Hello Steemians, new member here. A bit of information about myself:

I love plants. Trees in particular fascinate me and flowers in general inspire me. I’m a student, a teacher, and a fan of the arts and sciences. I also love going to different places.

Here's me on top of a mountain,

Another one on the beach,

On the road

And over the ocean.

There’s always something new to see and I hope to share most of it here, plus a few of my hobbies. I can just feel this platform pushing me to go and do more of the things that make me happy just so I can blog about it (lol). Well we do tend to do less of them in the face of increasing responsibilities, right?

Oh, and I am from Laguna Philippines.

Aside from being a student, I’m also a teacher. Some people have asked me repeatedly to get a better paying job, so I’m going to list why I like being a teacher on a blockchain to etch it in stone.

Number 1. It feels good.
I may be physically tired after a day’s work, but mentally it’s when I feel the most refreshed, and able to learn more. Letting some things out from your brain is necessary so that more can get in.

Number 2. It’s a multi-skilled profession.
Being a teacher is one of the few professions where you can have an outlet for almost every skill or talent you have or want to have. Public speaking? Check. Do you long for the outdoors? Get into scouting. You love to draw? Use it to make teaching aids. Music and dance? Include it in your classroom activities. Numbers? You’ll definitely crunch them doing grades, if you’re not already teaching Math or Physics. Because I like to dabble in so many things, this job is a great fit for me.

Number 3. There’s never a dull moment.
With teenage hormones running amok this is a done deal. Add in a dash of personality conflicts among your colleagues and things can get pretty interesting. Trust me you will never get bored.

Number 4. I get to meet new people.
Students, parents, teachers. Every year there’s always someone new and you never know how THEY might influence your own life.

Number 5. There’s every opportunity to inspire and motivate.
Because of a surgery, I’m never going to have kids. Still, I would like to have some kind of legacy for when I’m all grown up (in my head), and say that I was able to affect someone’s life in a positive way even if it’s just one person in a class of 40. Without my own children, being a pseudo-parent for 8-9 hours before I finally go home to get some peace and quiet is the next best thing.

Number 6. We learn something new every year.
To teach, you have to learn what to teach and how to teach it properly. There are seminars and seminars and more seminars that the administration requires you to attend every year. For free. Sometimes the seminar isn’t directly related to your subject matter, such as stress management, disaster management or child protection. That’s on top of keeping abreast with the developments in your own subject area. As a lifetime student (a.k.a. nerd), this is one of the things I enjoy.

Number 7. We get to travel for (almost) free.
Seminars aren’t always in-house. Sometimes they’re outside your hometown, and I get to see more places without breaking the bank (Yay!).

Number 8. Job security and promotions exist.
This is not a dead end job. In a developing country like mine, we’re not suddenly going to run out of children to teach anytime soon. There will always be more kids next year. Job security is practically in the bag, unless you do something totally heinous. So a promotion is always within reach to accommodate new hires.

Number 9. Teachers have one of the longest paid holidays
Summer break is summer break, Lent and Christmas too. I would NOT trade this for the long term, not if you paid me tons of cash. I would rather spend my hard earned money on road trips, hikes, music and arts or crafts rather than spend it on treatment for stress related illnesses. Life is just too short for that.

Number 10. I have time for other things that matter to me.
I am speaking as a single female with no children to take care of. Because of the relatively long breaks, I can enroll in a short course or a weekend class, or ride my little motorcycle and see how far I can go on a full tank. I can pick up my paintbrush and dabble in watercolors, learn a new musical instrument, watch Netflix (and chill, lol), study martial arts, maybe learn a new language. And now... I’m blogging!

When I laid on the operating table back in 2005 and then again in 2006, I was thinking if I don’t wake up tomorrow, then this has been a somewhat crappy life because up until then I let others dictate what I should do with it. So I promised myself that if I did wake up and I am put in another life-or-death situation like that again, I want to go happy. With no regrets. And I need time to do that, do the things I’ve always wanted but never had time for, and maybe leave behind some good memories as well.

So that’s it. C’est moi, or at least a facet of me. I’m going to steem some of my tiny projects and mini adventures, so do check my blog from time to time and see if anything might interest you. Thank you for reading!