don't need to be so stressed with work that I want give up my career altogether. Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something great will happen to my career this year.
