Monday, December 31, 2007
The year 2007 for me is a year of change. There are a lot of happenings that triggered a change in my point of views, philosophy, dream, as well as my personality and person hood.
FAMILY
The year 2007 for my family is a very good year. Though there were a lot of tragedies and obstacles, I am so happy that we were able to conquer and make through them. Through those challenges we were able to develop our relationship to each other and made it stronger than before. It's been a tough year for us. But then we are tougher.
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
I should say that this is one of the highlights of this year for me and this great event has two faces. One face is that finally my four years of cramming nights and nonnegotiable rules is done. No more staying up late at night to finish a notebook that MUST BE designed. No more nights of reading a couple of chapters of Noli me Tangere, El Filibusterismo and others. No more weekend practices for school presentations. However, bidding my farewells and goodbyes to my alma mater is VERY difficult for me. It has been my second home for ten long years. To put it simply, saying byebye has never been this sad.
UNIVERSITY OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
I am so glad that at last I am a student of my dream university. Being a college student is one thing. But being a UA&P dragon is ANOTHER. the first six months of my stay in this university has made a lot of change in me. It developed a better sense of responsibility. It helped me socioalize and bring out the best in me. It helped me explore my self. It made me realize that I can do this and that, that seems to be just in my dreams. In other words, It put me out of my BOX.
KULTOLICIOUS
They are my super best of friends during my high school, until now and FOREVER. Though we don't get to see each other as often as we want to, I could say that the bond has never been broken or lessened, instead it made us tighter. Though our schedules conflict to one another, we always see to it that we meet at least once a month, especially during vacations and school breaks. During those times we do all crazy stuff we can actually think off: movies, food marathon/fest, house hopping, and all that. Guys, hopefully this 2008 no one will change and hopefully we stay as crazy or even crazier!! I miss you!
UA&P FRIENDS
They are the ones who made me realize that I can do more than I can think of. They gave so much advice on different things. They made me think of complicated things as simple as 1 2 3. I must admit that I am not going with them during night outs, over nights, parties, but I should say they never left me out. So I am really glad that I were able to meet them in my college.
KORERO
This is my online virtual community. Though I cannot see them in person, I can feel the concern and love they are willing to offer. I do not consider then friends, instead a FAMILY. They taught me lessons that I can apply to real life. I know that this community is not permanent. Sooner or later it will be disband and stay as a history. But the friendship that was developed will stay in my heart.
If you will ask me on the things that I will leave and bring this 2008 I should say that I will leave all the memories of hatred, suffering, sadness, and all that brings negativities and I will bring my FRIENDS and all those that brought me happiness during the past year. And of course I will never forget to bring the lessons I have learned the past year.
To all my friends especially to KULTOLICIOUS,I will never ever forget all the memories. I will never forgot you. I promise.
2007! BYE-BYE..
A prosperous 2008 to all!!! XD
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
It is no doubt that Christmas is just around the corner. I hear the children's melodious voices singing and asking for "aguinaldos". I see the lights blinking and playing with my eyes. I look up high in the Christmas Trees that almost each house has. These are my observations before, like five years ago.
Gazing on our balcony this year to see what each house prepared for this Christmas I suddenly felt sad. Then, I asked myself "Do they still have the Christmas Spirit in them?" I start my next day with that question, and hoping to find the answer.
I spent most of my time in our balcony hoping to find what I was looking for. It was Wednesday, 19th of December, most of the schools would celebrate Christmas Party. I first thing that caught my eye was a child carrying a gift. I assumed that this was for his baby in their Christmas Party. The kid was asking his yaya to carry it for him. Yes, I did admit that was quite big, but I doubt was heavy that it would come to a point wherein he couldn't carry it anymore. I just felt sorry for the child. It seemed like he would just give gift just for the sake of giving it. He didn't know what was the essence or purpose of what he's doing.
I remember when I was still in the kindergarten wherein when the Christmas Party comes I was so eager to carry the bunch of gifts to our school. That it even came to a point wherein I was getting mad and throwing tantrums whenever someone tried to help me. I was just the total opposite of that child.
Another thing that I witness was that a neighbor of ours reminded his husband if he got the Christmas present for someone. I heard my neighbor said that he got it already and showed an "ampao" His wife then asked how much was inside it and the husband said that 1000 pesos. The wife just nodded her head which seemed a satisfaction.
I do admit that I am happy if I received a cash for Christmas. But then I realized that it is still better to have something that will serve as a remembrance for you of him/her for that Christmas. Yes you can buy something out of that money for yourself that will remind you of him/her, but then the thought is less compared with something the giver bought him/herself.
One more thing that observed was a group of teenagers was passing by. They were carrying bags and bags of gifts with themselves. And while walking they were like teasing someone maybe because he has nothing to give to the others.
It seems like children nowadays expect something in return for the gifts they would give to someone. Though the children I saw was just fooling around, i always put into my mind that "jokes are half meant" which I believe in my case true after all i had been through.
