career - whew!

Career, future... For me, those are big words. Just thinking about it makes my stomach contract. They say that we fear something because it is unknown. We fear ghosts because we don't know what they are, or what they can do. We fear the dark because everything in front us is now 'unknown'. The word future is very strongly related to the word unknown, because the future is something I cannot be sure of. It is unknown.

But we do not have to be afraid it. Anxious, would be a better term for this feeling. (I suddenly remembered the novel The Giver. If you haven't read it yet, well... I pity you. ;) ) So, yes, it is normal to be anxious because there is really no assurance of anything in the future.

So, the least we could do would be to plan for it. After all, your life is in your hands. Uncontrollable things may happen to you, but how you react on those situations is what makes the difference. So, if you want to achieve something, direct your actions toward it. And one of the most effective ways of making sure you do successfully direct your actions toward your goal is to create a plan.

These are the steps that will help me achieve my goals:
1. study hard
2. get good grades
3. learn a lot
4. get hired by a company somewhere
5. work way up the company
6. switch companies/jobs is necessary
7. work my way up again
8. learn a lot
9. get a stable job, with stable pay
10. find the man
11. have a happy family
12. balance work, play and family
13. work
14. have own business
15. earn a lot
16. send someone else's children to school
.
.
.

... to be continued, I guess.

RELATIONSHIPS *caught your attention, didn't I? ;)

Modules 4, 5 and 6 of my Personal Effectiveness 2 class are aaalll about relationships. When I realized we'll be talking about relationships, I unintentionally felt excited. I pictured dating tips, and stuff like that.. (landi 'no? lol) Kidding. I felt excited because, I hoped that it would finally shed some light on the mysterious world where creatures called men prowl around (lol! landi talaga...)

But seriously, I was interested by this topic. It of course, does not only include romantic relationships. There're also friends and family under relationships. So, it's a big topic, and an interesting one.

I would like to talk about two things in this whole idea about relationships.

The first is about the subtopic called "significant other". My favorite part in this discussion was when we were made to think about what age we would like to marry. I have never given that question much thought before. So, it was good to be pressured and forced, whithin 2 minutes, to come up with a specific age I'd be planning to marry.

Now, the second thing is Module 7. It's actually just a single paper with the words "My Pledge of Commitment" on top. We were to write a letter for our future husband/wife! It was really fun doing it. While all my other classmates were laughing at the idea while writing their letters, i was silent on my own corner, concentrating on the letter. I took it seriously! lol! Of course, all the time I was writing, my humor glands kept bringing up the idea of its hilarity, but it never kept me from writing seriously. I could really show it to my future husband. That is, if I could still find it at that time. Right now, it is currently in hiding somewhere on my desk, beneath a torrential pile of stuff. But it's just there. I'll find it when the time comes. Hehe. :)

PERSEF: Circles of My Multiculural Self

"This activity highlights the multiple dimensions of our identities. It addresses the importance of individuals self-defining their identitites and challenging stereotypes."

I am a/an...
-Filipino
-Lasallian
-Female
-Christian
-college student
-Kumon Math Completer
-Math Circle Officer
-adjudicator
-debater sometimes...
-soon to be ex-constant dean's lister (pagdasal nyo ako, please. lol)
-Research Assistant to a University Fellow
-nerd wanna-be
-hindi naman pahabaan to diba?

challenging stereotypes: Fill in the following sentence...
I am (a/an) _______________ but I am NOT (a/am) ____________.
My answer:
I am a Philippine Science High School graduate but I am NOT a nerd.

Why do we have to challenge stereotypes?
Because it is not a good thing to stereotype, at most times.
Encarta says that a stereotype is an "oversimplified conception: an oversimplified standardized image of a person or group". The fact that it is a standardized image and an oversimplified conception means that we can tend to see people as something they are not. And often times, what some groups of people are stereotyped as are not good, or even true, things. It could thus lead to discrimination. Take a look at the most famous example of stereotyping - women. Women were seen to be secondary to men, incapable of excelling in fields other than cooking and doing laundry. Thus, women tend to be discriminated when, for instance, applying for jobs. This still happens in some places today.

So we should challenge stereotypes and not be limited by something as insignificant as what other people think about us. For instance...


I am a Lasallian but I am NOT humble. whahahaha!

When making an important decision, I first would consider the following criteria:

Decision making is a crucial thing to be done effectively if we want to be effective persons. So, instead of making hasty decisions during times of pressure, I've thought of these criteria that I would check on before reaching a decision.

I. Family and Loved Ones

I would consider whether this decision will be for their benefit, and whether it will make my family and loved ones happy. This is because if my family and loved ones are happy and well, then it will make me truly happy as well. Of course, as much as possible, this happiness must not come at the expense of other people's.

