“Wonderful Nightmare,” now streaming on Netflix Philippines, is the wakeup call (no pun intended) we didn’t know we needed.
In the Filipino adaptation of the 2015 Korean dramedy of the same title, Atty. Luisa Manuel (Kim Molina) is single, successful, and a shark of a lawyer. Watching her mother die of a broken heart after her father’s demise, she taught herself from a very young age that she had to be strong and self-reliant, blaming her parents’ love for leaving her alone in the world.
Image: Netflix/Wonderful Nightmare
Her high-flying career is something many of us dream of – financial independence, recognition for being one of the best at what she does, and the prestige of a glamorous title. She was also on track with her plans to migrate abroad, another dream many in the Philippines aspire to.
But one split-second changed everything, and an accident left her hanging in the middle of life and the after-life. She could return to her old life, a life she loved, with one catch: she would live one month in the shoes of a housewife.
For somebody who has lived for herself and her career from the get-go, it was an unthinkable notion.
Image: Netflix/Wonderful Nightmare
Waking up to a husband and two kids in a much humbler abode that she was used to, left her in predictably utter dismay. However, she had no choice but to survive the next month in a housewife’s shoes.
What came next was a series of valuable life lessons she never could have learned if she had never left the routine of her old lifestyle.
Image: Netflix/Wonderful Nightmare
Even her values were tested as she navigated the also-challenging role of mother and wife.
Overall, she discovered that not being alone wasn’t so bad after all.
She also learned that a prestigious career was not all there was to life.
And that you always have a purpose where you are placed. Being a lawyer has a purpose – but being a housewife also brings its own purpose.
Translation: “I’m just a housewife.”
Image: Netflix/Wonderful Nightmare
There are things we only learn when our safety nets are removed. Then we realize that is where we have anchored our identity in all along.
For example, we put our confidence in our savings – only to lose it all to a medical condition, or a bad investment.
Or as is typical for career men and women – attaching our identity to what we do. When we introduce ourselves to new people, we immediately follow it up with our title or where we work.
Image: Netflix/Wonderful Nightmare
But what happens when we lose our financial cushion? What happens when we lose our title? Or that job?
I experienced this recently during my stretch of unemployment after a redundancy.
I would introduce myself with my name, and hope that was enough, and the round of introduction would move on to the next person.
But people would prod me about what company I was affiliated with—and I had nothing to say.
At the time, it felt like too personal a question, but it wasn’t. It’s just that your job is the first thing people associate you with when you first meet, especially when you are still working age.
Image: Netflix/Wonderful Nightmare
So I realized that I had also for a while, associated myself with the companies I’d worked for. My work also determined my daily routines and that was taken away from me as well. With the prolonged global crisis in the post-pandemic job market—some professionals have been without a job for months and even years – that’s too long a time to be without an identity.
But it was also a time for me to learn that my identity wasn’t in my job, my profession, my financial cushion. These things can change suddenly – and can change beyond my control.
What did not change with my employment status was my identity.
1 Corinthians 5:17 English Standard Version
(v. 17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
In Christ, the old has passed away and the new has come – He makes things new all the time, and this means we don’t need to hold on to the past, because He holds our future in His hands!
If you think we can help you further, just contact us at connect@lowkeywellness.com, we’d love to hear from you!
Translation: “I’m just a housewife.”
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