Keeping Score

If Dyan Castillejo's life were a game, then she's definitely winning. But with so many responsibilities to juggle, how does she keep score of everything? 

- LAURD SALEN 

"Let's go someplace where there is light," Dyan Castillejo says, gesturing to me to follow her-I was confused for a second before I realized what she meant. We had just finished her shoot and I had planned to do the interview with her inside the studio for privacy.

"It's a bit cold kasi," Castillejo says, agreeing to do the sitdown interview in the brighter and warmer corner of the studio. She had already changed into the clothes she was wearing when she first arrived: a neon pink athleisure jacket worn over a sports bra, high-rise leggings, and a pair of running shoes.

She must've caught me staring at her when she explains, "I stopped over at the gym first before going here." Of course, she did. She is, after all, the Dyan Castillejo-the poster girl of a healthy and active lifestyle.

That's no surprise since she's a former competitive tennis player, but also because she comes from a family of successful athletes: her father, Lino Castillejo, used to be a star on the track and in football. Castillejo's father was also a former race car driver and golfer. Meanwhile, her grandfather on her mother's side, Gil Fargas, was also the national tennis champion in 1925. Not to mention, all her siblings were also once athletes.

"My dad was the one who pushed me and my three sisters into sports," Castillejo recalls. "He would wake us up every day and run before school. So, basically, the active lifestyle and sports were really part of our family. That was always the topic, the interest."

Castillejo dabbled in various activities before she found her niche in athletics. Between the years 1981 through 1990, Castillejo competed for the Philippines in the Fed Cup tennis competition. In addition to that, she competed in the Asian Games, the Southeast Asian Games, the Junior US Open, and Junior Wimbledon. By 1998, she became the first Filipina to ever earn a ranking in the Women's Tennis Association (WTA).