Lady Luck Ignored Me, So I Wrote My Way To The 2026 BCBA

There are three types of lucky people in this world. First, we have the nepo babies. Born into wealthy and often famous families, they can buy almost anything they want in a heartbeat. Second, we have the genetically gifted. These are the people blessed with good looks, natural intelligence, or athletic ability. Then there are people like me. We were not born particularly fortunate, so we have to manufacture our own luck.

I wasn’t born lucky. Growing up, I always felt like the ugly duckling stuck in the wrong pond. I wasn’t an honors student, a varsity player, or even a musical prodigy. I was, at best, average.

But so what if I wasn’t born exceptionally talented? So what if I didn’t have billionaire parents? Just because Lady Luck wasn’t on my side didn’t mean I was going to join the misery contest.

So I stopped complaining and started searching for paths that might lead me to Lady Luck’s door.

Then, one day, in pursuit of my life’s purpose, I discovered a little secret. And that secret became my ticket to a life beyond my wildest dreams.

I grabbed that ticket and began a journey I never thought possible for an ordinary, introverted Filipino like me.

Along the way, I decided to take a side quest called blogging. That led to the creation of my long-running travel and adventure blog, The Bisaya Traveler.

Many moons ago, when I started The Bisaya Traveler, I had no clue where it would lead or how long it would last. I had practically nothing.

I didn’t have wealthy backers, powerful connections, or a barkada working behind the scenes. Plus, I knew no one in the blogging community, and I had no expectations.

All I had was a love for travel, an appetite for new experiences, and the stubbornness to keep writing even when almost nobody was paying attention.

I didn’t even know what I wanted the blog to become. I had no desire to become popular, an influencer, a brand ambassador, or even what we now call a content creator. To this day, I don’t call myself a content creator.

I had zero desire to be seen. I was happy being a nobody, and I still am. I only wanted a blessed, quiet life.

I just wanted to write. That was the whole point of blogging in my book.

When my blog went live, my mother was its only reader. No one else cared because it was new and, quite frankly, it sucked. It was a run-of-the-mill travel blog filled with guides, tips, itineraries, and budget breakdowns.

There was nothing particularly unique about The Bisaya Traveler back then. It had no distinct voice and simply spewed information like Google, only with fewer answers and more grammatical errors.

Even so, I wrote one article after another. I traveled whenever my time and budget allowed it. I explored the highlands of Cebu, found places on the island that few people talked about, and got lost more times than I can remember. I learned from my mistakes, improved my craft, and kept the blog alive through years when quitting would have been the easier and more logical choice.

In 2018, The Bisaya Traveler received its first nomination from the Best Cebu Blogs Awards, a local award-giving organization that recognizes Cebu-based bloggers.

It seemed that I had finally reached Lady Luck’s door. I knocked with a big smile and loads of positive energy.

She didn’t answer.

I didn’t win anything in that edition of the Best Cebu Blogs Awards.

Even so, I knew my time would come. Losing didn’t mean the ticket was useless. It only meant I had not reached my destination yet.

So I tucked the ticket back into my pocket and kept moving.

Then, just as I was beginning to find my voice and the blog was gaining momentum, the world shut down.

COVID-19 arrived. Soon, borders closed, flights were grounded, and the travel industry came to a standstill.

Suddenly, I was running a travel blog in a world where nobody could travel. And for a while, I was even jobless.

Even though almost nobody was reading my blog at the time, I kept writing, blogging, and practicing. I wrote about the reflections and realizations that came to me during my hikes. The process became more satisfying, and slowly, I found the right tone and voice.

In 2020, The Bisaya Traveler was once again nominated by the Best Cebu Blogs Awards. This time, I won during its pandemic edition.

The nominations continued in the following years. Eventually, I collected four trophies from the Best Cebu Blogs Awards.

My blog was gaining recognition for its unique storytelling and long-form content. As a bonus, my career was also on an upward trajectory.

But it wasn’t always sunshine and butterflies.

The rise of TikTok and vlogging made traditional blogs seem irrelevant. People kept telling me to switch to videos because that was what audiences wanted to consume.

Stubborn and unapologetic, I refused to switch. I was a writer, and I always would be. I never considered myself an influencer or a content creator.

I blogged out of love, not to be loved or admired. I didn’t give a fuck if someone was reading my blog or stores. I just kept on writing. 

As I continued writing blog posts and developing stories in my head, I also began submitting my work to local publishing companies. And guess what? My stories were accepted into two different anthologies.

That made me wonder.

What if I wrote my own book?

And so, even though I had no clue how to publish a book, I reached out to a publishing company and sent them my manuscript.

I was venturing into the unknown. But I knew that even if I failed, I still had the ticket safely tucked inside my pocket.

