In a perfect world, or at least in an ideal world, we’d be able to do all the things we love.  But in the real world there are those times when we sometimes have to skip the things we want in order to do the things that we have to—and for many of us, it’s known as work.

I was so looking forward to this weekend when I was supposed to have a carbo-loading party with runners, bloggers, celebrities, etc. courtesy of Kaspersky.  This event served as my motivation to finish all my work for the week way before 3PM, in the hope that I can leave the office early.  But alas, my hard work was rewarded with an unexpected result—much more work!  And as I complete my additional tasks that were practically taken out of thin air, much more were added.  It was one of those situations when honesty could be a leverage to be taken advantage of.  As I see hours gone by I grew anxious and felt like breaking down—it was a real heart-breaker!  I don’t mind extending hours if it’s needed, but I’m given work just to tie me down at the office, it’s revolting!

Way past 8PM, I had enough.  I told my boss I had to go.  I hailed the first cab I could get in a naïve effort to catch the last parts of my carbo-loading party.  I originally planned to run from my office in Makati to BHS because I knew Friday night traffic is horrible!  But since I was short of time and I just wanted to get away from the office as fast as I can, I opted for a cab.  Adding to my stress was the driver not knowing where BHS was so I had to navigate, and unfortunately I was right—traffic was horrible!  It usually takes me about 22 minutes to run from Makati to BHS, and my cab trip took me 20 minutes, and ₱120 (₱102 for the fare, rest is for the tip).  This is a situation when running is much better than commute!

It was around 8:50PM when I arrived at BHS—still hoping to at least catch the closing parts of the party, but then when I passed by the doughnut shop I noticed my friends were already there—party’s over!  Big sigh!  Then I also realized that I haven’t claimed my race kit for the weekend’s race (the reason for the carbo-loading party) and it was too late by that time to claim it (only until 8PM).  I missed my carbo-loading party, and I’m going to miss my much awaited race! C’mon!

After the downpour of bad news, I realized how famished I was—now I had to buy dinner which was supposed to be covered.  Anyways, it was good that the sandwich I got from a sandwich house was good is big enough to satisfy my huge appetite.  It’s also good that I got six free original glazed doughnuts with my coffee purchase at the doughnut shop which was probably the sweetest thing that happened to me that day.

The best thing that happened to me that night was really being with friends for some good chats.  Nothing really beats stress like great company!  We even have Coach Rio as guest for our chat time.  By the time we had to bid goodbye, all my negativities were gone, and I had enough energy to continue with my Friday nightlife—with a positive attitude.

There’d always be some obstacles separating us from what we want, things don’t always turn the way we wanted to, but I realized that if we keep an open mind we could still enjoy the other things that life presents us.  We always have options—we can choose to sulk, or we can opt to rise from the challenges.  Yes, I’d still be missing my much anticipated race this Sunday, but that’s life, but I still hope to get a good run this weekend.