Chronicles of 2023: A Year-End Reflection and Gratitude

How do you write your life in a book? Or at least, how do you write down the year that has happened? Where do I even start? That's one of the things I've been mulling about in recent times, but the answer doesn't come any easier or more straightforward.

Let me start by writing down a year-end summary. I know we have 13 days more before 2024, but 2023, I want to finally at least write about you.

2023

There were so many times this year when I just wanted to sit down and write my reflections and realizations after many things, and most especially positive things, happened.

Firstly, I want to thank Aiza King. I think a lot of months this year (and even the previous years) were so great because you were the bridge that connected me to so many opportunities.

The PGA x GAP Creative Fusion Harmony in Diversity was one of those.

The opportunity to host this event is truly an honor, and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed hosting the event.

I also want to thank Sir Rollan Banez, Ia Del Rosario, and Bob Gust. These people have certainly positively impacted my life through their wit and influence as entrepreneurs and mentors. When I look at roads I can follow, their roads are certainly at the top of the list.

To Len, Tim Keefe, Jennifer Valencia, Anne, and Aiza (Yes, Aiza King) and to our TCX Fam, it's been one year, but I'm sure this is only truly the beginning.

Then, there is my family, friends, our dogs, and especially my very low-key partner. Every day I could look forward to something because you are there.

I'm sure there were a lot of people worth thanking that I haven't mentioned here, but it's because there are so many of you that I wish I could remember who you all are as I write this; I hope you accept my apology in advance.

In 2018, I thought it was one of the good years, the year of recovering, but 2023 was really another one for the books, and I'm looking forward to more years.

January 2023

I'm honestly surprised by this year as I looked back. I hope I can make this post organized, but if I can't, I hope at least it'll have an entertainment factor

I started the year gushing about Alice in Borderland; I think what I said was, "The grit and suspense of the games were masterfully done, and the way the words and cinematography impact the viewer's psyche is just very effective.

Personally, season 2 has made me look at my life on a more positive note. I've been consciously trying to be more grateful, and this series has added to it.

Life can be hard and mundane, but sometimes it's the small and mundane things that make life worth living."

I think it was really something that happened in my life in 2023.

On January 15, 2023, StraightArrow had our start of the year summit. Thank you Cza and Andrew for the inspirational messages! Key takeaway: Be ready for change and be ready to change! And that is true; the year 2023 had so much change that by December 15, 2023, we are now part of something bigger, and more paths and roads have opened for us.

Then, for a personal event related to gaming, the first event post I did was for Playpark's GEFORCE Days. It was an enjoyable day at NVIDIA GeForce Day with PC Express with PlayPark MSI Gaming Microsoft ASUS and more! I think this was a prelude to all the insights and learnings I gained when it comes to the best tools for gaming and creativity this year. (Especially to Wacom and MSI!)

January 2023 started another wave of conversation on AI and ChatGPT. From the previous years Sir Rollan has introduced me to the many ways AI and Adobe were growing to help co-pilot creativity, and now there are more players in this space and in a different creative domain which is on writing and search engine.

Even in Adobe Express changed and improvement continued, and 2023 was another year as an Adobe Express Ambassador. Cheers!

On January 24, Minato, my dog, was able to eat Barkin' Bakes Healthy Pet Food from @ortigas.land Ortigas Malls; he thoroughly loves it, and throughout the year Minato really balanced his naughtiness to teach me patience, responsibility, and entertain me.

On a global economic scale, in 2023, started as scary as any other year I've lived so far. We never really know when things will go down, if there is any bottom to the bottomless pit...

Thankfully looking back now, we're almost at the end of 2023, and I am thankful I am still surviving here.

Onto February

It was a month of reflection. I wanted to write a year-end look back for 2022, but I wasn't able to do it. I attempted to sit down and write, but I never found the time to actually do it.

I do know I was very thankful I had time to try shooting some hoops, and I was able to connect it to how many times I try something before I give up. "In life sometimes we can get lucky and get the shot in less than 5 tries, but there are cases when sometimes even after 50 shots we still haven't got one in. When the second one happens, you review what you are doing; is your strategy and form correct? Have you asked someone who had done it before for techniques? If you are determined to do something, you can do it as long as you find different ways and try new things. Let's all keep on learning!"

As my interest in AI deepened in January, it went deeper in February when I used Artificial Intelligence as a copilot in trying to write down who I was as of February 2023 career-wise.

