15 - Public Speaking Competition

I wasn't a part of the public speaking competition or the speech choir, I had my pubspe and speech choir competition last term but I attended to support my fellow blocks who were AC151 and AC152. I could see their tensed faces, I experienced it too but the bad thing about my experience was we were kind of humiliated in front because we didn't memorize the speech.




Anyway, I was so proud with AC151 because they placed 2nd runner up which was really really amazing! I couldn't help but feel proud because I have such talented block mates, they never fail to amaze me. Also, I would like to congratulate my fellow block mate in AC151, Gracielle Sitjar, for winning the Ignite Speech Competition!! She delivered it so well with confidence and I was so proud of her. I remmeber my Ignote speech, it was terrible. ANd watching her to it so well was just fantastic! I'm sure our professor, Sir Nomer Yuzon, was also very proud of her. We were all very proud of her, and I am honored to be a part of this amazing block with such talented people.

References:
Photos - APC Facebook Page

14 - Speak Sense

The inter school Public Speaking Competition with the theme "Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got." This event was held at the APC Auditorium from 9 in the morning until 12 noon. We were basically given a chance to watch the inter school public speaking competition. 

This competition aims to develop the public speaking skills of high school students and to overcome their fear of public speaking. This event was really helpful, to me and to the students, because somehow we were inspired, the fact that public speaking sounds scary, its actually something more than that. people tend to think public speaking is a waste of time, but no, the talent of publicly speaking is actually so much more. 

You get to voice out your opinions, become an advocate, tell what is right from what is wrong. You also learn to become confident, it raises your self esteem which is good, because not all people have this. Public speaking becomes an edge in your life because this is not just some talent, it is an honor to speak and represent what you want in front of a crowd or probably an audience. 

There was this certain speaker that I really admired the most. I think she was from Pasay Science High School, she knew that she was speaking in public yet she wasn't afraid to share her own life experiences. She told us about wanting to end her life - I was shocked because for me, as much as I know what it feels to have so much problems, I think suicide is of the most stupid things any person could do because you let your problems take you away - she told us about her family as well, i think it was because they weren't buying her the things she wanted. But honestly, I applaud this girl because she was able to face all of it. as hard as it seems, we can't have every thing that we want. We have to be thankful and contented for what we have right now, and that's something worth living for. I can't really imagine what's she's been through but she stayed strong. One of the moral lessons we can get from her is that there is nothing more precious than time. we should continue living, a quote I remember is "It's just a bad day, and not a bad life" we humans are made to move forward, not going back to the past, just looking back. We all for a fact, at some point in our lives, wished that time would just stop. But, we can't keep living in the moment, there are far more greater things that await us. Our journey as high school or college students is just the start of who we are going to be in the future, the time we have now is the most important and precious thing because anything can happen. We also should be thankful for what we have, it's all our parents probably had. Just believe and keep the faith, for God will guide you and he will never give us problems that we cant solve.

References:

Photos - I saw these somewhere in facebook

13 - The Phantom of the Opera

Our last few meeting sin EEPENG were fun, well, I had fun. because my professor made us watch one of my all time favorite plays entitled "The Phantom of the Opera" from the title itself, it sounds pretty awesome. So it's kind of a musical, from the point of view we were shown. Anyway, this play is all about a girl named Christine, she was gifted with a very beautiful and high pitched voice. Her father told her that there would be an angel guiding her, which she called the angel of music. Ever since, she knew that she had a vocal teacher, but cannot really explain who her teacher is. So this girl was a ballet performer, and unfortunately, their lead singer refused to perform because there were odd things happening at their place.

