“Forget About the Price Tag”

            World stands for three things…. money, money and money.

            As they say, money is the dirtiest thing in this world but somehow, it’s the ultimate dream and priority of all people nowadays.

            Time witnessed the continuous reigning of money in all places. Men are killing each others because of it. It is also the roots of almost all crimes in the community. No doubt, money administration is ruling us.

            Almost all can be bought by money, I myself, witnessed how powerful money is. During my elementary days, my Mother always reminds me that we do not have enough money so she always failed in giving what I want.

            Sometimes, I go to school without any money in my pocket. And there were times that I couldn’t afford to buy school projects and join in school events and field trips. And that made me disappointed. These things really brought big effects on my grades. From that, I realized the great magic behind the dirtiest thing in this world.

            I am just one of the millions of Filipino who endured the low points of life in money. That’s why I thought to myself that I will do all I can just to become rich and to enjoy the luxury of life, so that I can afford all the material things that I never had before.

            Until one day, I heard from an old woman from our neighbor, shouting these words to someone, “Pera lang yan, hindi mo na madadala yan pag nasa hukay ka na!” As I heard that, I smiled and realized that she’s right.

            Days after, my classmate who is one of the richest in our class sent us the bad news that his father died because of certain illness. Their wealth did not stop his father from dying. From that moment, I came to realize that I may not be blessed with money, but I am blessed with lots of things like my complete and healthy family, my parents who always care, my friends, happiness, age, knowledge and my time here on Earth.

            I would still choose to be the poorest person rather than losing any of these priceless and most precious things I ever received.

            Until now, many people are still searching for happiness and they assume that money is the answer for it. We should think again if we thought it really was.

            Don’t set money as your ultimate goal in life. Let us more and more insist of raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace, rather than of money.

            World should stand for three things….you, your fellows and God.

            I can now shout out to the world that indeed, I’m very rich! But don’t expect me to lend you money because I am prosperous in other precious things except money because I’m penniless…

"Merry Marriage"

 “A successful marriage requires falling in love many times with the same person”.

            Once a thought suddenly entered into my mind and made me think what will be my new surname someday, then I just smiled and said that only one can answer my silly question, only God.

            I often heard from the elders and in television soap operas the famous line about marriage, “Ang pagpapakasal, hindi yan tulad ng kanin na pag napaso ka, iluluwa mo nalang.” Well, it is true enough because marriage is such a sacred thing that requires greater courage and faith as you entered in this phase. In doing so, you must make sure that you are ready for all the responsibilities and consequences of being a spouse and parent as well.

            A marriage is like a journey, the certain wrong is to think you can control it. Saying your vows at front of the altar in your wedding is not yet the happy end of your journey together. Real life is not like the clichés happy ending in telenovelas wherein when the lead characters were finally married, the story will end as they live happily ever after. In reality, the wedding day is just the link between the life being single going to the married life which is another chapter of your life. It can be a happy life or a miserable chapter, only the two of you can manage it.

            Life is full of surprises. There are so many unexpected things that might happen and you don’t have the total control over things but the management is all in your hands. T

            I have heard one time from a group of youths, debating whether the partner whom you spend your life with is brought by destiny or by choice. Honestly, I am unsure about this thing because until now, I really don’t know how to find the answer. But rationally thinking, for me the answer is subjective. Whether by choice or by fate, we all have our own perceptions based on our past experiences. We all have different love stories and this past and present stories will help us think for the answer. Some people who found a perfect partner for them and now living happily, might assume that they were brought by fate to fill the missing piece of their life. On the contrary, the couples living in a miserable and sad relationship may presume that it was all by choice and they might conclude that fate and destiny were not true.

            One thing is for sure, life after the wedding day will all depend on your decisions and choices. Marriage does not guarantee you that you will be together forever it’s only a paper. It take love, respect, trust, understanding, friendship and faith to make it last.

            The husband and wife must exert efforts to keep their vows forever because as what stated in Matthew 19:60, “therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

            Love should be timeless and unconditional because the most romantic story is not Romeo and Juliet who died together but Grandma and Grandpa who grew old together.

“Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman

It’s hard to raise a child when you’re still a child.

Teenage pregnancy is an issue that is rampant throughout the world and is a major concern due to the ill effects associated with teenager bearing children. This problem needs to be addressed and dealt with in a constructive manner.

