Sharpen Your Edges!

Taytay United Methodist Christian School has always been known as a training ground for the hardships every youth will be facing in the next million steps to be taken in life. It gives its helping hands to be able to bring out every skill that a student possesses to achieve what is set in his life. 

My fellow schoolmates, we all know that it’s our right to search for education but the desire for it is what makes us strive for excellence. As students of this dear school, we need to strive for our goals in life so that our school will also be proud of what it produces.

Like a pencil being sharpened, we should also shed our weaknesses which should be replaced with confidence and strength –just like what TUMCS does to help us achieve every goal set in our lives. It is just a matter of choice.

The Ingredients of Writing

"Writing without passion is just like painting with no color, or drinking a coffee without taste." -KRISTIA ALYZA VILLANUEVA

A day after my teacher in English checked the errors we made as her students in our blog project, she gave us an unexpected public correction of those mistakes. “Wow,” we blurted out as we saw the papers she gave us while showing guilty facial expressions. It was a paper full of wrong sentences we made from blogging. I rapidly browsed the errors to see if I made one but gladly, I didn't. But if ever I did see some errors made by me, I would have realized that I should be pursuing my skills in grammar and writing so that I would not make such errors again.

Expressing one’s feelings through writing is, most of the time, neglected. Many people aren't able to express their feelings through writing because they may not know how to put the words together especially when they were not trained in using the English language; or probably, simply because they think that writing is a boring stuff and is only done by nerds. So, they never get to try it.

I think that the grammar lessons that I learn is really connected to writing. Grammar should always be observed when writing things, whether they are important or not, so that clear contact to the readers can be seen. A good writer stimulates readers to relate to whatever the writer feels, or whatever the writer wants the readers to realize. Once a writer gets the attention of the readers, he can consider that as a big achievement of his writing career. Somehow, I can say that it's quite similar to doing films. Once a film gets all the attention of the spectators, the filmmaker is said to reach the achievement of his life. 

Also, I believe that writing is an art. One can’t just write things without any emotions or passion. It's just like painting with no color, or drinking a coffee without taste. I can say that writing is just like a recipe. A recipe without complete ingredients won't taste good and won't satisfy the taste buds of the food critics. On writing, there's also a set of ingredients to be provided. The number one ingredient in writing is passion. So, I do believe that this ingredient should be provided to be able to express the true emotions that one has.

As a student, I should always try my best to improve my writing skills, especially in grammar. Actually, I have seen many tips on improving one’s writing skill in random places like the televisions and magazines. One of those was keeping a diary or, better yet, a journal. Most of the time, I forget to write on my journal because of the internet’s temptation and busy days that hinder me to write on it. So, I’ll try my best to write on my journal regularly. Reading more books may be another effective way for me to have a good writing skill. Other than that, I am going to break the limitations that I put when writing my thoughts. I am going to be more creative by going beyond those limitations and explore what this world has hidden for us to discover.

The Truth Behind Victory

"Accepting defeat is the victory most of the people take for granted." -KRISTIA ALYZA VILLANUEVA.

Another celebration of the Taytay United Methodist Christian School’s anniversary was held last week, February 14 to February 18, 2011. Excitement filled the hearts of all TUMCSians (TUMCS students); a pack of nervousness filled the minds of both players and audiences.

When the games started, we all got into the climax of being nervous and excited about the results. I can say that fairness was observed in the judgments of the jurors because they gave reasonable comments and made acceptable decisions on who was going to win. For instance, even though a contestant was a friend of the judges, still they decided whether another contestant is better than their friend. That’s how it went.

On camaraderie, I can say that all of the teams worked hard on cheering and supporting all the players. Whether close or not, every student supported each other. As a supporter, I screamed my lungs out just to keep my section going. All of us did the same, I can say. But let’s face it; only one winner should celebrate their victory and all of the losers should accept defeat whether they like it or not. Life’s like that; sometimes, we win, sometimes, we lose. We just need to know what really matters most. It is to be able to experience the thrill, the excitement, the nervousness and adventure hidden inside every obstacle.

I realized that winning is not really the key to being victorious and happy. Being victorious (I can say) is not only based on winning. Accepting defeat is the victory most of the people take for granted.

Dealing with Discrimination

"So many people... so many faces. We meet them every day but some tend to play a game of hide and seek that the crowd gives up when they feel that those people are not willing to be found."                  -KRISTIA ALYZA VILLANUEVA.

