I wanna be a Candy girl!

About a week ago, Mareng Aya posted this link on my Facebook. It's about an application to be a correspondent for Candy, the number one teen magazine in the country. She told me to go for it, so without much thought, I signed up on the online registration site, which informed me that applicants needed to go to Robinsons Cybergate in Mandaluyong.

As the days went by, I found myself doubting. Am I really gonna go to this go-see? Am I a good enough writer? They might throw me out on my ass!

When I begin to doubt my writing skills, I feel really low. Lower than low. Writing is my passion, you know? My creative outlet. It's something I've always been great at. Once I start to doubt that, I know I'm going into a funk.

Nevertheless, I swallowed my fear and asked Gab to accompany me to Robinsons. Neither of us have been there before, but we took a chance by taking the MRT. Konti kembot lang—a friend told me this, seriously—andun na kami. Ta-da! Piece of cake.

We high-fived our first time to set foot there.

After grabbing lunch at KFC, the two of us went to the Summit Media Office. As we entered the building and the elevator started its ascent, my heart was beating wildly against my chest. I have never been to one of these things before.

Abbey let me go on by myself inside the office. As soon as I entered the registration area, my mind screamed, what the hell am I doing here? People were conversing in English, talking about a supposedly famous someone who I didn't know.

It was with shaking hands that I filled up the application form. It required me to write a short review on a movie I'd recently seen, an album I listened to, or a book I last read. With a smile, I recounted that it was just the other night that I blogged about Enchanted, so I simply rewrote my blog on my application.

The wait for the interview seemed like hours. Although I think it really did take hours.

I got to talking with two girls, Faye and Kristel. 

Faye is a college junior in AMA, while Tel is an incoming UST Architecture frosh. When she mentioned that, I thought back to Peter Angelo's sleepless nights of making plates and immediately warned her, "You're never going to sleep well again."

When my number was finally called, I entered the room literally fucking shaking from head to toe. As in, literally. Fucking. Shaking. When they asked me to smile for the camera, I felt my cheeks trembling. Now I know I looked just awful in that picture.

They asked me to say my name, my school, my hobbies and interests. They asked me to say something about my favorite TV show. They asked me to do a fake commercial to promote Candymag.com.

I think I performed reasonably well, considering that it was the first time I did anything of the sort.

Afterwards, I said goodbye to Tel and Faye. Gab had been waiting for hours, so I apologized endlessly even though she was cool with it. Well, what can I say, walang iwanan ang Alpha Kubeta.

Reflecting on that day, I realized that even if I didn't get the Candy Correspondent gig, I'd still be happy to have had such a nice experience. I met new friends, been to new places, had a new experience, affirmed my passion for writing—how can I not be happy after all that?