"If you know me based on who I was a year ago, you don't know me at all. My growth game is strong. Allow me to reintroduce myself."
- Anonymous

Hello Hivers! Surprised that I kinda just popped out of nowhere? Or you haven't even noticed that I was gone? Either way, I'm bringing you @thegaillery energy and you have no choice but to absorb it 😆 Thank you for supporting my comeback post. It made me realize how much I loved writing to an audience that actually reciprocates the value that you give.

This post is a re-introduction of who @thegaillery is. After 5 months of hiatus, I believe I have finally found my voice. I realized just who I wanted to be on Hive... on the internet - I want to be a friend 😁.

A character from the series that I'm currently hooked on said "The internet brings out the worst in people, but it could also bring out the best." Seeing stories (mostly tweets) of hate on celebrities, influencers, politicians and even on normal people who mistakenly triggered a group made me think how easy the internet has made hate to propagate. It made me think about how in pain these people are in real life to come out as hateful as their online personas are. I truly believe that hurt people, hurt people. Consequences of the online hate to the receiver are immense. For one, we've seen how Taylor Swift suffered through a mental health turmoil because people just wanted her dead. We also witnessed how an artist called Morbid lost his career because sleuth netizens thought he was responsible for killing Elisa Lam. He shared that he almost took his life during that time.

I wish to use this space as a safe place for everyone who wants to feed their mind the good side of things. I wish to use this space for good. That sound cheesy to you? I guess that's okay but I'm not stopping because I've already made up my mind 😉.

One weird thing that I discovered while I was organizing my life is that I have a fascination for things that start with the letter F. I'm into fitness, finance, fun, food and I've made peace with the fact that I am a deeply feeling person. I want to be that friend who you can talk to about these things. I want to be one of the persons you turn to when you have a question to ask about these things.

Allow me to start our conversation by sharing my background on these things...

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FITNESS

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I love to exercise 🏋️‍♀️.

My fitness journey started when I was in college. Before that, I was a fat kid and I had a bad relationship with food. I succumb to stress eating (even now!) because I knew of no other comfort than the feeling of being full. I will share more about food in a while. I had no sport, no friends to play with me at home, and no fitness-enthusiast adult I could look up to for advice and inspiration. What I had though were DVDs of cheerleaders and dancers who had amazing bodies and were living the healthy lifestyle. I would get a boost from the movies "Bring It On," "Step Up" and "Save the Last Dance 2" - they inspired me! I would dance their routines once the credits roll in.

Come college time and I made it a point to sweat every other night and Cassey Ho was my first coach. I loved her energy! Anyone a Blogilates baby here too? I'll never forget the question that my cousin asked when she saw me sweating one night "I don't understand why you'd go through that suffering just to look good?" And I tell you, that question was hard for me to answer back then, but now I can confidently say that "I go through self-imposed pain so that the unforeseen pain will be a small thing for me 💪. Looks are a secondary priority." My fitness routine continued when I was studying for the board exams. I had fun subscribing to a month's worth of gym membership.

My love for fitness started to go in full bloom when I discovered pole dancing. I've always wanted to try per the influence of Youtuber Anna Akana and I was convinced that I also wanted to be sexy. Lo and behold, the universe heard my wish and I met my coaches Anne Porter and Juli Ponder. I was poling and aerial hooping for almost 2 years until the pandemic hit and closed my second home - the Fit and Fab Pole Fitness Studio.

While I was poling, I've gotten to know yoga too. My corporate friends were into yoga and it was a major plus that one of our friends was a yoga teacher. When I'm off pole, we do yoga after work hours in Cebu Yacht Club and sometimes in the company conference room. I also got to try aerial yoga one time and it stretched my body so good that it was in pain 😆. It was the kind of pain that I don't mind feeling all over again. I'm sure stretchy folks could relate.

As luck would have it, our neighbors put up a boxing gym right next door. This was built just last year and it really helped me develop my attitude for everyday training. It made things easier for me to get my ass up every morning to workout. I tried my hand in boxing November last year and it makes me sweat like no other. It's good cardio and strength training. Some fear that their arms get bigger from boxing but I fear not being able to throw strong punches even more. I don't mind getting big arms when they can throw a mean punch to mean people 🥊.

I'm glad to have the Bee A Better You Community where I can share my fitness routines and combos from pole dancing, boxing and yoga. Next month, I'm going to try freediving with my friends as well. I'm so excited to share pictures, videos and stories to the community.

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FINANCE

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I like taking charge of my finances and I like to help families do the same 💰.

My finance journey started when I was a little girl. At age 4, I could already tell that the world was kinder to the rich than to the poor, at least here in the Philippines.

