Christmas Balls. Photo Credits
And then the "BER" season came...
For us Filipinos, it is the time when we start putting Christmas decorations in our houses.
It also the time when we start counting how many days before the 25th of December.
You can hear Christmas songs being played in almost every corner and every street.
Oh, how i just love to hear those songs that bring back sweet childhood memories...
13th month pay. Photo Credits
As a grown up and a regular employee now, one other thing that I looked forward to was the 13th month pay. An extra month salary given to employees by their employers to enable the working masses to properly celebrate Christmas and New Year. Before even receiving my 13th month pay, I already knew what to do with it. I already had a picture in my mind what to buy for Christmas not only for myself but for my family, loved ones, friends, and godchildren too.
I received my 13th month pay on the last week of November. One good thing about it is that shopping malls go on sale as much as half the price when the dates already belong to the month of December. So, a week after, when I got that chance, I started buying things I planned months before...
And before I knew, I already spent all of my money.
But that was okay. After all, I deserve to treat myself on this once in a year celebration.
My first Christmas Bonus. Photo Credits
A couple of weeks before Christmas day, I saw my co-employees getting very excited again. I could see that their faces were full of bliss.
So I asked Jhames, "Why are those people outside very happy today?"
Jhames answered, "Oh! The news must have not yet reached you yet. The president already signed the document regarding the release of our Christmas bonus and we will be receiving it within this day or tomorrow morning..."
"What? You mean aside from the 13th month pay, we will be given another one? Like a 14th month pay?", I asked with a very big smile on my face.
"Yes. Here in penbank, we are actually given 14 months worth of pay and this one is considered as our Christmas bonus.", Jhames replied.
"That's awesome!", I almost jumped with great joy from my chair upon hearing this.
My previous employers didn't give out Christmas bonus because it isn't mandatory. I was just very happy to know that the penbank management was very generous to do this. Another unexpected blessing from the good Lord came by surprise...
The day after that, I saw most of my co-employees going down to our branch to withdraw their Christmas bonus from the ATM machine. I heard them talking about their plans on what to do with their extra money.
Some would use it to buy new clothes and new gadgets to treat themselves and some would use it to pay for their debts. I hurried to finish my task for the day and went to our technical office to see if my good buddies will be withdrawing their money too.
To my surprise, Johven and Jhames were not there anymore because they already went ahead.
The only one left there was Ramil.
"Mil, did you already withdraw your christmas bonus?", I asked.
"No. I didn't.", Ramil answered.
"Why?", I asked him again.
"I don't have anything necessary to buy as of this time. I'll save it so that whenever one of our boat needs to be repaired again, it won't be very hard for me to look for funds.", Ramil replied.
"Oh! Okay!" , I just nodded and went down to the first floor of the building where our servicing branch is located.
As I was lining up in the ATM, I came to think about where can I use the money.
And so I asked myself, "Should I buy new clothes? A new phone or a laptop perhaps? or maybe I can just go to the shopping mall and pick whatever catches my eyes".
About to withdraw from the ATM. Photo Credits
None of these seemed to be justifiable since I just bought a new phone 6 months ago and I already have a desktop PC in our house as well as in the office. Also, I still have plenty of clothes to wear and I already bought something for myself a few weeks ago... I felt that something was really bothering me at that time but I didn't know what it was. And when it was my turn at the ATM, something came to my mind before i could press the withdraw button.
I thought...that maybe...just maybe...Ramil will allow me to invest my Christmas bonus in his fishing business...
And so, without second thoughts, I cancelled that transaction and went back to our office without touching my first Christmas bonus...
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