Vlogger for a day!
Last week, we were given an assignment and it is to create an audio visual presentation of our self-introduction. I don't really like making AVPs since it is hard to conceptualize for an idea, I also have to shoot for the clips and lastly, the hardest part of all is to edit.
But then, I don't have a choice but to do it anyway. Still, being the procrastinator that I am, did it the same day as the deadline which is today. I don't really know what to do so my concept is showing myself behind my uniform. To put it simply, I decided to just film myself the whole day trying to show who I am if I am not in class since our professor only knows us as a student.
The AVP is only 2 minutes so all of my videos are in time lapse and I just did a voiceover so that I can describe what I am doing.
I finished filming the videos at 9PM and start editing at 10PM. But the editing software I got is very advanced and I don't know how to use it. LOL. In the end, I downloaded Filmora Wondershare and I watched tutorials on how to remove its watermark but it didn't work. I wanted to watch more videos but I didn't have the time anymore since it was already 11pm and my deadline is at 11:59PM so I had no choice but to submit a video with watermark. Geez. I'm not very comfortable about it but yeah, I'll just think it's the content that matters. LOL
From documenting myself the whole day, I have come into a realization about what students are experiencing these days.
**Studying at home is really a lot more challenging that we could imagine and here are the common problems that students have to face in this setting:**
limited and slow internet connection
household chores
younger siblings/nephew/nieces
environment
Limited and slow internet connection
Not everyone has a Wi-Fi connection at their home. Actually, most people only rely on mobile data which is most of the time, not reliable at all because it is so slow. To some areas, there's only a specific time where they get a pretty good signal so that they can search for their assignments, download the modules, and watch the pre-recorded lecture videos that is uploaded on our google classroom.
Oftentimes, the only time that they have a good signal is during night time, past midnight and very early in the morning so they have to adjust their body clock just to go online.
Household chores
Since we only stay at home, we are also expected by our parents to help with the household chores. Don't get me wrong, I know it is an easy task to do but it can really be time consuming. Not to mention, there are other parents who gets mad for their children when once they see them facing their gadgets all day. There are also other parents who gets mad once their children didn't follow immediately. How can they when they have deadlines to catch?
Again, don't get me wrong. I do get the parents but I can also understand the sentiments of other students. I don't experience being scolded for any of those things but I know other people who got to experience that almost on a daily basis.
On my case, though I am not being scolded, and even though I am already used at cleaning, and not that I am complaining, but doing household chores really eats most of my time and that is also the reason why I am more active here at night, past midnight rather.
Younger siblings/nephews/nieces
Another thing that is also challenging is that there are students who needs to attend to their younger siblings, nephews or nieces. On top of their studies, they also have to help the kids with their own studies and they also have to take care of them.
Though modules of those in elementary isn't hard, the volume of the modules can eat most of their time. As for the high schoolers, aside from the volume of their modules, there are also subjects which is hard because not all college students were able to remember their lessons from high school. LOL
Environment
Last is the environment we have at home. Most of the households are not conducive for learning that is why it is hard for the student to concentrate. Some doesn't have a big enough home so they can hear the noises of their younger siblings. Some have noisy neighbors who plays music in speakers with full volume. LOL
There are just so many distractions at home and because of that, it is becoming really hard to study. And again, student will only have an time to study peacefully at night time when everybody in the house is already sleeping.
I just noticed, most of the things I mentioned leads to the student only studying at night. So, for those people who are wondering why students are so active at night. Here are the reasons why. Because at night time, there are no more household chores to do, there are no more kids to teach and to take care of, it's only the time when the surroundings is quiet and peaceful, and lastly, this is the only time when the internet connection is fast.
So, for those students out there who happens to be struggling with these things or with other things, I know it's hard but I am proud of you for still doing your best in studying, for still doing your best to reach your dreams.
I know it's hard but hang in there for a little longer. Time will come again that we'll be able to go back and study on our university, school, and our classrooms that we sometimes hate. Hehe
Fighting y'all!
I got a date this Valentine's!
Everyone has been talking about Valentine's since the beginning of this month and I am one of those people who is unbothered about it. LOL
Usually, for the past years, our Valentine's day was spent selling flowers. My brother-in-law was a former florist so whenever it's the peak season for flowers like during Valentine's Day and All Saints' Day, we use that opportunity to sell flowers as our side hustle.
I have been seeing flowers from my Facebook memories, but sadly, we don't sell flowers anymore since the Covid19 outbreak. First because it's too risky and second because the sales isn't as high as before so we thought we'll just let other flower shops take all the customers.
For this year's Valentine's, I don't really have a plan but last night, me and my friends were able to make a plan because of a Facebook post from our organization.
I commented to this post and the 3rd on my mentions is @carisdaneym2 so I mentioned her. Our other friends also see this post and their 3rd happen to be Car too. LOL. In short, we made the comment section our chatbox to plan for our Valentine's day.
Earlier at 2pm, we meet up at my place and then we look for a place where we can eat. We are craving for some chicken wings but it seems like it isn't our lucky day because there's none around our city so we end up eating pork
.So we went to this place, ate a lot and took a lot of pic. We don't really have a decent picture though since one of us will always laugh and all of us will end up laughing. That's the most decent photo I found from my gallery. LOL
While eating, we said we'll request for another serving so that our payment will be worth it but in the end, we almost didn't finish eating what we ordered but we did our best to finish everything since it isn't allowed to have any leftovers in there.
One of the main highlight of us being there is that shoes, sandals, or any footwears isn't allowed inside the place since the setting of the restaurant is that we have to sit on the floor. But geez! The floor isn't even clean. My white socks turned into dark gray and I don't even want my mom to see it or I'll be dead. LOL
It was such a time well spent being with friends. We rarely see each other even though we're not really away from each other so I was glad to spend such a good time with them. It was a few hours of unending laughter and talking about random things that doesn't make sense.
Next up, I have another date but this time, it is a **family dinner**.
Right after me and my friends go into our separate ways, I went back to our store to meet my family because we're having a dinner. But first, they first did a public evangelism in the City. I would've joined them but someone got to stay with my nephew and that is me. Still, praise God for they were able to win souls today!
It's already kind of late when we went out for dinner. I think it was about 20-30 minutes drive away from our store. It is a restaurant at the side of the mountain and the atmosphere there is really nice.
Unfortunately, it rained when we go there so we weren't able to enjoy dining outside the restaurant with trees and lights around.
Since I was still so full from the samgyupsal, I only ordered one serving of pork sisig and then we had leche flan for dessert.
And of course, taking pictures will always be a part of us whenever we go out. LOL
We got home kinda late and I am already pretty spent right now but I thought it'll be nice to share these memories I got for this year's Valentine's Day.
Truly, Valentine's day isn't limited for couples. It is a time to celebrate the month of love with your loved ones, may it be your family or friends. I had such a good day thanks to my folks.
*At para sa mga walang ka-Valentine's d'yan, paging Ate* @Ruffa *,* @mommykim *and mareng* @ExpertWritter*, magkakajowa din kayo! HAHAHAHHA*
Anyways, thanks for reading this far. I hope you had a good day! :)
First Glance
**His POV**
*The first time I saw her, I was mesmerized by her smile.*
*The second time I saw her, I was amazed by her kindness.*
*The third time I saw her, I am in awe for her dedication.*
*Then I saw her the fourth time, fifth time, sixth time, seventh time, eight time, until she's the only one I can see. For some reason, she always catches my attention and it seems like my vision have set an autofocus on her.*
*I got to know her, that became one of my goals.*
I actually don't know her name but I first seen her at an orphanage. My dad happened to asked me to deliver our donations at an orphanage and I saw her on one of the rooms there while teaching the kids how to paint. I stopped on my tracks because I was mesmerized by her smile. It's just so genuine and it's one of the brightest smile I have ever seen.
There's also this one time when I was about to cross the street, there's this old lady who is struggling to cross the street because of her groceries. I was about to help her but before I even take a step, I saw a girl helped her. I thought she was familiar and she is, she's the same girl from the orphanage. And that's how I saw her on the second time.
One morning, after my morning jog, I went straight to a coffee shop. As I approached the counter, I was welcomed by her voice that is full of enthusiasm as she asked about my order. That's where I saw her for the third time, fourth time, fifth time, and so on. I became a regular customer there and later on, based on my observation, I found out that she's a working student and she's working part-time in there to support her own education.
