28/08/2025
Hindi OPTIONAL ang mag-set ng boundaries. And I learned it in the most heartbreaking way. ๐
I still remember it as if it was yesterday.
The night before May 21, 2021, I was already restless. My body was tired, my stomach hurt, but I brushed it off. Work was piling up, my client was demanding, and like many freelancers, I just told myself,
โKaya pa. I just need to finish this.โ
The next morning, everything changed.
I checked for my babyโs heartbeat, something I did every day.
But that dayโฆ there was only silence.
I rushed to my OB. She tried again and again, different positions, even chocolates, but still nothing. She sent me for an ultrasound.
I can still remember lying there, praying so hard, while the doctorโs face grew heavier. And finally, the words no mother should ever hear:
โIโm sorryโฆ thereโs no heartbeat.โ ๐ญ
My world stopped. Ilang buwan na lang, mame-meet na namin siya. But in one moment, everything was gone.
Two days later, I was in the hospital for D&C. And while I was in that bed, grieving, bleeding, shattered, my phone would not stop buzzing. My client. Not to ask how I was. Not to show compassion. But to demand my deliverables.
But... since hindi ko nga kaya ang humindi, I asked for my laptop and yes... worked.
Then came the darkest moment of my life. I delivered my baby (this may sound crazy but there's still this hope inside me na mali sila and my baby is fine), but there was silence. No cry. No first hug. No first glance.
I felt like nothing. Like paper, dispensable, disposable.
That was my breaking point.
The next day, I quit.
As heartbreaking as it may sound, that is when I finally understood: work is replaceable, but life, health, and peace are not.
Clients will come and go. Projects will start and end. But you only get one body, one mind, one heart.
Boundaries are not selfish. They are survival. ๐ช
Kaya to all freelancers, workers, at mga alipin ng salapi...
Sigurado ka ba na kaya mo pa?
Ctto