At the end, Christine was convinced to sing of the performance because it was hard to cancel, also because they were a full house and they can't disappoint the guests and refund everything, they heard christine sing and they were overwhelmed with how beautiful her voice is. Someone asked who her teacher was but she d\said she didnt know who. While Christine was alone, someone appeared before her, it was her angel of music. Her angel of music has been with her ever since she was a little kid, he taught her how to sing very beautiful songs. When christine and her angel of music met, she was full of joy because her teacher loves her very much, and he wanted christine to sing at the play and become famous. by doing so, the angel of music sent a message to like, the director of the play, asking that christine would become the lead singer, and that they would preform the opera that he wrote, or else he will do bad thing, or more like take someone else's life if the disobey him. the other were frightened  so they did what he said, but the real lead singer refused, and insisted that she would perform and not christine. because of this, the angel of music became mad. the chandelier began to flicker, and the audience were frightened. so they asked christine to sing, but things began to complicate. christine had a lover, who i think she knew since they were little. they were going to go out for dinner, i think, but then christine disappeared, the angel of music kind of took her, and to make the long story short, the angel of music kind of begged christine to stay with him and he'll love her the way hye loved her when she was just a child. christine's lover found them and the angel of music threatened to kill him if she chose to be with her lover. anyway, instead of getting mad, christine kissed the angel of music, and i guess the angel of music realized that christine loved him too, but they werent meant to be together. the angel of music became sad, but he let christine's lover go, and asked them that they would never speak of this ever again.

Sorry I sounded boring but I definitely recommend everyone to watch this spectacular play, it will give you chills and goosebumps but i guarantee that you will never regret watching this. all of the characters portrayed their roles perfectly and i didnt see any flaw, so it basically was a 10/10 score for me, i really enjoyed it. plus, everyone was very talented, you would see how well the play was because all the characters did their very best.

References:
Google Images

12 - Plagiarism is a crime

When we hear the word plagiarism, what usually comes into our mind? I never really took plagiarism seriously until I went to college. University of Santo Tomas was really strict with plagiarized, as in really REALLY strict. But before I get into details, what exactly is plagiarism? According to the dictionary, Plagiarism is defined as an act of imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and representation of that author's work as one's one work, as by not crediting the original author. Pretty complicated right?
It simply means to not get, copy and imitate everything that you find in the internet, books, magazines, articles etc. you can, but as long as you cite the source to where you got it from. Like what I did earlier, the definition of plagiarism that i typed was from dictionary.com, i had to say dictionary.com because i got it from them, and not stating that means it came from me. Anyway, an experience of mine in my freshmen year in UST, I had a marketing professor, and somehow, I don't really know the entire story, but he was sued by UST for plagiarizing a work or thesis. so yeah, he was a really awesome professor, he told us that what they're blaming him for isn't true,


 i do hope it isnt. I never knew the college could be so strict, i mean like suing your own hired teacher is intense. also, when i was in high school, plagiarism wasnt a big deal at all, thats why people, or rather college students, do it. if the elementary and highschool teachers were strict with plagiarism, no one would dare plagiarize and they would actually use their own brains instead of googling everything. another experience I had in college was in my english class, we were asked to do some sort of book report, so we were 3 people in a group. Basically, me and my groupmates read the book, so when we got our paper back, the teacher drew a big "PLAGIARISM" on it and I was like, what the hell this is our own words. Sometimes professors can be really offending, just because the students sounded "cool", "smart" or "professional" on their essays doesn't mean that it's plagiarized. It's like making us feel like we aren't capable of saying such things. But overall, moral lesson is, do not ever copy something off the internet without citing or crediting. It is illegal and I do hope that people will stop plagiarizing, cause what if you were the author of a certain book and your work got copied, you would feel bad right? Be an informed citizen before making dumb actions.

References:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism
Google Images

11 - Health Supplements

In our modern generation today, scientists have discovered and developed different kinds of supplements for our body. There are different kinds of supplements, there are: dietary supplements, nutritional supplements, herbal supplements etc.
Dietary supplements include everything from vitamins and minerals to herbs such ascinnamon and St. John’s wort. Dietary supplements also come in a number of forms including: Tablets, Capsules, Powders, Softgels, Gelcaps, and Liquids. They are sold from a number of retailers including: Pharmacies, Grocery stores, Vitamin and health food stores, Websites, Mail-order catalogs. The main types of dietary supplements include: Botanicals (derived from plants and possibly including herbs) Vitamins, Minerals, Fatty Acids, Other Dietary Supplements.

