When life gives you lemons
Dear Nanay,
I have been working in the same prestigious company my whole life. This was my first job and I really love my job. The problem is the company is hiring a new person and I think I might end up reporting to him. I used to report directly to my current boss and we are already very used to working with each other. But now, with this new person coming in, he might get a position between me and my boss, who will probably get promoted. What should I do? —
Anxious at work
Dear anxious at work,
Honestly, there may not be much that you can do. Part of being a professional is learning to work with all kinds of people whether they are superiors or subordinates. I think changes in company structures are just part of the realities of working in any organization.
I understand the anxiety and apprehension that you must be feeling with such a major change in your professional life. But my only advice is for you to give your new boss a chance. Who knows? He might be even better than your old boss! You might also learn new and more effective ways of doing things. Take this as a learning opportunity. Sabi nga nila (As they say) when life gives you lemons, you have to make lemonade!
Sincerely,
Nanay
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Does love conquer all?
Dear Nanay,
I am writing to you as a Chinese parent of a girl to comment on the letter from Us Against Her Parents.
Many people believe that the Chinese families are very traditional and do not allow their children to marry other nationalities. Although this is true in some cases, this is not as strict a rule as it used to be. Many Chinese families are now more liberal in their approach to marriage and do allow their children to marry non-Chinese.
We ourselves used to believe that our children should only marry Chinese but our daughter met a very nice Filipino man who we knew will take good care of her. They asked for our permission, made a strong case for their marriage and even if we did so with a heavy heart, we gave our blessing.
Today, we see our daughter could not be happier than she is with this man. We see them together with our newborn grandson and we know we made the right choice. In the end, we felt that our daughter’s happiness was still more important than our beliefs.
Even the most traditional parents may change. I am not saying they will but if you make a good case and show her parents that you two really deserve to be with each other, then there might be a chance that you will get their blessing. It worked on us; there is no reason why you cannot take a chance that it will work on them. —TLY
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