TIME
When I was very young, time seemed to move really slow. I remember being seven for years. Now that I'm older, time seems to be moving really fast. I guess it's because I'm working now. When I was young I didn't have a care in the world. I could afford to see how slowly a day passed by. Now it seems I'm always so pressed for time. And working in comics makes me value time even more.
Creating comics take an incredible amount of time to do. I spent years just doing Elmer and now I'm spending years just trying to get Dr. Rizal off the ground. On top of that is the inking jobs from Marvel that take even far longer to do. Before I go on I must say that I'm NOT complaining. I love the job. I'm just stating the fact that being in comics takes up an incredible amount of time in my day.
I can no longer count the numerous times I had to beg off invitations to talks, meetings, events, conventions, trips, etc. because I just didn't have the time. There are meetings I suddenly can't go to, projects that I can longer commit to, because I have to stay home and work. It's hard to explain sometimes and make people understand. Like yesterday was a Sunday. I had a meeting for a school reunion, and I could no longer attend because I needed to finish pages. Today is a holiday, but I'm still working.
PICCA, the Philippine International Cartoons and Comics Festival is still ongoing and I used to have an active role in it, but again, due to work, I've had to decline further participation because I just could no longer spare the time. PICCA by the way, happens at the end of this month.
It's also why there have been less San Pablo Comics Festivals than I would have normally liked. I just can no longer commit to organizing it. I can't attend the meetings, I can't manage the various little things needed to be done to make such a festival go forward.
I was invited to France for a three week tour for Festivals and Conventions because of the nominations that ELMER had gotten at such events. But I knew I had a lot of work I had to do, and I couldn't afford to take off for three weeks. I was feeling poorly earlier on and that contributed to that as well. But sickness or no, I still had to work.
Once again let me reiterate. I'm NOT complaining. I don't regret missing out on a lot of these things. In the end, they all fall secondary to what I really want to do, and that is create comics. My focus has always been creating comics. It's what I love to do, and I must apologize to everyone if I choose it over everything else (well, except family that is).
