#ishel

[harlivylove]

This is fun 🤩

The Art of Ishel

I am a freelance Graphic Designer that loves to draw. Soy una Diseñadora Gráfica que ama dibujar....

[incarnation-of-rasputin]

My special boy from my Wildemount campaign, Ishel! 💜✨

[ishelpartdeux]

If you’ve followed this blog for so long, you would know how I like to keep my posts tidy by making bullet lists. It’s as if every paragraph can be summed up in bullets, and I am not having second thoughts to keep it that way.

The thing is, I usually get most of my numbered lessons from, say, thoughtcatalog.com or eliteldaily.com or lifehacks.org for inspiration. I can’t recall the last time I wrote one myself because I have a peeve of not writing about something until I have actually experienced it. Thus, I didn’t want to preach people about relationships until I’ve lived with someone happily ever after. I didn’t want to preach people about employment until I’ve found the right job for me.

Don’t get me wrong— I applaud people for coming up with great advice because that just goes to show how vocally aware and probably how experienced they are in life. For me though, I wanted to put up something that I can totally tag as mine, all of which I have experienced first-hand.

So for my 25th birthday, I am listing down some empirical instances that made me say, “Aaaah, this is it, I am experiencing life!”

{ Part Deux }

This is the sequel of my quarter life birthday write-up. I compiled few things I’ve personally picked up about life in general:

The life lessons from elitedaily, lifehack, and thoughtcatalog are utterly vague most of the time. It’s about time you create your own bullets. ;-)

You don’t have to ride with everyone else’s life choices. Most Tumblr bloggers I know have changed blogging platforms, and it is not for me to contest their decision if it’s easier for them to blog from there. I like Tumblr as it is and I don’t have to switch just because everyone else did.

Be careful of who you talk about in public transportation. You will never know the chances of realizing their mother is in front of you.

Life is full of surprises. Someone may knock at your front door to bring you breakfast at 6 in the morning. Or a canned juice drink might be waiting for you in your workstation when you come to work after being sick.

You were selfless for years, be selfish this time, just this time. You have to put your own gas mask on before you attend to children on a plane, right? Yes, well the airlines have a point.

Cheap thrills are everything. Taho in the morning, balut late at night.

Learn how to cook at least one dish, and perfect it. There will be days you will be home alone and delivery is not an option.

Tequila is satan in liquid form. Te-kill-ya. Enough said.

It’s okay to have a secret crush on a local celebrity. Hello. Because Alden Richards. And also, people don’t even care and won’t admit their own secret crushes, lol.

Expensive doesn’t always equate value for money. The most expensive pair of black shoes I bought for school gave me painful blisters. The first car I bought was a Honda which I sold a year after because of a faulty engine.

Find something you are truly passionate about. For example, I have been blogging since I was twelve and I find great personal fulfillment from it.

Take a risk and go down a completely different road from everyone else. A friend who graduated Business Administration Major in Financial Management degree with me is now happily cooking delectable food and baking the sumptuous desserts in the United States.

Being original is not always the case. Some of the thoughts we have right now are influences from something/someone else, one way or another.

Conversely, stay unique. We all have remarkable characteristics that make us differ from anyone after all. Your thumbprint alone is testament, lol.

The more you need closure, the more likely it is you’ll never get it from the other party. The only person who can really put yourself back together is you.

Cutting your hair short makes your head lighter. Like literally lighter. It may also psychologically make you feel fresh and ready for a new life.

Your partner doesn’t have to pay the bill all the time. Similarly, the amount of money he spends on you doesn’t tell how much he loves you.

Whoever said a lady should never have to buy herself jewelry or flowers or chocolate was probably wrong about everything else, too.

Most of my favorite memories were made while traveling— bad or good. Be it worst shower ever in Campuestuhan Highland Resort in Negros Occidental bad, or wondrous sea of clouds in Sagada Mt. Province good.

Nobody has it all. What somebody lacks, another person will have, vice versa.

Never underestimate a good cry. Also, it’s okay to cry in the bathroom at work when everyone and everything is frustrating you.

Going places alone is perfectly fine. The most absurd but effective ideas I have come up with were from the times I was wandering alone along the streets of Makati and Taguig.

Negativity (and positivity) is contagious. As much as possible, stay away from negative people. Even better, be your own kind of positive and influence them.

You will get through whatever it is you are going through. Everything is temporary. The problem you are obsessing with right now will not even matter 5, 10, 15 years from now.

