If there’s anything I should be proud of on my death bed, it’s that whatever I’ve achieved was not because I sucked up to people. I was a financial scholar; I self-published; I got the job I have now having come out of nowhere, with no recommendations.

I graduated from Ateneo, but I entered Rappler w/o any of the Ateneans remembering me. Because even in college, I wasn’t “ma-PR.” I then spent 7 long years after grad in one dead-end job to the next. I couldn’t play the school card. I never networked. I couldn’t play that game.

I guess I’m blathering like this all of a sudden because I’m so tired of seeing people being touted as success stories when they came from influential families or had a knack for marketing themselves, regardless of talent. Am I bitter? Yes, and frankly, I have the right to be.