What’s My Story

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Childhood

I was born in Manila, Philippines. Growing up, I’ve always loved math. I remembered joining my first math competition in the first grade. I won my first medal in the third grade. This went on until my last year in high school. Thinking that math will bring me success in life, my parents suggested that I take an engineering course in college. Knowing nothing about what I wanted as a career, I openly said yes to the idea and they enrolled me in a school known as the best engineering school in our country.

College Life

I continued to excel in college. In my third year, I was tapped to represent the school in a national competition but this time, I was not alone. We joined a few more competitions until we finally got the championship on our belt. I also took the Electronics Technician board exam that same year and got 7th place. It was one of my proudest moments in college.

Graduation

Despite those achievements, I started to doubt my career choice. The thought of shifting to another course came to mind but I was not 100% sure about what I really wanted to do at that time. So, I still ended up finishing what I’ve already started and graduated as a Dean’s Lister awardee. I also passed the Electronics Engineering board exam. (For verification purposes, my maiden name is Danica Gilbuena.)

Corporate Life

I tried teaching as a board exam reviewer while on the lookout for a job in the corporate. When I finally signed my first job offer, I decided to quit teaching and focused on my career. At first, it was fun. I went through a lot of training in my first three months. Until I got deployed to a project that was not aligned with the role that I actually wanted, I started to falter once again. But what can I do? It’s my first job. I should get it right no matter what. So I still did my best at work. In my first year of working, I received an award as a high performer and got promoted in my second year.

My specialization in college was computer networking but I’ve spent two years in a job doing release management activities. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve learned a lot from my role but I felt like I’m not using what I studied in college. I raised my concerns to my managers but I always got the same answer—business needs. I needed to find a new job. When I found an opportunity to get out, I grabbed it without hesitation.

I spent a year working for my second company as a Network Operations Center Engineer until I was contacted by a Fortune 500 company. With a big jump in salary and good benefits, I did not think twice. It may sound like I’m on it for the money but during that time, I really needed to jump.

Anyway, working for this company was totally different. The environment and people were more professional. The increase in pay when I got promoted was almost 3x higher than what I received when I got promoted in my first job. I don’t want to sound obnoxious but you can be sure I’m telling the truth when I say I lasted for almost five years in this company. In those five years, I’ve worn multiple hats as a Network Analyst, RPA Developer, Network Site Reliability Engineer, and Scrum Master. My career was going so well.

But I am still not happy. What is wrong with me?

Life with More Freedom

I started traveling with my boyfriend (now-husband) in 2013. We toured around my home country for three years. In 2016, we went on our first flight abroad and I was left wanting more. Since then, we’ve been to 21 countries and over 70 cities & provinces in Asia and Europe.

We got married in 2019 and spent our honeymoon touring around Europe for almost a month. When we came back, I found myself asking about my career choices again.

In early 2020, I came across a content marketing course on Facebook and I felt like the universe told me to enroll myself, so I did. It was an in-person training, sitting alongside writers. The feeling got me thrilled.

I’ve been blogging since 2015 but I admit, I’m not a good writer when I started. I’m a math person, remember? But I love to play with words. I started my blog to hone my writing skills and to document our travels. It never came to me that I can make a living as a writer even if I don’t have a degree related to the craft. After that content writing class, I used all my free time to learn about this business and I was slapped in the face with all the opportunities out there.

This is it. After all those years of navigating my quarter-life crisis, I finally found something that I love to do while also serving the lifestyle that I want—a lifestyle with more freedom so I can work anytime, anywhere. In May 2020, I left the corporate world, and never once did I regret that decision.