Listen to where your heart wants to lead you. Because.. need I say more?

[ishelpartdeux]

On Turning Twenty-Five

How is it that my birthday has come and go just like that for twenty-five years? Time has snuck up on me way too quickly and this quarter life crisis has gone pretty interesting that I decided to do a birthday write-up in two parts. Because, well, part deux? …ummm, haha. I will be publishing the second part on a separate post. Hence, this coming-of-age birthday post is extra special because it reeks nostalgia by two-fold.

{ Part Un }

Damn, I just turned 25. To make that sink in even more, I’m a quarter of a century old, and it’s making me reminisce all of the years that have flown by. As if everything just happened, I recall twenty-five moments that made me who and where am I today:

My first ever recognition from school was Best in Arts. I was in Nursery and I was only four.

There was a reward/recognition system at home where my grandfather hands out fresh twenty-peso bills to whoever shows a perfect exam paper. Mischievously naive that I was, I faked my score but wrote 02/02 instead of 20/20. I remember my family bursting into tears laughing and my lolo telling me, “Next time, tell your teacher to mark your papers right!” In case you’re asking, yes, I got the reward money.

I was in grade one and my then little sister from kinder used to come to my class sobbing, refusing to go home because she says she wants to stay with me. What a cutie pie, Pamee!

I overheard my parents talking about how we’re short on budget for the month sometime in 1996. So I wrote them a letter and put my hundred peso in it explaining I did not really need the money and that they can use it on my behalf.

On third grade I tried to impress my crush by cutting out foils that we would be using to decorate the classroom for Nutrition Month. I ended up not having the foils properly cut up to his expectations.

A big chunk of my childhood includes eating in my favorite chicken joint located in SM Southmall’s Foodcourt— Kipp’s. I’m glad to see they are standing strong throughout the years.

I cried when my dad left to work abroad. We were eating dinner at that time and my lolo asked me why my eyes were red. I was 9 that time and told him something kinda stuck and irritated my eye.

The most fun, memorable school trip I had was in Corregidor back in 2007. Like ghost trip fun.

I kept a daily journal for two straight years from 2006-2007. I never missed an entry. I stopped when our househelp came up to me frustrated after she had read my diary— specifically the pages when I ranted about her.

A lot has been asking where I developed my disgust on ginger— it happened during my first international travel in 2010. My family was visiting my dad where he worked in Singapore/Malaysia. Every meal we ate was ginger-based.

During college, I survived a rinding-in-tandem who played tug-of-war with me in PNoval. I literally got dragged along the street as they tried to leave the scene with my bag still hurled up on my wrist.

I peed my pants right before watching UAAP Basketball in Araneta. I peed my pants during a fieldtrip in Enchanted Kingdom.

Unashamed, I never had my first beer until I stepped out of high school. I graduated college with latin honors. I successfully maintained two scholarship stint for eight straight years.

I used to have a shih tzu named Amber. She was dognapped a week before we got robbed at home. Few years and tears later, we decided it’s time we get a new one— Momo— who died of heatstroke when we left him in the vet. :-( No more furballs in the house since then.

My family had gone through the darkest times. We were in the news! I think about it today and I merely see it as a fragment of the past that we needed to move on from.

In a certain twist of fate, ishelpartdeux was born in 2011 as I remind myself that I’m living a second life. Life is good.

2012 was a time of my life. New job. Old friends. Good and bad habits.

I used to have really bad acne when I was in high school. The scars are still visible below my cheekbones.

It was year 2013 when I started getting obsessed with scarves. I remember wearing different one every day regardless of what I wore. Dress? Scarf. Polo shirt? Scarf. Jacket? Still scarf. To date, I probably had accumulated 20 various scarves…and counting.

It was also year 2013 and it was a year to rebel. I dyed my hair full red.

I was consistently underweight that every throwback photo made me think why I was even let out of the house! It was just last 2014 when my doctor told me I finally have a normal BMI. Best sense of fulfillment ever! I’m still steadily gaining more weight every year till now.

There was a whole week sometime in October 2014 when I cried in the pews at the back of Church everyday. To date, I still go back to Sacred Heart in Makati when I get knocked down one step. I also go back when I get one or two more blessings.

July 2016, I remember casually drinking and insisting to people that I’m an introvert. Until I sang two songs in front of a drunk crowd and jammed with the live band.

