(From the archive; 16 October 2015)
Let's see the other side of the world. So she did. She pulled the laptop out from its bag, booted it to open, and started typing out the words: Filipino writing jobs abroad. She was kinda hopeful something would turn up. In London, maybe? Just this morning she saw her high school friend posting photos, posing with the Big Ben. Perhaps London is a good idea, she thought. She did want to see Europe--any part of it--somehow. She kept on scrolling, but not surprised that there aren't much results from her Google query. Writing. Such a career that everyone is capable to do. How does she earn from it here, anyway? Scroll a bit more. Click. Why didn't she take a nursing course instead? The news said there are about thousands of nurses in demand in, where was that again? Oh, Switzerland, Australia, London, in the US, and pretty much in any part of the world. Who needs a writer? It's not as if they could inject life to a dying patient with a pen. She was still hopeful. She deleted the last word and instead resorted to something specific. How about: writing jobs in Singapore? Yes, Singapore would be easy. She realized it's just a three-hour flight from here so in case when she gets hired and feels homesick, she would fly immediately back home to see her family. And besides, Singapore is an English-speaking country. There's no need to learn another language. She brushed off her thoughts. Continued to look for what she's supposed to. Where? Where? Clicked a little more. Submitted resumes here and there, until she ran out of countries to go to. At least daydreaming helped a bit. She wanted to see the other side of the world. She wanted to so bad that she's been imagining things recently. One day, she said to herself, you'll be beside that Big Ben, too. She opened another browser tab and started typing.