Still, after all...

My dream is to one day see my parents, holding hands, conversing dearly with each other in our own garden, with a cup of coffee on their sides, not minding their children’s breakfast for the next morning. This is the scene I’ve been longing for in my life…

Ambition is the one thing that is absolutely free. And drawing my ambition, years from now, I want to see myself in a stable company doing jobs concerned with Production Planning and Systems Analysis. May my God given skills and knowledge enable me to provide for my family, own a house we have dreamed of, pursue my personal growth and extend help to those who are in need.

I strived for my education for my parents. I want them to feel the success of parenthood, to make them feel proud of raising us, and to calm them that they have been a real good mother and father for if it weren’t for them, I am nothing.

Road to my education

I spent two to three hours of travelling time on my way to school. For almost five years now, I pretty enjoy those hours where I got to observe the busy streets through the bus window—sometimes that is where I even extended my review sessions.

I am a public school graduate from elementary to high school. I used to compete in different academic and writing competitions since I was in elementary; most memorable was in high school when I competed in journalism at national level held in Surigao City (that was the first time I rode on a plane and all expenses paid).

Competitions made me fond of being surprised to what else I am capable of doing. Through that, I was able to explore my strengths and enhance my weaknesses.

When I was in 4^th year College, I joined Tanglaw ng Iskolar - Wisdom of Solomon Category. It was an annual competition for College of Engineering students and the qualification is both on leadership and academic performance. I ended up 1st runner up.

I currently serve as an Associate Editor in our College’s publication, The Engineering Spectrum. I started there when I was in 3^rd year.

But these achievements does not define me after all... There is more in me that has been a slave for so may years. I have the key to my freedom but willingness to unlock it is not on my side. I'll find what I've been looking for, I believe.

After all, life is but journey... And I'm not even halfway through it. There is so much more to come.

Some parts missing

That was life all about for me and my family—taking action.

No matter how frightening and uncertain things might be, we need to take action for nobody knows what’s going to happen unless it happens.

I only have one life, nothing else. I have to take the risks that the daily life had set for me though I also fear that this won’t bring me elsewhere.

Mistake has always been a part of my journey. But it has also shown me what was right and what was necessary. So I only have to do the things for which I can only be grateful.

I have to pursue the things I’m dying to attain and to get hold of the things I can’t live without.

I remember what my Nanay, through our experiences as a family, thought me. She once said that, if I cannot afford to lose something, I should hold on to it no matter how much pain it caused me.

She was right. I need to pursue some things without even asking why; having only the reason that I just have to. I just have to do it and explanation does not seem to be relevant. I have to move on from there.

My family shapes me as a person. My dreams, my goals and my wants all come down to one thing: to make them happy and satisfied that after all the pains and hurts we’ve been through, great things are still on its way to make us smile.

Everything happens for a reason, I truly believe. The trials, the opportunities, the pains, the joys—all these are God’s way of shaping us to the best form we can be.