Sunday, August 05, 2007
The Story, The Deal, The Pain, and The Pride
In fact, this is, above all, one of the reasons I never truly had what you would call an ideal childhood. A freak accident in third grade had caused the turning point in my life. It was then that I experienced being constantly bullied. It sounds surprising for those who had recently met me, but to those who had grown up with me all those years ago, its as real as the name of our school.
What can you expect from a girl of nine to do at that time? Most likely, that girl would probably begged her parents to transfer her to a different school, keep to herself, avoid picking fights, find another hobby, and try to figure out who she can rely on as a friend. And you know what, she did all that, and the only thing she was actually successful at, was finding another hobby: immersing herself in books.
It was at this stage of her life she detached herself slowly from the people around her, placing her friends under various tests to feel confident that these people have her back, and cringing inwardly when she realized her trust was misplaced. It were dark times in the life of someone who had been a cheerful person to begin with. The ever-ready smile was replaced with looks of suspicions, recess times were reserved for reading books and doing homeworks, lunch, a welcome reprieve from the otherwise tolerant treatment of her presence. She felt for the first time how lonely it was, and how cruel the world is.
With limited options, she kept to herself, a child of forced seclusion, hardly daring to even speak up or volunteer any information she knew. She was made a fool many times over, even by those she had considered friends. She didn't belong anywhere and it was this feeling that had her hanging out with various groups of people, trying to find a niche where she would fit in.
The case would seem a hopeless one at that and it wasn't until later she realized what made her move on, to keep on looking. It was an idealism that she had found in the comfort of her books that talks about a friendship that goes far deeper than giving out answers in a whisper to a so-called friend sitting next to you during an exam. It was a friendship that accepts and love unconditionally. A bonding that comes along to those who keep as much faith in you as you with them. It was fortunate that she found them at end of her elementary years, but it was still too early to let the real person shine through. She had been scarred too many times over to want to let down her guard to the group that had included her as their own.
She came to them meek, keeping to shallow topics, listening but hardly offering any advice, a wallflower at most. But it was also at this time she started to write. Anything that came to mind, a tribute to a friendship she felt blessed to have stumbled in, a song to put into words a childhood crush, a poem about the various uses of a new set of colored pens... a collection that she would show sparingly, due to fear of expected rejection, and worse, a humiliation she would not be able to lived down. Whatever pride must be placed in a work of art could not be found for there was none to encourage a bolder show of a creativity previously unassociated with her.
As luck would have it, she was praised by someone who didn't expect anything from her. They embraced her gift for words and in turn encourage her to write more, to be open to new people. It took more than a year to share parts of herself, to slowly give her trust to hands waiting to accept it wholeheartedly and kept it sacred for all the years to follow.
With strength brought about by these select few, she had started to spread her wings, exploring more what she can do. For once in her life, she found people who would show and prove to her that ideal friendships do exist in this world riddled with the need to appear more than they are, to step on those who they think were not up to their level.
The years to follow was a revelation of the person she herself had not known exist within her. A person of quiet strenght, capable of withstanding the misgivings and embarassment accompanying an accident-prone person, an optimism she had not known she possessed, contentment and a desire to share the feelings she had been priviledged to feel to others.
And now, she stand before you now, as real as any person who had come to terms with who they are and what they are, accepting and loving the person that some had deemed deserving of it.
I want to thank all of you (Haidee, Jamie, Jamee, Jacky, Iris, Donna, Kristina, Marie, and Louie) for making me the person I am today, for bringing me out to embrace the brightness that can still be found in this world. I also want to extend my thanks to my college friends (Peachy, Eirha, Yola, Kath, Nikko, Nova, and Carlo) for the friendship and being my support system in an entirely new environment. I could list a lot more people to thank, but you guys are the best! Thank you for giving me my confidence back, for showing me that the world isn't a scary place full of friend-users, that I deserve a place in this world, and even if I'm the most unconventional person around, I'm not a senseless nor worthless in your eyes. Thank you for the gift of love, trust, and friendship, it is indeed a treasure I'll cherish till the end of our years, or the end of the world, whichever comes first. ^^
Friday, April 20, 2007
Woeful Days
Friday, April 13, 2007
What Makes You Different...
"What makes you different, makes you beautiful. What's there inside you, shines through and through..." Line from the Backstreet Boys' "What Makes You Different", which was also used in the soundtrack for Disney's Princess Diaries.
It is something that had become close to a litany as I embrace my uniqueness. Lines that had kept me from hiding who I really am.