On a random note: February was when we booked our Japan Tickets for October so we had a lot of months of preparation for that trip!

Onto March

It was women's month, as early as March 3, I was already planning a session with Sir Rollan and CNA on celebrating womentorship using Adobe Express. I always believed that design was a form of communication and is a way to share your idea with others. Together with CNA and Adobe Express, I shared how people can easily design their ideas within their web browser and share it on social media.

March also gave me the opportunity to support the very talented Happy Navarro in his show "Dawn is breaking."

It was in Robinsons Galleria Ortigas, and it was a simple day to appreciate art and to enjoy my day. There were Pokemon decorations in the mall, and I took the opportunity to take photos!

I wanted to invite more people to visit Happy's show, but I couldn't complete the vlog-style invitation I was doing until March 13, 2 days before the show ended. I still hope a lot of people got to view his art!

On March 22, I got my early access to Adobe Firefly. Wow, it was really mind-blowing, and I spent a lot of time exploring how it can help me create!

After our successful Womentorship with Adobe Express webinar on March 25, we started planning for an April 1 webinar on Firefly!

Writing this look back, I was able to revisit the feedback we got, and I'm so happy people found it informative, and we were able to ease their worry about a future when AI might take away design jobs.

As April started, I also finally removed my indoor kangkong garden, which I tried to grow for the pandemic when I feared it might turn into a zombie apocalypse and we may have no access to food. I still want a garden, but this was the month where I finally weighed in that my indoor garden had more cons than pros (hint: mosquitoes). I still want a garden in the future; hopefully, I get to do it. There is a lot of comfort in being able to grow your own food and also produce your own healthy soil with compost.

On April 19, I did the Adobe Express font challenge, and I chose the word "relief." I still hope everyone finds relief in their lives. It is hard to live in constant anxiety and fear, and I would greatly be happy if I and everyone can find relief in living every day.

I also did a lot of sharing about Zert and pet food products. It's pretty random, but I think this is Minato's influence in my life. I constantly have to think if he'll love the treats I buy for him.

We went to a pet fair on April 22, and I wanted Minato and Kitty to join the dog eating contest, but we couldn't join hahahah!

May

May kicked off with a leadership summit in StraightArrow. I was able to brush up on some of my math and accounting! It was also very great to collaborate with everyone and to get to know the new faces in our company.

May was also the month when Graphic Artist Philippines (GAP), Wacom, and MSI invited us to go to Baguio City and participate in the Likhang Baguio Workshop series. It was done in CSDA Cordillera School of Digital Arts. It was great to meet a lot of our budding artists and designers. I truly hope I was able to give them a glimpse of the future as they work towards entering the workforce or starting their businesses.

We were also able to meet Ran Carmona another great artist, and we learned a lot about his processes. Sometimes I still feel a bit of frustration for not being able to practice more with drawing and character designing, but knowing there are people as talented and as hardworking as Ran reminds me that this is why we need to collaborate because everyone has diverse skills and talent.

May was also when I first entered the world of Adobe Community Experts Program. It was so great to know and continue to work with Sil Cleary. Until now I am also learning a lot, and I hope to be able to share more of this knowledge. Adobe really strives to use their influence to make the world a better place through their corporate social responsibility. (Adobe Corporate Responsibility)

On the fun side, I was actually able to visit Ayala Circuit Makati for the first time for FanFes. We wanted to try riding the ferry, but unfortunately, it wasn't working on our location for that day. I wore my Shinobu cosplay, was more personalized in a sense that I combined it with the classic fluttering butterfly clips. I then used my candid shot to create one of the Adobe Express challenges for this month.

I closed the month of May with my session on Poster Making using Adobe Photoshop.

June

June was a pretty chill month for me after the first few months of jam-packed activity.

I went to support Wacom and PC Express SM Makati for their Pitstop event. I got to try playing Osu!. As a fan of Rhythm games, it was fun!!

July

July was also another chill month; I was able to spend some time with family to go bowling in Eastwood!

Now onto August, which was my birthday month. This was another busy month in both career and entertainment. We kicked off this month by joining Playpark and PC Express for their Cybermonth event. We were also able to support Samsung Galaxy U PH's Flexcam challenge. I am still in awe at how much the mobile cameras have improved! I looked so pretty with using a Samsung Galaxy phone hahahah!