I didn't really had the chance to talk to her. I was too shy to initiate a conversation and I saw afraid she'll think I'm a weirdo, creep or a stalker. I really want to get to know her but I don't know how. But seems like destiny is on my side when I saw her walk in to the same class that I was.
I was already on my fourth year college that time. I'm already a graduating student taking up Business Administration and she was on her third year taking up the same course but is Economics major.
I was really surprised to see her on the same class as mine but I was even more surprised when she sat next to me. And if it is possible to be more surprised, she caught me off guard again when she started talking to me.
"*Hi, I sat beside you 'coz I know you. You're our regular from the café, right?*" "*By the way I'm Angelica Bianca, AB for short.*"
It took me a few seconds before I composed myself to finally able to respond to her. I only know her as AB from her cafe's uniform, I didn't know she have such beautiful name as pretty as she is.
Just like that, it became like destiny's way of letting me get to know her. And as I get to know her, she only proves day by day how great of a person she is. She's so pure and very genuine and it became hard not to like her.
I don't really talk a lot but she made me not to stop talking. She made me get out of my comfort zone and she have that positive energy around her that she was able to transfer to me. But aside from all her good sides, she also didn't hesitate to show me her flaws. For me, she is perfectly imperfect.
**Her POV**
The first time I saw him I felt that he have a lot on his plate, that he have a heavy responsibility on his shoulders. He's too quiet, he's shy and he always hesitates. The total opposite of me, but for some reason, I find him so cute with those characteristics.
The first time I saw him, it was on the café where I work part-time. He looks so serious but he seems surprised as I greet him. He even looks nervous as he hand me his payment. I always see him on the coffee shop and I even memorized his usual order. Many times, I can see him looking at me on my peripheral vision but never did he approached me to talk to me. Honestly, as a girl, I actually have a little crush on him since he really looks good and I was hoping he'll talk to me but he didn't so I just let it be.
I didn't really came from a wealthy family so I had to work hard for my tuition fee and daily allowance. My mom is a single mother and I still have little siblings who are also studying so I decided to support my own to lessen my mom's burden.
I had to stop studying for one semester to save more money so when I decided to study again, I was a irregular student and have a different subjects at different year levels. It's sad that my blockmates are already ahead of me and I feel like I'll have a hard time going to different class and having a different blockmates.
I am always eager when it comes to studying but that's the first time that I'm not excited to go to school but when I enter the classroom, I was so happy to see a familiar face. Much more to that, it's the cute guy from the café!
So, even though we don't really know each other, I grab that chance to introduce myself to him. I thought he's a total snob for not replying to what I've said but after a while, he finally managed to talk and he also introduced himself to me. So his name is Karl Justin, he said he prefers to call him Justin but I call him KJ because he really is! But of course, I only started calling him KJ when the two of us became close.
I didn't expect that the two of us will click. I mean, we're just different in a lot of ways. I am an extrovert and he's an introvert. I talk a lot and he rarely speak. But for some reason, I was able to unleash the talkative side of him. We never ran out of topic whenever we talk and I got to see his real personality.
He's a good guy. He doesn't brag about it but I've seen him many times helping random people on the street. And I also found out that his family regularly donates to the orphanage where I am a volunteer worker.
He's the eldest son on his family and he's meant to inherit their business and I was right, he really have a lot on his shoulders. He is expected to perform well , he is expected to be good in everything, and his parents have such high expectation of him that even though he's doing his best, it's just wasn't good enough.
I was sad from him and at the same time, I feel special for he let me see the vulnerable side of him. Day by day, the little crush I had for him before continuously grows and I didn't even notice how my feelings for him grown. I just want to be someone who is always by his side. Someone who can understand him even if he can't even understand or express himself. Someone that can appreciate him and someone that will always be proud of him for doing his best at everything.
I thought my feelings for his was hopeless. I thought what he feels for me is pure friendship so I was so surprised when he asked me out on a date, the day before the valentine. On our date, he made me feel special like what he always do. And he formally said to me that he'll court me.
Just a month after, he officially became my boyfriend. I decided to cut the chase because that's just a waste of time. If we like each other then I'll gladly go for it. Being a relationship with him is the best. Aside from being my boyfriend, he also became my big brother and my best friend. He never gave me a reason to hate him or to be mad at him. He's just the best. Our relationship seems to be unreal because we never fight.
I thought everything's perfect. But then he graduated college, I thought that won't be a bad thing. I thought of it as a good thing because he'll now step on the real world. I thought it'll be a great opportunity for him to go out, discover things and reach his dream, but I didn't think things will turn out this way.
**His POV**
*I graduated college. And 5 months after I graduated, we broke up.*
I graduated college and I was the happiest. My parents are a bit disappointed because I didn't get the highest award but then, there's my girlfriend, there was AB who showed me how much she's proud of me.
Right after graduation, I didn't even had a rest. My father insisted that I should start training in his company and because I don't want to disappoint him anymore, I agreed.
Being a trainee at our own company is even way harder than I imagine it to be. My father isn't helping either. I feel like whatever I do, I cannot make him proud. Being a trainee eats up most of my time but good thing, I have a girlfriend who understands. **I am just so lucky to have someone who's best character trait is to understand.** She's just like that every time. I don't even need to explain myself. All I have to do is to be honest with her and she always try to understand.
For the first few months, our relationship is going smoothly but unfortunate things happen to her family. Her mom got sick so she have to work extra hours to support her family. On top of that, she also had internship so she became even more busy.
**The most important thing in relationship is communication** but as day passed by, our communication becomes vague. We rarely talk, we don't communicate our feelings with each other. When I am free, she's not. When she's free, I can't go.
We were splitting apart without me noticing. I was so busy chasing my dream and pleasing my parents that I didn't even notice how I al slowly losing her. She's having a hard time yet I wasn't able to be by her side like what she always do to me when I am frustrated with my parents.
I tried saving our relationship but the damage has been done and it's too late for saving. We end up having a mutual decision to breakup so that we could both focus on ourselves and families.
**Her POV**
I really tried my best to understand him but I guess, my understanding has also its limits. I was having a hard time too and I want him to be there for me but he's busy. I know, he's also having a tough time but I can't help it but to think that if he really wants to be there for me, he can.
But it's too late. I know I am also at fault. He's not the only one who failed in this relationship, I am too. And I thought that if we insist on holding on to our relationship, the more that we'll be damaged, the more that it'll get hurt.
And so even though it hurts, even though I need him at my side, I took the courage to end things up for both our sake and I'm just glad that he agreed. This is for the better.
***7 years later***
**His POV**
7 years have passed and I can still remember her. I can still remember her smiles and the thought of it can also make me smile.
Our breakup is not something that I didn't expected but I also do agree that it was for the best. And indeed, for me, it worked for my own good.
Few months after our breakup, I was promoted to a higher position in the company yet I wasn't enough for my dad. I just couldn't be enough for him. So I took the courage to live on my own and do what my passion is telling me to do.
I have always wanted a simple and comfortable life and so, with all the savings that I got, I used that to start a business. It's just a small coffee shop. I even took a short course to train as a barista so that I can also manage it well. At first, it was really hard. But later on, I was able to make the business established and now, I can proudly say that I am successful with the path that I chose to take.
I had made a lot of mistakes in the past but if there's one **mistake where I had learned the most from, it is to never live based on the standards of others.** I spend lot of time trying to prove myself to my family that I forgot how to live for myself. I didn't even notice that I am just doing what they want me to do and not what I want to do. And because of that, because I was too busy missing their standards, I lost the one who truly supported me on whatever I want to do.
So, never again. Never again that I will live being anxious of what others might think. I will live the way I want to because I don't have to prove anything to anyone.
And if ever that we'll meet again, I will make sure to be with her when she needs me to. I will make sure to understand her the way she understands me. And I will always try to have an open communication with her.
Someday... if we'll meet again.
**End.**
Should I make a part 2? LOL
I finally did my Valentine's entry. Hehe. But anyways, this is actually my entry for @carisdaneym2 's birthday giveaway. LOL. I don't even want to re-read this thing that I wrote. Just tell me your feebback about this, y'all!
