One rainy Saturday afternoon while I was waiting for blog coach Martine Cosio de Luna of Dainty Mom for a scheduled meeting at Café Breton at The Podium , I found myself staring intently at an open faced chicken sandwich.
And like that in a movie sequence, I saw my blogs in a flashback spread before me. It was not an encouraging recollection. I have been writing for years now on my blog. I had few readers and loyal followers. I enjoyed writing my thoughts down because it calmed my spirit and gave me perspective. (plus of course, it cuts half the bulk of what my husband had to endure, -if I articulated all of them to him. Therefore husbands, encourage your wives to blog.)
I was comfortable with my blogsite even without a domain. It was a fun time partying with comic sans. It was all those five years of blogging and living under a rock. But, there was always that nagging feeling, however. (twenty questions and then some.)
First, I did not know who I was, in terms of ” this person ” managing a personal blog. Second , I failed to answer the basic who, what, where, why and how questions.
who was I as a blogger?
what was my own blog all about?
where would I like my writings to take me?
why am I keeping a blog? and how committed was I to blogging?
And taking off from my son’s line of reasoning which is,
” Mom, if there is a street called Abad Santos, is there also a good Santos?”, -I knew I had to find things out myself.
If I was roaming the web as an unhappy blogger with an extreme identity crisis, wouldn’t I prefer to be on the other end of the bandwidth?Like maybe someone in control and knowing who she was and what her brand was?
Those mind boggling questions were reasons I signed up for a blog mentorship with Martine, right after one of her workshops which was held at Kuppa Roastery and Cafe at Global City.
Enlisting for a blogging mentorship was a realization of sorts for me.
Something akin to what a newly awakened Captain America might have felt, after several years of staying frozen under a block of ice.
There will always be that one person who will ask you the right questions. (and no, it just isn’t Nick Fury.)
A reverberating roar of answers that I was truly searching for in my heart came after that meeting.
I clearly saw who I was as a blogger. ( why of course, with Archimedes saying,” eureka. ” )
” I am a mom taking a coffee break from mommy duties. In between sips, I write down valuable life experiences acquired from my being a mom and a Filipino-with strong opinions about the country.”
I am very Pinay.
Martine on the other hand, after having read my blogs, did not have a hard time identifying what kind of writer I was and what my blog was to me.
And where I was as a writer in my writing journey. ” You are a mom on a soapbox”, she said.
What is a soapbox?
” soap·box noun -ˌbäks:
a box or small platform that someone stands on to give a speech to people in an outdoor, public place.
-1907 was the first known year soapboxes were used as platforms ”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soapbox
” Socialists popularized the use of the boxes as podiums Stacks of wooden soapboxes were common in the streets and alleys of American cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries…”
Yes, while the 20th century and Coco Chanel ushered in women wearing trousers and sporting short hair, soapboxes were also around.
Thus as a mom armed with love for country and equipped with a soapbox, my brand was born. I was a Filipina stepping on my soapbox.
From owning a blog with a header that used to be lyrics of a song and having a domain site I did not own, I am now proudly wearing a Hello-my-name-is-thesoapboxfilipina.com-tag.
Finding ones identity, searching for ones brand and settling in ” the new home” would all have not been possible for The Soapbox Filipina, if not for these persons who supported me and shared their time, skills, creativity and love :
1. Martine Cosio de Luna of Dainty Mom.
http://daintymom.com
Of course, for her blog mentorship, direction, design and my newly installed soapbox. ( -which I am most definitely keeping, thanks Martine.)
2. Rachel, who up until now I only know as Rachel, The Web Designer.
http://www.momprentice.com/p/design-portfolio.html
I thank her for having designed the header which bore similarities with my country’s beautiful flag.
And especially also for having tweaked the vector file logo of the girl in the soapbox according to my specifications.
(n.b. I finally met her in one event, thus that group pic:) )
3. Marge Aberásturi, The Happy WAHM
And
4. Jennyfer Ang Tan, The Techie Mom –
I thank them both for assisting me in purchasing a domain, in web hosting, in the redirection, in the migration
( hopefully not migraine-tion ) and for everything wordpress.
In a tempting buffet table of plug-ins, widgets, htmls and permalinks, they showed me the way to redemption.
I am wordpress empowered!
5. Rafa, my son
who always reminded and inspired me to keep on learning.”
It’s a beautiful day to learn, mom. ” ( …something of the Phineas and Ferb precept )
6. Richard, my husband, who is my greatest fan
-always taking a peek at my drafts even before I could actually let them loose on the web.
7. My Dad and my Mom who both first were my greatest fans. ( not only in writing but in everything else.)
8. My family:
my siblings, my sisters & brothers-in-law and my close friends
for having placed their two cents on my header and logo before it was launched.
9. Our Lady of Lourdes for listening, always.
10. And to God, from whom all Great Things come from.
As my writing journey continues, I now welcome all of you to my new home.
“I know that life is never beautiful when spent alone. I know that a person is ascertained through the family, friends, love ones and surroundings he keeps.
Even as a child, I loved to write. I had always kept a journal. I found out that writing was my loudest voice. And my journal was my soapbox. ”
- Pier Angeli B. Ang Sen is The Soapbox Filipina.
( And of course, special citation goes to the open faced chicken sandwich. Alongside with the substances poured into it, which harnessed naturally occurring synapses -that fueled my brain cells that day, thank you.)
