So a couple of days ago, I went drinking with my friends and quite randomly touched into the topic of choosing between career and love, if it ever came down to it.

We talked of an incident a few days ago where a guy chose to let go of a job opportunity that would take him overseas and open so many doors for him in exchange of more time to be with the love of his life. You could imagine the amount of judgement that guy received from me hahaha. But my drinking buddies were adamant that he made the right choice. And that I’d take back every single thing that I said once I met the right person. Of which I still insisted that would never happen.

You see, I truly believe that the right person would know what’s important for you; what your strengths are; and would surmise which next steps would truly make you grow as a person. I have two role models for this, one of which is fictional but nonetheless, a sensible choice.

I was (and still am) a big fan of Nodame Cantabile, a tale of hopes, dreams, and love, admixed in between heaps of campy humor. It told of Nodame, a lost girl, who slowly and surely found her way into the music world. She was just about to settle into a life of mediocrity, shunning away all her potential as a great pianist by becoming a preschool teacher but Chiaki, the love of her life, managed to push her to her limits and dream higher. In exchange, she pulled him out of his rut, overcome his inner demons, and face his dreams in Europe. However fictional, the story inspire me to never settle, to reach for your hopes and dreams, and find someone who will cultivate that fire inside you, no matter what.

The next example is based on real life and is fairly recent. Just last month, I was lucky enough to catch a screening of On The Basis of Sex, a biopic on the widely popular feminist Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her struggles in the early days of her career. The legal world was a man’s world at that time but with grit and a lot of support from her family, especially her husband Marty, she was able to make ripples into the American Justice system, one case at a time. Reading more about Marty in some articles further solidified my admiration for the couple. Marty never EVER got into Ruth’s career’s path. His support and sacrifice was undeniably crucial for Ruth’s meteoric rise into the legal world.

So yeah, I truly believe that if it all came down to it, with the right person, I will never have to choose between love and career, because we both will never let it get down to that point. I mean, if my guy is actually given an opportunity to further his career, I’d shove him into it, face-first, full-on. Because I believe that love isn’t the ONLY thing that should run our lives. We have dreams to fulfill…people to serve.

Hindi lang po kaming dalawa ang nabubuhay sa mundong ito. And if being closer to my dreams would require us to sacrifice a few short years apart to achieve that, I think that would still be fine with me.

So yes, hindi ko kakainin lahat ng sinabi ko. Hahaha. 🙂