A nutritional supplement is a marvelous thing. It can be a vitamin, a food, a random plant extract, a chemical that probably won't actually kill you, or even nothing at all. It can be promoted as medicine only not quite, and isn't sufficiently regulated that you need to actually prove it's effective for anything at all, as long as you don't make any specific health claims.A handy way to sell them is as vitamins. The churlish might say you were selling pseudovitamins, but they just want to undermine the health freedom of your potential customers.

Medicines are nasty and chemical. You need something more holistic. Natural is always good, so use natural products and say so. Big Pharma is out to kill your customers! Until you can get them to buy your company. Bodybuilders love this stuff. They know the value of a good anecdote! Just make sure the bros get the word out. If you need a veneer of clinicality, orthomolecular medicine is an excellent source of suitable terminology. Of course, you certainly wouldn't claim to be practicing medicine. So don't forget a suitable disclaimer.

Because of our modern technology today, we are able to create such supplements for our body. Kids nowadays dont have to complain when they dont want to consume vegetables, instead, they can take health supplements for a more healthy and convenient lifestyle.


References:
http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/treatment-and-care/medication/other-treatments/herbs-supplements-and-alternative-medicines/types-of-dietary-supplements.html?referrer=https://www.google.com.ph/
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nutritional_supplement
Google Images

10 - Truly an Inspiration

A few months ago, one of my English professors asked us to watch a play entitled "Ang Tatay Mong Kalbo" known as the Bald Soprano in the English language. While watching the play, I found it kind of weird but at the same time really funny. The adaptation of Isagani R. Cruz of "Ang Tatay Mong Kalbo" was really good, I enjoyed it a lot. Here's a little bit of information about Isagani R. Cruz

Isagani R. Cruz is a multi-awarded and prolific poet, playwright, short-story writer, critic, educator, publisher, advocate, and Filipino. He was born in 1945. He is the former Philippine Undersecretary of Education and currently a Professor Emeritus, a University Fellow, and the Academic Publications Executive Publisher of De La Salle University, the Director of the Teachers Academy of Far Eastern University, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of Santo Tomas. As a writer, he has received a tremendous amount of recognition for his many contributions to Philippine literature having written at edited over thirty books. Among these achievements include winning the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature numerous times and being inducted into the prestigious Palanca Hall of Fame in 2004 for his noted plays, essays, and short stories written in either Filipino or English. He also won the SEAWRITE Award in 1991, the Centennial Literary Contest Award in 1998, and the Balagtas Award in 1999. He has represented the Philippines in international conferences held in Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and many others. Cruz’s scholarly articles and studies have been published in both the Philippines and the United States. He served as the editor of Loyola Studies, Palabas, Interlock, and Malay. He has also worked and contributed regularly to Philippine periodicals such as Times Journal, TV Times,

 Modern Romances, Bulaklak, WHO, Parade, Observer, Panorama, and Ms. Ellaneous. Regionally, he also wrote for Asiaweek magazine. Aside from his awards for creative writing, Cruz is also well-known for his film and drama reviews.As an educator, Cruz continues to work with the biggest universities in his country. He is the Alfredo E. Litiatco Professor of Literature at the De La Salle University where he was the head of theDepartment of Literature and Philippine Languages. He is also the publisher of the De La Salle University Press. At De La Salle he has taught quite a variety of courses including Science Fiction, Advanced Writing, The Teaching of Literature, Rizal, and Bridge. Currently he is also teaching Philippine Literature in English at theAteneo De Manila University.

Very impressive right? I adore Isagani R. Cruz for being a really hardworking Filipino Author, I think he should be recognized more for what he does. He has made a difference in our country, I personally think he is one of the most talented Filipino authors. I do hope I meet him someday

References:

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Isagani_R._Cruz

Google Images 

9 - Be an Informed Citizen

25^th of November 2015, my block mates and I attended a seminar in the APC Auditorium which was kind of about a public speaking event; it’s actually for The RamPage, APC’s newsletter. So, there were three speakers, all of which are GMA’s writers, The TV show Jessica Soho. Before the event started, the mentor of The RamPage showed us a documentary video of President Ferdinand Marcos’ achievements and that former President Cory Aquino, and his husband, had some kind of secret.What I understood was Marcos and Aquino were really great friends, Marcos paid for Aquino’s medication in the United States, he let Aquino live long enough just to kill him in the end, the point of the video that there are hidden secrets in our Philippine History that is meant to stay a secret, but what he was trying to voice out was President Marcos is not a bad person and president and he was definitely not responsible for the death of Ninoy Aquino, that everyone thinks is a hero. 

