Why Web Design

It's not like Steve Jobs reflecting over his life when he gave a commencement speech at Stanford circa 2005. I haven't reached that nirvana yet. But there are minute parallelisms. Really, there is a big hand working out details of our intricate lives.

You see for the life of me, I could not recall being passionate over something. I remember my Communications 3 speech, when our teacher asked us to talk about ourselves, I said I am an observer. It's like the world spins and I view it from my point. Precisely because I have never been into something that much. Everything about me is normal, ordinary, plain, casual, fleeting. I see movies about living life to the fullest. I read about 'carpe diem'. I hear about lives being poured out for a cause. Then I started asking for that which I am created for. It took me years to figure out and accept that it was web design.

Push comes to shove

My husband had a lot to do with it. I always tell him that for me, sex is talk. So I would always rant about me not feeling life because there is nothing that anchors me to it. We prayed and the kids came. Immediately, we decided that I will quit my job to become a full time mom. I remember, I was awkwardly gravid with Lois when I saw this stay at home mom singing onstage for our Sunday worship service and I just felt right there and then that our decision was bliss. I would be the primary caregiver to Lois, who then was still unnamed. I had a vision of myself in charge of an organized household, nursing the satisfied baby. It was all that and more until Carlos came around, our second baby. Yes, I was gravely surprised when we found out I was carrying him. Mainly because life with Lois was not as picture-perfect as I thought it would be. The hard to find nannies didn't help, and those whom we'd like to settle with long-term has other plans. So with pregnancy hormones adding to my already unfulfilled emotions, I really longed for that which will define me.

Then Paul gave me an HTML & CSS book for my birthday, Elizabeth Castro's HTML, XHTML & CSS 6th Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide) . I read a few chapters of it until it got destroyed, because of poor handling. No love at first sight for me and web design. Then I finished another book I started reading earlier, God is in the Small Stuff: And it all Matters and one lesson there hit me - 'Learn something new and devote an entire year learning everything about it'. I listed several items I could focus on knowing, until I settled on web design. From then on, looking at web sites was never the same again. I got excited over checking source codes. How did they do that? Wow, this is great! Ooh, I'll save this in my favorites folder - until I ran out of disk space. Ok that's an exaggeration.

So now I am a student of the codes. I love web design the same way I love my kids.

Getting Serious

My dream regarding web design is to be able to translate concept to codes. It's better put in Filipino, gawin ang kayang isipin. I know I have still a lot to learn. My next order is JavaScript. Skills on graphic design is a must, that's why I'm learning everything all at the same time.

But I really am so into this already. For me, this is my share in helping the country. God willing, the web company my husband and I are putting up will flourish to become a positive world class contribution that can inspire Filipinos. It's my stake regarding my kids' future, never mind the financial aspect, but the enabling of the mind, of the will.

God bless Sling and Stone Web.