Thanks for reading this far! **Happy Valentine's Day!**
:)
Overtime
Ain't really a working person but I feel like I did an overtime today. LOL
I don't know if I'll end up making sense with this. Just bare with me. I just want to share my day for the sake of not breaking the streak of me publishing for continuous days now. Hehe
So, here's how it goes.
My morning is kind of lazy, as always. I just can't function properly in the morning because y'all know what time I sleep daily. LOL.
I was woken up by my brother at 7:30 in the morning so I get up and had my breakfast. After breakfast, I go back to sleeping. What a way to start my day eh? Haha. I get up again at 10:30 AM, prepared food for the dogs and there you go, time to finally do the things that needs to be done.
After dealing with the dogs, I deal with the dirty dishes on the sink. I then took a batch, ate lunch, did my daily devotion and tried to crossed out few items on my long long line of to-do list.
At 2:20PM, I said to myself I need a break so I decided to take a nap first and planned to wake up at 3PM but things happened, such as oversleeping. And I end up getting up at 4:30PM. Oh geez. My folks go home at 5:30 and since I only stay in the house, I was expected to maintain its cleanliness and to do all household chores that needs to be done daily.
I had to rush doing everything. First thing I did is to put back the dogs on their cage since I always put them on our terrace so that they can run free. After that, I mopped the floor on the terrace since the puppies peed and pooped in there, I can imagine my brother's reaction if he sees all those dirt on the floor so I really made it clean and tidy and I make sure it doesn't smell bad.
Next up, more dirty dishes on the sink, I also sweep the floor on the whole house and for the last part, I have to water the plants. My daily exercise since I have to get water from the water pump. But for today, since I am running out of time, I had to use the host and use the water from the faucet for some parts of the plants. Hehe
In a short period of time, I successfully did all the cleaning and I think, I was able to rest for at least 15 minutes before they finally arrive home.
*Akala mo'ko mayordoma sa bahay. LOL*
As you can see, my day seems so lazy and I sleep a lot during day time. But all the sleep I get earlier is the one I'm consuming now. LOL
At 7:45PM, we started our live selling which we usually do at 7:30 every Friday. As usual, I was the one behind the scene listing down all the orders that we will get. It was extra hard tonight though since my other sister and even my niece isn't home so I was the only one writing everything. From listing down the orders to listing down all the names of those commenters who are joining our raffle.
It was really hard writing at 3 different papers while monitoring the comment. We didn't sell much tonight so we finished live selling at 10PM.
But there is no time to rest for me. That someone I mentioned on my article before, the one who tested my patient, will have her activity tomorrow. As part of the technical team, we are included on the dry run since we have to ensure that all will go smoothly tomorrow.
The problem is that tonight's schedule is actually short notice. LOL. I wasn't even informed that we'll have a dry run until 30 minutes before the scheduled she set. Everything's a mess and instead of taking charge of the technical part, me and my other orgmate on the technical team had to step up to do some PPTs.
We didn't actually finished the dry run since it's so late already so we ended it at 12:30AM and decided to have it early tomorrow. *sigh
Going back to what we sold tonight, since we'll be having an activity tomorrow, I won't be able to help out at the store so to help even without my presence, I already summarize all the orders and made a spreadsheet out of it so that they'll just pack the orders tomorrow.
And oh, the sales were kinda comforted my tiredness, net sales is Php27K+. Hehe. We only have 2% there though, plus rebates. Hmm
Time check: It's already past 2AM. I just remember that I have to get up early tomorrow to prepare for breakfast. And then we'll be having our call time for the dry run at 7:30AM. Event proper is from 9-5PM. Oh geez. I can already see the tiredness that is ahead of me. Why did I volunteer on the technical team again? LOL
Anyways, I'll try resting now. Not immediately though, maybe I'll watch an episode or 2 or AOT, read for a while at Wattpad, until my eyes can't take it anymore. LOL. Hopefully, I'll be able to function tomorrow morning. I have to. Hehe
Thanks for reading this ramblings. I'm afraid I didn't make sense but I do hope you won't treat reading this as a waste of time.
**Have a good day!**
Random questions, some facts
February seems to doing great for me. I had a good start at school and I am also slowly getting active in here. This is actually the 5th in a row that I'll be publishing an article for this month.
And for the past days, I have been publishing kind of serious topics and so I thought it's time to lighten up the mood for a bit, especially with my kind of negative publication from my previous article. Thanks to @Usagi for tagging me in her article. I now have this one just to lighten up our moods. Without further ado, let me begin answering some random questions and share some facts about me.
1. Tell me about yourself.
Hey, this is Mary. You can see that on my username. LOL. I'm a lazy person but can be really responsible, being the block president made me like that. I must say, I am someone who is easy to be with. I'm kind of a shy person but at the same time, I can go all out and be really talkative once I get to be comfortable on the person that I am talking to.
2. What made you smile today?
I also have a positive personality and it's just so easy to make me smile. A lot of things have made me smile today. First are my puppies and our dogs whom I feed first thing in the morning, second is the photo opportunity we had after our meeting. Of course, I gotta smile on the photo. LOL
Chatting with my friend also made me smile. My nephew made me smile. @MidnightSky's article also made me smile. And oh, main highlight for tonight that totally made me smile is a post from our University's confession page.
Funny how it made me laugh when it should make me mad in the first place for it is a post criticizing all the students from our college like having an early pregnancy and being stup*d. LOL. But what made me smile are the responses of the students from our college. All of us seems cool about it because why not? That kind of pettiness is just so funny. What made it funnier are the comments of the students from our college. We ended up taking an attendance there commenting our name and section. LOL
3. What was the last good book you read?
Actually, I'm still not done reading it but the one I'm reading right now is a Christian book entitled "***Good or God?***" written by **John Bevere**. This book made me realize why good without God isn't enough.
This reminds me that the she standard we should live is of the Lord and not of this world.
4. What do you think is the best show on Netflix right now?
I don't know. Maybe you could try watching the daily top 10. Hehe
But lately, I found myself binge watching **anime**. I'm not really a fan of it but maybe now, I already am. I didn't know I'll enjoy it that much. The first anime I watched is **Jujutsu Kaisen**, next is **Demon Slayer**, and while waiting for the update, I also watched all movies and all the episodes from all seasons of **Haikyuu**. And now that I'm done with it, I am currently watching **Attack on Titans**. I'm already on season 2 but I still have a lot of catching up to do.
5. Have you been on any interesting tips lately?
There are a lot of restrictions because of Covid19 and because of that, we really can't travel much. But lately, we were able to have a trip at Goshen Resort and Hotel. It's just 2 hours drive away from us and the place isn't really crowded. The place have that "Rome" vibe because of the buildings in there.
**Check out these links for more photos:**
https://noise.cash/post/n95w698h9w2x
https://noise.cash/post/gkzjrvrs53g8
6. Are you a cat person or a dog person?
A dog person! Got so many furbabies here at home aged 7, 3, 2, and 4 puppies who are a month old. We don't really have cats at home but I also like cats.
7. Do you think you're an introvert or an extrovert?
I'm actually an ambivert or a person who's in between introvert and extrovert. As I've said, I can be really shy and I don't communicate well with others unless they are the one who will approach me first.
8. What do you want to be when you were a kid?
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a nurse. When I graduated elementary, I wanted to be a teacher. When I graduated high school, I said I want to be an accountant. But now that I'm in college, I just want to graduate! LOL
Seriously though, I'm planning to enter law school few years from now. After I took a master's degree maybe. But that's too much for planning ahead. As I've said, I have to graduate first. Haha
9. What always calms you down when you're really stressed out and upset?
Shower! Taking a shower always calms me, it gives me a clear mind and it allows me to think clearly. It also relaxes me and once done showering, another thing that can calm me down is a cup of coffee.
10. Are you a spender or a saver?
Both. I save a lot and then I'll spend it all in one go. LOL. But seriously, I am more on the saver type because I don't really spend much money unless necessary. And if ever I have to spend, mostly it's for family.
11. Do you like calling or texting better?
Texting! Chatting! Or any sort of messaging. I am so awkward in calls. I don't like speaking that much in a call. I don't want to show my face in a video call. It's just so awkward. And when it comes to chatting, I can really be a keyboard warrior.
