Frustrated Artist No More!

ALMA M. ALVAREZ 

When I was in fourth grade, I knew what I wanted to be. A journalist. During summer vacation, I remember tearing away pages from my notebook that have been written on and keeping the blank ones. Then I would write short stories on the blank pages. I don’t remember what stories I had written back then, but I do remember showing them to my dad one evening. That was when he said, “Anak (daughter), I think you’re going to be a journalist when you grow up.”

In high school, my Tita (aunt) Mary gave me a sketch pad. It was just a bunch of bond paper with green covers done in perfect binding. I treasured that sketch pad. I would bring it to school every day, and while waiting for the teacher to arrive, I would draw my favorite cartoon characters on it. Sometimes, that sketch pad kept me busy when the school bus was late. I must say I did some pretty neat pictures on that sketch pad, so I said to myself, “Maybe I could become an artist!”

But that didn’t happen after high school. I went to the State University for a degree in Biology (for this I give credit to my former teacher Miss Paez), but I didn’t get the degree. Somehow, I knew I wasn’t really cut out for that. Deep inside, I still wanted to become an artist.

A few years later, after finally finishing my Nutrition and Dietetics degree, I landed a job as an editorial assistant for MOD Magazine, my Mom’s favorite. And finally, I was living my dream of becoming a journalist! I got to cover the Art & Culture and Entertainment beats, interviewed men and women celebrities, writing about product launches and film reviews. It was a very exciting job, and a very exciting year for me. After that, I became the editor of Kerygma, my favorite magazine, and stayed on for five years.

When I left the publishing world to go into full-time community work in Couples for Christ, I found myself designing banners and brochures, covers of manuals and annual reports, as well as single-handedly putting together a quarterly newsletter. I began to dabble in web designing and video editing, too. And on our Community’s 25th year, I got involved in the layout and design of a major coffee table book. Wow! It was just too much! All of a sudden, I was a layout artist, too!

Looking back, I find it odd that I had fulfilled my first dream 11 years after high school, and my second dream nine years later. I keep thinking, had I been an artist after college, I could have been very rich, with all the money in visual arts and advertising.

I am forever wondering why God allowed me to realize my life dreams later in life, instead of when I was so much younger. It had been my frustration that I didn’t go into visual arts when I was in school. And for a long, long time, that dream of becoming an artist had been buried under all those frustrations. Sometimes, I kick myself for not being brave enough to shift to Fine Arts or Visual Communications when I was in college.

However, in hindsight, I know that all is not lost. God did make my dreams come true, didn’t He? My heart’s desire never left me, and God made sure that my heart’s desire would take me to where I am—a journalist and artist for Him! Now, instead of calling myself a frustrated artist, I could say I’ve resurrected the artist in me.