the biggest challenge of my first three weeks at my new job was learning how to craft a proposal, or pitch. and not just any pitch — a galloping 96-slide powerpoint presentation on a full branding campaign for a completely new channel.

it was mind-blowing. at first i struggled to grasp the fact that james, the creative director, or lilian, the boss lady, weren’t going to approve or disapprove my ideas. they just didn’t say anything! kaloka! then, when i figured out that silence meant that i should forge ahead in the same direction, i fought to overhaul my “creative diarrhea” style — i vomit dozens upon dozens of options, you choose one — in favor of the “you ought to know best, so just give us one good one” style that seems to work better. THEN i had to wrap my head around the fact that none of them intended to muck around with my ideas. ownership and responsibility were big lessons for me.

but the mind-boost! feeling ko maiiyak ako sa ganda when i read all the pitch presentations from our sydney office. i never thought i would ever be so inspired by a powerpoint, and wondered how i could ever conceptualize and write so clearly. (ganyan din ako when i first saw a promax showreel and charlie and ayee’s enca plugs on my first day in gma.) i really had to constantly plow through all my “am i doing this wrong? could this be better? is this good enough?” or i would have frozen up completely.

by friday last week, the powerpoint became so unwieldy with all its little parts and pieces that james had to keep kicking my ass just to make sure i had everything in place. (kakabilib siya grabe. hindi napipikon.) swimming in my soup of bugs, straps, junction breaks, mockups, endpages and idents, i was forcibly reminds of my first days at gma when i had no idea what the difference between a rider and a bumper was, and wondered how the hell i was going to learn all the jargon. (answer: by osmosis, almost naturally.)

this resulted in my latest overtime ever in singapore… 8:30 p.m. HA. HA. HA. overtime na raw ba yon?! flashback to countless overnights and sleeping under my desk at gma. apparently, yes. in fact, it was considered so bad that i was entitled to a glass (or two) of red wine while working. marlon also picked me up from the office and met the team, which was nice.

so imagine how i felt today when james texted me at 5pm.

“just got out from presentation. they loved it.”

truly awesome.

i actually don’t know if we’re going to win it, since pitch period ends wednesday, but let me just hug this happy feeling to myself for a while.

and maybe have some more of that red wine.