What If’s

What if my life took a different turn and I’m not tediously and (not too) patiently toiling to become a licensed physician, what would I probably be doing now? Hmm, let’s see. When I was young (-er), I used to have daydreams of being a…

Iron Chef!

I loove cooking (and eating). If it was offered then, I would’ve easily enrolled in a culinary arts course. If I did, perhaps by now, I would already have my own restuarant or cafe chain. Perhaps I would even think of getting a private placement memorandum service for my expanding business. Of course, I’d be the chef and the manager all at once! There might even be eight iron chefs championing chairman Kaga instead of just seven.

I remember when I first learned how to cook. I was in grade three and was even then already a glutton. My family owned a fastfood outlet at the time and my all time fave dish was (you guessed it!) spaghetti and meatballs. I used to wait expectantly in the kitchen right after getting up out of bed with a big bowl of pasta in my hands, waiting for the meatballs and tomato sauce to be ladeled out. I was always on time in the kitchen (promtly at 7am, would you believe), awakened by the smell of beef and garlic simmering in a sauce pan. One particular morning, I woke up late! I rushed down to the kitchen only to find out in horror and dismay, that the pasta and meatball sauce were already making their way to the fastfood shop. I missed my morning pasta! But did I let that stop me? Oh no. No, I didn’t. Right then and there, I climbed up a stool, opened the pantry and started mincing and dicing ingredients I that I thought were needed to make a decent meatball sauce. So I cooked my first dish, spaghetti and meatballs. Of course it wasn’t all that good (I was just 9 yrs old!). I remember distinctly that I used waay to much ginger. Since then, I have scoured the cookbooks (archaic precursors of the the cooking network) and various recipes on the internets to make those wonderful dishes that have always filled my tummy.

A Commercial Pilot

As with most people, I have always dreamed of getting my pilot’s wings and soaring through the skies- a master of his own fate. Just watching the planes take off with a resounding roar into the great blue heavens always elicited a little stir of excitement in my heart. I was 15 when I found out that to be a pilot, one had to enroll in flying school, and since there were no flying schools in the country (at the time I think), let alone my Zamboanga, I would have to join the Air Force, go through fighter pilot school, spend my time serving my country before applying for a flying position at Philippine Airlines or Cebu Pacific. At the time I thought that it would take an inordinate amount of time before I finally land a stable enough job at the same time fulfill my dream of flying. So I didn’t go through with it. But if I did, who knows, perhaps it’d be me greeting you a cheery “Maligayang pag-dating sa paliparang pandaigdig ng Maynila, ito po ang inyong capitan, Magandang umaga.”

A Holy Father

Believe it or not, I actually thought I wanted to become a priest! Of course, it’s unimaginable now, but then, when I was still naive and innocent (read: having not known the joys of er, companionship), I actually thought of saving the world by offering myself to humanity. Oh heroic me! Toiling earnestly for the love of my people. I even went so far as to join vocation seminars and such. I guess it comes from being in a catholic school all my life. Those dreams soon vanished with time and I just can’t see myself becoming a priest and remaining celibate my whole life. Don’t get me wrong, I admire people who want to serve others by joining the priesthood. I just don’t think it’s for me, that’s all.

Well, those are just some of what may have been. How about you, would you be doing what you’re doing now given different circumstances?

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