Statistics shows that one of every ten babies is born to teenage mothers and two of every five teenage mothers were unexpected ones. This results to the continuous increase of mortality rate of infant.

Most victims of the circumstance force to give up education and face the huge economic hardships and suffer from physical, emotional and psychological stress.

Girls entering puberty often face “crisis in confidence” which makes them vulnerable to risky behavior, and these bad choices can have a devastating lifelong consequence. In quest for love and attention, these young people create new lives they are ill-prepared to care for. Enough attention from their parents is the best way to solve this problem. One of the most rewarding relationships is when parents step forward as their child’s best friend.

 The recent study reveals that sexual content on television and computer, play a role in increased rate of teen pregnancy. It results to inappropriate and a rather careless approach about the phenomenon of sex in general which leads the fact that teenagers look at sex very differently.

The parents aren't there time to time to monitor their child, so by this time, government are mostly responsible in limiting the violent scenes in televisions and eradicating obscene programs and the sites in the Internet.

For the complete fight against the issue, the unity of government and Catholic Church is also needed. Both should have one goal for the country’s development.

By this time, we should put teens’ future and their child on the center of attention because if the growth of pregnancy rate continues, not just the teenage mother, their child, their families will suffer but also the whole nation.   

"Pera-pera na lang ba?"

Minsa’y tinuran ng aking lolo na may dalawang uri lang naman ng tao sa lipunan, ang mga nang-aapi at ang mga nagpapaapi. At sa telenovela man o sa totoong buhay, ang taong mga salat sa salapi, ang kadalasang api.

            Sabi nila, “money is the dirtiest thing in this world”, bakit nga naman hindi? Eh samu’t-saring mga kamay ang pinagdadaanan nito at kung saan-saang lugar ito napapadpad. Pero sa kabila nito, ang pera ay pinahahalagahan at minamahal ng mga tao, at kadalasan, labis-labis pa nga di ba? Pero ika nga nila, lahat ng labis ay masama.

            Ayon sa isang libro, “Love of money is the root of all evil, at the same time, lack of money is the root of all evil.” Maraming tao ang sumasamba sa pera na siyang nagtutulak sa kanila sa pagkapit sa patalim at gumawa ng mga krimen o anumang illegal tulad ng pagnanakaw, pangongotong, korupsyon, prostitusyon at kahit pagpatay sa kapwa tao nang dahil sap era.

            Di maitatanggi na ang pera ay talaga naming kailangan ng bawat isa para mabuhay. Pano ba naman, wala ka na yatang makikitang libre ngayon sa mundo. Lahat ng bagay may katapat na presyo! At nakalulungkot isipin na maging ang boto, dangal at dignidad ng ilang kababaihan, edukasyon at hustisya ay pinipresyuhan na rin. Kaya nga ganun-ganon na lang kung maliitin ng mayayaman ang mga mahihirap. Kasi sagana sila sa bagay na tinuturing na pinakamakapangyarihan sa ngayon, ang pera. Kaya ang ending, nakakaranas ng diskriminasyon ang mga mahihirap sa maraming pagkakataon.

            Sa ilang ospital lang, pag mahirap ka at walang pera, asahan mo nang huli kang mabibigyan ng serbisyong medical at ang mas malala. At ang mas malala, hindi nila tutugunan ang iyong pangangailangan hangga’t wala kang pambayad. Kadalasang hindi uso ang first come, “first serve policy”, sa halip ay  “first payer, first serve”.

            Pag mayaman ang nahuling nagnakaw, kleptomaniac yan, pero pag mahirap ang nahuli, samu’t-saring terminolohiya ang ibabansag sa kanya tulad ng magnanakaw, kawatan, mandurugas at kung anu-ano pa.

            Tunay na napakalaki ng bahagi ng pera sa mundong ginagalawan natin. Masasabing ito ang nakapagdidikta sa kung anung uri ng pamumuhay ang ating babagtasin. Ganun pa man, ang realidad, ay mas maraming bagay ang mas mahalaga sa pera. Dahil ang pera, nalulukot, napupunit at nawawala at higit sa lahat, ito ay may saysay lamang sa ngayo dahil balewala na ang kahit sentimo sa eternal na buhay.

