It’s only a few days before March ends and A LOT SURPRISINGLY HAPPENED. I remember telling myself not to promise a specific mood for my first three months of 2026 but instead just let everything unfold on its own. I already kickstarted a few things before 2025 ended and it is safe to say that some of them are starting to bear fruit.

What’s up with my career lately

For quite some time, I’ve always been thinking of a career revamp of sorts. I tried transitioning to a different field last year to no avail, and it made me realize that some things aren’t just meant to be, no matter how hard I tried. I also even got offers abroad because I decided to send applications on a random night in October 2025. But again, some circumstances weighed heavier, so I had to let them go. I disappointed a lot of my friends on this one, actually.

It kinda became the universe’s nudge to maximize what I already have instead of starting from scratch (for the nth time). As many of you have known, I’ve been on the ESL industry for a long time and most of these years were spent catering to specific niches because of familiarity that it actually became a bad kind of mundane. Not that I am complaining, especially that these helped in my sustenance for the past seven years.

I convinced myself that seven years are more than enough for me to step the game up. So, I took a risk by working on my Preply profile. My account has been up for three years but I wasn’t confident back then so it remained dormant until February 2026, when some of my former colleagues from 51Talk have been sharing about their stories, including their income (which is massively huge comparing to their previous working experiences) and that piqued my interest. Also, in this economy? Settling for less won’t be an option anymore. Not exactly the type who wants to be mediocre for the rest of my life, and I’ll be needing money to live with caprices.

As of writing, I already finished all the courses in their academy, I gained traction on the platform, and I now have students who subscribed to my lessons at a reasonable rate. I am doing my best to establish my own teaching system with the help of technology by building monitoring spreadsheets, curating my own lesson materials, and personalizing lesson plans for each of my students. I guess, all the studying I did last year as an aspiring virtual assistant didn’t really go to waste after all. Looking forward to making this a concrete working place and a huge milestone, since Preply is among the globally-leading online learning platforms and working here is a heavy credential under my belt.

I also had other side gigs along the way. I got some short-term writing clients where I wrote business and academic content, and I even did a voice-over for a small business overseas. These side quests were fun— I got to explore my other skills too.

The Launching of Still and Strings

I already wrote about this on my other post, so this is more of the major updates regarding my small bead business.

In a span of month, I gained quite a number of orders from my friends and colleagues and I truly appreciate their support. Most of them are already delivered and I have two ongoing customized orders. Here are some of my creations that might turn into actual collections:

I find it satisfying whenever I hook beads and create cute things out of them. Thinking of concepts that matches the customers’ preferences is challenging but I enjoy how mentally stimulating it is. At the very least, my creative side continues to flourish even in simple tasks like this.

Mid-March was a bit tough for the business though— I experienced a supplier’s delay. I had to communicate to some of my customers and I am truly thankful for their understanding.

This side hustle may be small yet, but I am gradually applying what I learned as a degree holder of business administration in tidbits. To some extent, I am happy to finally give justice to my degree even with a small start.

Hopping Across Cafés and Restaurants

In a span of three months, I’ve already gone to quite a number of cafés and food stops across Iligan and Cagayan de Oro city. Life’s too short not to try some of them, and I literally included this hobby in my monthly budget.

JANUARY 2026

This immediately started right after the New Year celebration, where Gem, Brynn, and I had a cozy afternoon at Brave Work Cafe (Pala-O branch) to catch up and talk about everything in life. We ordered lattes with reduced sugar amount because Gem genuinely cared about our health and he has always been an advocate of healthy living in general. As trentahins (people nearing our 30s), we reflected on how life has been shaping us lately by exchanging thoughts and experiences. We have different walks of life— Gem manages his own school while being an insurance agent and a ForEx trader on the side, Brynn is a stock trader while being a full-time law student, and you guys already know about me. Throughout our twelve years (and counting) of friendship, we’ve gone through hell and back and it was refreshing for us to see how far we’ve come, concluding the café date by looking forward to how 2026 will unfold for us and by reaffirming our friendship.

Then came my first trip to Cagayan de Oro. I did some important errands then decided to stop by Starbucks in SM Downtown where I had a quick overlap with Gelo. I was craving for something chocolatey, so I opted for this drink before going to Miniso.

More than a week later, Gelo and I continued with our monthly coffee tradition. Since we have to make sure there’s a parking space for his D-Max, he suggested we steer a bit from the downtown and opted for Uptown Coffeestry where we spent an entire afternoon of yapping about many things.

The café itself was marvelous— we can see the downtown view from the al fresco area. Timely, the weather was in our favor so we were able to enjoy the sunset while sipping our lattes. One funny experience though— we forgot our change because we got too immersed in the conversation. Good thing was that Gelo managed to get in touch with the management and retrieve the change the next day. They’re accommodating and being there was a good experience, overall. We promised to return here when time allows us to.

FEBRUARY 2026

One interesting part of our city’s overall development is the way shops are becoming a commonplace even in suburban areas, making it more convenient for Iliganons. I happen to live in the edge of Iligan City and it takes me about 30 minutes to get to the downtown area by jeepney.

More cafés and small restaurants are spawning near my house and since I run every week, I decided to check some of them out and make them my quick coffee stop whenever needed.

Here’s one of them— a few meters away from my house. Brew Code is a months-old small café which I only discovered while running. I had a great chat with the owner while enjoying my strawberry soda and french fries. The prices are quite reasonable and this spot became one of my cooldown spots after running.

