Embracing the Full Circle

A profile story. Pic by Oak St. Studios

Erika has always been known to others as this reserved person ever since she was a little girl. She was always the one tucked in a corner reading or writing quietly. She's an old soul and the auntie among her group of friends. She's labeled as "ajumma" meaning "middle-aged woman" in Korean because of her demeanor and her love for k-drama shows. Her introverted manner doesn’t reveal she has a playful and restless mind that wants to explore what she can do. Only close friends would know that she’s a jack of all trades and a master of pun. She used to illustrate as quirky doodles about those too. One of her drawings is a panda wearing shades and covered in trippy stripes called “Pandamonium.”

Right now she’s living with her husband in Tokyo while studying to be a doctor of Physical Therapy and part-time teaching English to Japanese kids. She feels that her life has gone full circle after 10 years. In 2009 she Graduated from Physical Therapy and worked in a hospital administering treatments and helping patients through doctors’ recommendations. After a year, she decided she disliked hospital life and wanted to go back to writing. Her program choices back in the University were either study Literature or Physical Therapy. She chose the latter, money over love because relatives warned her there was little pay with creative writing. After, Erika realized that money wasn’t everything and decided to change course and see what was out there. In between graduating and now she has been a: writer for a local pop-culture magazine, social media manager for a reputable ad agency, a copywriter, a film graduate student, and a social media manager again. She decided to go back to studying Physical Therapy, less than two years ago. Transitioning from one role to another is no easy feat.

As her sister, I would often joke that she kept changing her jobs every two years. I asked her why and she said, “Why do I keep changing jobs? I felt that I could do better. I used to work at a hospital. There’s a lot of protocol and red tape. What I learned in school wasn’t being applied and the pay wasn’t good either. I was also kind of jealous of the kind of people my sister hung out with - artists. Hahaha. So I tried to get into advertising. That led me down a rabbit hole of changing jobs for the last 10 years. I became a community manager when the role wasn’t defined yet. I also became a film student just to supplement what I was doing at work to become a better copywriter. I also thought it would be kind of cool to be a student again, studying what I enjoy.”

She admits the reason why she’s studying PT again is that she wants to migrate to the United States. As cliché as it sounds, she’s hopeful for the American Dream. She shares, “When I visited family in the US, I felt that there’s not a lot of opportunity in the Philippines. It’s a lot of factors, economy, politics, etc. But, I’m not afraid to do the work to plant root elsewhere. I also want to specialize in Neuro or a field in PT. After resigning from my advertising job, I went to work at a smaller PT clinic and I liked what I did. My heart didn’t feel heavy getting to work, and I felt what I did actually mattered. I think it started when I put in actual interest in what I was doing and how it changes people’s lives.”

When I asked her about the other skills she acquired such as writing or social media, she says she lost her love for writing when it became work and started to feel like a chore. Writing for her used to be an escape or release of overwhelming mental energy. She says she doesn’t feel the need to write anymore, now that she is in a happy place in her life. I expressed my concern for her talent and Erika says, “Maybe that makes me a terrible writer, needing to be in a dark place to be able to write or maybe I’m less critical of myself that the desire to write is no longer there.” As for social media, which we both aren’t as concerned about, she shares that the skills are still there but digital moves so fast and just accepts that she might be behind.

When discussing her life, we were laughing when we realized the circle became complete. I asked her what she hopes for after this. Would this be another series of changes again? Erika has decided to stay in the Physical Therapy lane and replies, “Now I’m focused on doing well as a physical therapist. I’m trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can because the profession has changed so much in the last ten years. The time I spent in advertising has also helped me to be more mindful of how I talk, how I listen, and how I can relate to people. Language is a huge part of patient care. All the knowledge in the world won’t help your patient if you have a problem communicating and listening to their needs.”

Although her career has taken a couple of turns, she has been able to identify what is valuable about those experiences. This will help her find more meaningful work or make or any work she finds more meaningful.