Continuous blessings...

Just like others, I have dreams too. And let me say, I will be fulfilling one of my dreams this year.

I plan to study this year. It's almost impossible to achieve it because of financial and health concerns. It has been six months since my operation. Just had my check-up again, consulted different doctors and had undergone CT scan, and I was advised to do the usual things that I was doing before. Well, I may not be able to do the other things that I was doing before, but it's ok. I feel better now. Just realized that I should not be affected with whatever sicknes that I have. Yah, the blebs still exist in my lungs but it doesn't mean that I would lose hope. Rather I must continue to live and live my life to the fullest. Just leave everything to God and He'll do the rest.That's for sure. With that,I decided to pursue my dream.

Next concern is the financial side. I have savings here but i told myself that it would be better if someone would help me for the tuition. Asking help from my parents would be the last resort.Why?Because we haven't pay my hospital bill. Thus, I don't want to ask any help from them. Like what I have said, just leave everything to Him, He'll do the rest. Now let me share something to you....

* It was night of Holy Thursday during a Bisita Iglesia. We're on the last church, Don Bosco. At the gate, I told myself "Ano kaya Makita ko si Tita Tess..." Tita Tess is a family friend who has been a benefactor of mine. During high school she used to give me allowance in the seminary. And during the second sem of my last year at UST,I lack money for me to enroll. She was the one who paid for it. This was the reason why I was able to enroll. Another thing, she was the one who gave me allowance during the second sem since my family was experiencing financial problems. When I knelt down, I saw on my back that there was Tita Tess. I immediately called her attention. We had a chat and told her what happened to me. Out of nowhere , she opened her wallet and gave me a money. Thank God, I have something for my studies already. Not only that, another benefactor sponsored almost half of the payments for my schooling. She was Tita Daphny. Starting from high school until college, she was the one who pays for my tuition fee. And now,she's helping me again. We just talked over the phone and now she's offering help. By saturday, I will enroll already. And let me say, i have fulfilled my dream,partially.:))

God is really good...!

I know He will always be...!

And I know He will never leave me....!

Thanks so much to the persons who were always so good.

and of course, thanks to HIM!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

"HAPPY 100 WEEKS!"

30 days until June 1, 2007.

2nd year anniversary. Can't believe 2 years pa lang. Seems like forever.

Anyway, I would like to share a Valedictory Speech from a recent graduate in UP Diliman. I got this from a forwarded mail from the HR Foodlink Group to which our company is a member. It's amazing because this woman is only 16 years old and she has this amazing realizations and insights that most of us aren't even aware of. To you, I don't know you personally, but i salute you. You inspired me not to take the road less travelled but to make my own. In short, NOT TO FOLLOW OR IMITATE OTHERS BECAUSE THEY SEEM HAPPY BUT TO FIND MY OWN HAPPINESS. :)


Valedictory speech of UP magna cum laude who graduated this month at 16 years old.


Take not the road less traveled
Mikaela Irene Fudolig – BS PhysicsSpeech at the Commencement Exercises, UPDApril 22, 2007

One of the things that strike me as being very "UP Diliman" is the way UPD students can't seem to stay on the pavement. From every street corner that bounds an unpaved piece of land, one will espy a narrow trail that cuts the corner, or leads from it. Every lawn around the buildings sports at least one of these paths, starting from a point nearest to the IKOT stop and ending at the nearest entry to the building. The trails are beaten on the grass by many pairs of feet wanting to save a fraction of a meter of traveling, no matter that doing so will exact some cost to the shoes, or, to the ubiquitous slippers, especially when the trails are new.

What do these paths say about us, UP students?

One could say that the UP student is enamored with Mathematics and Pythagoras, hence these triangles formed by the pavement and the path. Many among you would disagree.

Others could say that the UP student is naturally countercultural. And the refusal to use the pavement is just one of the myriads of ways to show his defiance of the order of things. This time, many would agree.

