Happy Independence Day: My Feelings as a Filipino

Since it is the Philippine's Independence Day, I would like to share a short passage I wrote a few months ago about my feelings as a Filipino. This passage was written when I was learning about a republic act. I also read some articles regarding the history of the Philippines and that honestly made me grow to love the country even more. I’ve come to realize the efforts of my ancestors and Filipino heroes for making the country a remarkable one. From brains to talents and strengths, we can find everything here in the Philippines.

"I am purely a proud Filipino. I see the Philippines as a beautiful country, from its lands to its people. Everything about it is just beautiful. The country is progressing very well these days; thanks to the brilliant citizens, faithful leaders and of course, the brave Filipino heroes. Those who fought for the country’s freedom made a mark in my heart of their love in our very own nation.

However, my feelings as Filipino somewhat changes. Seeing my fellow Filipino citizens putting the Philippines into a shameful country makes me question myself about the pride. The saddest part is even some of our political leaders tried to put a bad image of our motherland.

Despite all of those factors, I made a promise to myself to become a change for the betterment of the country. It’s like a life mission to guide the youth to the right path. I’ll do my best to enlighten them with the importance of loving and respecting their homeland. As a future Social Studies teacher, I made this as my life purpose; to touch the lives, educate the youth and guide them in making the country a decent place to live for the next generations. It will take a lot of time, but everything will be worth it."

It's the Philippine's 120th Independence Day. May this day be a meaningful reminder to each of us about the courage and sacrifices our heroes and ancestors had made and may this also inspire us to become better and be a more responsible citizen for our motherland, the Philippines.

                MALIGAYANG ARAW NG KALAYAAN PILIPINAS!

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#PressForProgress - International Women's Day 2k18

It is now March and that marks the celebration for this year's International Women's Day.

Many people all over the world celebrate this important day with different campaigns, festivals, and other activities; just to show the support for women and most importantly for gender parity.

When we say gender parity, it simply means GENDER EQUALITY.

But what exactly is gender equality?

 "Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economic participation and decision-making, and when the different behaviours, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally valued and favoured." -Gender Equality in Ireland

"Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world." -United Nations

I am a woman myself, and I honestly don't celebrate or do something to commemorate this important day. However, as I was following Miss Universe 2017 Demi-Leigh Nel Peters, I saw one of the videos she posted on Instagram about the campaign for Women's day. As I looked up to it, I immediately got interested in joining the campaign by writing it here on my blog.

This year's campaign theme will be #PressForProgress. Every individual is given a chance to join the campaign by doing an action/s that can promote gender parity.

"As an ordinary person, what can I do about it?"

I know this question has been popping up in your mind while we talk about gender parity, thinking that not everyone will be given the chance to be heard. However, we must have all forgotten that big things came from the smallest things a person can make.

So?

Start within yourself. Whether you're a man, woman, or someone belonging to the LGBTQ community, you can do the simplest things.

As a woman, deciding on what skills you want to develop, and choose the course you want to study in college is already an act of gender parity.

As a man, respecting your sister/mother/cousin/friends/girlfriend/wife and supporting them of whatever their dreams are is already an act of gender parity.

The main point of this talk is that we do not isolate anyone from deciding, or even from thinking and sharing their own opinion. Even from the simplest things, give everyone the chance to speak up and to even decide. Let us stop discriminating and have an open-mind in different ways.

I encourage everyone to join the campaign by visiting the International Women's Day website and select one area that you want to concentrate.

There are still a lot of women in the world treated with so much inequality, and as individuals who are enjoying this gender parity, let us be their voice and influence other people by leading an example.

Just like what they said "Individually, we're one drop but together we're an ocean. "

Let us all start with ourselves and become an endless ripple.

How about you? HOW WILL YOU PRESS FOR PROGRESS?

Source:
International Women's Day Official Website
United Nations Organization
Gender Equality in Ireland

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SMARTPHONES: To Connect or Disconnect?

Before I start the main point of this post, I want to share something that I experienced for quite a long time already. Ever since these smartphones became an easy-to-buy technology, it drastically changed how one interacts with people.

1. One time, I had a schoolmate which I eventually became friends on Facebook. We messaged each other as if we're so close, but when we met along the school's hallways, we unexpectedly looked away as if we really don’t know each other. I realized that we can just comfortably talk through Facebook. 

 2. Another one is when my family would eat out in a restaurant. As we sat down, I can observe most people in the restaurant would be busy interacting for a few minutes; catching up, take some photos together, and all of the sudden, everyone's silent. Why? because they're now busy uploading and updating their social media. Some would just casually look at their phone until their orders arrive.  