So many questions are raised in this that is why we are given a chance to choose between what we think is right and what is wrong. After the video, the first speaker from GMA started discussing how to write effectively. She taught us how to transition our sentences and how to come up with good ideas to make our story better, she also said that “there are no such thing as bad stories, just bad story tellers.” She encourages us that everyone has their own story and its always going to be up to us on how we tell it. The second speaker discusses about the political issues that we face in social media. Like for example Essena O’neill, Essena is a very famous fashion and lifestyle blogger from Australia who is now on a campaign about banning social media. All of her photos on instagram are only "fake" smiles, or rather, she was paid to advertise products and she didn't feel happy about that anymore. She said that social media kind of ruined her life because it makes people revolve their life around number; number of likes and followers to be exact. She said that life is too beautiful to be wasting it on technology in social media, the second speaker also emphasizes about the explosion that happened in paris, Syria, basically around the world which taught us to be more aware of what is happening in our society right now.  The third speaker told us about how important it is to be aware of what is happening, which is social media. Social Media keeps us informed with what is happening. In our generation today, social media has become something that need, this is our source of communication, we just have to learn how to control and know what is reality from not.

8 - Parasyte

My brother actually read the manga of Parasyte, I haven't since I am really busy in school. My brother gave me a brief intro to what we might see in the movie so I was fully aware with the kind of "horror" that it is. Upon watching, me and my brother were very disappointed. There wasn't any character development like you wouldnt understand who or what the character really is because the scenes were being rushed. One characteristic of the parasites is that they are able to sense each other's presence. While this ability comes up multiple times throughout the movie, it is extremely inconsistent. How far away the parasites can detect each other pretty much depends on what the script calls for to where at points I was confused if the ability was universal or if they parasites could turn it on and off like a convenient switch. Comparing it to the manga, there were so many missing insights. Of course in the manga it is very detailed so you would know what the character thinks, feels and says, but in this movie,

 there were so many missing emotions that make it boring because the actors depended on the facial expressions which didn't really work, in my opinion.What's good about this movie is the action part because it was cool and interesting, it made the movie a not-so-boring movie because of the action so it was okay.There were a lot of changes from the manga to the movie, its fine but if I were to pick I'd rather read the manga to get a better insight and feeling of the story rather than watching this.But nevertheless, I still enjoyed the cool camera effects.

7 - College Week

Our college week was pretty fun, yes I had fun, kind of, mostly because the cafeteria had lots of cool stuff! stressing at dairy queen, like, who wouldnt love ice cream? but I got tired of it eventually. So basically, 26th of October, we had our parade because the college week was about to start, it was cool because we get to wear casual clothes hahaha. It was also a great wek because we didn't have classes most of the time because everyone was so busy in preparation of the Mr. and Mrs. SOM, I wasn't able to attend though, but my full support goes to my blockmates in AC152 which is Latrell Sombilon and Steven Severo. I really do hope one of them wins the title because not only are they good looking, they're also very kind people.I would cheer them all the way. I attended the Holy Mass for school of management at the chapel last thursday to thank the Lord for a wonderful life and for a successful college week.  I didnt finish the whole SOM Night because its my curfew hahah but special thanks to our hosts for the night! which was Kuya
Dhaile Osh and Ate Jane Garcia. They were spectacular and funny,The night couldnt have been fun without them, such great hosts. Also, we love their costumes! A can of spam and a very gorgeous red witch! I enjoyed so much on our college week, hoping for another spectacular college week next year!!

