How a career setback brought a reading community to life
Earlier this year, I moved back to my hometown in Cagayan after a corporate job overseas didn't work out as expected.
At first, coming home felt like taking two steps back from the life I had spent years building. I wondered whether this career break meant I was falling behind the timeline I had imagined for myself.
For a while, I lived with grief and anxiety. It was the first time in years that I didn't know what to do next. Later, therapy helped me accept that I didn't have to figure everything out at once. I only needed to take one step forward.
So I began rebuilding a life that wasn't centered on work. I reconnected with old friends, joined a gym, explored my city's growing art scene, spent afternoons in cafés, and enjoyed time with my family. Slowly, I stopped treating this season of my life as something I needed to escape and started seeing it as something worth living.
One idea came during a twelve-hour bus ride from Manila: While scrolling through Facebook Memories, I came across an old photo of myself holding The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. In high school, I took pride in finishing novels and filling the spaces on my library card.
Somewhere between graduating and chasing the version of success I thought I had to achieve, my love for reading slipped away without me noticing.
That bus ride was the beginning of In Between Chapters.
What began as a simple weekend reading session among friends has since grown into a reading community—the first of its kind in my city.
The idea is simple: Bring your own book, spend an hour of reading over coffee, then stay for conversations afterward. Whether you're a lifelong reader or someone opening a book for the first time, everyone is welcome.
In just five reading sessions, In Between Chapters has welcomed more than 40 readers from diverse backgrounds.
Our participants range from an 18-year-old senior high school student to a retired teacher. Each person brings not only a book, but also a story.
During our fourth session, Before the Coffee Gets Cold sparked a question that stayed with everyone: "If you could return to the past, would you go back to change it or simply revisit it?"
'In Between Chapters' has become more than the book club I first imagined. It has become a space where people can slow down and connect through stories. In many ways, it has also helped me find my way.
The conversation that followed became personal. Some spoke about losing parents. Others reflected on the advice they would give their younger selves or the mistakes they had learned to live with. In those moments, books became more than something we read. They became an invitation to understand one another.
One session took us to the Cagayan Museum and Historical Research Center. Before we opened our books, participants explored the museum's exhibits and learned about the people and stories that shaped Cagayan's history.
After our silent reading hour, two authors joined us to share both their books and the personal stories that shaped them.
Miel Mia Baquiran, a Cagayano writer, introduced Papa Teyo, a bilingual children's book in Ybanag and English that explores family, forgiveness, and learning from mistakes. Meanwhile, Beatrice Pobre, who now calls Tuguegarao home, spoke about writing women's fiction for readers around the world through her novels The Town of Perpetual Autumn and Love in Hollowed Spaces.
That afternoon, a few participants told me they had never thought of spending a Saturday visiting a museum, reading a book, and meeting local authors. It was a different kind of afternoon than they were used to, and they hoped we would do it again.
Hearing that, I realized In Between Chapters has become more than the book club I first imagined. It has become a space where people can slow down and connect through stories. In many ways, it has also helped me find my way.
Looking back, I never thought that taking a career break would lead me here. I spent years believing success meant leaving home. I never imagined that one of the most meaningful chapters of my life would begin when I came back.
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