| When you're doing what you enjoy, you'll never feel like you're working.
Sometimes, I look back at my eight years with CLEO and I wonder where all
the time has gone. Not in a bad way. It's been such a spectacular eight years
that I haven't even noticed that so many years have already come and gone.
It may sound like an exaggeration to a lot of people but I still feel like
it's the first day at work every day.
Yesterday, I interviewed the final three contestants for the Win A Job at
CLEO contest. One of the questions I asked all three was: why do you want to be
a part of CLEO?
Their answers were different but all of them expressed the same thing: that
this is a magazine with a spirit and a personality, and they want to experience
all the magic that goes into making each issue of CLEO.
It tears me apart to know that one day, I would not be with this magazine.
Sometimes, I try to imagine a life without CLEO and the picture that comes up in
my head is always a horrible one.
I joined CLEO as a fresh graduate who was happily attached. When I became
editor, I had just came out of that relationship (it lasted for five years and
we got to a stage where he was going to propose). It was in CLEO that I bought
my first car, that I acquired my first apartment. Working in CLEO has given me
the oportunities to meet some very interesting people. In CLEO I nearly lost my
heart again. I admit, I do wonder if it would be in CLEO that I would find my
next stable relationship, that I would eventually settle down and walk down the
aisle as the editor of CLEO.
This job has witnessed all the major landmarks of my life and I think it's
probably safe to say that it has witnessed my transformation from a girl with
insignificant dreams to a woman who's so sure of what she wants out of her
life.
Whenever I get asked what exactly does it mean to be a CLEO girl, I find
myself at a loss for words. At the end of the day, a CLEO girl
isn't born. Neither is a CLEO girl made. A CLEO girl is cultivated - slowly,
carefully, bit by bit. And there's really no better way to begin your career at
CLEO than as an editorial assistant.
This position is where you'll see all the minute details that go into
making each page in the magazine. This is also where you'll see all the
hard work that goes into making each event such a major success. Almost all of
us on this team have worked our way up as an intern or as an editorial
assistant.
When some other magazine brags about spending 10 hours on its covers, I
can't help but laugh. We don't spend 10 hours on our covers. Each CLEO girl has
been thinking about our covers since Day One. I can't think of another magazine
who can say that their writers are as emotionally invested as CLEO's.
Which is why we all end up with an insane number of off-days to clear. We
never feel like we are coming to work.
After Bachelors practices, Serene, Kamei and I would sometimes go off to
have dinner together. The vibe is never that of a boss eating with her
subordinates. It is always friends chilling out with each other after a day's
work. The conversation is always good and the next day, we share a laugh in the
office teasing each other about the darnest things we've said the night
before.
Off-days. Who needs them when you are enjoying every minute at work?
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