6 - A Weapon of Mass Destruction

When I was a young girl, I would always see my dad smoking outside. I would always wonder why was he exhaling out of his mouth. A few days later, me and my brother were hospitalized because we inhaled too much smoke, I then asked what smoke was and my mother explained. She said smoking kills the organs slowly, I cried, I asked why was daddy smoking and she told me that my dad tried to stop smoking but sadly, he was already addicted to it ever since he was in college. Unfortunately, me and my brother had no idea, we were confined in the ho

spital because of too much inhalation of smoke, second hand smoke, is what they call it. We were getting worse, the doctor recommended medicine that could cure us, but unfortunately, it would make me and my brother gain weight. My mom didnt care of course, she bought the medicine and we eventually got better. Things didnt change though, I would still see my dad smoke outside and it would upset me every time because I was already aware that cigarettes are very dangerous to your health. according to wikipedia, Smoking most commonly leads to diseases affecting the heart and lungs and will most commonly affect areas such as hands or feet with first signs of smoking related health issues showing up as numbness, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and cancer, particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer. Overall life expectancy is also reduced in long term smokers, with estimates ranging from 10 to 17.9. years


fewer than nonsmokers. About one half of long term male smokers will die of illness due to smoking. The association of smoking with lung cancer is strongest, both in the public perception and etiologically. Among male smokers, the lifetime risk of developing lung cancer is 17.2%; among female smokers, the risk is 11.6%. This risk is significantly lower in nonsmokers: 1.3% in men and 1.4% in women. Historically, lung cancer was considered to be a rare disease prior to World War I and was perceived as something most physicians would never see during their career. With the postwar rise in popularity of cigarette smoking came a virtual epidemic of lung cancer. A person's increased risk of contracting disease is directly proportional to the length of time that a person continues to smoke as well as the amount smoked. However, if someone stops smoking, then these chances gradually decrease as the damage to their body is repaired. A year after quitting, the risk of contracting heart disease is half that of a continuing smoker. The health risks of smoking are not uniform across all smokers. Risks vary according to amount of tobacco smoked, with those who smoke more at greater risk. Smoking so-called "light" cigarettes does not reduce the risk. Hear that? it's already dangerous enough as it is. I still dont get why people risk their lives for temporary pleasure which will make them eventually regret it. I really try to stop my dad from smoking, he shifted to "E-Cigarette" which was less harmful, according to him. but I still think its bad for the health, smokers know that smoking is destroying them slowly but still, they dont care. I would like to tell the people that, don't waste your time and money on things that will hurt you, life is too beautiful to be wasted. Smoking is a classy way to commit suicide, only its worst because it starts with your organs. Believe me, love yourself, you cant love others if you dont love yourself first. People say its hard to quit smoking but if you really want to quit, then just love yourself.

5 - The Bald Soprano

We were asked by our professor to watch the play called "Tatay Mong Kalbo", well I wanted to use the English title because it sounds better than the actual tagalog title. Moving on, Tatay mong kalbo, in my opinion, is a completely ridiculous play, what others may call absurd but I prefer ridiculous because it actually is ridiculous in the sense that the main characters are completely absent minded with what is happening, they kept repeating the same words over and over again and yes they fought over things which dont make any sense at al, in other words, its nonsense which makes the story hilarious and a bit interesting. They exaggerate on things that aren't even worth exaggerating, which is kind of stupid but entertaining all at the same time. The story is basically about Mr.and Mrs, Santos who often argued about something at one point in their conversation. Maria, their housekeeper or what we call maid, feels really comfortable around Mr. and Mrs. Santos, who eventually told them that Mr. and Mrs. Reyes would come over. Later on, they all were conversing and they were funny until a local fireman named General Hepe, who Maria said was her love, randomly asked if there was a fire at their place. They answered "NO" which lead him to talk about something about firemen and fires. when General Hepe was about to leave, he asked "Nasaan ang tatay mong Kalbo?" and the play ended.



I love how they expressed their feelings, or roles rather, and stood  in front of us with confidence, There are flaws, which is okay because no one's perfect, but they executed the play really well for us to understand the humor of the play. A job well done to the people who acted in the play, we really enjoyed the performance.

I would recommend this to everyone because not only is it foolish, but it would brighten up your day in an instant.

