Palawan Strangers (CharDawn)

One

Everyone is different. We all have different views on different things, we all like different kinds of hobbies, we are all not going to have the same amount of drive, we are not all built the same. Some paces are slow, and some are fast. And that is okay.

Dawn keeps reminding herself. Another episode of anxiety has attacked her and it was triggered by a post of her friend on Facebook. She was an optimistic person but things like these always fill her head with doubt. Why on earth did I open the Facebook tab??? She is finalizing her students' grades in her Macbook.

I should deactivate. This social media thing is upholding perilously unrealistic standards of success and beauty making you doubt yourself. This is totally not good for my mental health.

She sighs. She realizes it isn't only the social media thing that irritates her, it's her existence, her purpose.

Or... was she just tired? Exhausted? No. She was bored. Worst of all, no piano lesson or yoga session can ease it. Routine life is fucking boring.

Her life was spent mostly in the hospital. She was working as a Nurse for two decades. Her family lived in Canada for two decades. It was a roller coaster hell-a-ride kind of life. When her twins had grown up and decided to live on their own, she was left alone in that cold country. It took her more than a year and lots of travels to other countries to think over. Finally,  just last year, she went home to her motherland. The Philippines.

There's nothing like staying at home for real comfort.

She thought.

But still, she feels empty. Now that she's in the Philippines... So what now?

One of her closest friends, Valerie, is the Dean of the College of Nursing of a university. Val offered her to be one of the Clinical Nurse Instructors of the College. She did not hesitate, she accepted it immediately. Moreover her strong passion for her profession, she really hates boredom.

Dawn hates it —the boredom. She's a believer that when you do nothing... Well, evil thoughts and 'other' thoughts will consume you.  She is used to working her ass off and working, for her, is also her form of destressing. How odd.

After she submitted her students' grades, she went to the kitchen and brewed coffee. She was slicing a loaf of sourdough bread when a catalog on her glacier white Corian countertop catches her attention. While waiting for the coffee, she picks it up and reads the contents.

PALAWAN, she reads it in big bold letters. It's a traveler's guide to Palawan, backpacking in particular.

She remembers her Palawan trip from last year, just weeks after she arrived in the Philippines. She went there with her close friends in college. Since they are already Titas/hot mommas/MILFs, whatever the term is, they only spend their weekend getaway in an exclusive luxury resort of Lio estates.

Dawn admits, it was a paradise. Heaven on earth. The moment she laid her eyes in that place, she immediately fell in love. Spectacular. Really.

But... reading the catalog she is holding, Palawan has so much to offer. Other than the luxury of where they stayed, the outside world was equally impressive.

Adventure – that pops up in her mind instantly.

She paused.

Then she takes a sip of coffee and returns to reading the catalog.

She paused again.

She racks her brain, remembering and mentally reviewing her schedule, meetings, and seminars for the month.