What does it take to be real? To be open to scrutiny and judgment? To be regarded as 'different'? A whole lot of courage maybe, or just a real desire to show the world the reality of their misconceptions. We all grew up in a society that doesn't take too kindly to those who are unlike them, we see them label a whole number of people solely because they are different from themselves. But what makes being 'different' a bad thing? Something I always end up wondering about.
Look around you, they're all like you in so many ways. They go to school, study, play games, work, think, eat, and a whole lot more. And yet, for a simple action or characteristic that you have no part of, you will consider as someone not fit to be in your social circle. An outcast to a society-driven thought.
What a sad reality it is when we realize that a lot of the people around us wears a mask, to hide who they are as a person, to represent a fabricated persona in order "to belong". A life I also once led.
Based on experience, it is a doomed fate. Tyring to please everyone by being someone lead to nothing more than becoming their lackey, being bullied indirectly, accepting their cruelty, and toyed around emotionally. It leaves more battle-scars than joining a real war since they are invisible scars that left you feeling unworthy, and in worst cases, a person who doesn't deserve to live. Some would probably laugh, thinking this is an extremity, and there are those who will scoff, thinking there are no one like that at all. It is our own inconsiderate attitudes that sometimes lead to a much cruel fate than we ever could imagine. A fate that leads to a loss of self-worth, self-respect, and the loss of one's own identity.
Learning to embrace my own individuality, restoring my sense of self-worth and self-respect was an uphill battle filled with discouragment, and a lot of self-doubt. But what I learned from all these, by slowly being true to who I am, I gained true friends that love the real me, and being different cease to be an ominous concept.
Nowadays, I still hear a lot of comments calling me weird, and for most people, that would be considered such a big insult. For me, it was a term I learned to equate to being unique. Weird doesn't have to be a bad thing at all, because God made us all weird by giving us individuality.
For the friends who stood by me through the ups and downs of my eventful life, a heartfelt thanks!!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
The world isn't ready for me and I am not ready to face the world
Saturday, August 05, 2006
So Young, Sounding So Old
Sounding older than my days
As I grasp for meaning
To figure what I'm missing
There are times when thoughts just passed
And I don't bother since it wouldn't last
But just seconds of time
And it'll rest on the back of my mind
I am merely a girl
With wings not quite unfurled
Barely out of my teens
Knowing helplessness and what it means
Truth is something hidden
It will not show even when bidden
It can be called a thing
That would most times sting
Laughter is not all innocence
It's not something we all can sense
For evil can lurk behind a face
Some not even leaving a trace
Disillussion is our constant companion
It is one of change's many minions
With disappointment in tow
True happiness giving a weak glow
Life is many different things
And different emotions it brings
As hardship pile one over the another
You learn to rely on yourself more and less on others
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Gratefulness
At times like this, I am glad I did not give up to the hopelessness I feel inside. It's also finding the reasons again that I had not failed to be the best person I can be, not only through my eyes, but also through the eyes of those I had come to know, love and share precious memories with.
I can't explain this nostalgic mood I found myself in, but somehow, I feel its fitting to remind me what I had gone through to get where I am now. Moreover, it also serves as a reminder that I had people who appreciate my presence the same way I appreciate them as well. Though I don't always get to chat them up, I know that in my heart, they will always remain special, and that they too know it as well.
Thank you everyone for making me feel someone of worth. You have no idea how much that helped me got through life.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Updates ^^
Let's see, I've just started work, working on my fourth week at Bench, the clothing company/retailer of apparels... etc...
I've updated my new fic, Atashi no Koi, which I believed people who knew could very much guess plenty about it...
I'm working on another song, which I'll post once it's done...
hmm... I guess that's it for now.... hehehe.... ^^
Thursday, January 12, 2006
hmm...
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
On Things and Stuff that Bothers Me
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arrogance, defined.
arrogance had for most people meant simply of boasting, but i think it's time we put more into this definition. the purpose of boasting is to gain attention, no matter how trivial it is. on the other hand claiming credit for something you did isn't. it's getting credit where credit's due. therefore it shouldn't be consider arrogance when you claim what is rightfully yours.
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i'll add more when i don't have pressing matters to attend to...
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Can I Trust My Heart with You
Can I trust my heart with you?
Can you promise not to break it in two?
Can I risk getting hurt by you again?
Can I believe this is for real then?
You lied to me once before
That I can’t be entirely sure
If I open my heart to you again
Would you make me happy in anyway you can?
No one really knows
It’s something I can’t show
The love I still have for you
And how I always remained true.
