Written by: Ely S.
Meet my friend... Jelly.
Jelly - Not your typical Filipina
Once in a while we come across people who intrigue us with either their unique characteristics, their situational circumstances or by the way they carry emotional and coping strategies when confronting and managing life's misfortunes.
Jelly is one of those people. She is not your typical Filipina woman but one who could blend in whenever she pleases. She is one with seemingly fearless attitude and the looks to match. She has an air of confidence about her without being overbearing. Her body is conspicuously covered in tattoos.. but almost consciously and strategically placed where they can also be cleverly covered with the right clothing.
You see, she also belongs to a common and growing portion of demographic in the Philippines who are single mothers. She is a mother of a beautiful six year old girl (Aliyah) yet she is only 23 years of age.
I was fascinated by her story. Although being a single mother is almost common theme here in the Philippine, hers is slightly different. She is independent, strong, unpretentious and unapologetic about her circumstances.
Growing up in a traditionally conservative family, in a country with very conservative values and beliefs, she is constantly faced with judgmental, negative opinions from people around her. And this is just from the way she looks. As a young girl, she did not fit the mould of the "typical filipina" because she spoke her mind and was not afraid to stand behind what she believed in. While she was regularly criticized for her attitude at school, she demonstrated strength and won the loyalty of some, of whom would become her closest friends today. She was eventually expelled from high school. She was pregnant and had a child at a young age, became a single parent because of an irresponsible, drug addict partner. She had a broken family with a father who had a gambling problem and was a womanizer. They were a fire victim where the family lost all their belongings and had to start all over. And this was just the beginning.
But despite all this, In front of me I see a strong, caring and responsible woman who does not display any signs of regret, resentment or bitterness. Only hope and real appreciation for life.
I wondered about what gave Jelly her strength and her ability to maintain it at such a young age. I just assumed that anybody her age going through even half of what she went through would simply find themselves in some state of helplessness or suffer some kind of major depression. I mean, I've read about adults wanting to commit suicide from far more superficial circumstances. I guess different types of people manifest different patterns of behavior under similar conditions. I wanted to find out more.
We sat down for dinner and talked about her desire to share her story to the world. Hoping that maybe we can reach out to other young women facing similar situations and provide some kind of encouragement. We realized that it would be too big to include in a single post so we decided to go with a series of posts that will run indefinitely.
Join us as we go on this journey of discovery about what it takes to find strength in adversity. In what may become an ongoing series of posts about her life, Jelly opens up to me about her past and shares with me in intricate detail about her experiences and how she managed to survive the many challenges she faced.
Next on Jelly - Confessions from a not so typical Filipina...
We ask Jelly about her current life status and her outlook on the future.
Stay tuned for the post in the next few days.
Don't be afraid to follow your dreams
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed the read, please help us by upvoting this post. Also don't forget to follow us so we show up on your feeds whenever we post something new :)
We appreciate your continued support and look forward to bringing you more valuable and entertaining content.