ZIG Bee in the pencil

December 11, 1982.  It was my birthday.  Lopez, Quezon.  It was my birthplace and Ziegfred Cervantes Noscal is my name.

Remembering how I grew up could be painstaking but I can walk you through and I can walk you around my life up to how you can see me writing this autobiography.

I am a man of many definitions but mine and Mr. Webster might differ.

Being a kid is typical but living in a box made me different. I thought Lopez is a box, a rounded box.

I thought I will stay there all my life.  It was my comfort zone.

I still see the back pages of our calendar, written with musical compositions that I need to memorize because I have a bandurria performance the next month after.  It still resounds in me the voice of Soeur Surilla, as she repeatedly made us recite and pronounce words in certain accents.  I can remember tiresome days and nights preparing for competitions and bagging the bacon right after.  I can no longer count how many legs I had broken every time everyone wishes me luck but I will definitely not forget the time when ‘Nanay’ will make me a lipstick bronzer because I need to get up on a stage to deliver my valedictory address.

‘Nanay’ had high hopes that I will become a priest and I even thought so.  Dare me to recite a mass and you will definitely lose your bet.  So I started as a knight of the altar. But girls from the choir are singing too strong that right after grade school, I decided to start quitting the celibacy call.

PUP had been my teen and collegiate home and I am now starting to define my place, myself and my family.  My ‘Nanay’ is an Escobar, but my middle name is Cervantes.  So I had my share of walking out.

I know I sing but I didn’t know that I will be paid to sing.  It paid my studies well.  At this age, I already know how to strategize.

In my world, I think I’m okay.  I wake up in the morning, walk to church, be an hour early in school, beat my butt out during the day, walk to church, then go home.  Sounds right, right?

Everyone say high school years are your best years in life.  But I don’t remember any of those years as best, but rather usual.  I had my teenage heartbreaks, yes, and I had my time to even make a heart break, mind you.

College, for me, is purely academic.  Mess up on your grade school, mess up on your high school, but never mess up on your college because this your Grade 1 to your life.  Just like high school, every day is usual and getting a Latin honour is just usual.  I’m a top-notch, remember?

Then the world began to open up.  This is the world that I am not sure of.  All I wanted to do is to graduate, and I am now a graduate.  What’s next?

My credentials say I’m a top-notch but the world says I’m a toddler and I don’t even know how to walk yet.  So I started my steps.   I tried to unlearn and relearn everything.  My box is gone.  I thought life is straightforward but it is reading between the lines instead.

I started struggling, but meeting different people, who are just as struggling as you are, makes you a better person and a wiser individual.

The key to success is meeting the right people, being in the right place and surrounding yourself with the bests.   Prerequisite though, is that, you must already knew yourself and what you want.  That is the difficult part and that is step 1.

In my case, it has to be always scientific.  Observe->make questions->draw your hypothesis->do your experiment->then conclude.

This is my guide.  This can be your guide.

Step 2, define what success is to you.  If you think success is money, find a high paying job, invest in cash flows, there are a lot of options.  If success for you is happiness and peace, invest in your love ones, your partner, your friends, your family.

Step 3 then, is to open up your options.  Often times you will fail, but consistently work on it and you will get it in His timing.  The game is long.  Being fast is just short time but being consistent, usually, makes the clincher.

Step 4.  Continuously improve.  Learn new tricks.

Step 5 is the easiest.  Pray.   Ask for guidance and that you will always be blessed. Share what you have and share it entirely.  Without you knowing, it is all coming back to you, in ways you can never imagine.

Sharing you the Bio-Rhythm of a friend. :)