Through the Years in the Field of Writing

Me in one of my birthdays with my friends 

I started writing when I was 15, probably the less serious ones, poems, stories which I gladly show my HS teachers (Ms. Pascua) and my HS barkada (Janina, Rachelle, Maikee, Aileen), I had a fan-base, most especially Janina who would give me the look na hey. asan na mga poems mo? that I gratefully obliged since my schedule was not as stingy as then.

On my senior year, I was so happy when I was one of the few members who stayed with Journalism Club under Mr. Miranda and Ms. Alalayin, I spent the entire year as an Editor-in-Chief for GLIMPSE making me realize how hard it was to create a newsletter, that alone was a bit of history for me.

Going to a tech school when I was in college had me joining The Cursor, this was a bit of a formal one since I do coverage, run here and there, take pictures, observe and run stories, prepare actual budget and all. I enjoyed that kind of extra-curricular work until I realized I spent my entire college life with The Cursor, gained a lot of friends and experiences that I treasure for a lifetime.

Now, sans graduate school, I continue to blog and write poems, stories, hopefully in 2016, submit an entry to the Palanca or Philpop (is there any musical person who would like to arrange my songs)... and hopefully, someday be a real life published author.

To Ms. Pascua, Janina, Rachelle, Journalism Club, The Cursor, My bosses from ODesk and the rest who had seen me grow as a writer, be it on print or online, I hope my writing did justice to your belief in me.

#ForeverGrateful: How Dad changed my Life

5 Years of Just Being Together: Through time with Dad 

5 years ago, I 've met someone whose selfless and caring attitude transcends on all things possible that goes by the name of Engr. Elmer Pineda.

Little do I know that even after I had my black graduation toga back when I was in college, He will still be an active asset of my life today, somebody who never changed, somebody I can talk to about anything. Somebody whom I was never afraid to refer to as my father in FEU... or in other ways, dad.

I consider him as my angel, in all sense of the word, God's way of telling me that the decisions I made recently may not be the best ones but they are worthy of a great journey. He never stopped making me feel important   encouraged me to become the best I can be despite every failure that came my way, do proud in every milestone I had achieved never judged me based on the things that happened, for he knew me better than the others and knew I should make it once given second chances.

I may have been some headache of yours at times but I know you will always give me the chance to do things over and over. It took me a while to accept things as it is right now but I understood what he often tells me: The art of making dedma lang Mich, dedma lang, you know yourself better than they do. He would just often tell me this: When all else fails, when they cast a doubt on you, here I am always so proud of you. It sounded cliche, but it was something that reassured me that someone else will always believe in what I do and he would never stop believing in me.

I'll end this post by saying: There's no other way I would have lived my life if I was to choose to redo things over than to have you in it even if the same things had to happen again.  I don't know what I did to deserve you in my life as close as you are to me but I am sure God has the answer to everything I had in mind right now. I just hope that He continues to shower you with good health (I can't wish for anything else for the longest time possible since you have everything) so that a lot more can experience this as much as I did.

I'll do my best to end this journey as planned, how it was supposed to be. For now, I look back and see you as one of those who support me immensely and my heart is filled with gratefulness.

I'll see you when I graduate, no matter how long it may take me to, to get that MIT across my name. Love you Dad, always and forever.

#ForeverGrateful: Learning life the Cathy Way

2015 brought me to knowing one lady who has been supportive of me in whatever way she can, its not that I don't feel like I deserve it, but coming from someone who knew me because of dad, I never felt it so real as how she did to me.

Ms. Cathy and I never met when I was in college, it was in 2009 when they moved to FEU Manila, but I knew her by name then by stories of the people who were left in FEU-East Asia. Fast forward to 2012, we got to work in one stable, she was in Makati as a Program Head for IT while I work in Manila as a part of IT Services, it was just a series of greetings, nods, until the first time I stepped foot in Makati where it all became different.

I saw how much she believed in what I can do -  that conversation was something important because it was way way different from what I felt before, pwede pala, pwede ko ulit pagkatiwalaan yung sarili ko, akala ko pangarap lang talaga because pinagsisiksikan ko before sarili ko sa isang bagay na ayaw sa akin. 

