YssangKatha

And I will be overhauling this blog’s overall appearance sometime in the future.

I am well aware that not all of you will be able to read my manuscript but still I really want to let you know how thankful I am for the help and support, and love, I have received from you. So here’s the best way I can think of for you to at least know what I felt for you. Presenting: It’s A Beautiful Day’s Acknowledgements section.

PS: I am only allowed three pages for this section. So whether or not your name was specifically mentioned here does not necessarily measure how much my love for you is. Happy reading!

To Those Who Made Her Day Beautiful Acknowledgements

First of all, thank you Jehovah God for giving and making my life this great! I owe you big time for welcoming me into your earthly organization of Witnesses moments before I entered college. And for introducing me to the members of College Congregation, who gave me every support I needed to finish my four-year adventure here. Ever since my freshman year, I always thought that there was a reason why I passed and came here in UPLB. Now, I know the very reason: You did it and it made me ever closer to you. I will always love you Jehovah and thank you for bringing only the best for me. Thus, I also want to extend my gratitude to the people you used to make my life this wonderful.

           To my parents, Mama Nancy and Papa Fem, I love you! You are the best and I could have never imagined for better parents, best friends, supporters, teachers, and name-it-you-got-it. Thank you for always treating me like a princess who was trusted with her independence, and for believing that I can do anything.

           Also, to my brothers: Jay-ar and Igie, thank you! Thank you for always being there to annoy me. You know I only come home from LB once a month or two but you never failed to let me feel how concerned you both were of me. I could not tell you enough how much I love you but there are no better Kuyas for me than the both of you. Please, even though I am finishing college, promise me that I will always be your spoiled-bratty but really sweet sister.

           To my best friend and cousin, Eulysses, thank you so much for your support! I know we may had conflicts in our schedule, and we did not talk much when the classes were on-going but I want to let you know how much an hour of talk every semester meant to me. Thank you for everything!

           And to those who served as my shelter and my family, for the last four years, I know I could not thank you enough, but still thank you.

           To my “parents”: Tito Jones and Tita Mylene, Papa Bear Garry and Mama Bear Eunice, Tito Cris and Tita Flor, Tito Jun and Tita Neth, Tita Ruth, Tito Maning and Tita Vivs, thank you for all the practical wisdom you have imparted me. Thank you for always making me feel like I am home and for showing genuine concern like I am one of your kids. Daddies, if you will let me call you this, whenever my heart was in trouble and needed some advice, you were all there. And Mommies, whenever I feel so lonely and badly needed a hug, you did not ever think twice to give it to me. Thank you for always keeping me strong and encouraging me to do the best throughout these years.

           To my “brothers”: Reilly, Kuya Jair, Kuya Jan, Kuya Nico, Kuya Jojo, Rive, Dens, Kuya Jesse, Kuya Chil, Kuya Seth, Kuya Nickson, Kuya Cy, Miah, Kuya Jomar and Kuya Jun, thank you for acting like my real brothers. Whenever I am with you guys I feel like I can laugh as hard as I can but the rare moments when you stop me to think about what I was doing were the times when I feel like I was your real baby sister, so thank you for treating me like that. Especially to Kuya Jomar who, for a number of times, unknowingly makes efforts to keep me up when I feel down. And to Kuya Jun and Kuya Jesse who had been the ones who strengthened me the most in my spiritual race.

           My “sisters”: Dianne, Sanica, Ate Lady, Ate Kath, Ate Ivy, Ate Jeanette, Ate Joy, Shula, Ella, Pau, Ate Maine, Raicel, Ate Richelle and Ate Ana, thank you for making me feel like I have real sisters. Thank you for making me experience the feeling of having someone to talk to, to paint my nails with, to play the cards with, and to pull a teddy bear party with. Those were the things I never really thought I could do with a sister, so thank you! Also, big thanks especially to the best housemates: Ate Richelle who did most of the artworks I need for class reporting and for this manuscript, Dianne who I shared the same room with for most of my college years, and to Ate Ana who had always been the ate for me, the one who never gave up on us.

           Of course, I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to my academic and internship mentors, and colleagues. Thank you for always believing that I can do better than what I think I already did best. Surely, my university experience would not have been perfect if not with the help I got from all of you. To Sir Mar Dela Cruz, you will always be the best instructor for me. I mean that when I first said it and thank you so much! To Sir Ren Padua, I never thought I could enjoy journalism if not for your big help.

           I would also like to express how thankful I am for having the most caring advisers: Ma’am Grace Mendoza, my practicum adviser, and Sir Eric Joyce Grande, my registration adviser. Thank you for always guiding me and extending your patience for me.