With the three situations that I saw, It seems like as the time goes on, the spirit of Christmas is becoming less and less. They are now concentrated with the gifts that they receive and give. Which I know is wrong. We should stick into our minds that Christmas is not about the gifts alone, but most importantly it is to commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
While I was browsing yahoo, a news article caught my senses. It was about an oil spill that happened in South Korea. According to the news, there were about 7,500 volunteers that grabbed their shovels and buckets to clean up the mess. There were also 105 ships along the coast cleaning up the sea. You can find the full news article by clicking here.
I could not stop myself from comparing South Koreans with Filipinos. I just felt ashamed with what I read. South Koreans outlive Filipinos.
South Koreans showed more care for their environment. Whenever such incident happened in the Philippines, there will be very few or no volunteers. I am not saying that we don't have care for our environment. It's just that it is not our primary priority. We consider other things before it.
I think it that this is one of the reason why we frequently encounter mass fish kills. Our government's hired workers don't have that enough man power to finish it before it spreads.
Our volunteerism in such issues is not limited with oil spills alone. It concerns all environmental related issues such as the illegal capturing of protected animals, illegal logging, and so much more. Yes, it is a known fact that there are still concerned citizens. but we must also consider figures. Obviously there are more "unconcerned" citizens.
The simple act throwing candy wrappers in improper place is a big issue already. Yes, it is just a candy wrapper, but gather all the candy wrapper thrown all over and see what amount will it count. That simple act is also alarming. It is because if we can't discipline ourselves in throwing our trash, then how much more can we handle big things?
I really felt ashamed of what we are when I read the news article. Ashamed in a way that we are the one that should be environmentally oriented people. For the fact that we are surrounded by beautiful natural surroundings it is just that we are acting the opposite. Sooner or later our title "Pearl of the Orient" may be replaced with "Slums of the Orient". I'm not being rude here, I'm just saying what I feel right. If we don't like to be called that way, we should do something now. Even now is too late, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't do anything. We shouldn't wait for the time that we really can't do anything, because they are all gone.
I could not stop myself from comparing South Koreans with Filipinos. I just felt ashamed with what I read. South Koreans outlive Filipinos.
South Koreans showed more care for their environment. Whenever such incident happened in the Philippines, there will be very few or no volunteers. I am not saying that we don't have care for our environment. It's just that it is not our primary priority. We consider other things before it.
I think it that this is one of the reason why we frequently encounter mass fish kills. Our government's hired workers don't have that enough man power to finish it before it spreads.
Our volunteerism in such issues is not limited with oil spills alone. It concerns all environmental related issues such as the illegal capturing of protected animals, illegal logging, and so much more. Yes, it is a known fact that there are still concerned citizens. but we must also consider figures. Obviously there are more "unconcerned" citizens.
The simple act throwing candy wrappers in improper place is a big issue already. Yes, it is just a candy wrapper, but gather all the candy wrapper thrown all over and see what amount will it count. That simple act is also alarming. It is because if we can't discipline ourselves in throwing our trash, then how much more can we handle big things?
I really felt ashamed of what we are when I read the news article. Ashamed in a way that we are the one that should be environmentally oriented people. For the fact that we are surrounded by beautiful natural surroundings it is just that we are acting the opposite. Sooner or later our title "Pearl of the Orient" may be replaced with "Slums of the Orient". I'm not being rude here, I'm just saying what I feel right. If we don't like to be called that way, we should do something now. Even now is too late, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't do anything. We shouldn't wait for the time that we really can't do anything, because they are all gone.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Hey Hey Hey It's my Birthday! I been looking forward ti this day since last month. Maybe because I want to be greeted by my friends. I want to hear them saying Happy Birthday, or perhaps just send me a message saying Happy Birthday. But unfortunately I am very disappointed and dismayed with what happened.
I've been waiting for their greetings as early as last night (December 3) but then, only one greeted me. Well, thanks to her. And so with what happened, I was looking forward to the next day, which is my birthday.
My birthday is here. But then no signs of greeting with my friends. Six o'clock, Seven, Eight, still no greetings. But when the clock struck by 10am there are the greeting. But they were just like from 3 persons, namely one from my cousin, from my high school friend Anna, and good friend Ding. I am really disappointed. Only one of my closest friend greeted me. Damn them, were they doing it on purpose on not to greet me? Well, for me, that was better than saying they forgot or something. Afternoon came and the total greeting I got from my friends was just four, and I have like a thousand friends.
Honestly, my UA&P friends are way better. We only knew for like less than a year and yet they know when my birthday is. They've been greeting me like the whole day today. And I was very happy with that.
And I decided to go and treat my friends who greeted me in Yellow Cab. And unfortunately we were just three! And I ordered an 18'' pizza which is good for 8-12 persons. Hahaha we were eating it for like two hours! Well tha last slice of our share was a total disaster. We can hardly swallow it. It seems that there were no more space to fill our tummies. But then, we managed to eat it all up. We were laughing because we ate a pizza good for 8 persons and we were just three! That was an achievement.
When I was going home, it was a pain in the tummy! Th road is not that good and so the ride was bumpy! I was very full and as we pass through those humps and "lubak" I feel like the whole pizza will come out! I really really ate a lot.
With what happened I could hardly say that I was happy. Call me crazy, I don't care. Am I that crazy in asking little greeting? I don't think so. This day only comes once in a year! So I wanted it to be special. But then it was not after all. Anyway those guys who greeted me, YOU are warmly appreciated.