It’s clear to me now
Despite my doubts
This is where I belong
The reason I held on
The time for words is over
My fears shall need to look for cover
Because I’m trusting my heart with you
Just please don’t break it in two.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Refuting the fraud-Mr. Art Bell's Article, Filipinos... makes me puke
Hahaha... I just have to re-edit this. I guess I didn't realize that I made a lot of grammatical and typographical errors because I was so pissed off...
anyway, it's the same stuff, just grammatically better.
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I'm not sure if anyone had seen or read the article I'm referring to, but for those who missed it, I'll post it for your convenience and to refresh the memories of those who managed to read it...
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Filipinos.....*make me puke* (Art Bell)
As we've all come to notice, in the past few decades, Filipinos have begun to infest the
Origins of Pinoys/Pinays:
Are they really Asian? Well we've come to accept the fact the Filipinos come from a part of the world known as
Nothing in Filipino Culture can be seen as Asian. They have no architectural, artistic, or cultural influence which is in ANY way, asian. Thinking of the great countries in Asia such as
Another interesting thing is that these "thirdworld" people also frequent RC chatrooms such as #chinese #japan and #asian. They must believe that they are some how related racially or culturally to North Asians. But it's completely WRONG! There might have been some distant contact With China and even less with
Do the parents of these young filipinos know what's going on? Would they accept this? I believe that they would and do. This is the natural "Trash" element in filipinos manifesting itself. Nothing good has ever come from
Recognizing your Roots (A Message to Filipinos)
To all filipino people:
Please recognize your ROOTS! You come from the
Your Identity is Filipino. That's all you are. Just Filipino. Think about what that means....
Sincerely,
Art
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In relation to what I am about to say, I ask you all to bear in mind that the one behind this Hate mail was not the real Art Bell, rather someone mindful of the attention associated with the name to use it as his/her pseudonym in showing his/her ignomity.
It must be said that this had circulated several months ago through e-mail, if I remember correctly, and it is due to my heavy schedule that I had not been able to place my own response to this outright libel.
A person who forgets to look at his own roots before degrading another is like a wannabe star badmouthing his/her rival. I don't believe anyone has a right to call another race "thrash" and degrade them to nothing more than a speck of dust. I ask you now, if an American says Filipinos are trashy because they have no real culture, but only cultures from the invading forces that had dominated the Philippines for more than 3 centuries, then wouldn't it be just fair if the Filipinos called these Americans British or English "trash" as well since it had been apparently clear in American history that these so-called White Americans had been nothing more than society outcasts and their families who left England or Britain to settle in the continent they had dubbed the "New World" away from the stifling English society where First-Born males were given the highest priority? Of course Filipinos could do that, but that would mean stooping to their level of thrash talk.
Anyone who's familiar with Philippine history would firmly state that this person made the mistake of saying that Filipinos don't have a culture when in fact, we do. Way before the Spanish vessel had first landed on our archipelago, we had our own rich culture that had sadly been replaced with another. Long before the Spanish unified the archipelago with their conquest for the "sake of religion", Filipinos had been living a peaceful life. They had their own form of primitive government where a datu ruled a town or barrio, the society had been egalitarian, meaning women had been given equal rights as men, their own concept of art, as could be deduced from the painted, or tattooed bodies that had been considered their own label of fashion, and the instruments they had developed for music. Moreover, these primitive ancestors had been able to build their own home using the resources available at their disposal, living in harmony with nature.
The Spanish had been a colorful historical landmark in the sense they had changed the
The Americans had done a better job, but sad to say had left a trait that had been the downfall of many a business in the country. I am referring to the fact that most Filipinos believed our goods to be inferior to that of the Americans, the so-called "colonial mentality". They had been conditioned in the belief that as long that it's imported, it's of good quality. What a lot of these people don't realize is that the labor of some of these "imported" goods had been done by their own countrymen as well.
The Japanese occupation had been one unforgetable event in our long history. It had been filled with oppression and an air of despair and hopelessness, and yet the courageous among our people had dared to stand up against them despite the lack of support by the Americans. Who's to say that we owe our courage to our conquerors when in fact it had been ingrained within us way before the Spaniards had first laid their eyes on our shores?
Now that we've recounted some highlights of the history of our people, I believe it just follows that we bring to light some of the values and traits that had already been incorporated in our brief historical discussion. I don't think we owe to any conqueror our courage, nor our artistic inclinations during the pre-Spanish period. It should be noted that the Filipinos are naturally hospitable and resourceful. Moreover, we value the concept of bayanihan, the collective effort of helping a fellowmen. How many countries can boast of having a trait such as this?