Still, others will say that the UP student is the model of today's youth: they want everything easier, faster, now. The walkable paths appeal to them because they get to their destination faster, and presumably, with less effort. Now that is only partly true, and totally unfair.

These trails weren't always walkable. No doubt they started as patches of grass, perhaps overgrown. Those who first walked them must have soiled their shoes, stubbed their toes, or had insects biting their legs, all in the immovable belief that the nearest distance between two points is a straight line. They might even have seen snakes cross their paths. But the soiled footwear, sore toes, and itchy legs started to conquer the grass. Other people, seeing the yet faint trail, followed. And as more and more walked the path, the grass gave in and stopped growing altogether, making the path more and more visible, more and more walkable.

The persistence of the paths pays tribute to those UP students who walked them first – the pioneers of the unbeaten tracks: the defiant and curious few who refuse the familiar and comfortable; the out-of-the-box thinkers who solve problems instead of fretting about them; the brave who dare do things differently, and open new opportunities to those who follow.

They say how one behaved in the past would determine how he behaves in the future. And as we leave the University, temporarily or for good, let us call on the pioneering, defiant, and brave spirit that built the paths to guide us in this next phase of our life.

We have been warned time and again. Our new world that they call "adulthood" is one that's full of compromises, where success is determined more by the ability to belong than by the ability to think, where it is much easier to do as everyone else does. Daily we are bombarded with so much news of despair about the state of our nation, and the apparent, perverse sense of satisfaction our politicians get from vilifying our state of affairs. It is fashionable to migrate to other countries to work in deceptively high-paying jobs like nursing and teaching, forgetting that even at their favored work destinations, nurses and teachers are some of the lowest paid professionals. The lure of high and immediate monetary benefits in some low-end outsourcing jobs has drawn even some of the brightest UP students away from both industry and university teaching to which they would have been better suited.

Like the sidewalks and pavement, these paths are the easiest to take.

But, like the sidewalks and pavement, these paths take longer to traverse, just as individual successes do not always make for national progress. The unceasing critic could get elected, but not get the job done. The immigrant could get his visa, but disappear from our brainpower pool. The highly paid employee would be underutilized for his skills, and pine to get the job he truly wants, but is now out of his reach. And the country, and we, are poorer because of these. Today, the nation needs brave, defiant pioneers to reverse our nation's slide to despair. Today, we must call upon the spirit that beat the tracks.

Today, we must present an alternative way of doing things.

Do NOT just take courage, for courage is not enough. Instead, be BRAVE! It will take bravery to go against popular wisdom, against the clichéd expectations of family and friends. It will take bravery to gamble your future by staying in the country and try to make a prosperous life here. It might help if for a start, we try to see why our Korean friends are flocking to our country. Why, as many of us line up for immigrant visas in various embassies, they get themselves naturalized and settle here. Do they know something we don't?

Do NOT just be strong in your convictions, for strength is not enough. Instead, DEFY the pressure to lead a comfortable, but middling life. Let us lead this country from the despair of mediocrity. Let us not seek to do well, but strive to EXCEL in everything that we do. This, so others will see us as a nation of brains of the highest quality, not just of brawn that could be had for cheap.

Take NOT the road less traveled. Rather, MAKE new roads, BLAZE new trails, FIND new routes to your dreams. Unlike the track-beaters in campus who see where they're going, we may not know how far we can go. But if we are brave, defiant searchers of excellence, we will go far. Explore possibilities, that others may get a similar chance. I have tried it myself. And I'm speaking to you now.

But talk is cheap, they say. And so I put my money where my mouth is. Today, I place myself in the service of the University, if it will have me. I would like to teach, to share knowledge, and perhaps to be an example to new UP students in thinking and striving beyond the limits of the possible. This may only be a small disturbance in the grass. But I hope you'll come with me, and trample a new path. Good evening, everyone.


Astig..... :))