My city’s among the most damaged areas when Typhoon Penha struck the Philippines hence most of us got immobile for about a week. My friends and I only communicated virtually as most of them got hit by the flood. It took us another week to get fully in touch with each other, so when Jassie managed to get back home from her workplace in Cagayan de Oro, she spontaneously scheduled a valentine’s dinner with me and Gelo at Yuri’s Food Counter.

We talked about a lot of things while it was pouring outside. We didn’t let the bad weather hinder the fun because our schedules rarely match and we couldn’t miss this opportunity.

The next day, I was back in Cagayan de Oro to try for a possible transfer to a different university, have a solo museum date, and try one of the cafés inspired by Hanoi, Vietnam— Vietman Ca Phe. To be honest, this was the first time I dated myself for Valentine’s Day and it was a fulfilling milestone.

Given the current global crisis, it’s kinda hard for many to travel internationally and I’ve been missing Vietnam, so I decided to spot cafés like this just to get THAT feeling again somehow until my next international trip. I got myself bac xiu and a sandwich before I went back to Iligan City.

After uploading a lot of content about my recent moments on TikTok, one of them organically blew up. This gave me the nudge to continue posting food-related content on the platform and I immediately planned my next stop— Mui’s Cupsilog, famous for their affordable rice bowls.

THEIR FOOD’S GOOD. The images featured above are in their main branch, actually. The crowd’s hovering non-stop and the hype is definitely worth it.

The establishment immediately responded by reposting when I uploaded this image carousel on TikTok and on Instagram, which led me to my second organic TikTok blow up.

Jassie has gone to their second branch and she told me how aesthetic the interior is. I am honestly looking forward to going there when I make it past my heavy schedule.

A week later, I went back to one of my comfort cafés in the city— benn&BEAN. I had a horrible afternoon after being handed the official document of my comprehensive exam results (Spoiler— I failed all subjects.) and I just had to treat myself to keep going. Timely, I was rocking a baddie outfit so I might as well maximize everything by taking good pictures while enjoying my carbonara and iced americano.

MARCH 2026

This was by far the busiest month because of the career transition and Caleb’s school year coming to an end. In spite of the loaded schedule, I still managed to hangout with friends and loved ones and bonded over good food.

For a start, it’s One Percent— Caleb’s personal favorite. We were doing some important errands and we were really craving for snacks, so I got matcha and he got blueberry soda while sharing a bowl of fries.

We also wanted to try their billiard corner but it wasn’t vacant at the time, so we will go back when we can.

A week later, I caught up with Jassie again over the classic Dunkin’ Donuts before hitting the gym. Life and career has been really quite heavy for both of us, hence this spontaneous date was really necessary.

The spontaneity didn’t end there, of course. Right after the gym session, I tagged along Jassie and her other besties, Dhannica and Sarah, and we all went to the night market to have some post-gym fruit shakes.

That’s a lot for a Saturday, but it was a blast, overall. Aside from good workout and snacks, a new all-girl circle was formed.

If that wasn’t enough spontaneity for you, I have more. A few days later, Brynn just sent me a message telling me that he’s back home from Ozamis City— where he is currently pursuing law school. That message automatically translates to a coffee date.

And just like that, I’m back at benn&BEAN again, where we spent the next three hours yapping about a lot of things.

The catch-up didn’t end there— we found ourselves craving for sweets! So we walked all the way to our next stop— Urban Coffee Studio.

Hearts are full with refreshing talks and good food, indeed.

The next day, Jassie, Sarah, and I are back at the gym. Dhannica wasn’t able to join us because of health issues, sadly. But it was another productive workout and we celebrated body confidence on this day. For out post-gym dinner, we opted for a healthier option— Nanay Sue’s Healthy Shack.

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You could say that I spent lots of money on food experiences alone, but everything was worth it because I got to do this with people who matter. All these are genuine memories worth preserving, and you guys should really watch out for more entries like this.

At this point, I should make a separate tab on the blog for all the food adventures, right? What do you think? Feel free to comment.

Other Important Updates

I am still running, by the way. As of writing, my average pace is now at 8:55/KM, which is a huge progress for a slow runner.

I’m also starting to get comfortable at the gym, thanks to my girl friends. My body confidence has improved a lot that I started wearing sports bra in public. Every muscle pain I get from workout sessions are becoming worth it, and I can proudly say that this is the kind of pain worth having for.

I also decluttered my room— got rid of things and clothes that I don’t use anymore to make room for new ones. I donated some of them to the victims of Typhoon Penha, thanks to the initiative led by WordPress Iligan.

Speaking of WordPress and content creation, I AM LOVING MY NEW BRAND! This resonates so well with me and I am proud to have been creating content across this blog, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. I still make my monthly dump videos and reels about my life snippets, and I’ll be making this into a habit so that I get to document my life as it unfolds.

I am spending my remaining days focusing on my career and graduate studies while recharging my social battery. I am so happy with how my first quarter of 2026 turned out, and I am thankful to God for His guidance and providence throughout. All the glory belongs to Him.

Thankful to my friends and family, too! Can’t wait to see how the next months will go. I’ll definitely write about them when the time comes.

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Looking back, the first quarter of 2026 wasn’t perfect—but it was real.

There were risks, small wins, unexpected turns, and moments that reminded me why I keep going.

If anything, this season taught me that growth doesn’t always come in big, life-changing breakthroughs. Sometimes, it quietly shows up in the routines we build, the people we spend time with, and the courage to keep trying again—even after setbacks.

And if this is how the year started, I’m honestly excited (and a little curious) to see how the rest of 2026 unfolds.

Until then.

— xoxo, Winnie.