Portia Placino

This thing usually happen during the end of the year. As displayed, I have not blogged a lot this past year. I was thinking of going back to blogging, at least once a day, but I want to be more reasonable. I’d blog when I can, hopefully, much more than I did in the past year. I’ve read and blogged about Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I feel like Charlie right now, I was too busy participating. I think I have collected enough materials for more blog posts than I could ever post. We’ll see. A friend once said, I can collect and experience first, then produce them into stories later, when things slow down a bit. For now, I am posting something from my Facebook account that I tweeked a bit.

Here is a story of my adventures. The summary of years, what happened before this version of Portia.

2005-2007: post-UP, exploring the ordinary life with ordinary dreams.
2008: success and heartbreak. A downfall from the pinnacle.
2009: picking myself up. Healing in a strange place.
2010: diving head first. A start of flight.
2011: starting to soar.
2012: feeling the wind in my hair.

Things has been looking up since 2010. 2011 was great, 2012 was simply awesome. Some memorable things:
1. I finished my course work for my graduate program with a bang. Three straight University Scholarships, I have never done that before.

2. I also finished my thesis proposal with a 1.0 average. Challenge for 2013: defend the proposal.
3. I published my first refereed journal review in Plaridel. Editing it took up my entire summer. Challenge for 2013: try to actually get to the beach this summer.
4. My proposal got accepted for Museum 2012, my first international conference. I got to present it months later in Taipei, Taiwan. Challenge for 2013: go for more international conferences.

5. I got to attend NODEM 2012 in Hong Kong, it was my first time there as well. Then there are the awesome conferences I got to attend in the country.

6. My dream came true, I am now an Instructor 3 at the Department of Art Studies in UP Diliman. I will never forget the referral letters that made me cry. I never really thought my work was noticed or appreciated. And this was by people I admire and respect.
7. My students talk to me more in class now.
8. I got to ride a bike. I can’t fully explain how that feels like. I felt infinite.

9. I started buying and exploring music again. My life has a new sound track.

10. Of course, the classic, friends, family and loved ones I got to share all of this with.
11. Because I don’t want to stop at 10: I know that the best is yet to come. Looking forward to 2013!
12. Oh, I almost forgot, I developed my culinary skills. I can proudly say I can cook now! 😉