Thank you for trusting and for allowing me to be ME. No hesitations, No unneccessary touch ups, hindi dahil need niyo, basta gusto mo lang ako pagkatiwalaan and you wanted to have room for me to try doing things, that for me is special. Thank you for showing me that one reject is not the end of everything, that with great preparation I can be able to deal with what I have with no boundaries. There is no doubt in my mind why everyone thinks of you highly, it is because of the character and the skill nonetheless.

 I really dont know how future will unfold but I am hoping I can have the opportunity to do what you asked me to do even some place. 

To the lady who has made FEU-MK's IT program meaningful as it is today and the person who never fails to restore faith in myself, Happy Birthday (on the 19th)  Happy Mother's Day Madam Cathy. You are every piece of an angel to everybody you've been with and may God bless you and your good heart forever.

Random Thoughts about LOVE

There are many forms of love on earth (that I would not go on detail, you should know it already). We wanted to be love, the way we hoped we do, but in reality, you can see love is quite unfair, you may love even more, you get hurt but you choose to love and give the opportunity to grow with the person. 

1) Love is all about ACCEPTANCE 

When you love, you accept everything there is about the person. I got to encounter people outside my family who actually had different sexual orientations in life with their respective partners. I accepted the fact, at the end of the day, its not their orientation in life (sexuality) that you deal with everyday, it is the entire being as a person. My heart will be forever with them. 

Love is accepting that nothing is perfect, you make mistakes, you change beliefs, you experience challenges, but love makes everything look so surreal, no matter how hard life maybe. 

2) Love is not just about ME, its about YOU.

We want to be love the same way we love (right?) but what if you were both trapped in the situation that the other cant love you the same way you do? 

This is where patience will come along - when you accept that you love the person, you are willing to wait - no matter how hard it takes and you are willing to love, no matter how stupid you feel you are at the moment. 

Love can make you crazy - for relationships that may seem to be distant, relax do not panic, there will come a time that if you are meant to be with each other, you will be together peacefully. Sadly, there are relationships that end (but let's not dwell on that shall we?) 

3) Love is not SELFISH 

You love then you expect to get everything back? That's selfishness brother. Love is giving everything without expecting anything in return, you deserve to be love and you are made to give love. 

4) We are made to love, so love freely.

We should never cage ourselves in engaging to others who can only give us less than what we expected to love, we are made to love so love freely.

True love knows no boundaries, you don't limit yourself with what you think is due, you love because it is right. The heart we have is made to sharing your life with others. Go out and love. 

Reunited and it feels so GOOD: Timeout with my Second Family

5 years ago, I had three fabulous group mates back in college - Karl Jerome Baguino, Ma. Aura Angelie Cortez and Luke Villanueva, we had our own set of differences, we had to complement each other in the process - I am not a coding genius but Karl and Luke hates documentation - our group back then was a typical powerhouse because we are armed to do anything, then we failed, then we rose up to the promise of graduating on-time in 2012.

We lead different lives for the past 3 years and together with Engr. Elmer Pineda who has seen us every step of the way, we formally reunited in a dinner last week and see, three years never made that much difference. My groupmates never changed... Our friendship never changed.

Actually, I feel a bit guilty for not attending anything in that span: I became too engrossed with studying while the others had a chance to see each other, I guess the idea now is to lighten up since I'm done with my acads, hopefully to push this thesis to the finish line. 

To my dearest Alumni Tracer Family, I really do appreciate the fact that you are there for me until today, no words can express how grateful I am that you are there to support me. To Karl, Aura and Luke ---> no words can express how much I love you guys! 

To my dear Sir P who has acted as my mentor, second father, best friend, adviser and my forever confidence booster, thank you for driving all the way to TriNoma (yes!) and for spending time with us that day. Thank you for everything you do for me until today, for putting light whenever I need to and for guiding me and for showing me how far I had become. You were worth every single thing I cried for back when I was in college. Thank you for helping me cross the finish line, I will see you there. I promise that.