Three years ago, I boarded a plane from Manila to Jakarta – and lived in the island of Makassar, Indonesia for one month with 9 awesome people from different countries in the world. It is one story that I would never get tired of sharing.

I am an alumna of IBM Corporate Service Corp. It is a leadership program by IBM where eligible IBMers are sent to other countries to help local government with different projects for business, economic or societal development, while training the participants to be future leaders. It is a competitive program, and when I found out about it, I applied and luckily I got in. I just thought the hashtag #whatruthwantsruthgets perfectly fits my life 😉 Law of attraction does work for me 🙂

My life continuously changes after that. I feel more aware of my surroundings, my environment, culture and people. My partner (hello, lovely Cheryl!) and I were assigned in the local hospital which aims to Go Green and improve Waste Management System. Ever since my involvement to this project, I tried to manage my own wastes and resources. The experience brought me so much learnings – and awesome friends.

It was my first time to travel alone in another country and live with people I just met. When I resigned from IBM, I thought of doing more volunteer work even here in the Philippines. I just hope to finally do it this year (praying for less distractions) 🙂 I wish to be able to take part on something more meaningful on a global scale.

This post is dedicated to lovely Cheryl, brother Tom, awesome Jess, Ba Pak Javier, Nitu (me too!), lover boy Marcelo, Arruuun Arun, pop Vivek and momma Sabine! You guys are all missed! I love you Team Indonesia 3! Hello to our facilitator too, Roman!

I wish someday we would all get together soon! I am happy to stay connected with you guys and I am proud of everyone’s successes in career and personal lives.  I am still praying for reunion in Canada. 🙂

To all my lovely readers who follow my adventures:

It is good to meet and get to know a lot of people, but stay connected only with a few who are true to you. We sometimes waste our time with meaningless conversations and connections that don’t add value to our lives. I only spent a month with #teamindonesia3 but they are 9 of the few people I trust and love.