In December 2006, I bought a small black and white television set, which only cost me around two thousand pesos. It’s cute and amazing because it also has a built in am/fm radio. The reason I bought this, a year ago, was to sustain me from boredom for the period of time that I won’t be working. To my disappointment, at first it only aired channel 7. I’m an ABS-CBN fanatic, so I would have preferred to watch channel 3. But, I had no choice. So, I forced myself to start liking and patronizing the shows of GMA. I was successful at that attempt, for after a week, I began to watch GMA shows with glee. Then, fortunately, Ronel, did something wonderful. He worked with the wires and antenna and in the end, made channel 3 viewing possible. So, from then on, I only watched channel 3, like I used to. This small television has been a source of happiness for the one year it served us. It accompanied us during times of loneliness or idleness. It never got tired of airing wonderful songs which usually put me and Ronel to sleep. It provided us, information with whats going on in our country and locality through the tv patrol news. It became the channel of communication between us and our favorite stars. It made us cry everytime we watch heavy drama on Maalaala Mo Kaya. Most of all, it gave us one source of common bond. Sometimes, I hear shrieking sounds as if it was telling me it wants to take some rest after almost a day of running. Somehow, this small television set has made its way into our small house. We had transferred to four houses already. And, we never forget to bring this with us. I never realized the importance of this thing, until one day, it just ceased to play. I was watching one tv show then, when it just turned off. There was no power outage and it was still plugged. I’ve tried to push the on/off button many times to revive the television but to no avail. I could no longer watch my favorite tv shows such as UBER of Pinog Big Brother and Pangarap na Bituin. And I have no idea, when, I would be able to buy a new tv again. But one thing is for sure, I’ll be missing this television a.k.a radio set!

Strike while the iron is hot! Be happy always! Put God first in everything! These are just some of the motto’s or principles that we people hold on to. As for me, my favorite motto is “You can do anything you want to do…that is, if you are with God”. There’s a certain verse in the bible relating to this motto, though I forgot the specific numbers already. I hold on to this motto, every time I feel like I can’t do the thing that I need to do, or every time doubt comes in to me. This makes me stronger especially during hard times. This translates my thoughts from negative to the positive side. By thinking about this motto always, specially in times of trouble, I am able to surmount any difficulty that comes my way. This helps me think that in my battles in life, I am not alone. There is someone who is far greater than all of the difficulties that I am experiencing. And simply knowing that, just makes me believe that I can do it, whatever it is that I’m supposed to do. If we think, that we can do everything on our own, even without God’s help, we are just bound to nowhere, but FAILURE. Believe me, you have to put your plans, your dreams and aspirations in God’s care so that you can be assured that everything will turn out just as it is supposed to be. Fear greatly affects our lives. As much as I hate to admit it, I observe that it’s the main stumbling block that is keeping us people from being successful in our lives. So, instead of letting fear dominate our emotions, we just have to believe that nothing is impossible with God. If it seems like impossible for us to do, there is someone greater than us who can and who knows how to make things turn out just fine. And I bet, you know who it is

We have been together now for almost a month. We started our pre hire training on October 28, 2007. We were originally 17 from the first day. We had 2 trainers for the pre hire, Miss Jessie and Miss Carmel. In the morning, we had Miss Jessie for the speech development and then we had Miss Carmel in the afternoon for the Customer Service and Communication Training. We were asked to choose an American name, which will be our name in the company. I chose the name Melody, for it reminds me of my beautiful friend. So, from then on, I became Melody. The pre hire training was a 5 day extensive training . On the first day, we were all so quiet except for one guy named Kenneth. He ’s like a clown and he’s really funny. He even resembles Jim Carrey. Two of our batchmates decided not to continue with the training, for reasons I do not know. On the fifth day, we had our evaluation. It was scary, because if you will not make it there, you will not be able to proceed with the formal training. So, you will not be offered a job contract in the company. The evaluation consisted of oral and written exams, as well as mock calls wherein we pretended to be real technical support representatives while the trainers act as customers. At the end of the day, the announcement was made. Three among us, did not make it. I had mixed emotions then; happiness, sadness, and nervousness. I was happy because I passed, so that means that I would have a chance to go on with formal training. At the same time, I was sad because of the 3 people who did not pass. I felt their disappoinment and their eagerness to be a part of the company. Lastly, I was anxious for the interview with the president, Mr. Ken. It’s the final determinant if we would really pass or not. And guess what? I passed the president’s standards. Mr. Ken saw my potential and burning desire to work for them. And for that, I am eternally greatful. On the other hand, four failed. So, again, we were trimmed down to eight.