Exactly on my birthday, I received the One by Wacom I won from Wacom's raffle. Guys if you see a raffle from a brand you like, don't hesitate to support them because you never know, you might win

Wacom also enabled us to support other brands and events through the first Philippine Game Dev Expo. We won a shirt from Viewsonic, and we actually got second place in a Genshin Fun Time Challenge by Razer Gold.

We got a lot of Farlight vouchers, but unfortunately, since I was busy for 1 week, I wasn't able to give away all of the extra vouchers I got. It was expired by the time things calmed down from my end.

August was also the month I was able to visit Palawan! Thanks so much to Aiza and our MLAM and TCX fam!

August ended with being able to support SM's color festival and winning a Barren Bliss Lip Velvet which is very yummy to use!!!!!

I also got some product samples from Beaver Beauty USA. The Beaver Professional Haircare Botanical products. Their coconut shampoo was very fragrant and nice to the hair!

September

September was also another month where I recovered a bit from my birthday month. By this month I wanted to write a 6-month summary for the year, but I was still overwhelmed, so I shared a recipe for a Meat Vodka Burger instead!!

It was yummy, by the way

Oh, October!

This was filled with excitement for our Japan trip, but the first two weeks were about completing deliverables before I went away for vacation.

Our TCX fam was able to launch our "Stop Doing Stupid S#*%!: Navigating to Business Success" book on Amazon, and this is definitely a sample of where your past knowledge and experience would always culminate and help you in building something new.

I say this because back in 2016, I also helped another author and creative entrepreneur, Delby Bragais, launch her book "The Purple Pig Wears Red Lipstick: 8 Steps to a Personal Brand Makeover for Impact, Influence & Incredible Income" on Amazon.

Finally, our long-awaited Japan trip!

I really don't know how to describe those amazing two weeks of my life! This is the third time I went to Japan, but this was the longest stay. We targeted October to see autumn, but it was a bit late this year. I still saw yellow and red trees, and I was still able to fully appreciate "autumn in Japan."

Nagoya, Tokyo, and Yokohama were awesome!

The batting centers in Japan are lovely, and I still hope we have accessible batting centers here in the Philippines. The ocean in Odaiba is so relaxing! Watching the fish jump out of the water and the giant Gundam!!!!

We were able to visit a lot of shrines, and I got to feed some pigeons! It was only back at the hotel when I realized I got pooped on by the pigeon, but lol, it was worth it :))

Before October ended, Graphic Artist Philippines launched our Creative (Crea-TEA-ve) Chismisan Podcast!

November is the month when we also visited the memorial park where my grandfather and sister are buried. This is usually a month of remembrance for us for our deceased loved ones.

On my free days, it was spent eating out and enjoying life.

Before I knew it, November ended, and here we are now in December.

In December, we launched (or relaunched) our creative spotlight for Creative Nation Academy.

Our first few episodes, as I write this, were about building creative confidence and a very fruitful catch-up with Van Denosta, my senior, and my QA buddy when I was starting out as a Creative Design Specialist. He was a very passionate designer and also very hopeful to #createFTW, so he worked really hard towards being able to experience life outside the Philippines.

I was also able to debut my Genshin Impact Arlechinno cosplay during our StraightArrow year-end party. I got a quote book from Bob, and we enjoyed a lot of wine and food!

I also got a hardbound copy of "Stop Doing Stupid S#*%!: Navigating to Business Success," which I assisted in making. As a designer, having a physical copy of what you helped create is different.

The second Creative Fusion event also happened this month.

The first event happened in April, but I couldn't participate much aside from creating a few design options for the lanyard. That's why I was very happy to help as the host for this second event.

Creative Fusion has been in the works since 2022, and I'm so happy to see that it's finally happening. The goal has always been to encourage growth, learning, collaboration.

Creative Fusion: Harmony in Diversity was very successful thanks so much, in part, to Cap Hernandez, Aiza King, and our partners and sponsors: Globe Telecom, MSI, MSI Gaming, UnCapped Potential by Cap Hernandez, Wacom, Wacom Philippines, Ynzal Mktg Corp, Team Manila, Artphorce, @Payoneer, NICK AUTOMATIC?, Print Monster PH, Biswal Grapiko, NuBrave.Academy , ViewSonic, Graphic Artists Philippines, Philippine Graphic Artists

I know we still have 13 days before we meet 2024, and I'm very pumped to see what else I can do to make the world a little bit better every day.

Thank you so much if you were able to reach this part and digest my year-end summary.