I've recently connected the dots as to why my life is the way it is right now, I can say that the painful childhood memory of being treated as second-class citizens by our own extended family urged me to want financial freedom for myself and my immediate family. We had a relative treat us like we were second-class to them. From the clothes that we wore to the way we lived our lives - we were all subject to their scrutiny. I tell you, it wasn't a very healthy environment for our self-esteem. We were always careful with our every move because one slight disturbance and they get wind of it, it'll be raining rants and insults for sure. It was hard not to take things personally because we always felt that everything we do is just wrong.

To illustrate just how these insults went on about, there was a time when we gave our grandma a pair of eyeglasses. It was our grandma's pick and it cost a lot but we didn't mind because it was for her own good anyway. Our relative criticized the hell out of the eyeglasses and told her that it was ugly and made from cheap material. My grandma believed them more and decided to discard the eyeglasses because wearing it brought her shame. I felt hurt. The money that was used to pay for her glasses could have been used to buy our toys but we gave way and it was all for naught anyway.

I could remember how I swore to my young self back then that I'm not going to let the same thing happen to my family again. I'm going to work on myself so well that I'd achieve success and thus be paid more. I will be good in handling money so that I can be wealthy and I will lift my family from the treatment of my relatives. Dramatic, right? That's the history of me.

It was kinda dark but that's what's gotten me to where I am today. I also remember a seminar in college where we invited a financial planner and his talk really made a mark on me. I was then really active in seeking out financial knowledge that it led me to IMG, FAMI and eventually to AXA. I'd like to detail more of my tales on finance in my upcoming posts so I won't bore you with the length of this one.

I hope my posts about finance can find a home in LeoFinance Community. I'll be sharing some techniques and concepts that I've learned and applied as a Financial Advisor. I'll be sharing my journey towards financial freedom as well, with less drama next time 😆.

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FUN

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"Life is too short to not have fun! 😜"

That's what I tell myself when I feel like life is closing in on me. Whenever I go through something tough, I resist the urge to isolate myself. I go to new places, I move, I talk to strangers just so I could place things in the right perspective and not let the problems consume me.

One of the most fun times that I had would be when I asked a complete stranger to go on a date with me and my girlfriends 🤣. I guess FOMO got the best of me. It was totally out of my character to do that but I can only look back at it and smile. It was date night for me and my girls, they were bringing their boyfriends but I was still single at that time. I messaged a stranger to ask where he lived and funnily enough, he lived near the resto we were eating at - talk about good timing, right? It was a dinner for six! I remembered how my friend scolded me for being impulsive and totally out-of-myself that time but I just laugh now at the stupidity of the experience!

In this space, I'd like to talk about the events that I've taken part in, the hobbies that I'm doing, the drinking sessions with my weakshit self and the new places that I will visit.

I can picture more of my content on fun be posted in HaveYouBeenHereCommunity. I'd feature new places, hangouts, resorts and maybe some tales of stupid too 😆.

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FEELINGS

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I'm all about competing with the past version of myself 🔥.

Which is what I absolutely love about coming back to Hive for good - the Self-Improvement Community. I like to write and read and just work at improving myself. I'm into joining classes and self-improvement communities like Toastmasters. I also like levelling my skills up, that's part of the reason why I'm taking up Bridge Courses to Masters in Business Administration right now. I enjoy upskilling!

One of the best feelings in the world for me is surprising myself with the progress that I have reached. Sure, it gets boring and mundane sometimes but I get a gold rush from discovering that I was able to do something I haven't been able to do before. Whether it be a workout routine, or a promotion, or a little success - the feeling is the same. I might let you peek into the goals that I have for myself this year. Only if you want to! I don't wanna impose myself 😂.

I'm definitely posting on the community about the highs and lows of levelling up. I'm sure I'd find like-minded individuals there too 😄.

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FOOD

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I love to eat 🍌🍎🥚🥗🍿🥞🍰🥓🍕!

And I'm currently working on fixing my relationship with food. I love to eat and I believe I can retrain my brain to eat healthier. I'd say the trigger would be the documentary I watched on Netflix - The Game Changers. I was mindblown how plants were the real boosters for strength as opposed to the commonly-held belief that it was meat. It developed my attitude towards clean eating. I love the fullness that I get from a green healthy wrap compared to what the samgyupsal meat can give. The fullness minus the guilt and bloatedness feel so good! Of course, I haven't gone full-on green freak yet, I still eat my meat but I drool for greens now 😜. I'm not sure if this is placebo but I like what it's doing to me.

I was so happy to have met the Foodies Bee Hive Community. I'm excited to meet like-minded individuals who love eating clean as well. I can see myself sharing meal plans, my calorie counting and intermittent fasting journey.

So how does these all sound to you? Have I convinced you that I'll make a good online friend? Hahaha, let me know what you think and comment down below!

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