Hmm... Since everyone's doing their year-end entries, I've decided to post one as well. Haha! XD

Let me see... Year 2008 was like a roller coaster ride for me. The first quarter was the mellow and happy part, where everything seemed to go well and as planned. Come 2nd quarter, where it started to tip to the downside as I felt like I was bumming around even though I was going to school. I would say that the 3rd quarter was the depressing point of the year in which I was all confused and frustrated because I seemed to lose track of my focus on my goals. And lastly, it was in the 4th quarter of the year that I seemed to have lightened up due to the support that I have around me, getting to meet new friends, finding a new hobby (:D) and being able to accept that sometimes things don't always go as planned. You just have to be strong enough to face the unpredictability of life. :)

Ok, enough of that emo-ness. Setting that roller coaster ride aside, I'm really looking forward to year 2009. I already have some plans that I'm hoping would push through. I'm even thinking of making a list of my new year's resolution which I have never done in the past years. Hehe. :P

Here is a list of some memorable events for me which transpired during the year 2008:
--> dance recital
--> summer vacation at Masbate
--> Avril Lavigne concert
--> different anime conventions
--> joining cosplay
--> meeting new friends

There might still be other events which I might have forgotten but are considered special. Hmm... I'll just have to blog about them more often. Hehe. :D

Well then. Adios to 2008 and let's welcome 2009 with a bang! Woohoo! XD

Happy New Year!!! :)

1. Which is your favorite color out of: red , black, blue , green , or yellow ? yellow

2. Your first initial? C

3. Your month of birth? September

4. Which color do you like more, black or white? Black

5. Name of a person of the same sex as yours. Rose Anne

6. Your favorite number? 5

7. Do you like Flying or Driving more? Flying

8. Do you like a lake or the ocean more? Ocean

9. Write down a wish (a realistic one). I wish we'll get rich so that dad doesn't have to be so worrisome anymore.

Answers

1. If you choose:

Red - You are alert and your life is full of love.
Black - You are conservative and aggressive.
Green - Your soul is relaxed and you are laid back.
Blue- You are spontaneous and love kisses and
affection from the ones you love.
Yellow - You are a very happy person and give good
advice to those who are down.

2. If your initial is:

A-K You have a lot of love and friendships in your life.
L-R You try to enjoy your life to the maximum & your love life is soon to blossom.
S-Z You like to help others and your future love life looks very good.

3. If you were born in:

Jan-Mar: The year will go very well for you and you will discover that you fall in love with someone totally unexpected.
April-June: You will have a strong love relationship that will not last long but the memories will last forever.
July-Sep: You will have a great year and will experience a major life-changing experience for the good.
Oct-Dec: Your love life will not be great, but eventually you will find your soul mate.

4. If you chose:

Black: Your life will take on a different direction, it will seem hard at the time but will be the best thing for you, and you will be glad for the change.

White: You will have a friend who completely confides in you and would do anything for you, but you may not realize it.

5. This person is your best friend

6. This is how many close friends you have in your lifetime.

7. If you chose:

Flying: You like adventure.

Driving: You are a laid back person.

8.. If you chose:

Lake: You are loyal to your friends and your lover and are very reserved.

Ocean: You are spontaneous and like to please people.

9. This wish will come true only if you post this again within one hour, and it will come true before your next birthday.

We have finally reached a point in time where the term is almost at its end. Therefore, this would be the last entry for my portfolio. ^^ It's really been a very tiring term for me since I had some of my majors this term. There were some ups but I feel like there were a lot more downs. But as they say, you have to move forward and think positively towards the future. During a very stressful term, I'm happy to have this subject where I could reflect on myself, on my future, and those people around me. I have learned a lot of useful things and lessons that are of utmost importance in my life and my future. We learned self-management through dealing with stress. There was the discussion on how ethics can help us in our decision-making. This subject also taught me the importance of friends, relationships, and marriage. What's more, I was able to learn about how to prepare for my career through the OCCS Seminar. And last, we were reminded of our social responsibility to our community and how to be sensitive of the different cultures around us.

