Newsletter #40: Recent Realizations and Starting 2026

Events prompt me to write. This time, however, it was a conversation.

On a late Friday afternoon, I was talking to a colleague and a friend who was giving feedback about me, our work, and some “little things” that she finds “frustrating.” Towards the end, she repeated these words she picked up from a homily she listened to a couple of weeks ago.

“The place of your assignment is the place of your refinement.”

It was a beautiful insight. Coincidentally, it connects to one philosophy and belief that I have kept with me: there are no accidents in life. There’s a reason for everything. Where you are right now is no accident. There’s a purpose. And our almighty creator put us “here” for a reason.

It is a very spiritual and philosophical statement that has stuck in my colleague’s mind and is pushing her to wake up every day and do whatever she’s doing at work and in life.

Ironically, all these years, I’ve kept telling myself that I’ve found myself in various places by accident. My high school was an accident. I took the exam, passed, and became a scholar by accident. My college was an accident. Again, I took the exam, passed, and became a scholar by accident. My post-grad was an accident. I applied, got some endorsements from my former journ professor, my editor, and a government official who I became friends with. I passed, got the scholarship, all by accident. My becoming a journalist was by accident. I never planned for it.

Today, I’m in marketing, doing the opposite of what I’ve become in the past 20-plus years of doing journalism, again by accident. I never had any plans or the skills to do direct-to-customer marketing, product development, content marketing, copywriting, or even writing. I suck at writing. I hated books. I don’t read books. I skimmed magazines, mostly for photos of American fighter planes (I dreamt of being a pilot), and some fancy science gadgets. I loved music. But I suck at reading music. Failed sight reading, and my timing is always off.

What do you do when you find yourself in an unfamiliar place?

I studied it. I immersed myself in it. I soaked myself in all its imperfections. I slipped. I failed. I stumbled. And yet I continued. I learned.

I remember my lessons from Sunday school. It is a story about Job. He was a good man who found himself in a unique place where both God and the devil were debating about his faith. Will he stay faithful if he is thrown into an unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and bad place in life? As we all remember, he was unmoved. He was faithful. And for that, he was rewarded. A place of refinement.

This week, our boss also spoke of having a “growth mindset.” This phrase circles back to the “place of your assignment is the place of your refinement.” Showing up, staying, and learning lead to growth. Wherever you are right now, the place you’re choosing today is where you’ll grow (experience refinement). Don’t resist. What if the place you’re having problems right now is where you’re meant to grow?

Just like Job, he dared to stay in place while he was being tested. For this, he saw his purpose in the most unlikely place.

I also loved this phrase, also shared by the same colleague. “I write to remember.” Yes, writing your thoughts so you don’t forget them is a good habit to keep this year. This post is one of them.