City Girl meets the Farm Life

Hi there! I’m Aireen, born and raised in the great city of Cebu, who
moved to the middle of nowhere.

No one knows where I am right now. As strange as it seems, I live in a place where pigs and cows are greater in number than actual people. I live in Iowa. It is somewhere in the middle of America where you cannot dip your toes on the beach or climb a mountain either. It is purely vast farm fields. It takes about 22 miles to go to a town with a small-sized mall and about 4 hours to eat authentic seafood restaurant and some Korean grill. It gets pretty lonely and extremely quiet on this side of the world but what do I do when life decides for me? Nothing! but just accept it.

Let me take you back to my growing years in the Philippines. Just like a normal Filipino family, I was raised to be very close with my siblings and parents. My family is one of those kinds where you did not want to leave the house because home is better than anywhere else. Therefore, my life revolved around my family so much that I got ultimately dependent on my parents. I was 24 but my responsibilities were that of a 13-year-old teenager. Imagine how pampered I was at such an age. As a result, my maturity level was down the drain, but at that point in time, it did not bother me at all.

Fast forward to when I decided to work abroad, it was so exciting for me because I have always loved traveling and going to new places. It made me excited, but I got heartbroken right away when I found out that America is not what I envisioned it to be. The American dream was not as dreamy after all. When the glitters had faded away and it turned to tears and anxiety. The bubbly, confident, careless, and carefree soul of mine was replaced with silence, fear, and constant self-doubt. It was the most terrifying season of my life. I had to cry my eyes out as soon as I close the doors of my room every single time. I was thrown into reality and was forced to step up and mature as fast as I could to survive.

When the world experienced the covid pandemic in the year 2020, I experienced isolation roughly 2 years earlier than that. Thus, my life sure did turn 180 degrees. It happened so fast that I was not able to prepare and buckle up my seat belt for the unbelievable drive of my life.

It’s tough when you cannot go shopping anymore or eat out like you used to. These guilty pleasures of city life had quickly turned to cooking, washing the dishes on weekends, doing laundry, and more cleaning. Hanging out with friends in restaurants and chilling out with the family at home turned to nonstop FaceTime and phone calls to ease the loneliness of this new life I am in. What was once a noisy home turned to a deafening silence. I did notice another difference, there was no heavy traffic but why do I find myself wishing there was? Because at this point, I’d rather be stuck in traffic than see only 2 cars on the road if I get lucky.

The unexpected just happened and it blew out of proportion. I wish I had someone with me to hold my hand when all of this had happened, but I guess this momentous, life-changing event was and still is meant to be experienced alone.

Up to this day, I still couldn’t believe why out of the many places in the world, God placed me here. But dare not question the Lord for his excellence is far greater than anyone. So, I stand still prayed, and let him lead the way. After years of finding answers, and constant reflection on my life, I have realized that I am the only solution to my own happiness, and it is up to me to wallow in loneliness or celebrate my small wins in life. So, after 3 miserable years of life, I had a change of plan. And that plan was to smile and laugh often, forget about the bitterness of this world, and focus on what makes me happy.

I would love to let you in on a little glimpse of my life through my short stories, captured photos, and documented videos. I am going to write my heart out on every post I make. Smile as wide as I can in every photo taken and make you see and feel what life God has blessed me in every video I take.

I wish to write about my change of career from being a full-time Medical Laboratory Scientist to an Interior design student. Yes, I am a Medical Laboratory Scientist by Profession and I have been working as such for 6 years now. It is a great job by the way, but it is just not the right one for me, I guess. I would also want to share my love for family and traveling because why not. Who does not want to see new places and discover new things right? And maybe chit-chat a little bit about how difficult being in a long-distance relationship is. It sure is hard when you only get to see the love of your life once a year or twice if we get lucky. I will let you in on our travels as we meet halfway across the world just to be in each other’s arms. Most importantly, I would want to share how I found God and felt his presence during the most difficult season of my life. So let me take you to my pursuit in life. Journey with me as I show you how magnificent God’s power is as he sprinkles stardust into my life without me noticing. Because I could only see the loneliness and sorrow in this world before, yet little did I know that he secretly worked his magic within my heart.

Before I end this blog, I would like to share with you how happy I am to be able to write my feelings freely. If it weren't for @thegaillery and @brokemancode I wouldn't be able to discover this safe and fun platform. I'm glad I was able to attend @indayclara 's webinar. I have learned so many things from it. You guys are amazing!

Aireen Montana

_{Aireen is a citizen of the world. She lives in America and in the Philippines. She is much more than the number of stamps in her passport because her pursuit of happiness is not about acquiring things, it is about exploring life. Join her as you peek into her life’s snakes and ladders adventure but most importantly, talk to her because she wants to connect with different people with different walks of life.}

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