This day was just an ordinary day!As usual, I got up early in the morning, fixed myself and went to school for my classes. I was the first one to come in my EDUC2 class. Then, Kuya Cleto came in and told me to ask him questions for our quiz which will be done later on. But i didn’t know about this. I didn’t even know that we’re gonna have a quiz. I was totally surprised, and so I got tensed for I thought I would end up getting zero for not studying anything due to lack of knowledge that there will be a test. But i realized if I kill myself to death in worrying about something which I cannot change nothing will happen. So i forget about myf fear and instead, I started scanning and reading my book. After ten minutes, our teacher came in and then our test started! I expected the worst and thought that I will really get zero. But it turned out the opposite, I got perfect! Out of 20 items, I got 20. Even if I didn’t study and even if our teacher has not discussed the lesson yet, for it was supposed to be a pre-test! It was great! It made me feel so proud of myself. It made me think that nothing is impossible! And that there is nothing to fear, because there is nothing I can’t do! Thanks to God, I know He was there for me during those hard moment. And I thank Him! Even if it’s just a small thing, for me it’s already enough reason to celebrate this EXTRAORDINARY DAY!

I used to hate the teaching profession. It is because I observed that most teachers get old easily, and they only have very few time for themselves. Aside from the fact that teachers have very small salary. And yet, the responsibility and all the tasks that a teacher is obliged to do, are too big and complicated. This is the reason why, many high school graduating students would rather prefer to take up other courses such as nursing, commerce, computer courses, dentistry etc, which promises big salaries in the future when they finally get the job. And I would say, that I’m one of them. I’m one of those who hated this course. Yet, after more than a year of being in this course, and finally experiencing how it really feels when your already teaching, I learned not only to understand the real value of this profession, but most especially, I’ve learned how to love and appreciate it. It feels good when your students call you “maam”, and and it feels good knowing that you’ve somehow contributed to the development of individuals. So, even if teaching is not an easy profession, even if it requires a lot of effort and time, I would still say that teaching is such a great profession which pays you back something which cannot be bought my money or any material possession.

This book was specially made by Kirberger to help teens find answers to the common problems they have, such as body image issues, lack of self-esteem and lost of identity. She relates that the root cause of all these is the failure to accept one’’s self. This book is perfect for teens who need enlightenment and guidance since it contains 24 steps that can be used to solve any problem and to lead a happier life. It also contains stories and poems by teens, compiled altogether so that other teens who read it can relate to it. These real life stories will help readers understand that they are not alone in their battles in life. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, but most of all, it will make you look deeper within yourself. And if you really take it by heart, at the end of the last chapter, you will surely learn how to love and accept yourself like you never did before. To be able to achieve this, you need to get to know your real self first. Not the self that you project to others just to gain their appreciation and acceptance. It is sad to say, that some people most often than not, have to wear masks in front of others. If you really want to be happy, you”ve got to free the REAL you. Remember that people will accept you not for being perfect but for being real and true to yourself. Another discovery Kirberger revealed in this book was that, worrying about what others think about us, contribute a lot to our unhappiness and dissatisfaction in life. Sometimes, we tend to do things we dont want to, just to gain the approval of others around us. We dont have to let others affect our decisions and hinder our growth in achieving our goals in life. The truth is, the perception of others about us doesnt really matter at all, for what we think about ourselves, is what really matters most.