Discrimination can be a very big factor for a person to get low self esteem. It triggers a person to become depressed or become aloof to people and have a fear of rejection whenever he is into a new crowd.

For me discrimination is a very serious issue for an individual, because this can cause people to lose their self confidence and lead to self rejection. But most of the time, it is an issue which is mostly neglected by people. Often, I see teens getting discriminated by their fellow students wherein they get to be criticized with their good works. The worst thing that I have seen was when a poor kid was getting to be criticized by other people but the critic actually has a plan of using that person to get ideas and earn recognition.

Most of the time, discriminated people try to fit in and give kindness to the crowd so that they’d be accepted but that’s a very big mistake. Oftentimes, the crowd may abuse the kindness of that person while he thinks that he is accepted.

As an individual, I became a victim of discrimination. But I can say that it wasn't a serious one. I could say that it’s the main problem of the people to judge every single person they see before they get to know them. I admit that even I, sometimes made that kind of mistake, which oftentimes hurt somebody. But I can also say that I, myself was the one who made a fault for them not to know me personally. I oftentimes become aloof to people, either trying to go with the flow or even trying to hide myself from them, especially when I actually don’t like their attitude and interests. But I realized that it was a little bit of mistake of mine to hide myself to other people when I am actually meant to be accepted and maybe even stand out (but not that I’m saying that I really tried to be the one to stand out). So, I tried to let people get to know me better and gave myself a chance to be myself and never attempt to pretend to be someone I am not. Soon, people started to get to know me better and even accepted me for who I am –because “this is me”.

Finding the Purpose of Life

What is life?

 For me, life is not about the expensive things that we have or about how successful we have become or about how many people liked us because of our glamour and taste in fashion. Do you want to know what life really is about? If you’re reading this because you’re having emptiness in your life, I hope this can help. But if you’re reading this because you’re searching for dramatic scenes or something like a bittersweet love story just like in the movies, I am telling you now that it won’t satisfy your need, because this is a story about finding the purpose of life and the barriers that a youth faces along the way.

I am Kristia Alyza Villanueva, simple as that. I lived in Taytay, Rizal all my life. I am the only daughter of Gina and Ariel, and I got used of being alone inside the house whenever they leave. People usually ask me how it feels to be alone and lonely inside the house. I would always answer “I am not alone”, “I am happy inside the house” or “My Mom and Dad makes me happy.” I am not the usual teenager you see outside, who always goes out of the house and party everywhere. I am just a simple girl who gets contented easily. But before you think that I am a boring person who never laughs, who never jokes and is always serious, I am going to start the story of my life and how I got the real tool for measuring happiness.

I love my childhood days. It wasn’t like the other people’s childhood memories. I never got to play so much of piko, tumbang preso, Chinese garter and other games that children play. Instead, I was almost the center of attention in the neighborhood. I got all the toys that I want because Mom and Dad bought many toys for me, and also, since my Mom and Dad were both working, they could afford such things. I can say that I had a fun childhood. Whenever Mom and Dad leave the house, they used to leave me inside my grandfather’s house and let my aunties take care of me. But in my childhood, there was one person that I remember most. She was Abigail, my cousin. We were always together in doing things. Every Sunday, we would always have a hard time saying goodbye to each other whenever she needs to go home already and I had to stay inside my grandmother’s house because that was the place where we lived in, temporarily back then. Most of the time, we would have childish fights but we would soon be okay. Mom said that the reason why we became close to each other was because back when we were babies, I used to bite her arm and she would start to cry. She said that she already got my venom and I already got her blood. Well, I can say that that was a nice conclusion.

Back in the year 2005, my Dad finally finished our house, which he designed. We were finally able to move into a new house wherein we could be moving freely without feeling awkward around other family members. I could never imagine that after ten years of waiting for our own house, we were finally moving out of our relatives’ house. I have to admit that I never made friends in the place where we moved into because I wasn’t friendly with the people in that subdivision.

