Reflective Essay

When I heard about the blog thing, I thought it would add a burden to me. But then I realize it wasn't a burden instead its a help for me to improve my skills not only in writing but also in designing and others. I am quite nervous also because knowing that its an online thing, then everybody would be seeing and viewing it. It would be a good and nice experience posting my written outputs in the net.

JOURNAL ABOUT THE PA’SUNGKO FESTIVAL

Philippines is much known for its different festivals throughout the year. Our province Misamis Occidental, celebrated its first festival, namely Pa’sungko festival. The word Pa’sungko is a subanen word which means thanksgiving. It was held in our city since the capitol building was located here. It was a five day celebration and it started on the fourth day of November and was ended on November 8, 2010. It was concluded by a street dancing around the city of Oroquieta and an Inug-ug showdown at the capitol grounds.
The day before the event, the provincial government requested the MONHS principal, Mr. Santos to use the school as the temporary shelter for the 17 contingents and they also asked the teachers and some selected students to assist the said event. The following selected students are the GSP’s, BSP’s, SIGA, SAG, and some fourth year students. The following students are divided and were grouped into 17. I myself also participated to the event as part of the school’s GSP organization. I was assigned to the 2nd contingent which is the Sapang Dalaga street dancers. I am with the other GSP’s and BSP’s. We serve as the road marshal. During that day, we experience the too much heat of the scorching sun together with the other steer dancers. We feel different kinds of emotions. We are being so enjoyed, angry, happy and insulted by the spectators because we did not allow them to go closer to the dancers. We are instructed by the leader of all the road marshals to look after the spectators and not to let them across the road.
After the event, we directly went home to take a rest because the whole day is such a tiring one. Our beloved governor Mrs. Hermenia Romero bowed to hold this said festival annually during provincial charter anniversary.

Thank You Ma’am

Nowadays, people showing kindness to others are rarely seen. An individual who possesses these attitude are now very few. As years passed by, the place we are living changes. The people who are living in this changed world are greatly affected. Some of them undergo various changes. A lot of renewals are happening every day. But in this story, entitled Thank You Ma’am which is written by James Langston Hughes shows a different image of what is happening in the present. It goes like this, a boy named Roger was trying to steal a purse from a woman on the street who was Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. Unfortunately, the boy gets taken in by the woman. She shows some kindness towards the boy and she seemed to be very understanding to the incident that has happened instead of scolding and giving punishments to the said boy.
Mrs. Jones taught the boy a valuable lesson by taking him in and pampering him was the obvious theme of the story. This shows that even though Roger snatched her purse, she was still very kind to him and she even gave the boy some money in order to buy a blue suede shoes for himself. Mrs. Jones taught the boy in a unique way. She didn’t give him a solid way of punishments. She thought that doing this unique way would make Roger a better person. Roger on the other hand, was being trustworthy to Mrs. Jones knowing that she would not hurt him. He behaved himself at the house of the woman. By digging deeply into the true theme of the story, another theme can be found. And it is, as complicated as life is, there is not always someone to lean and depend on. Someone has to work for himself because there will be a time that you have to stand and live on your own. Some of us now are good in depending to others. They keep on asking what they need and what they want to someone. They don’t know how to provide their selves of their needs and wants. And this is not good to implement. We have to stop this foolishness.
The story may be a good choice to read for it presents an unusual way of teaching a boy between the right and wrong. But it is a bad example for Roger that you have to beg for things you do not have and want. It is truly not a good one. If you have to choose between the two, to steal or to beg, the second one is much better than the other. It makes me amazed of how the woman treats the boy and handles the situation. She just shows that one could possibly be changed by disciplining one in calm and not a harsh way. But it is still not bad to taught or discipline someone by using some punishments. One could learn from this. It will serve as a lesson for him or her. The woman’s attitude towards the situation surprised me a lot. Also to what Roger shows when he is inside the woman’s house. In the end, it still depends upon the person if he or she would do the right or bad one.
I haven’t experienced or faced this kind of situation in my own entire life. And I hope I could do the same thing as what Mrs. Jones did.

CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

Change is a very simple word yet very hard to define. It is easy to utter but very difficult to do and happen. Everybody needs to change. Everyone must change. The change must happen to you, I, in the society, in the nation, and most especially in our own world. We are now in the year 2011. New year, meaning new life. It’s a time for a new me, you, new society, nation and new world. We have to leave and throw our past personalities most especially those bad ones.
I, myself need to be changed. I have to change my unpleasant attitudes and personalities. I will change myself into a new me. I will leave and forget my bad attitudes. I will change my study habits; I will be more focus and concentrate more to my studies. I will offer my time to our Almighty God. I’ll ask His guidance so that I will be able to change my whole personality into a better and righteous one. Because with Him, there is a sense of completeness and fullness within me. Whatever it takes I know God will never leave me. My religious principles and faith in Him influences my personal behaviors, my attitudes towards others and my aspirations.
Our society has a problem. A problem that needs to be changed and be resolved. And this problem is lack of cooperation and unity among people because we have different vested interest. In a particular society, each and every one must cooperate. There must be unity towards everybody so that it will develop and become a progressive one.
Philippines, is now with its new president Mr. Benigno C. Aquino III. Our nation’s president was changed. I hope that together with the change of the government officials is the change on how they must be stopped and must be changed. It needs to end! Crimes and corruption are very rampant in our nation. It would destroy the image of our country. That’s why this term called Change must happen.
What’s wrong with our world now? Terrorism is all over the world. Crimes, killings, climate change and everything happen around the world. And who is the main root of these problems? Gosh, it’s us, all of us. We were trying to stop terrorism but we still got terrorists here and everywhere. We keep on destroying our own world. Because of this, we are experiencing climate change. We have to stop this and change our bad attitudes towards our nature to prevent climate change.
The world change must start deep inside us. We have to promote change for our own good. Change is for everyone. Not a change for the worst but change for the better!

WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS TO ME

On the 25th day of December, mother Mary gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Jesus Christ. From that day on we celebrated his birth yearly, every 25th of December. Christmas is a very special day for it is the day of our savior’s birth. It is the season where we never forget the love we have for Jesus.
Christmas means a time of happiness towards everyone. It’s the time to forget and forgive. It is a time when families and close friends come home from all around the world to be with the people they love. To most people, God and family comes first in their lives, so this is obviously a very favored holiday.
Christmas to me is a very special occasion, which includes spending time with family, decorating the entire house, inside and out, shopping, for the people I love and most specially, remembering and celebrating the birth of our truly beloved savior, Jesus Christ. Doing this with the people I love is what means the most to me. Spending Christmas with my family is very important to me. When its Christmas time, people exchange gifts and take it for granted afterwards. This holiday is usually associated with receiving gifts. Personally, I think giving a gift is just as great as receiving one. Most of the time giving can be even more enjoyable. The whole idea of finding that perfect gift, making someone smile, him or her realizing that you put that much thought into just one gift is just one way which Christmas brings happiness to everyone.
But one thing we should never forget as a Christian, during Christmas is that God humbled himself to come down one earth to live and in solidarity with the poor by choosing a poor yet a woman of faith in the person of Mary and a poor good man as his foster father in the person of Joseph. Only those who is in solidarity and uphold the dignity of the poor is truly celebrating Christmas. I just hope that each and every one would keep the spirit of Christmas and be always in their hearts the true meaning of it.

MY TEACHER, MY HERO

Have you ever dreamed of having a superhero? If so, who would you like it to be? Would it be Spiderman, Batman, Wonder woman, or Superman? They are just the usual fictitious superheroes that we sometimes think of. But how about a true person, an existing one, as your hero? Could it be possible? Obviously it is very possible. Anyone can be a hero. It might be someone who’s always with you for a very long time without noticing him or her as your hero.
Talking about heroes, I have a hero in my life. In fact, I have many heroes. They may not be as famous as Hollywood celebrities and they don’t have superpowers as what superheroes have but they can be considered as superheroes. How could one ever say only those cartoon characters, Superman, Darna, and the like considered superheroes? They’re just fictitious. There are lots of superheroes around us helping and serving us every day. And one of my considered hero is the ever patient, considerate and dedicated teachers at school. Maybe some students don’t think about them teachers as their hero, but for me, I greatly appreciate them as a hero. The teachers which we consider and treat as our second parents in school teach us to be good and responsible citizens someday. They are one of the instruments or rather the reason for every success of an individual. They share all their knowledge and experiences to everybody. They play a major role in one’s life. Despite their hardships and sacrifices in teaching some hard headed students, still they keep on smiling and do their best in giving us information about everything. They contributed a lot for everybody.

Having them is like winning a lotto game. That’s why we have to love, respect, cherish, and take good care of our dear teachers. I, you, we, all of us should thank our teachers. My teacher, my hero!

OUR VALUES TODAY

Values! What comes up to your mind when you hear the word “values”? Well, as expected there are many definitions, explanations, and meanings of that specific word. It’s a characteristic of a person, how we deliver our own reactions and emotions, and how we interact with each other or the people that surrounds us. Each individual possesses unique and extraordinary values which makes them different from others and as a true person.
Let us focus our attention to the existing values nowadays. What happened to our values today? As we can see and observe to each and every one, there are such values which are changed, develop, and gain. We now have these two different values, the negative and the good one. The negative traits are the following: envy, anger, dishonesty, high tempered, boastful, lair and etc. On the other hand, we also have these good and pleasing values. These are the following: honesty, helpfulness, respect, loyalty, sincerity, faithfulness, cooperation and etc. Because of the things and the bad people that surround us, we are being influenced by them and it makes us an unpleasant person.
Our values now are deteriorating and it’s not good to have this. In order for us to stop having the deteriorating values, we have to avoid the bad things and persons that influence us. And the most important thing to do is to evaluate ourselves to the biblical taught by Jesus.