“Reminisce”

            We cannot look forward to posterity if we never look backward to our ancestors. Because we are not the maker of history, we are made by history. History along with the early people in it is our molder and the reason of our existence today. So for a while, it’s a good thing to take a glimpse of the past and recognize our roots.

            There are many theories that sprouted about the origin of our existence. And one of the most recognized theories is the Wave of Migration. According to this theory, the trace of our early ancestors were said to be from the three groups of people who settled here in the Philippines which are the Negritos, Indonesians and Malays.

            We learned from our History subject about the simplicity of life of early people in the Philippines. How they manage to survive in their time, how they gradually became civilized and how they contribute in the formation of what we now own for ourselves: the Filipino culture.

            Filipinos life ago was difficult yet they were able to survive mainly from their surroundings. Early Filipinos used sharp stones for smashing the food they gathered and for splitting wooden branches. They lived in caves, forests, nipa huts or tree houses. And they even had their own structure of government and laws embedded in it. Since the people during that time were relatively small in numbers, there was not really a problem in terms of food supply and space to dwell which is undeniably opposite of our status quo wherein most of the people are homeless or residing in squatter’s area and suffering from hunger due to poverty.

            Over the years, Filipino and environment continued to interact and produced new discoveries and breakthroughs. And now that our country embraces different innovations and technological advancements, we cannot deny the fact that the way of life of each Filipino has been changed. In this fast pacing world, we can see how the life of individuals were altered, the life that are indeed far from what our ancestors had before.

             Before, it took a long time for our ancestors to create fire. It seems that their body fats will be the first to be burned (due to extreme rubbing of bamboo woods) rather than the food that they must suppose to burn. But now, it just one snap, the fire is all yours!

            Today, we have the easiest and fastest way to communicate with others. It can be through text, calls, Internet, different social networking sites and many more. But during the old times, messages are commonly spoken to other personally, but it’s a hard time for them to locate the person they want to speak with. That’s why some of them use birds to send messages for them. Well, it’s a bad story then when their “messenger bird” was got shot by someone because their message will remain untold. Oops! We also had our own version of “messenger bird” today! The “Twitter!” The good thing about it is it cannot be shot dead by anyone. But if you do not have Internet connection, well, that’s another sad story.

            And when it comes to the dissemination of information, people before had their umalohokan to announce it to the public personally. But today, there’s no sore throat anymore for the umalohokan, because of the presence of different media like television, radio and newspaper to distribute information, news and orders to the mass.

            Before they use boat and animals to travel from one place to another but most of the time, they walk barefooted. But now, we have different means of transportation, even if it’s in land, water, underwater, aerial or even going to space! And as a result, pollution and heavy traffic jam! No wonder, in the near future, there will be traffic in the sky too.

            In accordance to their laws and orders, some act of wrongdoing can be penalized by death. Sounded harsh? But as of today, death penalty is not allowed in the Philippines.

            Early Filipinos are contented in farming, fishing, hunting and making boats. There are no such things as blue collar jobs nor does white collar job. There’s also no thing like Minimum Wage.

            Their clothing was made from leaves, barks of trees, animal skin. And their accessories are made of elephant tusks, animals’ teeth, pearls from sea and stones. And as time went by, baro’t saya ang barong tagalong was introduced. Sorry for the boys of early times, because miniskirts, shorts and sleeveless were not yet introduced during those time.

            During the early times, courting a girl requires great courage for the man to face all the hardships. He cannot even touch her fingertip or her hair tip. But today, in just a blink of an eye, many relationships were build as well as new baby. Feelings are communicated and expressed through text or Facebook statuses which were never done before.

            These are just some of the way of life of our ancestors or the early Filipinos. Our life today and their life before have both pros and cons. It is just, life before is certainly simpler than what we have now. But still, they can generate happiness from this simplicity of life. I think, one implication of this continuously innovating world is that we are setting higher standards for living and happiness. And despite all the beneficial effects of modernization, we must admit that the simplicity of life is now altered of being complicated packed with branching problems.

            We cannot choose where and when to live. It’s only God decides whether what era we should rise. But wherever and whenever it is, we should utilize our time here on Earth in the best and noble as we can because time runs so fast and we will also become the ancestors of the new Filipinos to be born in the near future. Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers.