Hi! I’m Yani, a digital nomad in the making. Instead of
writing a 101 of my freelancing style, I decided to just share my journey to
show you how it’s like. I’m focused on the reality of the processes that it
takes, the duration, advantages, identifying troubles, and how to address them
without sacrificing fun and our top priorities. So there, enjoy reading!
Day 1, Wednesday. 25th of May, 2016. I marked
this day as my Day 1 simply because my laptop was bought today. After walking
around Goa (Camarines Sur) carrying the two square foot box and the free bag
that weren’t even tied together, I reached home with my Mom and Reema, my 5
year-old daughter, past 5 pm. I was texting my sibling in Caloocan, Ate Myrna,
to tell my Dad that I already have a unit so they didn’t have to buy me one.
Yeah, I am that broke that I’ve been asking my parents to get me a laptop, to
think that I’m 27 now. Haha!
Setting my log-in password and username was the only thing
that I accomplished before I had to go back to our uptown family compound where
I was supposed to be having a summer vacation with my eldest sibling Ate Myra
and her kids; Marcus, Yuma, and Yara. Mila Rose (aka Bebe), my younger sister
was there too. To my horror, the laptop wasn’t turning on after several times
of trying to open it. Now I don’t remember how I pushed myself to sleep.
Day 2, Thursday. 26th of May, 2016. Nightmare
alert! The laptop that wasn’t turning on haunted me even in slumber. No laptop,
no income, isn’t that creepy? But today it turned on. Guess I’ll get a better
sleep tonight.
There was a small piece of the adapter that should’ve been
part of the unit but it wasn’t, so I searched my sibling’s old online-working
paraphernalia and I found one and took it, without her knowing it. Sssshhhh!
From there I started to try connecting the unit to my phone’s hotspot through
tethering but failed. I was able to connect to the mobile phone’s hotspot but
whenever I open a browser, it says no internet connection or webpage cannot be
displayed. I was so worked up with the connectivity problem when my Mom told me
to cook early because we’re going someplace to buy something I barely remember
because again, I was so worked up. So I shut down the thing and did the house
chores including laundry, without washing machine.
While traveling to Naga with my Mom. I asked my sibling
about my laptop’s internet issue through a text message. Good thing she was a
former tech support handling a Dell account, one of the reasons why I picked a
Dell unit, though my concern wasn’t even that serious of a problem and might
only take some common sense and resourcefulness to solve. I know, right. I am
that much of a slacker to think it off myself. Haha! She said something about
customizing the icons that I want to appear in my taskbar but internet connection
or wifi was already in my taskbar. But I didn’t bother to ask again and saved
my thoughts for later since I didn’t bring the gadget with me. In Naga, we
bought three bus tickets to Cubao for a Saturday trip. Yeah, we have to go back
to Manila because that’s where we officially reside right now.
Traveling home, I was preoccupied by replacing the blog
title of my parenting blog-to-be. From The ReeMania, I thought of changing it
to The Reemalistic Approach. I think it has a better catch, doesn’t it? I took
note of that particular change in my blog post draft entitled How Do I Plan to
Earn Online through Writing. I transferred that draft from pages that I ripped
off my notebook to my laptop earlier, along with another blog post draft
entitled 6 Reasons Why I Am A Digital Nomad. Now it’ll be easier to edit my
writings. Of course that’s one writing problem solved. But to my younger
sibling Mila Rose, another writing trouble is having so many drafts, so many
ideas that are hard to contain in one and final piece. That was a topic that we
discussed at night with Ate Mye while toasting marshmallows outdoor. U’huh, you
can say that we are a family of writer-wannabes. We have always been a bunch of
fictionists and essayists in our own ways, only unpublished. I call them
prospective digital nomads right now and I am positive that they will join us
in time.
Day 3, Friday. 27th of May, 2016. I fixed my
internet connection problem today by clicking some sharing option in the
Network and Internet under the Control Panel. I created a new yahoomail account
for an alternate email and found that even the old yahoo.com.ph gets redirected
to yahoo.com.sg, it still contains the news in the Philippines like the way
Angelica Panganiban was still sad about her breakup with John Lloyd Cruz as
shown in Gandang Gabi Vice. Yeah, that’s what I saw. Anyway, I got a new
article idea from Reema’s inquiry about rainbow. Its prospective title is It’s
Okay Not to Explain the Rainbow. That’s for my parenting blog-to-be.
Day 4, Saturday. 28th of May, 2016. The internet
connection in our upland vacation place was faster than I expected. I tried it
before I leave for Manila today so I would have an idea on how I’ll do my work
in case I stay here to run some errands for my mom in the future. Of course, we
have to think about such stuff to plan ahead, to be prepared of anything. Ate
Mye’s leaving too and there was a lot of things to do. Mama and I attended some
Cooperative’s annual meeting where we brought Reema, who only slept there until
they served the food which was good. Things like these are always nice to
experience. Still, we headed back to the shop quickly after the meeting was
adjourned to comply with our travel time which was 6:00 pm. Teary-eyed in the
pedicab, Reema realized late that Mama wasn’t coming with us. That’s the
difficult part of being a nomad, constantly leaving people who are dear to you
because even if you want them to join you, they can’t or they won’t. Honestly,
I’m taking this trip to Manila as part of my nomadic status but sadly, a
hardship to my daughter. But who knows? She might get used to it.
WHEN YOU MOVE, THEY CAN’T GETCHA. This is the biggest lesson
I’ve learned in my life so far. Not just moving physically but mentally and
emotionally. We should not allow ourselves to get stuck in a place, a mind-set,
or an emotion that’s not doing us any good. We have to be constantly moving,
learning, deciding, and changing, to beat our old mistaken self and be better.
Maybe Jeffery Deaver had a different purpose for this line when he wrote this
as Amelia Sach’s reminder from his Dad, but I am owning this as my shining
star, guiding and motivating me day by day. Yeah, I am Deaver die-hard fan that
even the title of this blog, Halfway Home, was taken from a novel of him,
Praying for Sleep. The Halfway House which was an institution there for
mentally ill people gave me an idea of a place where people who doesn’t have
homes, physically and mentally, can stay and be treated as normal. Eventually,
the idea evolved in connection with my job. Halfway Home is now my online space
to fill with my journey as a digital nomad, as someone who when asked “Where
are you?” will always say “Halfway home.”
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