12. Are you a morning person or a night owl?
Time check: 1:21AM PH time.
Obviously, I am a nigh owl. Though I can also be a morning person since I also wake up early. LOL. But in terms of function, I might also be awake during day time but most probably, that won't make me productive. My productivity only unleashes at night, when everyone at home are already sleeping.
There you go! As much as I want to answer more question, I don't want to bore you with my blabbering. I didn't even noticed how I long I answered most of the questions. I told you! I can really be talkative. Hehe
Again, thanks for this (*should I say*) Ate Usagi? LOL. Tagging @mommykim and @ExpertWritter, you probably already shared a lot of things about you but let me know more! Haha. You can choose the questions that you want to answer at this **link.** https://parade.com/969981/parade/conversation-starters/
Thanks for reading this far! Feel free to answer questions like this if ever that you're looking for a topic to write. :)
How patient are you?
I'm not the kindest person but I know in myself that I am easy to be with. I'm also a person whom you can go-to whenever you need anything simply because I'll always say yes to whatever favor you'll ask as long as I can do it.
On top of that, not to brag but I also have an unbelievably long patience. I always try to understand and as much as possible, I want to avoid conflict. But today, that patience of mine was tested.
Actually, it has being tested by the same person for years now but it's just now that she's actually succeeding on getting on my nerves. LOL
*Just a little back story so that you could get me.*
She's also a president of the other block person. Ever since we were on our freshmen year we already have a lot of interaction even though we came from different sections. We are from the same course and year level but I am from dash 1 and she is from dash 2. We have the same subjects so we usually have the same professors on those subject and that's where our connection begins.
Most of our profs will sometimes give an instruction to only one of us and it's the responsibility of that one to relay the instructions to the other section. And most of the time, I am that someone whom the professors are giving instructions so I have to explain it to her. What's challenging in there is that it will take a while before she can process all the information. And just when you thought she already get it, she'll bombard you with messages after few minutes or hours asking you the same question over and over again.
Before, I don't really make it as a big deal. My friends are already annoyed yet I still patiently explain everything to her. And when I feel like our conversation won't go anywhere, I always talk to the other officers of their section, they are much easier to deal with.
I'll be honest, there are times that I'll be in the verge of losing my patience but then, I'll back down at the last minute thinking it's not worth my energy.
Another connection that we have is that we were also part of the same council. We were part of the freshmen council back then as well as our major council and again, I was the one who was tasked to deal with her. I am the only one who have the patience to talk to her without losing my patience. LOL
And oh, I just remember a certain time that I truly got annoyed at her. It is when we had a meeting and we were told to do a minutes of the meeting as well as to propose a resolution for both our class but I did the task alone. She was suddenly missing in action ignoring my messages yet I can see her Facebook stories sharing her TikTok videos.
We are already on 3rd year now and seems like I'll be forever connected with her. Guess what? We joined the same student organization too. Our org activities for the 2nd semester are all ready and she is heading one of those activities. Her activity will be conducted this Saturday and few weeks ago, she asked me to be one of the technical team who will be in charge with the zoom meeting. I agreed without hesitation because why not? It is no biggie.
But here's another thing. Just earlier this afternoon, she sent me a message asking if I can do the powerpoint presentation for her activity. Just LOL
I wasn't planning to decline the favor but what she said the next almost made me decline. She told me in the afternoon and then she's telling me that she need the PPT on the night! Wow. Ain't rush, eh?
Still, I agreed since I thought it'll not consume most of my time but man, I was wrong. They don't even prepared a template based on their activity's theme so I was the one who made it.
Anyways, let me just say the first slide I made here. Hehe
I just finished doing the presentation at past 1am. I sent it to her and oh, she didn't even say thanks. LOL
I don't want to talk any longer since I'm afraid to speak ill of her. Or I just did already? Geez. Now I'm contemplating whether to publish it or not. I'm being guilty at the last minute. I feel so bad! Argh.
It's nearly 2 am right now. I will just published this and let's see if I'll regret this when I wake up tomorrow. If ever that'll happen, I'll just blame it to the time saying I'm not on my right mind. LOL
Thanks for reading this far even though this sounds like a rant. Hehe. Hopefully, my patience will be extended tomorrow when she asks me to make revision about the PPT since I'm pretty sure this is not the last favor that she'll ask from me.
***How about you? How long can you hold your patience until you totally get annoyed?***
***:)***
The Reason Behind Failing
I have already seen, watched and read a lot of success stories and if there's one thing in common that they have in reaching success, it is because they keep on going. **They never give up.**
On the other hand, I also have seen fair share of stories about failure. And that happens because they **lose hope** and gave up.
I know, it is easy to say to keep on going but in reality, it is so much harder to do especially if we experience to be in a losing streak. When things we planned didn't go accordingly and when we think that the whole universe is teaming up to prevent us from accomplishing something.
There are times that we might think that life is unfair but you know what, I will still argue that it is fair. Life us unfair to me, life is unfair to you, life is unfair to others, life is unfair to all of us. Therefore, **life is fair.**
What I'm trying to say is that all the things I mentioned above, it can happen, it is happening and it has happened to all of us. We might not experience the same level of challenges but the thing is, all of us are facing our own battles but what separates those successful from unsuccessful is because successful people just keep on going while there are some who gave up and so they end up losing.
I once heard this quote somewhere saying how we can live for days without food and water, and how we can even live for a few minutes without oxygen. But we can't live a single second without hope.
*You see, hope is so vital in our everyday lives because the moment we lose it, how in the world can we actually live?*
Hope
Hope is about out **desire** for a certain thing to happen. **Desire** on the other hand is our strong feeling of wanting something to happen.
Hope can be really a strong factor that can keep us going. Because as long as we desire that something to happen, we will be motivated to work hard for it and to go for it no matter how difficult it is.
Let's take **Abraham as an example** of someone who never lose hope. God promised him that he will be the father of many nations. On that time, that seems impossible because he is already old and his wife is barren. Yet he never lose hope no matter how long does it take. And 25 years after, Isaac was born and the promise of God the he will be the father of many nations was fulfilled.
On the other hand, here's a situation that I can give as an example.
Perhaps, you're in a game of volleyball. Whoever wins 2 sets first will win in the match. Let's assume you're already on the 3rd set. The opponent is already on their match point and you have a 7pts difference. That seems pretty hopeless right? The score gap is kind of huge, one mistake and the opponent will win. On this kind of situation, players must've lose hope already thinking that whatever they do, they can't catch up with the score of their opponent. Then, if they lose the burning passion to win, the tiredness can also add up to what they are feeling and that can lead them into thinking to accept defeat even though the match hasn't ended yet.
*When that thing happen, when we lose hope and accept defeat even though the game hasn't end yet,* ***then we really are losers***. On that kind of situation, it is really hard to hold on to the tiny bit of hope that we can see and it is much easier to accept defeat but that doesn't mean that winning is impossible.
The chances might be tiny but not losing hope and our fighting spirit will make a huge difference. I hope that the picture that I am trying to portray is clear to you. What I am saying is that as long as we still hold a chance, do not let go of it. Do not lose hope.
The opponent might still end up winning in the game but as long as you know that you fight with all your might till the end, then you can still consider yourself a winner for not giving up. After all, *if we don't give up and we learn something, we didn't really lost.*
What matters after that match is that we keep on going, we train harder, we prepare for the next match, and even if we still end up on the same situation, we don't lose hope and we don't give up no matter what.
**Take note that the moment you lose hope, you already lose**. So if you don't want to be a failure, never lose hope. As simple as that.
It's all about hope because as long as we have hope, as long as we have that desire to do something, that will trigger our burning passion to keep going.
With that, no matter how cliché these lines are, I'm gonna leave you with these words:
**Don't lose hope.**
**Never give up!**
As long as you are learning something, you are not a loser. Make those learning as your strength and make that as an stepping stone for you to reach your success.
Stay hopeful! I'm rooting for you! :)
The Two Sides of Competition
I grew up being exposed to competition. I might not fully understand the concept of competition back then but what I know is that whenever I achieve something, whenever I got good grades and win in a competition, my parents are happy and I am making them proud.
So I become competitive, being something that my family can be proud of. My elementary days was full of entering competition. May it be on journalism, Mathematics, English and many other subjects. I don't really know what I am doing, all I know is that I have to keep winning.