After a long wait, I received the news that my manuscript had been accepted and would be published.

That manuscript became my first book, 101 Letters to Juliet.

In the following months, I continued studying the craft of writing fiction. At first, I assumed it would be simple because of my background in blogging.

I was wrong. It was a completely different beast.

I had to understand nuance and learn the art of showing rather than telling. It was quite different from the straightforward way I wrote my blog posts.

I struggled and failed repeatedly. But the ticket was still in my pocket, so I kept moving.

Fast-forward to today, and my work now appears in six published books. Four are my own, while the other two are anthologies containing my stories.

I’m not telling you all this to brag. I’m telling you because it’s finally time to reveal the little secret that changed my life and the ticket I’ve been carrying all these years.

The secret was fairly simple. You have to keep fucking moving.

That was the whole ticket.

It wasn’t inherited wealth, natural talent, powerful connections, backers, or some hidden shortcut. It was the willingness to work, learn, fail, adjust, and move again.

Here’s the thing.

Lady Luck rarely knocks on the doors of people who spend their lives waiting. If I wanted her to notice me, I had to make myself inventible. I had to show presence or as most Gen Zers would say, aura.

Moving didn’t always mean taking an enormous leap. On most days, it meant writing a few phrases, finishing another article, learning from a terrible draft, or trying again after a rejection.

And hard work and consistency don’t guarantee success. Life is unfair, and plenty of hardworking people never receive the opportunities they deserve. But every step I took gave Lady Luck another chance to notice me.

That was how I manufactured my own luck.

And speaking of luck, The Bisaya Traveler has once again been nominated by the Best Cebu Blogs Awards, this time in the Best Cebu Travel Blog category.

The Best Cebu Blogs Awards is a yearly ceremony that recognizes Cebu-based bloggers, influencers, and digital storytellers. Founded in 2008, it is the pioneering award-giving body dedicated to Cebu’s blogging community.

Being named a finalist means more to me now than it did during my first nomination in 2018.

Back then, I wanted the trophy because I thought winning would prove that my work mattered. This time, I already know it does.

The Bisaya Traveler survived COVID-19, the rise of TikTok, the explosion of vlogging, and countless declarations that blogging was dead. 

It survived because I kept writing, even when the internet seemed to be moving in a completely different direction.

Making the final cut tells me that there’s still room for long-form stories. There’s still room for stubborn writers who would rather spend several days polishing an essay than dance in front of a camera for fifteen seconds.

Of course, an event like this does not run on aura and positive energy alone.

I want to thank Bai Hotel Cebu, the venue sponsor and co-presenter of this year’s awards. The hotel will host the 19th Best Cebu Blogs Awards Gala Night on November 23, 2026, in Mandaue City.

I also want to thank the gold sponsors who helped make this celebration possible: HONOR Philippines, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Cebu Pacific Air, PLDT Home, Home Credit Philippines, Maya Philippines, and InLife.

My thanks also go to silver sponsor Megaworld Corporation, official photographer Budots Media Philippines, multimedia partner Partner Multimedia, blogger partner Memoriter Writing Services, and event partners Cebu Fitness Blog and FaceCebu.Net.

The special awards make the evening even more exciting. The Founder’s Choice of 2026 winner will receive a trophy and a set of products from HONOR Philippines. The Bai Creator of 2026 winner will receive a trophy, a cash prize, and a gift certificate.

To everyone behind the Best Cebu Blogs Awards, thank you for continuing to recognize writers and creators in Cebu. Organizing an event like this takes time, money, patience, and probably enough group-chat messages to cause permanent eye strain.

I won’t pretend that I don’t want to win. Of course I do. I’m an introvert, not a saint.

But this nomination already means something to me.

It tells me that none of the quiet work was wasted. The articles nobody noticed at first, the terrible early drafts, the trips where I got lost, the years when blogging seemed irrelevant, and the days when my mother appeared to be my only reader all led me here.

I also owe this journey to everyone who read my stories, shared my work, and supported The Bisaya Traveler through the years. I’m especially grateful to those who reached out and told me that something I wrote inspired them.

Somewhere along the way, The Bisaya Traveler became more than a travel blog. It became a place where I could write about fear, identity, inner peace, and the courage to live on your own terms.

Readers have told me that these stories encouraged them to pursue the life they truly wanted, even when that life didn’t fit society’s idea of success. Knowing that my words helped someone take that step means more to me than any trophy ever could.

I guess that’s another way of manufacturing luck. You create something honest, send it into the world, and hope it reaches the person who needs it.

And every one of those steps brought me here.

Perhaps Lady Luck will open her door for me this time. Or maybe she won’t.

Either way, I’m no longer standing outside waiting for her.

The ticket is still in my pocket.

And I’ll keep fucking moving.