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An old friend of mine, Merriam Webster, describes you as an activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something. If that is the case, then I guess I have known you for almost all of my life.

When I was four years old, I dreamed of becoming an architect so I can design a house for my mother. As soon as I realized how hopeless the sketches I made looked, that was the end of it. I also dreamed of becoming a rock star; heard my own signing voice and never dared to sing in the showers again. Dreamed of becoming a professional basketball player but I could not even get any respectable playing time in our barangay basketball league. There were many other different careers I aimed for while I was growing up – and being a certified public accountant was definitely not one of them.

During the few times I was given the privilege to walk the streets of London, one thing that stuck me the most was the motorists’ discipline when approaching a zebra lane. A Londoner friend of mine explained to me that, by law, a motorist is bound to give way as soon as a pedestrian steps onto the zebra lane to cross. As someone who has been driving a lot here in the Philippines, giving way to pedestrians is not one of the things I think about when driving. Even as a pedestrian, I still think that I have to be extra careful and smart when crossing the street, because motorists do not often give way.

UNCERTAINTY is mounting for technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) businesses against a turbulent economic and political backdrop, according to the latest research by Grant Thornton.

I still vividly remember my first day as a freshman at the University of the Philippines. It was 6:30 in the morning. I was half an hour early for my Communications I class. With my old, red Jansport backpack serving as my security blanket, I anxiously walked along the empty hallway. After spending the last 12 years of my life in an all-boys school, I did not know how to feel or think about having female classmates in a very large campus. As fate would have it, I was the second student to arrive for class, the first being a petite girl. She was standing outside the classroom when I nervously approached the door. Nobody else was there. Obviously, I kept my distance. However, she did not. She asked me for the time.

Have you ever wondered why you feel so down in the afternoon, maybe even until bedtime, on Sundays? You may be thinking about the activities in the forthcoming work week — an upcoming deadline, seeing another team member whom you don’t work well with, dealing with a demanding client, an uncomfortable working environment, among others. These feelings of anxiety are known as Sunday blues, which can be described as stress in-the-making. If you are experiencing this, you are not alone. In fact, according to a poll conducted by job site Monster, 76 percent of American workers say they get Sunday blues.

THERE is a widow with two teenagers. Several months have passed since her husband died after years of battling an incurable disease, which drained the family’s financial resources.

My wife will be traveling once again. Upon seeing her possible return flight schedules, an interesting, but uninspiring dilemma surfaced: would she take an earlier flight, but will be forced to face Friday night traffic from the airport to our house; or leave a day later to avoid the Friday congestion, but will not be able to spend Saturday with our kids? Such a dilemma, or some other more critical version of it, faces us constantly.