For our second to the last meeting, we again had the human bingo which we did for the first meeting. But this time around, we were told to write down something, a fact which the class doesn't know about ourselves yet. I decided to write that I want to learn photography. This is because, lately, I realized that I am getting interested with the art and I would like to try entering this hobby. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to slowly learn it and be able to practice it in the near future.

I don't really have much to say anymore since we didn't discuss anything much in class anyways except for the new facts of me and my classmates. So, it's that time to say: "It's a wrap!!!" XD

For this meeting, we had an activity which is somehow similar to Pinoy Henyo. A student was seated in front facing the class. A word is written on the board behind him/her. The group mates would then act out whatever was written on the board. As the game went on, most of the words were labels of different kinds of people such as Afghan, Atenean, Ifugao, Korean, etc. These were the words chosen because our topic was about cultural awareness.

In the process of the game, some of us acted out some stereotypical qualities or labels of the given group of people. For example, for the Afghan, one of the groups acted as a suicide bomber. Because most of the suicide bombers are from the Middle East, it does not automatically mean that every Afghan is a suicide bomber. This was what our professor wanted to point out through the game that we played.

To become culturally competent, we should first develop our awareness with regards to a specific culture which we were able to achieve by admitting our personal biases, and opinions. Next is to acquire knowledge about the culture. There are a lot of ways to do this. One can search through the internet, read books, attend seminars about a specific culture. We can watch movies which properly portrays a particular culture. We could also ask a friend who has been living in a specific country for several years to help us understand the country's culture. Or even better, we could visit the countries for ourselves. I myself would like to visit Japan since I am very interested in their very unique culture. Hopefully someday, I'll be able to earn or save enough money so that I could go there with my family.

The last step to cultural awareness is developing and maintaining cross-cultural skills. We were also given a list of things which can help lead us to cultural sensitivity. Our professor was able to tell us stories of her experiences of overcoming cultural barriers and differences while she visited other countries. Personally, I never really experienced much of these kinds of problems because the countries I have visited so far can understand and speak English.

There's an interesting story I would like to share though. A block mate of mine was able to become an exchange student in Japan for 10 days I think. He expressed his surprise when he found out that the Japanese are used to communal baths which us Filipinos are not familiar of. He was so embarrassed to take a bath in such a place but he couldn't do anything because he said the dorms didn't have any bathrooms. This is an example of having to adjust to different cultural practices which we are not familiar with.

"I am an only child but I'm not a spoiled brat." :P

I'm feeling kinda nostalgic. My mom usually sang this to me when I was still an infant. ^^

Someone's Waiting For You
From: The Rescuers
Music: Sammy Fain
Lyrics: Carol Connors and Ayn Robbins
Performed by: Shelby Flint


Be brave, little one
Make a wish for each sad little tear
Hold your head up, though no one is near
Someone's waiting for you

Don't cry, little one
There'll be a smile where a frown used to be
You'll be part of the love that you see
Someone's waiting for you

Always keep a little prayer in your pocket
And you're sure to see the light
Soon there'll be joy and happiness
And your little world will be bright

Have faith, little one
Till your hopes and your wishes come true
You must try to be brave, little one
Someone's waiting to love you

For this meeting, we had Charades as our icebreaker. The topic was all about movies that somehow have moved or touched us through their stories of inspiration. As we went through the game, I realized that I haven't had the chance to watch most of the movies given. I'm hoping that I'll get to watch them someday since some of the stories sounded really inspiring to me.

These stories of inspiration teaches us of our own social responsibility to the community. We have to be socially aware of the needs of the people around us and give a little of our time and effort to help in our own little ways. I could still remember the classroom sessions we had for our NSTP-C1 during my 1st term here in De La Salle. We had several discussions on how the urban poor are faring these days. We talked about the problems these people encounter in their everyday lives, the need for more food, shelter, and other basic need as well as the importance of education.

