My First Time

"My first time".. This statement is like Helen of Troy who could launch a thousand ships. This statement could launch a thousand thoughts. This post is about some first times in my life. If you are a green minded person, then I am very sorry to disappoint you. This does not include that kind of first time. Lol! The first times I am referring to are some happenings in my life worth mentioning ( I think :] ).

The first time I got my monthly visitor.. When I say monthly visitor, I am referring to a girl thing. The one we usually are not too comfortable talking about. Menstruation. Ring a bell? Well for this one, I am a little embarrassed because this experience is very funny and my only defense is my innocence. I was too young and too busy playing to think about womanhood then. On that day, I was in school. I did the usual things. I listened to my teacher; I talked to friends; Did my school chores; and played afterward. I remember walking about a kilometer home and then threw my bag on the sofa. I almost tore out my uniforms because I could not wait to get out of them and I am gonna go out to play with my friends. When I finally got out of my clothes, I feel the need to pee so I went to the comfort room. Then I notice some stain on my undies and I immediately called my Mama to tell her that I soiled my panties. I just took a bath and proceeded with my day. The next day, I pretty much did the same things and then when I got home, headed straight for the comfort room. Then I noticed the stains on my panties again. With cheeks all red of sham, I told my Mama I soiled my panties again. So my Mama decided to look closely and realized that I have started my menstruation. She shouted so everyone could hear and all my siblings started to bully me about it. My Mama wiped my face with the blood that were on my panties for some superstitious belief about not getting pimples if you do it. That was really embarrassing and that gesture did not help at all. I still get pimples from time to time and I always get red cheeks when this topic comes up with our conversations.

The first time I competed in a sports tournament.. As a kid, I have always been the big one. I was not fat but big boned and the tallest of all the students. I a could never do a sit ups, pull ups and sprints. Those are my favorite exercises but I could never be good at them. So with this, my choice of a sport are Discuss throw and Javelin throw. I am big and strong, so this is to my advantage. The first tournament I joined was an inter-town event. I represent Sogod but there were like two of us for Discuss throw. I would never forget that day. We were in a different town. We went there and had a good start. All the other players in other sports did good. I was the one to throw first. We all get three tries and the longest one will be your score. I did well. My throw was really long and I was ahead of all the other players. Then it was time for my other teammate to throw. She threw really long as well but not long enough to throw me from the number one spot. But for some reason, one of the officials asked her to throw for the fourth time and that one nailed it. It was way longer than my throws and she was considered the winner. Dang that would have been my chance to make a name! But she was declared the winner and they were gonna send her to the next tournament which will be a competition against all the other provinces and cities in Region VII. The loser in me did not finish the day and went home. I went to my Mama sobbing at the end of the day.

The first time I competed in a badminton tournament.. Well the good thing about losing in a sport is you find yourself liking other sports. This is what happened when I failed in Discuss throw. I found myself participating in badminton trainings with some of my other friends. I did not have the slightest idea I was gonna be good at it. During the summer following the school year of that failed attempt at track and field, I joined the training and I realized I was good at it. Though I was still a little heavy, I managed to move fast and hit the racket hard enough to get it to the other side of the net. I found myself loving the game and having fun. So it lasted. I continued my training and attended after school practices. About five months since I started training, it was time for the annual Milo tournaments. Badminton is one of the events and our school always attend that one. I was chosen to play Single B and so my career started. I remember the feeling. The anonymity of the place. It was my first time in Abellana Sports complex. It was my first time to see such a big crowd and a big place with players from many places. My heart was pounding. It's like I am running after something and I could not keep up. My heart was beating so hard I could almost hear it go labdab labdab labdab. I still remember hearing the voice calling my name to go to court four. I could remember tying my shoelace and picking up my racket. I remember feeling like being in a scene of a movie, your heart pounding and everything is in slow motion. I remember the umpire climbing to his seat. I remember him throwing the shuttlecock at me to serve. I remember wearing my first expensive shoes ever (a Puma shoe bought by my Mama and Kuya). I remember feeling like everyone is looking at me. Then I threw the first serve. It was a long rally and I remember my knees and arms shaking but I still managed to hit the shuttlecock. Amazingly I was still focused so I managed to get the first score. Then I started to sweat and eventually the whole feeling of nervousness went away as the game went on. I realized my opponent was feeling the same and it was worse for her because she lost focused and sometimes failed to hit the ball. I won the game and guess what the score was? 21-0. My nervous opponent did not manage to get a score. That encouraged me and ended my tournament frights. Hayy... I could remember it like it was just yesterday.

