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I have become the artist I thought I’d never be.

My dad has a Masters degree in Business administration and my mom a bachelors degree in interior designing. I wonder what it will be for me?

This question normally comes to our mind right before we finish high school. So this big question on what course we take would somehow dictate the path of our lives? Wow, this is huge, right? Too overwhelming! Let’s break it down to a manageable question? What are my subject interests? I normally excelled in my sciences but suffered a lot in my math, sports—non contact please, language can communicate effectively…ok…Creative talents? I got some pretty neat art awards! Perhaps this is the path!

So I gave Art school a shot since it was also near my home. I tried to apply in one of our country’s best but failed the entrance test. I tried to do summer art school, just to give it a push but still didn’t make it. Most of the students I was with were like born with pencils as their fingers, like freaking geniuses. I was competing with natural born artists. I mean they stare at the sculpture and replicate it on drawing paper like it was photographed! No chance that I could be better than them with my skill set.

Parked the idea, soul searched, got to the other college I got accepted to, took up b.s hotel & restaurant management, very few options left for me. Then I worked in our family owned business, an internet cafe. There I did desktop publishing. Then worked for hotels as Front desk receptionist. Got tired standing for at least 7 hours a shift. By 2007, call centers in the Philippines was booming, tried it out,got tired sitting on the desk for at least 7 hours. What to do now?

Opportunity knocks. My wife gets accepted in a medical training program in the US, two years after we got married in 2006. It meant leaving home, family and friends.

But a new life awaits as we traveled and discovered our new home and environment. The Jersey shore, New jersey, what used to be known as sandy beaches, boardwalks, Bruce Springsteen’s playground. Is now Snooki’s. (recently devastated by the storm Sandy) But thanks to suburbia, the home of wholesale superstores, I was able to afford my first dslr (Digital single reflex camera). A Canon rebel xs with two kit lenses to experiment with. This came so timely because our two year old daughter was getting harder and harder to take pictures of with our point and shoot cameras.

So juggling weekend night shifts as an operating room technician and my wife finishing her pediatric training for the next three years, a new love develops.

Being the primary caregiver to my daughter I have become what today’s society call the SAHD. Stay at home dad, sounds depressing? It’s not all bad. Picture this, on most days its just me, my daughter & her jogging stroller at sunset on a beach in Ocean Grove. Snapshot! Priceless moment!