Currently, I work shifts. Sometimes I start as early as 4am until about lunch hour then on Sundays I work graveyard. I am required to a rest day once a week, but it all depends because if I get lucky, I get two days off in a row.

Yes, I am a call girl. Well, not that kinda girl you’re thinking. I work in an office where it’s 18 degrees Celsius and everyone is inside a booth named after a State. I’m actually a market researcher now, I do surveys and I talk to a whole lot of Americans over the phone for 7 hours! And it has dawned upon me now that I am actually doing this for a living. Ayayay!

But at least I have a job. It’s not as stressful as my previous one where I was a customer service representative of a huge online travel agency — yes, I was with Expedia.com for a while. It was really a mentally-draining job because I had to be extremely familiar with all airline matters, hotel arrangements and car reservations. I felt like a ground stewardess as I book travelers on destinations all over the world, plus I get to call hotels internationally to get them the best deals while earning a small commission while doing so. But it was exhausting! I worked weird shifts since it was a 24-hour agency and I worked an 11-hour shift. It almost killed me!

But now I’m happy where I am. The job doesn’t require much thought just good conversational skills and of course, work ethics. It’s perfect. Policies aren’t even that strict so we’d like to call them ‘guidelines’. The only disadvantage is that the pay ain’t that great. Not the kind you’d be thrilled with by payday, but it’s good enough for a stress-free occupation. You don’t find a lot of such these days. Nowadays, you’re supposed to be working to live, but it’s like working your way to your grave instead. I’d be lucky to last another 6 months here in good ol’ Cebu.

Ooops, I might be speaking too soon. I better stop right here.

To do or not to do? That’s the question. But there’s even a better question: What to do? When you’ve got nothing — and I mean, absolutely nothing — to do. You sit around waiting for what, nothing again. And in the end, it all boils down to this. Nothing.

I who have nothing. What’s that song again? No, nevermind. That sucks. Well, talking about the vast nothingness that has filled the void in my present circumstance reminds me of guess what, nothing. My mind is empty and yes, it’s blank so there’s nothing there, too. When I think about something, then I become confused because I get nothing.

When you seem like you’re stuck in a rut, figuring out what’s the best thing to do (to be productive or whatever!) and perhaps thinking of ways to make the world a better place… you end up doing completely nothing. If only we stop thinking and start DOING something, then that’s a start. Who knows what might happen!? Life is what we make it.