Little did I know that I am putting my cousins and my friends behind. I once heard people from our neighborhood talking how I am different with my cousins. I know, they meant well but I don't want my cousins to be at a disadvantage, also, I don't want to be different from them. I just want us to be in the same level. I just feel like I don't belong with them if we're not on the same level.
So I stopped competing. Not just with literal competitions but I also lost drive in studying. I start not caring about getting top grades, my goal is just to have a passing grade and I don't regret that. That makes me feel like a normal student. There is no pressure and I get to relate with my friends.
But recently, I feel like me being laid-back is too much. I know I can do more, I just don't want to. For two consecutive days now, I feel like I am being competitive. It's not really a formal competition. Actually, yesterday was only a game from our webinar and earlier, it was an activity for our class orientation.
And guess what, I won in both activities and it feels really great. I missed that feeling of winning, I missed that feeling of victory and that leads me into thinking that maybe, it's okay to be competitive again, as long as what I'm entering is a positive competition.
The Two Sides of Competition
You see, competition is everywhere. We compete in academics, we compete in sports, we compete in business. And both competition and being competitive is vital for growth, but let's take note that competition can be also negative if we enter into an unhealthy one.
Negative Competition
Negative competition is what I am engaged with before. It is when all we think is winning at the expense of the other team losing. It is a negative competition if our success is dependent on the failure of others.
Negative competition is when we have the mentality of being superior with others. It is when we see the other person on the other team as an enemy. It is when we think that we should defeat the other team or sometimes, it is when we think that we're the best among our peers.
Positive Competition
On the other hand, positive competition is the type of competition that can bring out the best on everyone who is involve in the competition. It is when we think about not only our success but also the success of others. It is when we want to improve at the same time with others. It is a competition wherein it is not about winning or losing but about the end result of the game. It is about how much we improved and how much we grow.
Positive competition is about encouraging, supporting and motivating each other to exceed their limits. Positive competition is really way different than negative competition and this is where we all should focus.
Be competitive but make sure it is positive.
An Example of Positive and Negative Competition
Common competition that we always see is in terms of sports. And for this specific example, it is about volleyball.
When it is a negative competition, it might lead to the team being so eager and aggressive to beat their opponent. Even though it is a team sport, it can also be a head to head battle between each team's setter, spiker, blocker or libero. And worst scenario, it can also be a battle of who's the best among the team. It might end up as an internal batter within the team instead of focusing on their performance as a team.
All of those scenario can cause for the entire team to lose. Aggressiveness won't really help in the game and since it is a team sport, if someone focuses on himself, that will affect the entire performance of them team making it hard for them to connect the ball to have a proper offense and defense.
It is true, there will be a team who will win and lose in the game of volleyball but it can still be a positive competition if both team work together as one. And whoever wins or lose in the game, what should matter is the nice match they had and all the new learning they got from playing.
A team working together as one will make it easy for them to connect the ball and it can allow them to play in their best condition.
And since it is sports, after the game is finish, they can still congratulate their opponent for the good match instead of being bitter or being arrogant about winning or losing.
I think this doesn't need much illustration. And now that we already got the concept of the two sides of competition, it's the time to assess ourselves on the type of competition that we are in right now.
I hope that we'll all engage in a positive competition where we aim not only for our personal growth but also for the growth of others.
:)
A Bittersweet Day
*I woke up this morning feeling something cold in my face. As I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw is my older brother holding an ice to my face. I didn't get annoyed or anything, I'm already used to it and I don't hate him for that. Somehow, pulling pranks at each other is our kind of bonding.*
*I thought, it's just another morning that I woke up with one of his silly pranks but today is different. I was supposed to get up and get back at my brother but I was so surprised when a party popper suddenly popped at the same time I heard my family synchronously say a* ***happy birthday****.*
*I looked at their direction at the end of my bed. I saw my mom holding a cake, my dad holding the party popper, my older sister beside them, and they are all wearing a party hat, same as my brother who is on my side.*
*I almost forgot. Today is my* ***11th birthday*** *and just like on my previous birthdays, they always wake me up with a surprise. It is such a great day! I get up and we ate breakfast together. Mom cooked pancake which I love the most and they allowed me to have chocolate syrup as much as I want. After we're done eating, they showed me my present which is the bike that I have been asking for and a new game console.*
*I already gave up asking them that and I had no idea they will give it to me as a surprise for my birthday. Few hours later, we all get ready because dad told us that we'll go to an amusement park. I really wasn't expecting it since it is weekdays and my parents have work. But dad said they took the day off just to be with me on my special day.*
*We ate lunch at my favorite fast food chain before we finally go into the amusement park. We first bought similar headbands before we fall in line for the rides that we want. We go to rides after rides and I was so happy, nervous, thrilled and excited all at the same time as we try different extreme rides.*
*We also played games in the arcade and won different prizes. I also compete with my brother and sister and as expected, our older brother got the most wins. But it's okay since he still gave me all the prizes he got. He said that it's his gift for my birthday.*
*We just played and enjoyed our time while our parents watched us from afar. When we got tired, we go back to our parents and we go to the side where there are tables and chairs and different food stalls where we can buy snacks. Dad bought pizza, burger and we had cola for drinks. I saw the corndog at the side so mom also bought it for us.*
*After we're done with our snacks, we watched a show and a parade of different mascots at the amusement park. I really enjoyed the performances of my favorite characters. I'm having so much fun!*
*For dinner, dad made a reservation from his favorite restaurant. He ordered a lot of foods and most of them are my favorite. In the middle of our meal, I was so surprised when a happy birthday song suddenly played. Then the staffs go out handing me another birthday cake. One of the staffs also took a photo of me and my family together.*
*It is such a great night, a great day rather. It is very memorable. My family truly made me happy the entire day.*
*After quite a while, we already decided to go home and call it a night. We were at the car on our way home. My dad's driving while mom is on the passenger seat. I am with my siblings at the backseat. My brother seems like brought a lot of jokes that really makes us all laugh. We were having a good laugh when suddenly, a truck is approaching near us. Everything happened so fast, the last thing I saw is the blinding lights of the truck before I lost consciousness.*
I woke up with a single tear from my eyes. I dreamed about it again, if only I can stay in that dream forever. I can already feel that my tears are soon to burst when I hear the sound of the party popper as the confetti hit my face. Then I saw my aunt, uncle and my cousins as they greet me a happy birthday.
Just like before, just like always. That put a smile on my face and I immediately get up, blow the cake they are holding and I hug and thanked them for surprising me like that.
Today is my 21st birthday and I can't believe that it's already 10 years since my mom, dad, brother and sister has died. I was the only one who survived the accident for they all hugged me and protected me as the truck hits our car. Every year, on my birthday, I am always dreaming about that day, reminding me of that bittersweet day I had.
It hurts, I feel sad and lonely. But seeing this family that I have now makes me smile. When my family died, my uncle who's my mom's younger brother who is also my godfather took me into his custody. Since then, I lived with his family and they treat me as if I am also their child. I never felt that I was an outsider in their family, in our family.
We are now in the cemetery where my family was buried. Aunt cooked my favorite foods and we brought it in here. We also brought a picnic blanket as we eat the foods together. We were just laughing and having a good time together.
My parents and siblings must be gone already but I never felt like I was alone. Still, I was blessed with a family who treats me as if I am their own. I was blessed with a family who treats and took care of me really well.
It's still sad sometimes but at moments like this, I couldn't ask for more. I have a happy life, I have a happy family. I am well and healthy. I looked at my family and they are all smiling as they also look at me. That made me smile as I looked up at the sky. "*Mom, Dad, Ate, and Kuya, don't worry about me. I am doing good and I am well taken care of, I will see you guys someday*." Again, a lone tear fell from my eyes as I felt a strong hug surrounds me and I felt the warmth from my family.
Things won't always be good. Hurtful things happen, painful things happen. We will all experience sadness. We will all be challenged. We will all be put in a hard situation and what's more hurtful about it is that we weren't given a chance to prepare. All sort of things can happen in a blink of an eye. We may not have the same experience but the thing is, we all experience pain. It's completely normal. But we shouldn't let that pain consume us.
