My Paradise in Pioneer Highlands

When I officially started working in 2000, I found my permanent address in Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong. From renting a “closet-sized” 20-sq. ft. studio apartment in Cityland to finally purchasing my very own 46 sq. ft. 1 BR condominium unit in Pioneer Highlands (popularly known as the Globe Tower). Both buildings were on the same street.

Actually, buying that condo unit was bit abrupt. I had a panic purchase after my Cityland room was broken in by robbers. The thieves got away with my precious wristwatch collection and some jewelry. The worse part was seeing my unit totally ransacked. I really felt violated. I just couldn’t see myself continuing my life in that building any longer. I had to leave. So in a matter of weeks, a real estate broker was lucky to find desperate me. At that time, I just wanted to find a SAFE place and true to form the security personnel at Pioneer Highlands were the strictest ones I have ever encountered. A deed of sale was inked without batting an eyelash.

Back then, Pioneer Street was merely part of a warehouse-village. There was nothing chic about it. My new condominium building which allegedly is also home to a lot of celebrities was the only pillar of posh-ness in that area. It’s amazing how Pioneer has grown to be a business/commercial district. Now, right across my condominium building, a cluster of Robinsons Realty properties have mushroomed for the past 2 years making the street one of the busiest areas during rush hour.

Pioneer Highlands was home to me for about 6 years. I nested in it. When I was still at Cityland, I just had a sofa bed and a personal ref. I started purchasing furniture, appliances and collected a lot of “abubut” when I finally got my own place. That’s why when I got married and my husband and I moved out, he was appalled that we actually brought out 36 boxes of “stuff” despite the fact that we didn’t take out the furniture and major appliances. Ang dami mong gamit! My husband exclaimed in disbelief. Clothes… CDs… DVDs… books… cooking ware… Kean’s toys/clothes… etc…

To make things worse, I wasn’t even able to help him because I got really sick that day when we were moving out. I had cramps, migraine, fever and asthma. My husband told me it must be a case of separation anxiety. He was probably right. As much as I was excited to move out and start a new life with him, I guess part of me didn’t want to leave yet.

Let me explain why we had to move out in the first place. First… with Kean still under my wing, my 1-bedroom condominium would not be appropriate anymore for the three of us. We had to find another place where Kean can have his own bedroom. Second… maintaining a condominium unit proved to be expensive, especially for Joseph’s standards. He and I wanted to adopt a much simpler lifestyle now that we’re Mr. and Mrs. Palarca. Third, we really wanted a place that's much closer to our church so we opted to move to Quezon City. And fourth… Joseph said that it was just right for us to begin our new life away from anything that would remind us of my past. Not that he couldn’t accept my so-called “past”, it was more about helping me to move on. Leaving my single-life abode was a perfect rite of passage for my new life as a wife.

Now that we’re in Quezon City, I sometimes miss my Pioneer condo – my 26th floor sunset view… the free gym (which I seldom use, hehe)… the pool… the 24 hour maintenance services… the generator that automatically works when there’s a black-out in the area… the security… Getting our groceries and catching the last full show was just a stroll away, with the mall right beside our building. If I was on tipid mode, the MRT station was just right across. Living there was really convenient.

However, I don’t regret renting it out. Leasing it out now actually augments our income. After some time finding the right tenants, our unit is now being rented by a nice couple; an Australian guy and a Filipino woman – newlyweds too who also got married last April, same month Joseph and I did. Talk about coincidence. They said they’ve been looking around for quite a while but the moment they saw my unit, they immediately felt that it was “home”. The guy said there was a certain cheerfulness to it. I thought maybe it was due to my Mediterranean yellow walls. And his wife even said that she has been dreaming about an ube-colored room, and lo and behold when she saw my bedroom. It was lavender.


We rented out the condo as a fully-furnished unit. It was a blessing to have this couple as our tenants because they were neat. Hehe. I was able to visit them a couple of times and I have to say that they kept the place in tip-top shape. They never ran out of good things to say about their stay in my place. In fact, they even called me the other day to announce that they’re already expecting a baby. The woman was ecstatic because as she is heading for her 40s, a pregnancy was definitely something they weren’t counting on. They said that the house must have been brimming with blessings when they came in and they got a whiff of it. Whoa, that made my heart swell. I did have both happy and sorrowful memories in that house but I have never looked at it that way. It has gone through seasons of melancholy and mirth but I have never ever thought that God was there.

Looking back now, it’s true that I did receive a lot of blessings while I was living there. The fact that I was able to acquire that unit was a miracle in itself plus a whole gamut of career opportunities and colorful experiences that knocked on my door. It just didn’t occur to me that they were “blessings”. I thought every accomplishment that I ever had was due to my own efforts.

"Everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by His power and everything is for His glory." ~Romans 11:36

So I guess my tenants were right. My house was indeed brimming with God’s blessings. I had a lot of hurt staining the walls of that place but God’s grace always painted it over with goodness. I just never bothered to acknowledge God’s splendid interior design in my house and in my heart.


I left everything for the tenant's use
except for "Lucy" my favorite yellow
Kitchenaid Mixer :-)