2. The Right Think

Before I make a decision, I must first ask myself the question, "What is the right thing to do?" This may be easy enough to answer for some situations, but for the other ones, and more often too, what is right is made complicated by many factors, and options are in varying shades of gray. At times when options are not easily seen as black and white, what is the right thing to do becomes subjective. For these situations, I would seek the opinion of trusted people, and also the teachings of my faith. With these, I would again evaluate my options and hopefully, decide on the right thing to do.

3. Time

"Anything worth doing is worth doing well," but first, I have to decide if indeed, something is worth doing. I've only got one shot at life, and I say that lots of times. I wouldn't want to waste my time doing something I hate, and at the same time, unproductive. So, I would define something as not a waste of time, or something worth doing if it is productive, or I enjoy doing it, or both! As John Lennon said, "Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted." :)

PERSEF REFLECTIVE ESSAY: What is my role in my community?

When a question is asked about what is the most disturbing social problem in our society today, the most often thing that would come to the mind of Filipinos would be poverty. But when we start to trace poverty back into its root causes, it is there that we find confusion. Poverty in society is a very complex thing. It is caused, altered and affected by many different elements in society. The most often thing you would hear Filipinos blame for this, is corruption. There could also be some people who wouldn't be so selfish as to blame it all on the government, thus taking a share of the blame themselves, by saying, perhaps, that lack of discipline is one of the major root causes. And I must say, I have to agree. I would like to generalize these problems, corruption and lack of discipline, because they are very related. So for me, the problem would be the low moral standards of Filipinos.
In my local community, the low moral standards of people are exhibited anywhere from plastic bags blocking the canals, to hushed graft and corruption in the local government. With years of exposure to our country's problems, one would be truly compelled to try and make a difference for the better of the people of our country. The big question now makes itself clear, how exactly could we do it?
You know, when I was young and people have asked me the question old people usually ask children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, I have never given a truly honest answer to it. I would just say that I wanted to be a doctor because that's what everybody says. Then I shifted to wanting to become a teacher because I realized that too many people wanted to become a doctor already. Then after that, I wanted to become a lawyer because my grandpa said I would make a good one after I answered impressively back to my yaya. But when the time came that I had to decide on what college course to take, I was forced to rethink that same question a bit more seriously. Like a good girl, I took into consideration my strengths and weaknesses, and that's how it came down to math. So now I'm a BS Statistics student in De La Salle University. But an even more puzzling question presents itself, what the heck can a statistician do to alleviate corruption and poverty?
Directly, as a statistician, I don't think I would be able to contribute much except determine the percentage of illiterate Filipino women aged under 60, and stuff like that. Computing how many people are suffering due to poverty is, after all, not the same as actually doing something about it. But then again, you can't do anything about something you don't know about. So in a way, being a statistician, or an actuary, does some good. But I think that I could be able to contribute more through something else – influence. As of now, I wouldn't really describe myself as a very influential person (a leader), quite the contrary, actually. But I am determined that in the future, I could be more influential than I am today because I am working on it. And I am relying on my desire to make a difference, to motivate me towards this goal. I’m not saying I’m planning to be a politician. I think that effective leaders exist not only in politics, but also in business, showbiz, the academe, in everything! And it is definitely not the case that a significant difference can be made only when you hold a position in government. I can be a statistician, work in an office behind a desk, and be a leader in the corporate world. I can put up a business that would be fair, and would give utmost importance on the welfare of its employees. I can be a donor for a scholarship grant to deserving students in La Salle. I can live in a place other than the Malacañang Palace and still be able to influence the people in my community to vote wisely, to detest corrupt officials, to be against vote buying, to create jobs, and to be charitable.
Anthony Pangilinan, in one of his leadership seminars, said, “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” He had quoted it from one of the international seminars he had attended, and it was the very first thing he said on that talk. It was also during that talk when I realized that the people who are doing things to try and make a difference, those who try to change things, or to transform rather than to conform, are the people we call leaders. So here I was, dreaming to make a difference in the world, not realizing that I have to have courage to be able to challenge the status quo, and that means that I have to be a leader to do it. I honestly think that leadership is something I am not very good at, at the moment. So as of now, what I can think of doing that would help me make a difference would be to try and lead. I am usually a conformist. My temperament test results say that I am phlegmatic, and I have a very hard time making decisions. So if I want to be a leader, and an influencer in the future, I would have to start making myself into one now. I am an officer in two organizations at school, but I would always prefer to take orders from the seniors, rather than give new ideas and encompass the leadership part in being an officer. So hopefully, I can gain the right courage to take the lead. This means that I should not be afraid to voice out to others what I think, to help give decisions on important matters, to make suggestions and to not stop there, but continue to grow, from college school organizations to bigger things in the future.