The first time I went out of town away from Mama.. Since I got good results from my first tournament, my luck at joining bigger tournaments grew. I was second by the way. The champ was my friend Kara who played Single A. I was Single B champ and she was Single A champ. Our coach decided to take me along with Kara and some other teammates to Bacolod to attend the first Batang Pinoy National Tournament. That was my first time to go outside Cebu and also away from my family. I packed light. I only brought like one shirt for each day we were staying there. We had to ride a Ceres Bus heading to Tabuelan, Cebu and then the bus will be loaded to a big barge and then that barge will travel to Bacolod. Oh, it was such a nice feeling. Traveling I mean. We alighted from the bus and went to the side of the boat. The sea breeze against my cheek, I looked at the distant shadows of fishermen casting their nets. I saw some jellyfishes in the water and some trash. Mind you the sea was really dirty. While taking in all that scene and freedom, I suddenly heard some people shout. "There!", someone shouted. I looked to the direction they were pointing and saw the most beautiful scene ever. We saw dolphins! A group of dolphins swam near the boat and then showed off some of their amazing abilities to the people. They jumped and then swam and jumped and swam. It was such a beautiful sight. If DSLRs were only present that time, it would have been really nice to freeze that scene. That day was one of the best. I was also my first time seeing dolphins and big jellyfishes. So we arrived in Bacolod. I found it really nice. There were no traffic lights but the streets were neat. We settled well in the place. The tournament day came, we made some new friends from other provinces and regions. We also won. We were champions in the team event and got a bronze in the doubles event. My friend Kara was champs for Singles. There in our stay in Bacolod, I learned to take a bath without my Mama. I also learned to wash my clothes since my clothes were not enough. I also learned not to be too dependent to my parents. That was the start of my independence and the start of a very nice journey with badminton.

The first time I got a job..  Because I proved to be a really good badminton player (by this time I won a lot of titles), I got a good scholarship with a very prestigious school in the city. I studied high school and college at the University of San Jose - Recoletos. I got some good friends from there and the school also helped providing us with funds with our badminton playing journey. I got off high school and college with fair grades and I also won a national title in badminton. Having won and enjoyed my school years, it was time to move on. I needed to get a job. I applied to several companies, probably got turned down in some and some also had offers that I turned down. The job where I signed up a contract for was eTelecare aka Stream. It's an outsourcing company. Their exams where easy but it's the recruitment process that is a little long. I had to stay there from 8 in the morning until about 8 in the evening. But it was worth it. I passed their exams and interviews and the next day I signed a contract. So I started with the job, I got in a program they call Matrix. They were assigned to assist Dell customers. It was my first job and it is expected that in your first job you will be nervous. But I wasn't. I have had a lot of experience in badminton enough to take away all the feeling of being nervous during first time encounters. During the training for job, I did well. I got good grades. I made some good friends too. When the time came where we were gonna go live for the first time, I thought it was gonna be an easy job. I was wrong. I got my first call and the issue was about a blue screen problem, it was really hard. I got really nervous talking to an actual customer and plus I had to follow certain spiels and always try to make the customer happy. I managed to fix the problem but it took more than two hours. I got off with a good commendation from the customer but my heart has not stopped pounding the whole two hours we were talking. Then that also started my career as a technical support specialist. I managed to stay in that company till August this year. That was a good three years. I have found some good friends and learned a lot about computer troubleshooting. It was fun.

So that was the summary of pretty much my life. My life revolved around badminton. I could say there are other very nice events in my life that are worth mentioning but maybe that will be posted in a different blog. You will learn a lot about me as I go a long. Just keep up..