HAPPY
NEW YEAR TO ALL! As we all know, a new year brings forth another new
year's resolution. A change from the usual things we do in the past.
An improvement for ourselves. For some, they refine themselves to
keep them in stead to the demands of their job, their business and
their relations. For those approaching middle age, re-inventing
themselves to suck in fresher air or munching greener grass. For me,
it is another landscape.
Starting
today, January 1, 2016, I am jobless. I will be riding again on the
waves of uncertainty. A situation that does not offer me a promising
future. But, I will not be seeing unsmiling faces anymore that you
always find in board meetings which makes your stomach curl with
sickness. Also, I will be free from conventional timekeeping
designed for a corporate world that leaves people married to their
work in behalf of their masters, even to the ends of the earth, and
losing their souls in the process. I am now free to do as I like
with my free time. I am FREE!
This
feeling is so liberating. To make this more significant, I am using a
different font for this article called Liberation Sans. I am now
master of my own fate. I do not know how long will this take but I
am quite sure that it would take more than the best of me to breathe
above water. I will not beg, of course. I am too proud for that.
Instead, I would engage on my livelihood through what I do best:
teaching people good old common sense and leading them to that place
called “freedom of the hills”.
The
lure of the outdoors had always beckoned me ever since the time after
my grandfather had brought me to the woods at a tender age to learn
the crafts that, someday, I would teach others. These skills had
lain idle for sometime until I found it again useful. It had not
been used extensively in the past as it did during the last seven
years. As always, this passion ran in conflict with my day job. I
was a security professional until yesterday.
I
am on my own now. I will begin life as a contractor. A freelancer.
A masterless ronin. I sell my services to anybody or to any entity
at a price. It is better that way than being at the end of a leash
where somebody else controls how I spend my time. I repeat, I will
be master of my own time. I have no regrets about severing myself
from my employer. With all due respect, my former employer had given
me the means to feed me and my family for eight years before we
decide that it is time to move from each other.
It
is hard and I know what it means to scrape the hard end of a barrel.
Been there before. God willing, windows of opportunity would be
opened for me again. I just hope and pray that it will! It had been
knocking on me for sometime but I had not been courageous enough to
let go of a conventional way of earning a living as a mere employee.
Until today! I think, it is now ripe for the taking. I hope I am
not wrong this time.
I
have always entertained the thought of roaming the land unimpeded and
living off it for days or weeks or even months. This idea is now
realistic to me since I am in a situation where I have complete
control of my time. It may sound absurd if you think that modern
living have removed all vestige of wilderness that the hills have
afforded to people a hundred years back. Think again. I have been
privileged to see it all during my outdoor sorties even at limited
opportunities back then.
In
the far shallows of my life, right after midstream, I change careers
once more. I will be explorer, bushcraft teacher and writer all
rolled into one. I will pursue my livelihood in an unconventional
manner with the shape and terrain of Cebu as my arena of opportunity.
This masterless ronin has now the time and his sole attention to
lead you on a journey to a world that he had already created for you.
I am in the best of my health and possess the faculties and
confidence to bring people to this environment called adventure.
What
I can offer you is the learning of real-world skills, personally from
me, at close quarters, while in the pursuit of a part of the Cebu
Highlands Trail as a “grasshopper”. It is a quest that nearly
equates with old-time frontier travel – a warrior's pilgrimage –
at almost the whole length of its southern route, and terminating in
Cebu City. Twelve days of walking close to 150 kilometers at your
own pace and eleven nights of sleeping under the stars. You will
earn a special patch and a certificate of training.
Along
the way, you will learn a lot of things that you do not learn in a
controlled environment. It is bushcraft at its best, learned as it
should be learned, in a journey with a teacher. You will engage in
survival hiking on a route that does not offer a “sea of clouds”
and mild weather. You will yearn water and the first shade you would
find along the route under the brunt of a tenacious sun at its
highest orbit. The southern half of the Cebu Highlands Trail is
already a great challenge but your greatest will be against yourself.
This
is a radical approach of learning that veers away from the usual.
You add a long hike of many days and it becomes an adventure worth
telling. Twelve days of quality time from the only person who has
the capacity to do this on foot in an environment where you have
almost no total control of. Frankly speaking, this has no parallel
elsewhere and I am sure you will have great tales to tell after you
have reached the trailend of your journey. If you only have the time
and the daring.
With
a lot of time in my hands, I could also finish the rest of the Cebu
Highlands Trail this year at the earliest time possible. There is
still Segment VI and Segment VII to the north and Segment VIII to the
south. I am hoping to open this 260+ kilometers route in 2017.
Maybe, much earlier. Once completed, you could walk through the
island of Cebu from north to south or reverse at its most rugged
mountains found in the middle in 15 to 30 days. Since its blueprint
is still in my head, this is exclusive to just me and those that are
chosen to walk with me.
The
Cebu Highlands Trail thru-hike, which I would soon change name
anyway, is a different adventure from the “grasshopper” walk.
This is just a longer trek from the first and more of fulfilling the
physical aspect of the hiker. For this, you will also receive a
certificate of completion and a special patch if you complete the
whole route. For those engaging in segment hikes, you would receive
a certificate.
I
have now time for everything. I will still be doing the rounds of
teaching all interested individuals – from emergency responders to
outdoorsmen – about bushcraft and wilderness survival in standard
3-day campouts to 10-day advanced cross-country courses. I can also
do a tour of public lectures and motivational talks to the corporate
world, the professionals and others about prepping, urban survival
techniques, my explorations and articles I authored. I can also
serve as guide for people who do trips in the mountains and the
backcountry.
Lastly,
I will be focusing on my other passion: Writing. Adventurers who
write are a rare breed and I thank God I am both. Yes, I will still
be maintaining this blog. It is a good blog for its niche and it is
without a local peer. However, writing good non-fiction books and
adventure novels will be my thrust once I settled on a good spot with
a desk, a PC, a good landscape and a good wine. I am almost finished
with my first book – ETHICAL BUSHCRAFT. Once I am done with
the graphic illustrations, I will look for a publisher.
There
are no financial rewards for an explorer. He might snare accolade
and renown but he will live in poverty unless he has sponsorship
backings by big names from different industries, where he might gain
something through speaking engagements. On the other hand, sales
from books you authored does not ensure you a decent source of
living. You only get so little with the big percentage shared by the
publisher and your agent unless you are a regular bestseller, which
is still unheard of for a Filipino.
Surprisingly,
as a teacher of bushcraft and survival, I can turn the wheel around
for as long as I want but there are others following in my wake who
would also want to share in the fruits of what I pioneered. It is a
free country and anybody could do his own business but it would be to
the discernment and judgment of the student or the client to choose
from whom to give them quality learning. I have taught many and only
a few became rare jewels. I give my blessings of those who asked and
none for those who did not.
I
will be experiencing the real world in the coming days soon and it
will be a long journey ahead. Very long. Forecast is somewhat
gloomy. Chances are 51%. Just a slight edge for me. However, I
would not want it in any other way. But I am hoping my independence
from the conventional would elicit sponsorships from the very world
that I am trying to shy away from. It is a strange world indeed.
Photo courtesy of Justin Apurado
Patch concept designs by Mark Lepon
Document
done in LibreOffice 4.3 Writer
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