4 - Love at First Sight

I have always believed that love at first sight is such a cliche thing, i mean i don't think its even possible because love takes months or maybe years to develop, not just in an instant.Falling in love with a person whom you just saw over the rainbow is a bit unrealistic, but when you think about it, it kind of seems nice to experience it. Falling in love in just a blink of an eye, what can be more fascinating than that? 

so basically my professor made us watch this movie called "Turn Left, Turn Right", its about a boy and a girl who met on a school field trip, this boy fell fell in love with a girl with just a single glance at her, what we now call love at first sight. There was a scenario wherein  the girl was reading and all of her paper work fell on the pond, she was struggling to get all of her papers back because the water was slowly drifting the papers away, and then out of the blue, this boy comes rushing in the water, trying to help her get all of the papers back, and when he did, he got so shy and just ran out of the water so he could hide or something. That was the start of their very cute love story. when then field trip was about to end the girl finally asks the boy his number, they were both beyond happy, but due to the tragic clumsiness of the girl, she left the number of the guy inside the train. Talk about bad luck, she never got to call the guy. 13 years later, both of them went back to the same place, to cut the long story short,they eventually met in the same pond where the girl got her papers wet, the same scenario happened, only they were older. they started getting really close with each other and ended up telling stories, to their surprise, their stories were somehow linked. and they figured out that they were the same person 13 years ago. Isn't that just an amazing story? I dont know but this movie made me believe that everything happens for a reason and your special someone might just be out there waiting for you. I am very thankful to have watched this movie because it has given me a really good enlightenment in life. I would recommend this movie to my friends and I am a hundred percent sure that they will love it as much as I do.

3 - Heneral Luna, A Forgotten History

Im not really a fan of filipino movies but this movie struck me, it portrays the kind of filipinos we have today. Heneral Luna was indeed, a hero. But the others thought he was too bossy or overly protective of the Philippines, rather. I wasn't interested with the Philippines in any way, honestly, but watching this movie moved me. The actors portrayed their roles perfectly, the showed impressive acting skills. The movie makes everyone want to watch, and learn at the same time because nowadays people watch drama movies that do not make sense. more like, "corny" movies are being made in our society today. But with the rise of Heneral Luna, everyone was able to learn and watch what really happened in our history, and thats something to be proud of because it became an awakening to the Filipinos, that the true enemy is ourselves if we do not know how to be unified.Whatever we do there's always something wrong, things wont always go the way we want it, Heneral Luna was indeed, an inspiration to us all. He was an arrogant man, but in the right way. Like I said, only a few people want to learn our history because it isn't so interesting at all, almost everyone knew Heneral Luna, but no one ever knew what he did for our country, this movie is so beautiful because we got a glimpse of what happened back then,

what we were all fighting for. that's the beauty of this movie, I actually watched this movie twice in the cinemas, first in mall of asia and the other was in greenbelt 3. It is a must watch because not only will you appreciate the beauty of history, you'll also learn so much more than you ever had a chance in our philippine history classes back in highschool. My mom and I don't watch tagalog movies or shows because she said it was too corny and I wouldn't learn anything, Heneral Luna was an exception though. I applaud the director for a job well done. He definitely brought the filipino spirit back.

2 - My Inspiration

My dad once told me that you can't buy true friends with happiness, well he was right, you really cant. I am beyond blessed to have everything I want, to be able to afford everything that I want. I mean like, what more can you ask for?

When my parents were young, they were really poor. My dad had 5 siblings and my mom had 4 siblings, and they were living an unwealthy life. My mom told me her allowance was only 5 pesos, and she had to travel from their house going to UST, but the most touching part is, despite her low allowance, she was still able to save money so she and my dad could go on a date, i know right my mom pays for their date cause dad had nothing to give. So basically when I went to college, I had to leave my dad in the province and study in manila and stay with my mom. We're a broken family now, by the way. It's really sad and I still cant get over it but that's life, you know. Moving on, me and my mom live in a condominium in Makati City, and I study all the way in manila. Every month I would go to my province and visit my dad, and he'd give me my allowance and extra money. Every time I would visit me, there would always be a father - daughter time. He would always tell, more like sermon, me about how his life was when he was a kid, it goes like this:

