Neema Ejercito (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer
It was only this year that I realized that my job title was no longer my identity. It’s one of them, but through constant practice of prioritization, my life has become simpler because I don’t let it fully define me. What a journey it has been though, as a song goes.
This year, I became the CEO of the EdTech startup that my husband and I founded as our pathway to migration here in Canada. My husband had had numerous startups which I had gamely supported, but always kept my own part-time teaching, writing and/or mentoring gigs. Besides, I loved having the flexibility to be able to volunteer at the kids’ PACs and extra-curricular activities, or just be involved with their overall lives.
Even when I became CEO though, I maintained that my number one priority was my health, then my relationship with my husband and kids, and then work. And being CEO did not mean I was not prioritizing my memoir and chapbook-writing. Hmm, but I did not list them in my priorities. Perhaps they encompass the former three that I mentioned?
Prior to the title change, my husband had been bringing it up late last year when he saw that he would need to be more deeply involved in back-end development. He also hated having to be the face of the company, which I, as a marketing person, knew was just part and parcel of the job. I still did not want the title though, and was already happy promoting the startup in whatever way I could through social media, trade shows, conferences and summits, as well as ensuring brand continuity and growth.
I also learned from having watched my husband be the CEO of multiple companies how important it was to not be the smartest person in the room, so to speak. We were both lucky to be surrounded by experienced, thoughtful and passionate experts of our respective fields in our co-founders, social media and marketing experts, and front-end development team both here and in the Philippines.
I think I had shed the obsession with titles back in the Philippines when, in our 3D animation and game design studio, I experienced a nibble of what it might be like “making it” as a screenwriter in the Philippines. The beginning reader series I created, wrote and directed was nominated by the Philippine Film Development Council to represent the country at the 2019 Bridging the Gap Animation Lab held at Tenerife, Spain. Having come home from the exhilarating experience humbly honoured to have learned so much about pitching to Latin American markets, we received more recognition locally and regionally, and were invited to a number of film markets to further promote Philippine productions.
The exposure to show business in the Philippines made me rethink my strategy in growing my career as a screenwriter. I even went so far as to study industry practitioners’ lives, especially those with families, and observed how they juggled work and career. I also went to the extreme of imagining having reached the success I’d dreamed of, but at the expense of loneliness, as was the common thread that wove through these professionals’ lives. I asked myself if I still wanted that life. And the gentle but firm answer was a definite no.
From then, I suppose through the challenges I faced and continue to face with my husband and with my kids as they grow older, my decision to prioritize us has been such an immeasurable reward. I feel it has grounded me more, and it continues to do so when I still get overwhelmed by the many things I want to experience and achieve. My mind, for example, may have an entire day laid out, only for the pristine plan to be soiled by one of the kids’ needs. But doing so has always been worth it, even if it may not have felt that way at the time. I am so much more than my job title, and I am so grateful to be living this.
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Before returning from her summer vacation in the Philippines with her partner and three offspring last year, Neema Ejercito did not realize that she still had so much to write about, such as the boredom she felt raising her eldest at her in-laws’ place when she and her husband hadn’t moved out yet. Or how surreal it was to watch her youngest learn to swim at the country club where she learned to do so as well. She currently wonders if she will ever write about being a mother to a bunch of plants, all of whom she adores and loves to watch grow as much as her kin.