Feel the pain, cry for it, but do not stay like that forever. Get up slowly and face to world bravely. We may lose something or someone but we will always gain a new one. Appreciate things around you and make your pain as your strength. I hope that you'll be able to defeat all that challenges that is ahead of you and the challenges that you are facing right now. I wish you all the best!
:)
fictional
just a product of my mind
not my story
hehe
feel free to share your thoughts about this.
How to make a progress? Secret revealed!
**Procrastination? Guilty as charged.**
I know, I procrastinate a lot but not to the point of being irresponsible like missing a deadline and not submitting requirements. I can't exactly put it to words but let's just say that I know my limits.
However, last semester was tough for me not because we weren't given an enough time to comply but because of my own doing which is procrastination. Yes, I comply to all the requirements but there are some requirements that I was not able to pass on time.
I was just so lazy and even though I know in my mind that I have to move, my body is not listening to it. **I just can't.... or I didn't want to?** Hmm
I think I already forgot the feeling of getting ahead of time. The feeling of not procrastinating and the feeling of actually making a progress and learning something. For the past semester, I really didn't learn anything and I don't blame it on our modality of learning. I blame it on myself for not making an effort to learn.
We were given the materials, we had the time, our mode of learning is based on our own conditions, our own time, yet I didn't make an effort to do so unlike back them where I can confidently say that I read every word from the book and I even have a hand-written summary of it that serves as my reviewer.
I wasn't usually like that and that made me come into a realization that I wasn't being me and I can't keep being not 'me'. So I think about it and I have finally come to realize the roots of my action. Maybe that was when I read the whole book, made a summary of the whole book, sacrificed my sleep to make sure not to missed any lesson but still end up getting a '*no grade*' **(NG)** in return which means the points I accumulated wasn't enough for me to get a passing grade. I didn't really fail, it was a conditional grade but what's frustrating about it is that I only lack 0.15pts to meet the passing grade.
That happened a year ago, during the first semester of my 2nd year in college. I am now on my 3rd year and we are already on the second semester. That was already long ago and I just realized now how I wasted 2 semesters just because of my frustration. Yes, I admit it. **I was frustrated**. And thankfully, now that I admit it, I can truly move on from it.
As we begin new semester, I keep on telling myself that I can't keep doing what I was doing on the past 2 semesters. I can't keep lazing around then rushing on the day of the submission. Actually, that's already a broken promises since I also told that to myself last semester yet I still failed to do so.
But it's different this time. I can feel that it'll be different this time. I have proof that it'll be different this time.
**Tonight,** *I was reminded of the same feels I got when I discover something on my own. I was reminded of the feeling of making a progress and getting ahead of time. I was reminded about the feeling of accomplishment of learning things by heart and answering essay questions without rush. The feeling of submitting an output confidently because I know that I made an effort in doing it.*
Honestly, my emotions are high right now because of feeling so many things that I haven't felt for a long time.
I don't know what exactly happened since I really thought that this semester won't be any different. I started this day on my usual lazy self. I woke up late, and even though I was already awake, I still didn't get up immediately. I took my time doing things that doesn't make me productive, in short, I wasted my time.
Then on the afternoon, at nearly 5pm, I had this urge to open my laptop, check my to-do list on our google classroom, and before I realized it, I was already able to turn in 5 activities. 2 of them have no due date and 3 of them are due next week.
That was so different compared the last semester when I had this activity that doesn't have a due date. It was posted on September and I just did it on December, the last week before the semester ends. Did you see the difference?
Not only that, before, I was only doing the activities and I didn't even dare to read any modules or to watch any video lecture unless we have an incoming exam. Just tonight, I was able to study, to read, and to make a summary of a full chapter from our book just like who am I before the NG incident.
I know, this is just the start. The semester has barely started but this time, I will really work hard for it. I am already on 3rd year. Soon enough, I'll be on my senior year, and without me knowing it, we will already graduate. And I don't want to graduate being half-baked. I guess, it is now the time to take education seriously. This will be hard for sure. But let's see, let's hope and let's pray that I will finally be able to do this. By God's grace. :)
And before I forgot, let me reveal **the secret for making a progress.** ****The key to making a progress is to actually get started!**** I have been there, it is hard, but unless we move, unless we start, we won't make any progress.
You can have a little pep talk on your mind, or make a long to-do list, but no matter what you do, if you don't actually start or if you don't have the willingness to begin with, then don't expect any progress.
Plans and to-do list have nothing to do with this. You can carefully plan your day ahead, list down all the tasks you need to do but that's useless if you won't move. I mean, I am also a fan of to-do list and all that list, that is very useful, only if we will make an effort of crossing out everything on the list.
You want progress? It should start with you. Come on. Lazing around and procrastination is over. Let's do this together. I'm rooting for you! You got this. We got this! :)
Wishing y'all a very productive year ahead!
Challenges? Face it head-on!
I have always enjoyed watching people and observing their raw actions and reactions. It just amazes me how we have so many similarities yet different at the same time. Indeed, people are really unique.
Aside from watching people, even though I am kind of a shy person, I still enjoy talking to people whom I am comfortable with. Being in a business wherein you need to deal with customers, where customer relation is important, I might say that I am doing a good job by having a good relationship with our valued dealers.
We have quite a lot of them. Different people with different social status, civil status, gender, and profession. There is a variety of people whom I got to meet and talk to at a regular basis and I have also heard different stories from them.
I know their achievements, I know their struggle, and I have seen how they reacted on those every struggles.
One customer that inspires me the most is *Ate Lourdes*. She's a mother of 3, and a really hard worker. She also have a kind heart that is always willing to help others. One of her main struggle is having a sick husband so basically, she works for her family alone for she have to support her children's education as well as her husband's medication.
Aside from being our dealer wherein she get 25% discount on all of our products, she also owns a sari-sari store and I know and all sorts of side hustles just to earn an extra sum. She didn't have that much either but that is not a reason for her to help.
There was this one time, it was a kid from their neighborhood. The father was the one taking care of the kid but he failed to look up to the kid properly and the kid ended up being sick for days and the father doesn't know what to do. Ate Lourdes was the one to do the initiative to took the kid to the doctor. The kid was admitted to the hospital and she's also the one who made an effort to solicit funds for the kid's hospitalization.
Then there's this another customer who brings so much joy to us with her jolly personality. She has been our dealer for years now. I have known her from her first work, when she attempted to join the military, when she passed the PhilSAT exam as she aim to enter law school, when she graduated from her master's degree, when she ended up being a public senior high school teacher, when she passed the Licensure Examination for Teachers, and now that she's studying for her doctoral degree.
I might not know exactly all the details but I know she has been on her ups and downs yet I never see her lose the positive energy that she have. I remember back then when she got into a motorcycle accident. She was injured, like really injured, but she still managed to narrate to us the full story with her usual jolly voice that makes her story so funny.
Sadly, we also have customers who were pushed down because of their struggles. They had problems and it brought them down. They reacted negatively on a negative situation and that causes them to have more negativity.
So, the reason why I'm sharing their stories is because I want to illustrate the different reactions of people to the challenges they faced or the challenges that they are facing.
You see, we all face challenges and we only have 2 ways in facing it. It is either positively or negatively. Some people see challenges as an opportunity to improve so they'll work harder until that negativity became an opportunity. But there are also others who are easily disheartened, and once disheartened, they'll lose hope, and once they lose hope, that's where it all ends.
What I'm trying to say is that we should treat challenges positively. See it as an opportunity. The more we fail, the more that our eyes will be opened to see the things where we are lacking. And once we know the area where we are lacking, let us use that as an opportunity to improve in that area.
Also, I personally think that life without challenges is not living at all. Challenges are part of living and if we give up to the first challenge we encounter, we cannot move on to the next level. But if we keep on trying to surpass that level, we'll eventually get passed that level. And every time we will pass another level, we will become more stronger.
As long as we are alive, these challenges won't end. So, don't give up on life. Don't give up to any challenges. Keep on trying, keep on succeeding. See it as an opportunity. Do not limit yourself with what you can only do because you can definitely do more than that.
