Apologies in advance for this long-winded post.

Episode One

I married at a relatively early age, unprepared to say the very least, but we pushed through it, I was working as an usher at the Cultural Center of the Philippines back then (yes, I saw Miss Saigon everyday for 6 months, twice on Sundays) and I know the salary that I was getting was not enough to raise a family. I have some background in restaurants and know how to cook, so with the little savings we had, we went to my wife's home town of San Pablo to set up a small eatery of sorts, catering cheap food to students going to the public school near our house.

Kirsten, our first born, was only a baby then. Those were very difficult times. We barely made break even and we knew that eventually, we need to close shop if we were to survive. It was then that we decided to go back to Manila to look for a job, both of us had degrees after all.

Luckily, we were both got hired in no time at all, my wife, at a call center company, and I got in to the transcriptions company, both based in Makati. That was the start. I quickly learned the ropes of transcriptions, and realized that I was really, really good at it. I became an editor after a couple of weeks, and in about a year, I was already in charge of the whole team.

Things were starting to look up. I started to do freelance transcription as well, and when the pay became good enough, I resigned from the company that I worked for for five years so I can focus on working from home.

My good reviews from freelancing meant that I attracted more clients and my network grew, until I got into one of the biggest transcription companies in the US, the volume of work that was being sent to me was even bigger than what I was handling when I was still a production manager, and I was able to build a small team of work-from-home transcriptionists that I trust. From my salary as a production manager of 20k, I was starting to earn upwards of 80k a month, it was good enough that my wife can now resign from work, as the call center lifestyle was starting to take its toll on her health.

It was about the time that Zeppelin came into our lives. And by the time Zepp turned one, we were able to buy our first car. Boy, I couldn't imagine back then that the day would come that I'd be able to buy a brand new car, but we did it. Life was pretty good.

The Phantom Menace

Zeppelin had always been a difficult child, we had trouble sleeping. We just dismissed it as him being colicky, then we started to notice other things, he was late in a lot of milestones, he was only able to walk on his own at 18 months, and was still not speaking when he turned two. His pediatrician then suggested that we see a developmental pediatrician. Now, developmental pediatricians are a rare breed in the Philippines and getting an appointment schedule can sometimes take six months. Good thing my brother was already a resident at the University of Santo Tomas, and he was able to squeeze us in to get an appointment with a dev ped, it was then that we were told that Zepp had GDD (Global Developmental Delay). I was already prepared for it, but still hit me like a sledgehammer to my heart. My wife cried so hard back then. Our world collapsed.

We began asking around for a good sped center and therapists that are available in our area. That's when we learned the sad truth that having a special needs child in the Philippines is expensive. The first early intervention school that we were able to get Zepp into was charging 10,000 a month. He went there for almost a year. We were not satisfied with the progress that he was making so we asked around and found one with good reputation in Los Banos, about an hour's drive away from San Pablo, they charged 500 a day (it was worth it imho) but add to that the gasoline cost of also about 500 a day, then it started to take a toll on our budget. My work was also affected I was not able to take as much work as I used to, driving to and fro ate up about 4-5 hours of my day, I started to use my credit cards more, and before I realized it, we were neck deep in debt. It was also about the time when Vedder was born, so I knew that I have to step up.

A New Hope

When I realized that we were already deep in debt, I thought of a plan to make our way out of it. I calculated for a payment schedule on how we can get out of it in the fastest time possible. My wife learned how to drive so she can take Zepp to Los Banos so I can focus on working. I also got a new client that pays really well, more than twice, if not thrice than what my other clients pay. So inch by inch, we were able to crawl out of the hole what we dug ourselves into. From 6 maxed out credit cards, it was down finally to one (took me three years!) and the debt became manageable. A new SPED center also opened up in our town, and there's also an Occupational Therapist from Manila who decided to set up a clinic only a few blocks away from our house, Zepp was about six years old then. We're finally back up on our feet. We even celebrated Zepp's 7th birthday (and my 40th) by throwing a party as a Thanksgiving of sorts. We were also able to get a bigger van so the kids will be more comfortable when we're on the move.

Attack of the Clones

2017 started out with some bad news for me, my biggest-paying client, a UK-based company was bought by a bigger company based in Australia. It was no big deal at first, because we were also absorbed, our rates also became slightly lower, but I was okay with it, but then the volume of work started to decline and became less and less, I was averaging around £1,000 from the UK based company before, and it slowly went down to become £200-300. I was clearly not enough, and just last September, the jobs were gone with no explanation why. One of the downsides of being a sub-contractor, I guess.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get anyworse, my biggest client, had to cut down rates because it said that it was necessary to be able to compete with machine transcription. So from a combined total income of around 150,000 pesos ($3000) a month during peak season (90-hour work weeks, maybe that's why i became a coffee addict LOL), it went down to 60,000 pesos ($1200). It was a big blow. As stated above, having a special needs child is expensive in the Philippines, Zeppelin's maintenance medicine alone eats up around 10,000 ($200) of the budget, if you include the therapies and the sped, he needs around 30,000 ($600) so 60,000 is clearly not enough to survive.

A New Beginning

I started to look for other clients, and I found one that was focused on machine transcription, and they were looking for people to clean up the work that the machine does, imagine the irony, my mortal enemy, the AI that's taking the jobs away, is in need of my help. With the experience that I had, I was quickly promoted to QA, and I started to become comfortable with the work done by the machines. Just last month, I started to apply machine transcription to my biggest client as well, used it to my advantage, I installed machine transcribing software on my PC, and gave copies to my entire team as well, and what we lost in rates, we were now able to make up in volume. We didn’t have to resist the waves of chage, we rode it, used it to our advantage and conquered it.

My former manager at the UK-based company has contacted me as well for work, and it's gradually building up again, though not at the same rates that it used to be, but still good enough, and work is work.

December was supposedly one of the slowest times of the year in the business I'm in, but I'm proud to say that production at its highest than ever before. 2017 started with a trough, but we’re ending it trending upwards, and with the way things are looking, expecting it to peak some more for 2018, and hopefully, get the earnings back to where they used to be.

Having familiarized myself with the AI, I realized that they can never replace a human transcriptionist with all the intricacies of the human language, its work will always need to be edited and cleaned up if it were to be usable. I know so because the company that made one of the best machine transcription softwate out there is now a client as well

And to top of it all off, I also found Steemit, which, difficult as it may to believe, I now enjoy more than Facebook. It's not just the potential for earning, the money is just a bonus. it's filled with so much positivity and a channel of good vibes ( I guess it depends on who you follow lol ) it's a community of caring individuals ready to help at the drop of a hat, I was in fact, overwhelmed by the support it has given my son through @Jedau's A Day In The Clouds.

Steemit has also revived my love for photography, and just earlier, my love for drawing, things that I thought that I have long forgotten.

So here's to 2018, to borrow the words of the master, @jedau, 2018 is a dog waiting for adoption and I will make it my bitch.

To life, you can kick me down all you want, but I will keep getting back up and I'll even throw an RKO from outta nowhere when you're not looking. I was born and bred in Pasay, I eat hardships for breakfast.

Again,apologies for the long-winded post, I just felt that I needed to blurt it out. The thought popped into my mind while I was driving earlier and I was afraid that I might lose my train of thought if i wait till tomorrow. And of course, to tell everyone how happy and thankful I am that I found Steemit.

Wishing everyone a prosperous and healthy 2018!

Happy New Year everyone!

Shameless Plug

If you haven't read it yet, please do take the time to read the beautifully-written A Day In The Clouds which chronicles one of Zepp's misdaventures.