Years passed and I already got used of not having friends inside the new place. Life went on and barely changed. I still got to be with Abigail. She became my classmate when we were in first year high school. But even though we were close to each other, we still had our own lives inside the school. She had other friends, I had mine. Unfortunately, my friends and hers were kind of opposite to each other. Her friends were girly and sassy while my friends are the ones whom you could almost see halos on their heads. They were the good ones, the ones who have a below-average sense of style and the talkative ones. Though those things might be the factors why we became a little bit of “apart” from each other. But even though we became far apart from each other in school, we tried to get some bonding times and spent times doing silly things, just like before. But those bonding times came to an end when only a day was left and she would be going to Canada. We tried to be together by finding the most possible ways. Before we knew it, we were riding on a van heading to the airport, about to be separated from each other for a long period of time. When we got to the airport, we had lunch together and said our last well-loved jokes to each other and to Nanay, my grandmother. Nanay was having a smile on her face at that time, maybe touched with the situation and feeling sad because of us getting to be separated. When we finished our lunch, we finally said our “goodbyes” and hugged each other for about three times, holding each other really tight, unable to believe the situation and what would happen next.

We finally went back home from the airport and everything seemed just like a dream when I was lying on a sofa. RJ, my cousin, was singing tunes and lyrics about Abigail leaving. I was laughing when I heard the lyrics because it was so shallow. It went like this:

“Iniwan ka na ng pinsan mo… sumakay na ng eroplano…”

I didn’t feel any sadness in me anymore and learned to accept things for a short period of time because I was still able to talk to her online. Little did I know that there was another storm coming. My grandmother had cancer when Abigail and I were still young, but the cancer came back months after Abigail and her family went to Canada. When she was still lying on long wooden chairs put together so that she could have a large space to lie onto, feeling sick about her disease, we came together and joined her inside the wooden chairs and held each other’s hands. I was holding hers really tight and I was praying really hard. I never wanted to experience such sadness just like when my Dad’s mom died. While Mom was praying, my eyes were open and I could see Nanay really feeling scared.

Finally, Mom and her siblings decided to send Nanay to a hospital. We regularly went to the hospital and when I went there, after school, I was so scared. But when II checked her out in the ICU, she was still fine. She even gave me some soft cakes for me to eat. I was refusing to receive the food because it was for her but she still insisted that she wanted to give the soft cake to me. I received it, said “thanks” and ate it afterwards. I thought she was fine and she was about to be okay soon but the next day, she got into a comatose. I was crying and when I got inside the hospital, I saw our church pastor was there and I thought, “Is Nanay already dead? Tell me she’s not dead!” and I was really freaking out inside. When I saw her still breathing, a little hope came to me, especially when I read at that morning that there’s nothing impossible with God and that everything will be okay if you trust in Him. I kept on writing a prayer inside my journal while I was sitting on the hospital bench, outside the ICU Room. After a few days, we found out that it’s kind of impossible for Nanay to wake up again. Her Cancer was (as far as I remember) at Stage 3 already. I was crying as I saw her lying on the hospital bed, smelling the choking scent of ammonia. While Dad and I were riding the bus, going home, he told me that Nanay might not be able to wake up again. I soon, choked to tears. I cried myself out at that night until we got home. Soon, I learned to accept things that when Mom sent us a text message about Nanay already dead, I didn’t cry. But it was hard for Abigail and her family. I was chatting with her a few weeks ago when she cried her eyes out. She said that it was hard for them to see only her coffin online. She said “I wasn’t even able to see her face or even see her lying on the hospital bed when Nanay was sick.”

It came to be hard for me when we were about to bring Nanay into the cemetery. While walking, people would joke and talk to each other about things but little did they know that I was crying while walking on the way to the cemetery, covering my eyes by wearing sunglasses.

A few months passed and I finally accepted things, but whenever Mom, Dad and I accidentally get into this topic the atmosphere would always go sad. Soon, we already went right back up and continued with life and have a positive thinking that at least, Nanay is already resting, didn’t even suffered too much with her sickness and even had a very great ministry when she was still alive.

Well, I could say that this is a pretty long autobiography. But even though I bored you with this long story that I have, I just want to give this message to you. Troubles and problems may come, storms may rage and rains may last long and cause a flood. But soon, we should always remember that there is no rain that doesn’t end and there isn’t a problem that doesn’t have a solution. Storms may rage and leave pieces of broken memories but soon, we’ll realize that there is a strength that we weren’t able to use, realizations that we failed to realize and solutions that we forgot to find. We just need to call unto God and keep our faith in Him. With that faith, we will be able to fix our broken dreams, repair our shattered hope and cure our wounded hearts. We just need to read between the lines.

May God bless all of you.