I believe in you. Keep going! :)
7 Habits that will Improve your Spiritual Health
God cares about every areas of our lives and He wants to bless us in all those areas. He wants us to be healthy, not just physically but in all of the key areas of our lives. Thus, this is a series about **God's plan and promises on the 7 Key Areas of our Life** which are ***(1) Spiritual, (2) Physical, (3) Mental, (4) Emotional, (5) Relational, (6) Financial*** and ***(7) Vocational.***
As I have said, God wants to bless us, in fact, He promised to bless us! There are so many promises in the bible wherein He talked about it but one thing about those promises is that **in every promise, there is a premise**. There are always statements where God told us that "*if you do this*", that's the **premise**, "*then I will do this*" and that's the **promise**.
Therefore, on this series, we are going to look on God's promises on all these 7 key areas of life and we're gonna discuss the premises that we could take in order to live on God's blessings. But for now, we're going to discuss about these 7 habits that we could do, to improve our spiritual health.
7 Habits that will Improve your Spiritual Health
****Love Jesus supremely.****
**Luke 14:26 NLT** `“If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.`
Well, it doesn't literally mean that we should hate our family but what the verse is telling us is that we should love Jesus above all else. Because spiritual health is measured by love. It is not measured by how much we know, or how much we give, or how much we attend church. Instead, it is measured by how much we love God and others.
**Mark 12:29-30 NLT** `Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.`
Mark 12:29-30 states the most important commandment that God told us to do. But *how can we show God that we love Him?* Simple. In the bible, loving God is called **worship** and whoever we love is what we worship. Therefore, we must love God more than anything else because that's how we can show Him that it's Him whom we worship.
****Meet with Him daily.****
The second habit that we should do is to meet with Him daily. It could be for only 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or whatever. It doesn't matter how long. What's important is that we should meet with Him daily.
Just sit in the quiet, talk to God in prayer, worship Him and have a quiet time with Him. This is also applicable on doing a daily devotion where you take a quiet time with God to pray and to study His words.
**Proverbs 8:34 ESV** `Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.`
See God's promise on Proverbs? The premise is that we should meet with Him daily and the promise is that He will bless us.
Again, it doesn't have to long, but it does have to be **habitual**.
****Study and do His word.****
**Psalm 1:1-3 NLT** `Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.`
See God's word from Psalm. There's a premise that we should meditate the law day and night, and there's a promise that we will prosper in all that we do.
There are so many promises in the bible which stated that He bless us. There's this word from **John 15:14** saying that *we are God's friends if we do what He commands.* **James 1:25** also says that *if we look at the perfect law that sets us free, which is the bible, and if we do what it says and that we don't forget what we heard, God will bless us from doing it.*
You see, it's one thing to study the word but that's not enough. If we want to be spiritually healthy, we have to study the word and we have to do what it says.
****Title your income.****
Now, this one includes our finances.
**Malachi 3:10 NLT** `Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!`
I know, what we are earning might not be enough for us but keep in mind the promise of God from Malachi 3:10 wherein God promised that He will pour out blessings if we give to Him. What we give, He will give it back with a lot more.
Besides, God doesn't even want our money. What He wants is our heart for where your treasure is, there your heart is.
****Love other believers.****
God doesn't want us to just love Him. He also wants us to love other believers.
**John 13:35 NLT** `Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”`
People will not know that we're a Christian just because of a post we shared, or a shirt we wear. He clearly stated it in His word that the mark of being a disciple is loving everybody else.
We have to love other believers. We have to love the family of Christ.
**1 John 4:20** **NLT** `If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer,[a] that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?`
Spiritual growth happens in community. We cannot be a disciple by ourselves. We cannot only love God, we have to love everyone on His family like what He have commanded us, like how He told us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
****Serve others unselfishly.****
To grow, we have to develop our strength and one way to develop it is through service.
**Mark 10:45 NLT** `For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”`
Take not of the word "**serve**" and "**give**". That verse alone highlights the 2 primary purpose of life after worship and that is to serve and to give for it defines a Christian life.
**Why is it important to serve others?**
Simple because it is our form of spiritual exercise. If all that we do is to listen and to take it all in, but we're actually not doing anything, then we will become spiritually fat. We won't develop a muscle, we won't experience growth, it is unhealthy.
So, let us do our spiritual exercise, be humble and serve others unselfishly.
****Pass on the good news!****
Another important thing for spiritual growth is to give what we received. We should pass on the good news. We should tell others that there's a purpose for their life, that they can be forgiven. Tell others that they can have a purpose in living and they can have a home in heaven.
**2 Timothy 2:2 NIV** `And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.`
This is Paul telling Timothy to pass on the good news to people who will also do the same. This is a chain. Have you told anybody about it? Did you break the chain?
Jesus told us in Matthew 28:18-20 which is the great commission that we should go and make disciples of all nation. Because to be a disciple, we have to be a disciple-maker.
Challenge:
Now, here's a challenge for all of us. Let us set a target of bringing 1 person to Christ. It's not many, it's only 1 person. Think of someone whom you can share the good news with and start praying for that person.
We might think that it's not easy but think about it. Maybe the reason why it's not easy is because we're not praying for it?
That being said, I want to encourage you all to pray for one person whom we can bring to the family of Christ.
There you have it! The 7 habits that we must do in order to grow spiritually. Take note that growing is not automatic. It is a choice that we have to make and I hope that we'll all choose to grow.
***Choose to grow! Because if we are not alive in Christ, then we are spiritually dead.***
I hope that we'll all be able to make all these habits as our lifestyle that we might grow in Christ. Thank you for reading this far. See you on the next installation of this series! :)
Anyways, this is actually from one of the preaching of **Pastor Rick Warren**. If you want to hear the actual preaching, you can watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E5AJfB2tYo
Series: God's Plan and Promises on the 7 Key Areas of our Life
1st Part: 7 Habits that will Improve your Spiritual Health
Date: 01-31-2022
User for 1 year!
*Embracing BCH through read.cash, welcome to my humble abode, 3 plus definitely more months with our beloved bitcoin cash, the fall of the rocketship, self-assessment and realigning BCH goals,* ***a half year journey of finally achieving 1BCH****, featuring the #Noiseristificationism, featuring my time management tips, looking back for the past nine months, ten months, inactive and unproductive but still here, and now,* ***finally a one year user!***
You must be wondering what are those things I’m saying above because that doesn’t just make sense but those are actually all the titles of my articles whenever I’ll celebrate another month of being here. Somehow, it just become my tradition to write something every month to monitor my progress in here and I’m glad I did that. Reading all that again and again always makes me reminisce about how BCH has changed me for the past year.
You see, it all started from knowing BCH through read.cash, and then it just became my home, a place where I always look forward on spending my time with, a place that I am sure of spending my time with, the first fall where BCH dropped me, getting lost and going back on track again, finally holding 1 BCH, meeting a lot of amazing people who became one of my closest friends, managing my time between real life and here, reflecting about how I’ve been for the past months, expressing how read.cash changed my life, being away and unproductive but that’s still not enough to push me away because I am definitely still here, celebrating my one year anniversary on the platform.
There are a lot of things that I want to tell you but this won’t probably end if I tell you everything, so let me just tell you a few highlights about my experiences and what I’ve gained so far on this platform.
It broadens my perspective
A year of writing, and reading, seeing the point of view of others and being a keen observer. I might still not understand a lot of things in this world but I really feel like as time passed by, my eyes are becoming open about the things that I always overlook before.
I’m also surprised about how much articles I made that just make sense. Not to lift up my own chair, I’m honestly still not confident about what I write, the nervousness after finishing an article if I was able to explain my point well is still there but I have this little confidence that I still managed to write a few things that just made sense. I often write something motivational and encouraging, I also write reflections about things, sharing positivity despite bad things, and I think that’s enough to tell that I was able to share something that I can be proud of.
It gives me friends to treasure
One year of surviving here alone would be impossible. I doubt if someone will even survive alone at all. Ever since the beginning, I have always encouraged creating camaraderie just like what the kind-hearted people who guided me before when I was still a newbie.
And I’m just so glad to know a lot of amazing people whom I really treat as real friends even if we don’t even meet each other face to face. LOL. Even if we didn’t know each other’s face. I can’t mention all of them but here are some whom I constantly have conversation with.