3. It has been a common scenario for young students to play video games online. Some would play by a team in a computer shop, and some would just spend their day with their smartphones playing Mobile Legends and Clash of clans. I agree that these kinds of games are very addictive, which will then make these individuals facing their computers and smartphones for a whole day than interact with real people. 

4. Alright, this one really broke my heart. We really celebrate special events in a very special way. We would even hire an event organizer and rent a fancy function hall just to celebrate the day [plus a photographer/videographer to capture every moment.]. Since it is a get-together event, it is expected for everyone to talk and do some catch ups. Let's say in a WEDDING, once the bride walks down in the aisle, all of the guests would stand up and witness her going to her groom. But in this generation, people would do something else. Most of them are taking out their phones to take a photo of the bride which is quite distracting. Can you even imagine walking down with full of smartphones facing you?  Even in a birthday celebration, people are making sure to capture the best photo of the birthday celebrant blowing her candle. We can even ask the question "Who are the real guests here? These people or their smartphones?".

Have you witnessed these scenarios too?

A mobile phone has been one of the basic things that we must carry around all the time. Just like one of my college instructors told us before, mobile phones now are more of a need than a want. As our society becomes an advance village, we need it to communicate with other people. 

According to an article in the Art Institute, early cell phones were just for talking. Gradually, features like voicemail were added, but the main purpose was talk. Eventually, cell phone manufacturers began to realize that they could integrate other technologies into their phone and expand its features. The earliest smartphones let users access email, and use the phone as a fax machine, pager, and address book. (2015)

The invention of mobile phones was to originally talk with someone on the other line. That is, therefore, to communicate much easier than by sending letters and have it delivered to the post office.

In a span of more than 40 years, from its very first portable mobile phone, the evolution and emergence of mobile phones boomed. From a thick regular antenna-built-in mobile phone to a thin-all-in-one smartphone. At first, only the people from a high-class family can purchase a mobile phone. But now, these mobile phones are being sold in the market for a very affordable price. 

Now let's assume that most people owned a mobile phone, specifically a smartphone. This kind of mobile phone has a lot of features: You can message, call, surf, play, watch, listen, take pictures and navigate. Did this kind of invention make us connect more to the people, or disconnected us mainly from the whole world?

What did you realize when I shared my experiences earlier? Did the mobile phone really serve its main purpose in connecting and helping these people to communicate? Or did it completely malfunctioned and caused other people to prefer to stay at home and spend time with their technology?

Too much use of smartphones made us unconsciously unlearn our social skills, from an independent individual into a technology-dependent, from attending real parties into playing Dota in parties. Smartphones are supposed to help our life become much easier and faster. However, it made us into a dumb-dull-skill less individual.

Smartphones can already do anything for us. We can just say "Hey Siri/Google/[insert name]” and it can already send a message, call, take photos, research, play music and videos and even navigate. It turned out that we can now just comfortably ask the virtual mobile assistant rather than learning how to politely ask someone for help.

Why? It’s simple. Us humans have the mentality of “Since it can already do it, why do we need to still learn it?”. When we know that our phones have calculators, we can just stop learning math because something else can do the solving for us. When we know that we can call and text someone anytime, we do not need to make time for them personally. We even prefer to record every event of our lives through our phones, rather than witnessing it with our own eyes. We now cared to share everything on Facebook, or else we'll be called outdated beings.

This made the world an awkward place to live in. Since we already know that there is a smartphone that can do this and that for us, we stopped making effort for the people important for us, we stopped improving ourselves because we can already depend everything on these technologies.

Source:
Art Institute
uSwitch

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Freedom: What does it mean to be free?

All of us are granted of what we call "freedom".We are free to express ourselves, choose our own religion, or even decide what we want to do in our life. We basically have the ability to act according to our own will.

Freedom is being supported by legal laws [Bill of Rights], yet, humans are still craving for more. But now, do well really know the real meaning of freedom?

In an educational platform called "Quipper", it defined freedom as

"the power or right to act, speak, or think as you want without hindrance or restraint.". 

Along with freedom, another word was described: Prudence

"an act of making good judgment that allows a person to avoid risks.". 

Therefore, we have freedom saying that we can do whatever we want, yet we have to be prudent for us to avoid causing any harm from our own decisions. This simply means that every decision we make comes with a consequence.

