Joanne

I am a licensed physical therapist (PT), worked three years in hospital and clinics and taught in clinic/classroom setting for a year. Then the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) gods discovered me and there I spent the last 14 years. Before I had my PT license though, I moonlighted as a writer/contributor for a national broadsheet under the markets division, doing mostly feature writing for marketing and events. I have tried my hand in ghost writing and a couple of freelance writing for friends just recently. To put everything in perspective, let me tell my winding story.

Physical therapy is sort of my first love. At five, I knew I wanted to be a doctor of some kind, I wanted to don a white coat, wield a stethoscope and to touch sick people’s arm in a gesture of comfort to let them know there is a way out of misery. I have always wanted to chase pain away. So in my teens when I learned about physical therapy and what it does, I knew I want to be doing just that. To sit down with patients, discuss how we will work on what ails them and rear and monitor them closely until they actually get back to functional health. So when I applied to universities in college I specifically applied only for that course and single-mindedly worked on finishing it, even when I found out it was a killer. Both in study and in practice.

In the BPO industry I am a subject matter expert for Workforce Management (WFM). I fell in love with analyses and trend forecasting as well as capacity planning and full time equivalent sizing when I was introduced to it 13 years ago and sort of married it. This is quite a shock to friends and family and most of all to me because I abhor mathematics. Back in high school, I missed out on possible honours because my math grades just couldn’t cut it and in college, the reason the BF and I stayed together for four years without bickering is because he lovingly explains to me the beauty of Physics and my grateful heart couldn’t be more content with his show of pure devotion & patience.
I guess that is how love works, with Math not the BF. And this love affair with mathematics at work is not one-sided because WFM loved me back, so much that I received five promotions and a couple of awards while at it.

As for writing, it is my bridge. When I was juggling clinics and early BPO life to earn my keep back in 2000 to 2003, writing kept me sane. While shuttling back and forth between jobs and sleeping at home, I write. Instead of sleeping on the commute I write; with pen, paper and squiggly penmanship I bridged my first love and my new found love. Writing made the transition seamless, that when the time to make a decision to let go of one came, the pain was negligible. Now I am looking into crossing the bridge back to my first love and to make it near painless again, I am looking at writing to hold my hand again as I make the journey.

I keep a very personal collection that I have no courage yet to share. Mostly shorts, poems and a half-finished novel, my private fb profile is peppered with musings, commentaries and personal memoirs.