I have been blessed with so many travel opportunities. :-)

Last March 2016, I let go of my first job for four years. Shortly after working in my second job for three months— I decided to let go of it as well. I’ve never been so relieved my life. I’m still unsure which track I should pursue now but there’s a tiny bit of an idea in my head to wait it out and let the universe do its thing.

What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of my life are still yet to happen… But you know what’s best thing about being twenty-five? I’m still learning and experiencing. Each day, I have the opportunity to discover something new about myself and the world around me. And that is when I remind myself on things which I will in my next post.

Thank you for the warm greetings! I’m truly grateful that as I tick another year off, I’m blessed with friends and family who remembered.

Cheers to 25, eh?

[ishelortega-blog]

bienvenidos a mi blog gracias por seguirme :)

[ishelpartdeux]

Here is a fair share of my post-birthday existential crisis which I decided to write about every year until after my quarter-life struggle. Nineteen days overdue. Nineteen days sitting on my drafts with forgotten intentions of getting published. I was even giddy composing a week before my day but it still ended up getting stalled. Something just held me back to do so, and I am afraid that my beans (they look beans, don’t they?) caused them; they have been rowing the boat coursed at me again. I felt the brawl building up – particularly this one day I can’t move an inch out of bed no matter how hard I tried – so I had nothing to do but hibernate.

No fret! I’m getting back on track! And now that I’m coping up, I decided to finally write once more (while I can)! Only, I decided to cut few paragraphs which I talked through after the italics…

The moment I look back, remembering the casual events both encompassing and heart-breaking, is when I say, “Aah, it is the time of the year.” Well, yes, it is my birthday – that timely September emancipation day when I can still vividly remember all the memories so motivating to put me where I am today.

It is damn funny how I painfully reminisce the past with a light heart. I stumbled, I may even considered vengeance (but forgave), and transform each compelling piece into a chunk of story I am telling now. I am not saying I am healed, but I probably am still (…healing). I may be reaping the fruits of some awful decisions I made during the past year, but I wouldn’t be writing if it weren’t for these. You know what they say, bad decisions make good stories.

While I am not easily vocal about the stories I tell, maybe now’s the right time. I want to look back to this point in my life so vividly… (I probably got used to pain, that a sharp pain in the chest is more of a routine than a vacation.) Yes, I write, but I write in poetic words that only I can understand. My proses; all but pretentious words for my inappropriate emotional nuisances. These are all memories, fading but gently picked up from the back of my mind, both beautiful and melancholic. I could be regretting writing these down but it’s rather a “damn” than “what ifs”.

– which reminded me this post I had, also the same way how I want to start to tell my story…

I decided to skip the next paragraphs after the italics. Originally, I planned to tell my story less the contextual poetic substances; I wanted to confront people, to narrate what caused me pain, who made me miserable – all pointblank. But I guess this particular event – how I did not get out of bed one morning – decided I should not be blogging them for reasons beyond my emotional capacity. I cannot risk to publish a post that makes me remember something melancholic every time I read it.

I am still sane after all. I still care for myself after all.

So, I decided I end this post on the lighter side of things.. a selfie! And bullets! Of course. I love bullets. My birthdays would not be complete without them. I stumbled upon this list online and compiled my favorites.

24 bullets for my 24th.

Look people in the eye.

Own a great stereo system.

If in a fight, hit first and hit hard.

Make someone’s day by paying the toll for the person in the car behind you.

Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen everyday.

Choose your life’s mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 per cent of all your happiness or misery.

Make it a habit to do nice things for people who will never find out.

Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all that they have.

Give people a second chance, but not a third.

Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.

Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life-and-death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems.

Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.

When someone hugs you, let them be the first to let go.

Beware of the person who has nothing to lose.

Don’t burn bridges. You’ll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river.

Live your life so that your epitaph could read, No Regrets

Be bold and courageous. When you look back on life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.

Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.

Remember no one makes it alone. Have a grateful heart and be quick to acknowledge those who helped you.

Take charge of your attitude. Don’t let someone else choose it for you.

Once in a while, take the scenic route.

Compliment the meal when you’re a guest in someone’s home.

Remember that 80 per cent of the success in any job is based on your ability to deal with people.

Don’t expect life to be fair.

xo, Ish

[ishelpartdeux]

Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don't be sorry. Brunei 2014.

[ishelpartdeux]

It's summer wherever we go, the sun shines if we say so.