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Becoming a Virtual Assistant at SOVA

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Photo: Mikey Harris I can’t believe I’m already on my final week of this month-long training to become a Virtual Assistant! Time flew by so fast, and looking back, I’ve learned so much. When I first started, I had an idea of what a VA does, but now I truly understand how crucial assistants are to business owners. We’re not just there to complete tasks—we help keep things organized, efficient, and running smoothly. Photo: SOVA.PH One of the biggest things I learned was email management. Our trainer, Ms. Katherine Padilla of the multi-awarded School of Virtual Assistant (SOVA), in Cebu city Philippines, really gave her all in every session, making sure we grasped the concepts and best practices. We worked a lot with Google productivity apps, like Google Calendar for scheduling events and managing appointments, Gmail for handling emails efficiently, and Google Drive for organizing and storing documents. I also got hands-on experience with Trello for project management and Slack for commun...
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Chasing Stories in Singapore

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Photo:  Muhammad Faiz Zulkeflee Travel, culture, food, and basically a mix of everything—this trip had it all.  Singapore amazed me with its diversity, its seamless blend of cultures, and its stunning architecture. I’ve always appreciated harmonious yet quirky landscape and structure designs, and maybe that’s the remnant of me once considering studying Architecture before college. I was so undecided back then, lol! Photo:  Jan Folwarczny This was way back in September 2013, and actually, it was my friend’s idea. We had just graduated from university that year, and while waiting for our USA internship applications, we thought—why not explore our neighbor, Singapore? And so, the adventure began. Singapore is a country that defies expectations. A small island nation, yet it stands as one of the most prosperous and developed places in the world. Walking through its streets, I couldn’t help but admire how a place so compact could achieve so much. Singapore’s success is not jus...
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Thailand Through My Eyes

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Photo: Robin Noguier I landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport at midnight—because, well, cheapest flight. Maybe because it was Thai New Year, Songkran was just three days away. 2013 feels like a lifetime ago, but I remember it like yesterday. Right after getting through the immigration counter, I rushed to buy a SIM card at a small booth on the corner. No SIM, no way to contact my Thai friends. The staff spoke to me in Thai—probably because I looked like one, lol. I told them I was from the Philippines, and they smiled. We went back and forth as they suggested which plan to get—one with data good for a few days or a week. I went with the week-long option and let them set it up because apparently, there were some settings I needed to tweak. No clue, I just let them handle it. With my phone now connected, I was off to find food. My first meal? A piece of bread or something from 7-Eleven at the airport. Can you believe it? Midnight hunger hits different. After that, I grabbed a taxi to the hotel ...
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No Straight Path, Just Growth

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My Career Path is a Mess—And That’s Okay You ever look at your resume and think, what exactly was I trying to do with my life? Because same. My work history reads less like a carefully planned career path and more like I was just saying yes to whatever opportunity came my way. Government office trainee? Sure. Hotel room attendant? Why not. ESL teacher? Let’s see how that goes. BPO agent? Sounds interesting. If my career had a genre, it’d be a mix of a workplace drama, a survival show, and a coming-of-age story where the main character is just figuring things out as he goes. For a while, I thought this meant I lacked direction. But after everything I’ve been through, I realized something: having a non-linear career doesn’t mean you’re lost, it means you’re adaptable. And that’s a skill worth having. And if I had to credit anyone for this mindset, it would be my parents. The Foundation: Lessons from a Humble Family Business I didn’t grow up in a family of entrepreneurs. My paren...
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