One of the few new things a freshman is excited about is to live in a boarding house, dormitory or an apartment where he or she expects to make great friends with his/her room mates and/or housemates. But believe me, not everything will go well as planned. If you don’t meet each other’s expectations, the once great bonding you had during your first few months can end in leaving the house separately. So, here’s six things that can help you maintain that good house relationship:

1. Privacy

Although you may share the same spaces, say the same room, you should always respect what the others should want to be kept. You do not have to be the first to know everything. Of course, there is a certain degree to privacy. As long as it does not evidently affects your room mate’s state of being, just let it go.

2. Respect

When you agreed to something, always follow. There is a need to understand that not all of you will be emotionally okay specially when it’s the most stressful month in school. Why? Because these days will be when most emotional outbursts occur, and you will never like what would happen next. So, at least respect what has been agreed upon and stay quiet.

3. Seniority Rules

Don’t worry, they’re already experienced so you will learn a lot from them. However, your senior can really make a statement on what he/she likes or dislikes and you should not do anything to fight with them. They got powers - influences, courage to take you down (worst case), talk about it. Some seniors are really kind and light, it depends on their personality, but what ever that is don’t dare to overlap their seniority.

4. Communication

You will be living in a house with an almost completely strange people - not your relative, not your friend, not your acquaintance. When personality differences occur, the best possible way to fix that is to communicate it. Tell them why you did not like what happen, ask them why as well. Do your best to make everyday easy for each of your housemates.

5. Do Not Embarrass With House Issues

By that, I mean that whenever problems arise, talk about it within yourselves. Your housemates need to know about it, firsthand, from you PRIVATELY. You can talk about it in the house where all of you are present, but do not do it if someone else is there. It is not good to embarrass anyone with mistakes they did not even know they did. Just let it be an agenda to your next house meeting.

6. Be Yourself

You don’t have to live with the fear of disappointing your seniors. Even though you are a newbie, you must also tell them what makes your happiness and excitement in the house disappear. Of course, you also need to adjust your personality and routines, sometimes preferences, with theirs. Understand that if in your own home you rule, in this new house many things will not go your own way.

Okay, so I just turned 20 this week. No more teen, like nineTEEN, eighTEEN, just twenty.

Some of my friends are really anxious when it comes to being 20. But when my day was approaching, I just thought that “hey, here’s a new me... Asking to be someone better, someone more mature.” And I guess, I got more excited to the idea.

I promised myself back then that when I reached 20, I should be finished studying, that I should be working or finding my dream job, at least. But because of our school’s calendar shift, I am still here, two weeks away from my graduation’s verdict. It was fine for me, though. I have still got time to think about of what I want to do.

What do I want to do? I have plenty of options right now, but I am still in the middle of weighing what’s best for me. I feel like I should be responsible, more responsible actually, of the decisions I will be making. This is just the thought of the me who turned 20.

The next months will be filled with a lot of life-changing decision-making. The next months, I still don’t know. This was the first time that I got no plans for the days ahead.

I am a writer. I had written a number of stories - creative non-fiction, fiction, poems, prose, news articles, feature articles, speeches (of almost all types). Name it.

What I picked up from most of my workshop buddies, and professors and instructors in class is that to produce a great story the self should always be there. The most effective way is to write from the heart: it’s experiences, it’s happiness or it’s aches. Funnily enough, most of the things I have written reflects much pain and sadness.

I am a very enthusiastic, positive person. I like to make other people happy. There is just this thing that goes on when I write, I don’t like false hopes. In fact, on my most recent literary article where my class wanted to have a different conclusion on at least a part of it, I just thought “Why?”

Why must I give false hopes to my characters? Why should I make them believe that there’s always happy endings? Why?

Mind you, I really really love the idea of love. I imagined myself for so many times to belong to someone in a perfect love story. I already have plans for my wedding day. I already picture myself as a great girlfriend, then a wife.

As promised on my twitter account (@yssangkatha) posted on May 9, 2015, here is what made that day, my Saturday, extra special.

Actually, it was never really mine. It was about us.

I would like to start of my saying that I lost my ring at the beach. That ring was no elegant or expensive, in fact it was just made out of a thin wire with my name in it. But, to me it was priceless because I had made memories with it. I had it since high school, about four to five years now, but I could still picture vividly how it contributed to my experiences back then.

Now, that ring was gone. I tried to look for it, but I guess the beach sand already buried it. That time, I felt like I buried a precious part of my youthful years. It was hard, I guess.

I may have lost the ring that bore some memories in high school, but little did I know that it will be nothing compared to the memories I made that same day I lost it.