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High school...It is a place conducive for learning, wherein you will be able to know your academic subjects and learn how to deal about life and love. This has become a very big part of our adolescent stage. Here, we will meet our friends, starting a new clique that will face victories and become the persons we aimed to be. Of course there are times we really got busy in making school works, assignments and not to mention,hitting the deadlines of certain projects. But this is part of fun in high school. Well, this very positive word becomes the problem of many students. Why? Because nowadays the school has become a jungle wherein the very key rule of play is "Survival of the Fittest".
Being a normal grade six student of Canduman Elementary School, it really doesn't matter where I am gonna spend my high school years, actually anywhere is just okay...joke! But seriously, I want to study in a school where there is good education, a wonderful training-ground for your talents and the feeling that your on a one big happy family. I found that here in the University of the Philippines High School in Cebu.
Studying in UP is the greatest dream I have ever achieved. I did not expect to be the on of the top ranking students who took the entrance exam just to make all the way to UP. I have heard many negative comments about UP. Not considering the academic excellence but the radical values and behavior which is the most common in the college level. But they got a wrong notion, particularly the high school level which has more disciplined students. It is only applicable to the college level students.
As we all know, UP produces high quality, caliber professionals who we usually see in the senate or in some big companies. But on the contrary, UP High, not only focuses on the academic side but also focuses on the extracurricular activities of the students.To which a student can play a guitar and a flute and join different campus clubs on the choice of their own. We usually do not give a silent treatment when there is a problem in the campus, but we speak out. One good example of it is the Student Council which air outs the students' problems to the teachers. We are not snobbish, in fact we are friendly, jamming, and treat our schoolmates as our brothers and sisters. In every exams, we do not pressure ourselves because we didn't look at this exams a tough load but instead we enjoyed every moment of it and accept the grades we are capable of making.
Thus, UP students don't have just the brains but also the beauty and talents as well.
How does the youth of my age partake in the celebration of the Lenten season? Does this event have any place in our summertime in itinerary?
Summer is fast approaching. Another school year is about to end. Am pretty sure that at this point, we are already anticipating the calm and leisure that will come our way this wonderful vacation time. Finally, the fun and excitement, the relaxation, the breather especially from the pressures of academic life!
Summertime is usually centered on vacation and leisure. However, we must not forget though that summertime is not all relaxation. Many events come to pass during this so-called "season of leisure". More often than not, we are not totally exempt from participating in events such as fiestas, birthdays, the birth of a new member of the family, visits of family relatives and friends, and the commemoration of Lent, among others. And remember that as a youth, we have certain responsibilities too that we should always take into consideration-at home, in our community and the church as well. However big or small your role is in each episode, nonetheless, you have to do your best to responsibly perform.
Again, does Lent have any place in our plans of activities for summer? My mind was bombarded me with a lot of questions about what role I have to perform and obligations, if any, I have to comply with during Lent. I was so confused as to whether traditions being practiced by old folks in the community are relevant to me. Last year, I joined the Visita Iglesia which seemed to me "alay-lakad" activity then. I precluded myself from eating meat because of my old folks' prohibitions. I had to take a bath before noon during Good Friday, because according to them, it is unholy to do so after the Seven Last Words have begun. I blindly complied with all this age-old practices without really comprehending the reasons behind them.
I realized that the traditions I am blindly comforming with are not so much in consonance with the true spirit of the season. I soon realized that there were a lot of other ways where I can significantly partake in the celebration of Lent. The most important of which is my act of sincere penitence, prayers, sharing of love and care to others, for and in the Glory of God.
And this coming Lenten season, I will fast and abstain and still do little sacrifices not just for the heck of it but to show Christ my deep penitence.
The Season of Lent is on of the most important events that we Catholics observe. It reminds us of the sufferings of Christ when He waived His perfection and opted not just to share in our pain, but to totally deliver us from it and liberate us from sin. And the least we could do to show God our love is to enliven the mysteries of Jesus' passion and be mindful of His death and resurrection.
Most of us, if not all, believe that no one can survive without others. We all need someone who cares for us, help us, sees our needs and do all these things to others. We need others in our lives for emotional closeness, intellectual simulation, and personal and social connectedness. Or else we may never reach our fullness as human beings. We need friends.
Friendship is a very familiar word. Even a young kid can relate with it. In defining friendship, Aristotle cited three ways why people make friends: for pleasure, for usefulness, and for good. In the first, we say, we find some quality in the person like wit which give some pleasure; in the second, the other person will somehow benefit from me; in the third, it is good in the other person and therefore the other person himself or herself, which I love.
Plato on the other hand, stated the principle of friendship as a principle in congeniality and reciprocity of goods. To explain it in a simple way, he believed that friendship is based on the good in friends. No person can be good in everything but only in some things. Persons need the good of others that are different form their own and hence congenial to them. Good persons admire, rather than envy, the good in others just as they cultivate the good in themselves for the benefit of others. This mutual admiration and valuation of personal goods, and of one another is called friendship.
For me, a friend can be trusted, honest, respectful, committed, safe, supportive, generous, loyal, mutual, constant, understanding, and he or she can accept you just the way you are.
From these qualities, we can just pick two that will clearly show the goods which we admire, value and seek in friendship.
The first quality is trust. A friend is someone who will consistently accept my faults, weaknesses, and surprises. Someone who can be patient, sustain me, and never judge and condemn me for my failures. He or she is someone to whom I can bare my thoughts and soul; someone with whom I can confide my deepest secrets. Likewise, trust is something men and women must learn to become friends. Trust is the basic foundation of friendship; friendship is nominal without it.
Another quality is security especially from emotional dangers, self-doubt, shame, fear, and anxiety. We live in a very competitive world in which we must forever follow established standards and demands. We need a friend with whom we do not have to measure up, with whom we can be ourselves. We need a trusted someone, a friend, to bring out the better if not the best in us.
But to keep the friendship alive, friends must work increasingly together for it will not sustain itself. They must grow with it. Friendships are not heaven made, we need to work for it and not simply let it happen. We give time for friendships to grow. In some instances, long-standing, trusted and secure friendships blossom into love.
"For mothers, out of their wisdom and love, really do know what's the best for their children"
We should pay tribute to our mothers. Why? Because from the time a child is conceived, it is she who provides sustenance until the child is fully grown. A mother will beg, borrow, or steal just to be able to satisfy the needs of her offspring, out of a pure and unselfish love. And who can fault her for doing so? But what really makes a good mother anyway? Is it patience? Compassion? Broad hips? The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt-all at the same time? Or is it heart?
Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time? The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 a.m., to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?
Is it the need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a street shooting, a fire, a car accident, a baby dying?
One of the very first words a child learns to utter is "mama". It is rarely ever "papa". Perhaps, this is instinctive, considering the fact that the mother carries her child in her womb for nine months-a unique form of bonding that no two other people can never experience.
My mother was only 28 years of age when she married my father. She learned how to cope up with her in-laws, learning all there was to being a wife and mother. Perhaps I was the only girl in the family, mom was even more attentive to me. I recall how, when she dip a piece of face towel in a hot water and place this over my forehead to give me relief from my high fever. She hardly ever slept a wink whenever I was bedridden. At the mere sight of the injection, she comforted me, reassuring me that the prick would last only a few seconds and that it would be over just as quickly. She was always there to accompany not only me, but even my two older brothers and my youngest brother when we needed to undergo tooth extraction. Such loving care mother extended to all of us, her children-young or old. Mama also helped me in my home works.
I truly feel grateful now when I look back. I feel lucky to have a mother who instilled such positive values early in my childhood in order to prepare me for the daily battles I was to face while growing up.
After all, my mother was just not a parent. She was also my best friend and confidante.
I love my mother and I am proud of her
