Carissa Villacorta’s book, Surreality, is a collection of essays about her moving from Manila to New York. It was first published in 2006 and has earned praise for its reflections on work, life, and living your dreams. It was released on the Amazon Kindle store in August, with this updated note from the author.

I am so happy that my readers say my book, Surreality, is light, easy reading, yet has had a great, deep impact in their lives. One reader even told me, she’s read it a million times, more than any other Harry Potter fantasy book, and keeps it under her pillow, endlessly open. I thank her and think that it’s maybe because it’s less fantasy and more reality, but still believes in the good of dreams and the good of others too.

But for me, I believe that the hardest book to read is your own. I haven’t read my book in a little while, until today, when I had to push myself to read my own words before it was to become an ebook. Like how some actors cannot watch themselves on TV, I can’t do that or read my writing either. Usually, after I write it, I send it out, without looking back. I’m sometimes apprehensive about the honesty in it, but for me, it is the only way to write – and live.

Perhaps also I was too busy living: meeting people, giving speeches, running events and other life stuff like teaching kids how to write, learning new skills from the best schools, and trying to live where the action was. Until 2008, that was in New York. In 2009, that was in DC and Boston. In between, I would go home to Manila to recharge – mostly by conversing with my now 94-year old Lola (grandma). I love those times, and I love spending time with her. We always share a laugh. Every sentence, no exag. Another comedian in the family is my now 5-yr old niece Julia. She always cracks jokes and has a great sense of humor. I wish I was kinda like her sometimes. I sure would learn a lot from the oldest and the youngest members of our family.

Then I remembered a boss, whom I just met one day this April. He said that maybe I should read my book again. Because he observed that the person he saw that day was different from the person he saw in the book. Well, the person he saw in person was tied to a job that she thought she shouldn’t leave. It wasn’t her passion, but it paid the bills. With the encouragement of the same boss who told me to never forget what God intended me to be, I remembered my dreams and became true to myself. I realized it was okay for me to leave the job if it became such a drudgery. It helped that my parents were there the day I made the decision, too. I knew that the me who wrote Surreality wouldn’t have approved of keeping a job and living a life that looks forward to vacation. I always said that if you look forward to your vacation days, you have the wrong job. Well, I had the wrong job. So people, my learning is that these are the most important things: where you are, who you’re with and what you do.

And let’s not forget who we are. The truth is, we are more than other people think we are. They see only a side of us, or a part of our body.  They see our hands that could increase their sales, our feet that could run errands, our mouths that could promote their business. But what they don’t see is our capacity, our potential, our true skill, our gift, our talent and our true value. And we have to leave the people who are blind, before they make us blind to see that light within ourselves. We have to quit, and trust, that a better job, a more fulfilling life and a happier existence awaits us if we just keep true to ourselves and to everyone around us.

I also realized that in order to inspire, I also needed to be inspired. I was too busy working, that I had no time to wonder and wander – the things that fed my writing.

But all that changed this year, especially after the talk with that boss. He did say that there was a reason that we met that day.  I became honest with myself again and became self-reflective on what I wanted and what I didn’t want. What I liked and didn’t like. What worked and what didn’t work. I let go of things that didn’t, and held on to things that did. I hope to continue to do the same and have the same courage, as the years go by. God, please help me.

And I have a new motto: to spend some quality time and quantity time every day. Quality time is time spent with friends, catching up, having coffee, or calling your family and checking in. It would also include the time to pray, relax and reflect. Quantity time is time we spend working. Working toward projects we are passionate about, or reaching business goals that feed us. My dad always reminds me about the biblical saying “Thou shall eat by the sweat of thy brow,” which he translates to modern times to “Thou shall eat by the stress of thy mind or body.” Yes – sometimes I eat $100 dollar meals, other times I eat one-dollar meals. Depends on how much I worked that week. Kidding. Anyway, meanwhile, my recent thought is that apart from the fact that having your own business is better than working for the boss, be sure that you are your own boss, and not your own slave.

After five years since releasing Surreality, I am still in New York, but not after respites in Manila, DC, and Boston to attend to important family events that are not to be missed, and grow in new environments. Last year, I got tired of New York and the energy of the concrete jungle, especially after I met some lions and tigers. When I moved to DC, I met sheep and (teddy) bears. And although I felt like fish out of water, I thought that the only way to meet new people was to be the new girl in town.

Was I right. New girl, new town.  So just like my move to New York, I packed my bags, and moved to DC, lasting only three months as I couldn’t stand the political talk, but leaving not before I saw the President. Then I remembered that I also always wondered what were inside the gates of Harvard, and how teachers there taught. Now I know, so I left again. Of course I missed New York. Especially after I heard all the speeches I could take. You know it’s full of politicians there. In Boston there were a lot of academics.  New York is full of artist and dreamers where you think you belong until after your dreams come true. Manila is full of family where everything starts and ends.

Download Surreality from Amazon. Visit carissavillacorta.com.

Mangojuiced is giving away a free Surreality Kindle ebook! (You don’t need a Kindle to read it!) To join, simply comment with your response to:

“Which city in the world would you like to spend a few years living in?”

Open to international readers. Deadline of commenting is 11:59 PM, September 15, GMT+8 time zone.