Finding Hope

Tonight I experienced what I have always feared; doing an online meeting and having it cancelled because of poor internet connection. I know everything will be alright, and this is just one small challenge that I have to conquer but I guess I’m just afraid of what others may think, and how incompetent it may sound and look.‬ ‪Looking back, I realized that I’ve been through a lot of hardships and troubles. But most of the people that I’ve worked with never gave up on me, instead they encouraged me to do more and to look at the bright side of things. So I did. And whenever I look at them I see hope and I know that these people possess a lot of potential and I don’t want that to go to waste.‬ ‪It is important to have a really strong support system and a team who trusts you. A team who is willing to go into the frontline with you, whether or not you win the battle. And through all of the challenges I believe that I’ve made a lot of friends out of them but what I will never forget are the t...

I have never been a really good big brother to you, and it still bothers me up until this day. I could have been, but my childish behavior back then made our relationship shaky. The day I realized how important you were was when the day we lost you, I couldn't bear the fact that you were gone and that the last time I was able to truly treat my little brother right was the last day I was going to see him, touch him and listen to him. That day you and Mamang left for you to be tested and diagnosed. You gave me a tight hug that day... one of the tightest I had. There have been sleepless nights when I blame myself, but I eventually snapback because I know you never wanted that to happen in the first place. It was not me, not anyone but it was Leukemia. Thanks to you I've become the person I am today, thanks to you I've overcome all the failures I've been through, and thanks to you that I've learned what a big brother should be like. I promise to make you proud and h...

No matter how hard I strive academically, I always see myself falling down the hill and crash into hopelessness. I’ve always tried to make my family proud with my little victories — a certificate and medal for being an ROTC officer, a community outreach that I participated in or even just passing an engineering major subject. Looking back to all the decisions that I’ve made; I realize that not everything was planned out and not everything was a coincidence. It all happened because I decided to continue and there was no turning back. Yes, I may have had a lot of wrong decisions but eventually all of them led to where I am right now. I couldn’t be prouder. It made me stronger and I realized that losing means learning. Failures are a part of growing up, we fail because we reached our limit and that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try again. I have learned a lot not just inside the four walls of our classroom, I learned from the people I met as I walked in the halls of Silliman, I learned...

Dear Journal, I am new here in Silliman and I am still adjusting to the environment. This school has such a long history and it shares its fair share of memories with the acacia trees that populate the entire campus. It’s still June and not long before August starts, I have already heard about this two-week long celebration where you get to climb on a wall, touch a snake, pet a goat or even get married. I took the opportunity to research this talked about Silliman event as I was interviewing some of my upper-class men in my college. They say Hibalag is where you meet a love that is temporary and doesn’t transcend. It is an old friend that you only get to meet occasionally but you cherish deeply. Our teachers would narrate how they built their own booths in the early days of the booth fest and how it has been a yearly tradition. Some of my relatives who also studied here recalled so much memories during Founders Week. They described Hibalag as if it was something they hold dearly. M...

  “Closing time... you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here... Closing time, time for you to go back to the places you will be from... This room won't be open 'til your brothers or you sisters come. So gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits. I hope you have found a friend. Closing time... Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” I may be a few months late by now but that doesn’t matter anyway. There’s something special about this group that I have handled together with Kirsten, Thea and Nikka. Their commitment, enthusiasm, and passion gave us the spark we needed throughout our preparation for the Hibalag Booth Festival. These are the bright minds behind the curtains of the festivity and they deserve to be acknowledged not for fame nor prominence but because of the sweat that came after the hard work, the tears that dropped down after a breakdown, and the endless anxieties and sleepless nights that we have experienced throughout the ...