I would also like to ask this person if he had any idea at all of the architectural structures Filipinos had erected during the Pre-Spanish period. Sure, we do not have similar architectural structures such that could be seen in countries such as Japan with their tatami mats and shoji screen, China with their tiled roof, but it must be put into consideration the fact that our country is located further south than these two, nearer the equator, and therefore experiencing a different climate. Houses made out of rock takes a lot work and our ingenious people had managed to make their homes not out of rocks, but out of the bamboos that were abundant in resources. Because of our climate, houses made of bamboos made it a lot cooler during the summer months and having a raised floor protects it from the flood in the monsoon season. If you're still unclear to what I am referring to, I am talking about our national house, the Bahay Kubo.
What is wrong by calling ourselves Asian, because we truly are Asian? We are not Asian based on geography alone, we share values with other Asian culture that this person knows nothing about. We are, as I said before a hybrid of different cultures, a melting pot of various origins both from
I have to say I am disgusted that this person feels that it is a shame to be a member of a "
I would further like to point out that we do not constantly talk about sex and being liberal with that term had been the cause of your influence. Our people used to be a conservative nation, in some respects it is still is, however to accuse of thinking nothing more than sex twenty-four seven reveals the fact that you are indeed in an insecure position. There is nothing entirely wrong of talking and exchanging information about sex, since it is not a taboo term. Furthermore, being open about such an issue lessens the chances of putting it to practice without prior knowledge, such that had befell India with its high-rate of AIDS-afflicted individuals due to lack of responsible sex education.
Another thing, there's a reason we are called the only Catholic country in
Whatever this person understands, it is not that we are trying to find an identity for ourselves, because every individual goes through that stage. As a people, we already have an identity so why should we seek out something more? The only thing we are looking for is who we truly are as a person, in case identity crisis is too technical a term for this person. Psychologists know this, and even laymen understands this concept so how about this person, is he open-minded enough to realize that?
This person had ended his essay saying we should think about it, being a Filipino I mean. And that must be the only part I agree with him wholeheartedly. True, I am just a Filipino, and I'm proud of being called one. I am not a Filipino by blood, but I am born a Filipino, a Filipino that could make a name for myself, even in a small scale, through the traits that each Filipino had learned to acquire, the perseverance to succeed.
Friday, April 08, 2005
:) oh happy days...
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Don't Come Running Back To Me
%-(
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Nothing Really
Saturday, January 08, 2005
Turning 20
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there might be lapses in my memory, but still i'm going to write what i can...
let's see...
* spent a term in batangas for almost a week...
* experienced my first failure in college
* realized i'm not in love
* waited to see if the fortune-teller was right (she's not, unless i did something that had altered my future
* found myself feeling unwanted attraction to another guy
* managed to get accepted to rice mag
* been doing well with managing the bulletin board
* made a few more close friends
* been writing a new novel
* been getting wonderful reviews but i'm still not through with it despite my first goal to finish it in time for christmas... i'm still in chapter 18.... can't say how long it'll be... >.<
* passed my failed course the second time around
* passed my scary embryo class as well
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hmmm... i think that's about it.... or at least that's what i could remember at the top of my head...
wonder if this year i'll find someone to love.....
Monday, November 29, 2004
Another Hell Weel Ahead
Monday, November 22, 2004
Hell Week and Happy Stuffs
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well, on the good side of things, i managed to put up the bulletin board and it looked so cute. got a few more chapters done and got more inspiring reviews to steam me ahead, but i'll have to find time for it as quizzes are railing their way...
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i really want to give those people responsible for a lot more work for us a piece of my mind.... i mean because of them, we have a lot more stuff to do than we already have.... they're lucky they're not as busy as the rest of us are... on top of school work, we have extracurricular activities that require our attentions as well... i really wished they had been a silent bunch from the first time we had embryo class.. grr..........
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Honto ni Ureshi desu
i'm not that good a writer yet, but i'm happy that people appreciate my hard work... i'll have to try to work faster and come up with good storylines for next time, but first things first, i've got to finish this one or i won't be able to give my friends, well mostly girls, a copy of it as their christmas gifts... for the guys, i;ve still got to think about something else... i can't really pciture them reading a story like that... so.... hehehe i'm so excited... i'm all fired up... but i still need to go to bed soon for i;ve still got classes to attend, bulletin board to put up... and whatnot... got to finish chapter 4 tomorrow... and maybe even start on chapter 5.... wah!!! i;ve already told peachy how it's going to end.... but got to work on the body still........ sigh......... i'm going to bed a happy woman... hehehe.... :)
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oh, if anyone's interested to read it.... here's the link, although i'm not sure if i'm allowed to leave links in my blog...
so sleepy... (--.)zzzZZZ
www.fictionpress.com/~sakurajen
just look for one who gets three reviews and three chapters long, for the moment anyway.... hehehe