"You and your brother are very lucky, when I was a kid I never had this life that you have. I never had my own room, never had my own computer, never had television, never experienced an air conditioned house, never had everything that you have. When I was young, I really loved the tv show called "POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN" since we didn't have a TV, I would always go to my neighbors house and watch outside, I always did that for quite a while but when my neighbor saw me, he shut the windows and door so I couldn't watch and I cried so much because I really wanted to watch that cartoon. From then on I told myself that when I will have kids, I would never want them to experience this." it's a simple story but it made me cry a lot to find out that happened to my dad. he then added "When I was finally going to college, I wanted to be a lawyer, but we're too poor to afford it. There was also no colleges or universities in our province so I was forced to study in Manila. I took the cheapest course I could find, just to finish college. My life in Manila was really hard, every month my mother would give me P300 pesos a month, my dorm costs P200 pesos, so I only had P100 left and that was my allowance for the whole month. My dad was a farmer and my mom is only a house wife so we didn't earn much. My dad would always sell his cows just so I could finish. There was one time when I was in fourth year college and I only had 1 semester left to take before I could graduate, unfortunately, we had no more money. See how tragic that is? one more semester before I graduate but we had no more money left to give. I told my mom it was okay to stop, but she insisted for me to keep going on, my mom borrowed money from relatives, neighbors and to everyone that she knew. I was able to graduate and finish college, I worked as soon as I graduated because my family was in debt, we has so many debts to pay so I could finish college, what more with my 5 siblings? I never thought we would survive, but we did. I told myself that I never want to experience this, I dont want to be poor for the rest of my life. so I worked really hard to give you, my children and family, a life that you deserve, and you don't 



deserve that kind of life. So be thankful for everything that you have because this was all from hard work. I love you, your brother and your mom very much. Even though we're a broken family, I hope you will still appreciate the the things in life because we are blessed to have this life. I never want you to worry about money, all I want you to do is to study hard, never mind about me, I am always here for you and I'll be okay. I love you so much" so writing this is making me cry, my dad is my inspiration. And i love him to death, he gave everything that he could so me and my brother would have a beautiful life. I love you daddy, thank you for everything.

1 - The Beginning

Who am I? I actually don't know how to answer that quite yet. What I do know is that I am human, I make mistakes and I experience sadness; But I learn from all these things to make me a better person. I am actually one of the laziest persons you will ever meet in your life, like, literally because sometimes I'm too lazy to stand up or I'm too lazy to go pee or I'm too lazy to take a bath. My laziness is actually kind of a bad thing because it makes me procrastinate a lot and I hate procrastinating but I can never avoid being lazy so that's basically my life. My life is pretty simple actually, but I do have lots of complicated things happening in my life. College. When you hear that word so many universities come running inside your mind. The first thing I think about when I hear college is De La Salle University, damn, how i wish I study there. DLSU is actually my dream school, I've dreamed of studying there since I was a little kid. Unfortunately, my parents said that the tuition fee was OA and that I should go study at the University of Santo Tomas because they graduated there. And I was like sure why not, worth a try. But then again, I was upset because I really wanted to study in DLSU. I learned to love UST, I mean, the campus is amazing, there are lots of things to do inside the campus and I really had lots of friends.

 I was so overwhelmed and I didn't focus that much on my studies because I thought that no one really fails in college, but I was wrong, I failed. Not to mention the subject I failed at was Philippine History, don't get me wrong but I love the Philippines but I'm just not interested in its History. So yeah I failed, it broke my heart, I've never failed a subject before and now look, my parents were beyond disappointed, I was ashamed of myself because I was out having fun while my parents were working really hard just to give me a good education, I've never felt so horrible.so sophomore year came, I became a better person. I became more focused with my studies, I did my best. Sadly, I still didn't make it. My program was shifting me to management accounting, i told my parents, they didn't want that. They wanted me to take up accountancy, so I left UST and trasnferred to another school. That's basically the story of my terrible life, so yeah i'm still trying to make up for the mistakes i've done in the past. Hopefully I'll get there someday. besides, i'm only a 19 year old junior who basically screwed up my second chance. I do hope no one fails like me, but believe me, I will get better. I will become a CPA someday and make my parents proud.