Then our decision-making is being challenged. Everything we do, big or small, is made from a decision. Let us have a common example of decision-making. Humans eat every day, and you have the freedom to eat all of the chips that you can find, or enjoy a feast of french fries from your favorite fast food chain and even drink a liter of coke in a day. You also have the freedom to eat your own balanced meal, drink enough glasses of water and do a regular workout. Thinking about it, these two choices have different consequences. The first one can just give you empty calories and full of fats and eventually make you ill, and the second one can make your body healthy and fit.

It is also up to you if you're going to wake up early or not; take a shower or just wash your face; eat regularly or skip your breakfast. A decision as simple as that can already affect your whole life. What much more if we have to make bigger decisions for our future? Such as to finish our work or slack off for a while; and engage in pre-marital sex or stick with no sex until marriage.

We have parents setting a curfew, schools making a long list of rules and regulations, and kids busy shouting for freedom. Where is freedom if our security is at stake? We have to consider that there is no such thing as absolute freedom. If we are aiming for a peaceful community, restrictions must be made.

We also have the freedom to express oneself, but that doesn't mean that we can already abuse it and offend someone with it. When we have freedom, we have the power to do it.

What does it mean to be free? It means being responsible and prudent in every action we make.

As we enjoy our freedom in this world, we also have to keep this line in mind.

With great power comes great responsibility.

 -Spiderman                   

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My Philosophies of Life

I believe most of us are living by a philosophy [some might also call it a principle]. No matter how simple or complicated it is, we live every single day by this philosophy.

To those who don't specifically have a philosophy, you might ask "What is living by a philosophy would mean in my life?", "Do I need to learn philosophy just to have a philosophy in life?", or "Do I even need to know what philosophy I must live by?"

According to reallylivelife 

"Philosophy of life is an overall vision or attitude toward life and the purpose of life.". 

With a philosophy, it will help us become positive towards life, no matter how dark and stormy it is. 

As for me, I have three of many philosophies I always keep in mind. 

3. Finish what you have started

This philosophy greatly helped me with my daily life. I am someone who would easily get distracted by other stuff. I am someone who always makes a long list of "New Years' Resolution". I would write about diet, studies, improve oneself and more. It's a list that kept on repeating every single year. haha. don't laugh. 

One of my goals for the past years is to finish my undergraduate studies. All of us struggled with finishing a 4-year course in college. It frustrates us so much that we almost wanted to stop. During the first 2 years of college, we thought that we can just easily finish this. Then when we stepped on our 3rd and 4th year, there's never been a day that we thought of not quitting. Fortunately, with guidance and prayers, I was able to graduate on time, and even passed my board examination. Thank God! 

2. Keep moving forward

This philosophy has been inspired by the movie "Meet the Robinsons" by Disney. This helped me accept every failure I had in my life. Rather than viewing such experiences as a negative impact, I actually valued it as a lesson and be happy about it. Who knows, better things are on the way to our lives?

Let's admit it. All of us are wishing for something. We would even insist or force it until we can finally have it. We also experience the times when we failed to have it. Then we get disappointed, sad, depressed, everything that is negative. We would even blame God for it. 

As I reflected on it, I realized that these things that I actually want in my life are not for me. If we can't have it, then maybe it's not really for us. It's not yet the proper time to claim the prize. Simple as that. However, this doesn't mean that we will just give up. The point is we just need to keep improving ourselves until we are prepared enough to aim our goal in life.

Whenever we experience a bad day, always remember that it's only a bad day, not a bad life.

1. THE GOLDEN RULE: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you

I always live by this philosophy. This inspired and guided me to do good to everything. I know, all of us are sinful. We cannot avoid committing a sin. But through this philosophy, it will always remind me that doing bad just means that I'm doing bad to myself too. 

For example, disobeying my parents. I always felt bad doing this to my mom and dad. It made me think that "If I kept on doing this to my parents, my kids in the future might do this to me as well!". Well, I honestly believe in karma. The karma might not bounce back to us, but things we do would indirectly hit our future children and grandchildren. 

It's a great philosophy every mankind must live by. I mean, come on! We will not lose a thing if we just keep this philosophy in mind, right? This will also help us lead a better and peaceful life with other people.

There's nothing wrong living with a philosophy. It would even help us to stay positive in every second of our life. Our lives are too short than what we expected. We have to live every moment and treasure it. As we go on, let us inspire other people, most importantly the youth. We might be able to make a difference just by simply showing other people how we live with a philosophy/principle.

How about you? What is your philosophy in life? 

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