I also remembered my experience in NSTP-C2 where we went to implement tutorial sessions for the children in Barrio Magsaysay as our block project. For almost the whole 2nd term, we were found at this community for six Saturdays teaching and playing with the children at the Day Care Center. I must say that this experience is what I would call memorable. Before we did this tutorial project, several thoughts entered my mind such as how hot or humid it would in the area. Would the children be little nasty monsters who would end up frustrating me to no end? Or even, do we get to go home early? These are some of the things that came up. But after all those efforts we did as a block, I can now say that I found this experience very fulfilling. To see ourselves helping out the future of our nation in our own little ways makes my heart warm as I realize that we are indeed able to share our knowledge to these children. Yes, they may be very stubborn and hardheaded, but that’s how children are. I can now try to imagine how difficult it was for my parents to raise me up when I was still a wee child. As our tutorial project comes to an end, I do hope and pray that someday these children will grow up to become very responsible citizens who would stand up and fight for their country’s ideals, that they would continue to strive for the betterment of our nation.

I received this through an email. Just thought I'll post it here. My favorite is the last one. XD

ROMANCE MATHEMATICS
Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = affair
Dumb man + smart woman = marriage
Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy
____________________________

OFFICE ARITHMETIC
Smart boss + smart employee = profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = production
Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime
_____________________________

SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $20 for a $10 item he needs.
A woman will pay $10 for a $20 item
that she doesn't need.
_____________________________

GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money
than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
_____________________________

HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand
him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot
and not try to understand her at all.
______________________________

LONGEVITY
Married men live longer than single men do,
but married men are a lot more willing to die.
______________________________

DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the
beginning of a new argument.
_____________________________

HOW TO STOP PEOPLE FROM BUGGING YOU ABOUT GETTING MARRIED
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking
me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next."
They stopped after I started doing the same thing
to them at funerals.

This is actually a re-post of one of my previous entries. I just felt it's a fitting a reflection for this topic.

If there's a thing called mid-life crisis, then I'm having a college-life crisis. During my 1st year, I had everything planned out: what organizations to join, be a consistent dean's lister, graduate in exactly 3 years and 2 terms, get a job after I graduate, do things I've always wanted to do which I couldn't do before due to constraints. I had a vision of what and where I wanted to end up with. But now that I'm in my 3rd year, I had come to realize that I have suddenly lost my grasp on that vision and I find myself stuck in a state of unproductive dormancy. I didn't notice it at first. It was just these past few weeks that I started to feel like I've wasted a lot of time not really doing anything other than going to school and attending my classes with no extra-curricular activities whatsoever.

I'm pondering on what happened along the way and maybe, just maybe, I got intimidated by the course that I took halfway through. Right now, I'm not really sure how to get out of this situation. But I told myself that the results of my performance this term will be the deciding factor. So, I'll let the term finish (which is about one month away) and then I'll accept whichever way I have to continue on. I'll just have to make the best out of it. So God help me.

PS: Yeah, I know I sound really pathetic. Forgive me.

PPS: Screw whatever my relatives would say if ever I am forced to shift course.

Here's another one of the better poems that I was able to write during high school. It's actually a requirement in our English subject and at the same time a tribute to Pasig River.

The once we knew as the river of life
Has now lived a life of strife
A struggle fought in unending times
Never giving up to ring her chime
Slowly fading in the midst of oblivion
And fall into abyss her own reflection

When was the last time we saw your smile?
Your clearest blue stretching out a mile
Beyond the waters lie the wonders
And how your beauty strikes we came to ponder
Holding the purity in your caress
While all the praises we seem to express

But now, as time fled and seasons gone
Destroying the past that had been done
Left in the darkness to reminisce
Where are they, those priceless memories?
As your beauty slowly fades away
You now seem invisible even in the light of day

Though all of this you continue to hope anew
Even if slim chances are barely few
So, let’s stop being stubborn
Instead awaken this life in full reborn
That may this bestowed gift rise again
And shower us once more the blessings she contain