To @carisdaneym2, my real life friend, my friend before read.cash who’s also the one who introduced me to the platform. I couldn’t thank you enough for introducing me to this world. And of course, Ate @Ruffa who just exerts this positive energy that’ll definitely make you laugh, all the time. I think she’s the best Ate that we all have here, even though she’s a bad influence most of the time. LOL
Hey senpai @meitanteikudo, LOL. He calls me MaryTheWise but I really think he’s the one that is wise. He just knows a lot of things and his writings are superb! Have you ever experienced writer’s block? Haha. Also, he’s the one to talk to about literally all things. Our conversation will always jump from here to there, I can’t even keep up. Geez.
Marecakes @ExpertWritter! Thanks for being open as always. It’s not easy to share a lot of personal things, thanks for trusting me with that even though I don’t exactly take your side. Hehe. Sorry for that, I just really think that there are always 2 sides of the story. I don’t even think if my words are even helpful or what. But anyways, keep dreaming, keep working hard, you have a good heart, you’ll achieve all your dreams soon.
@mommykim, she’s just everyone’s mommy, and noona. She’s just so easy to talk to, my co EXO-L too. I just really think that she’s so pure and true. Also tagging @Maestro02, @kingofreview, @imanagrcltrst, @Eunoia, @Ayane-chan, and of course, Ate @Jeaneth who’s my co-OC. LOL. We’re just the same in a lot of things. Hehe
There are still a lot of people whom I failed to mention but you guys know who you are. It’s nice knowing you all.
It became the source of my finances
I’m just a student who doesn’t enjoy any scholarship that offers allowances. Then pandemic happened, we only have online classes and so, my allowance from my sister has also stopped. In short, I don’t have any source of money.
I know, read.cash isn’t all about money but that doesn’t mean that money will be out of the picture. It’s actually one of the main drivers that keeps most of us going in here. I’m not ashamed to admit that because it has truly helped me with my life. It helped me provide for myself, and it has also given us a merry Christmas for I was able to buy presents to every members of my family.
**Edit:** Actually, I already have this on my draft since the 21st because that was the original date of my anniversary. But I didn't publish it right away since I'm planning to host a giveaway but BCH drops and so I decided not to publish it yet and wait first for the BCH to climb up a little bit.
3 days after, BCH keeps on dropping and so sadly, I have to postpone that giveaway thingy for now.
Still, thanks for being part of my journey here. It has been a great year with y'all! :)
A Mother's Love
Love is a thing that has a lot of definitions for we have more ways than one in showing it. Our way of showing love is unique and it will always be different from the others. But despite all those differences, one thing remains and that is the fact that love is immeasurable. There are no guidelines, directions, formula or whatsoever to measure how we love. We just love and we love in our own way. End of the story.
Aside from the **5 types of showing love** which are **(1)** words of affirmation, **(2)** acts of service, **(3)** receiving love, **(4)** quality time and **(5)** physical love, another example that I can give to you is the way how mothers love their children.
The give it all type
This type of mother shows her love to her children through giving everything they want. As long as she can, or even if she can’t, she will always find a way just to give what her child wants. This type of mother is someone that you can only ask once and surely, she’ll give in to you. However, she has a tendency to spoil her child too much causing the child lack of discipline.
I can compare this type of mother to my eldest sister who doesn’t even get angry to her child and will always give what her child wants. My niece doesn’t lack discipline though but I admit, she really is spoiled and acts like a baby and throw tantrums when she doesn’t get what she wants so my sister will give in immediately.
The sacrificer
This is the type of mothers who are light hearted. They just can’t see their child suffer so they rather sacrifice themselves than to see their children having a hard time. I mean, all mothers don’t want to see their child suffer but this type of mom take that to a higher level. For instance, the youngest child was tasked by his older siblings to wash the dishes, and he doesn’t want to, so the mother will wash the dishes instead. This is the type of mother who will blender the food for her child so that her child will just have to sip it. Honestly, I was supposed to say ‘munch’ the food for her child so that the child will only need to swallow it but that’s kind of gross so let’s just settle to blender.
This type of mother is where I can relate the most. Not because I’m a mother which I am definitely not, but because this type of a mother is exactly my mom. She’s actually my inspiration for this type of mother and to be honest, I hate to admit it but I’m also the spoiled one. Perks of being the youngest. LOL. But hey, I’m proud that I’m not a brat. Just spoiled, but not a brat.
The disciplinarian
This type of mother is the tough one and her role as a mother must really be tough for her. You see, I really think that mothers will always want to give everything to their children but this type of mother knows the boundaries whether if what’s her child is asking is good for her child’s health or not. For example, the child already had chocolate and the child wants more but enough is enough so the mother will not give the child any more chocolate.
This type of mother is somehow my other sister. She’s not that strict but in terms of things that are not good for her child, she will always say no, and even though my nephew cries, when it’s a no, it’s a no.
The endurer
This type of mother is someone I can compare to mothers who are working abroad or in a far place from their home. They have to endure being away from their children just so they could work and provide for them. This must be really tough for both the mother and the children. For the parents, it’s hard being away for their children and for the children, it must also be really hard to grow up without having your mother on your side.
I cannot imagine the feeling but I do hope time will come that all those parents won’t have to work on a far place anymore and for the child to be more understanding to their parents for not being there at their side.
The one ask away
This type of mother is kind of similar to the give it all type but this one is for a mother whose children are already grown ups. This is the type of mother who still supports, guide and even provide for her children even if they already have their own family.
Few days ago, I encountered this customer who’s already a senior citizen. She asked me to accompany her to withdraw her money from the ATM and while we’re walking to the bank, we had a little chitchat and I found out that she’ll give the money that she’ll withdraw to her son who recently got married. She’s already old and a widow but she still works. On my opinion, it should be the children providing for their parents if they are already old and it should not be the other way around but I guess, I would never understand the point of view of this mother. She just loves her son so much that she will still give him what he needs even though she can barely provide for herself.
I’m sure that there are still a lot of ways how mothers/parents show their love to their children and these types which I have mentioned above are just something that I have observed from the different mothers around me.
As I have said, we have different mothers and they have different ways of showing love. Aside from that, their own way of loving is unique. But one thing is for sure, they love us. Maybe, there are times when we think they don’t because their way of showing love is not the thing that we want. Also, let’s accept the fact that there is no perfect parent, it’s an ongoing and a never ending process so let’s give them an allowance to make mistake and to learn.
I don’t know, this could be biased, I might be wrong, but this is just my opinion. If you’re a mother, can you tell me which type of mother are you? And if you’re the child, which type is your mother? Hmm.
Lastly, to all mothers out there, your role is tough and I salute you for that. Thanks for being a good mother to us and for always trying to be the best mother that we could have.
**my thoughts after writing this: *LOL. This looks like a Mother’s Day Special article.*
What's your dream?
*“What’s your dream?”* the man from the motorcycle on the drive thru asked the barista. So she told him her dream that she wants to go to Japan and see where she came from.
*“What’s holding you back from that dream?”*, the man asked again. And the barista replied shyly, *“Covid?... and money”*.
Everything happened so fast and on the next hour, the man, with his friends looked up for the price of ticket to Japan which costs around $700-$1000, and they shopped for a polaroid camera and a scrapbook. They’re in a hurry because their flight will be in an hour and they have to be in the airport already.
As soon as they are done getting the things they need to buy, they went back to the drive thru and asked for the girl. Unfortunately, she already left. That’ts just so sad for they really make an effort to help her reach her dream but she wasn’t there anymore and the guys already need to left.
But thankfully, someone saves the day! The other guy cancelled his flight and decided to stay so that he can come back the next day and surprised Sherry, the barista. So he goes back there, every single day, looking for Sherry. For 4 consecutive days, she still wasn’t there until finally, on his last day in Hawaii, on the 5th day, the barista was finally at work so he was finally able to surprise her with the polaroid camera, a scrapbook, and $1000 for her flight ticket.
That was just so amazing. I mean, they are just buying coffee on a drive thru, then he casually asked the barista about her dream, and they made a way for that dream to happen. Just wow!
That’s actually a video I watched while scrolling on the videos at Facebook. As soon as I finished watching that video, the next video came from the same man and again, he helped someone reach her dream. The next video is still the same and I am just so hooked watching him so I looked up for his **Instagram** account and from there, I found his **TikTok** account.
If you’re curious, the guy is **Charlie Rocket**, and upon seeing his Tiktok, I found out that they went to Kentucky to help those people and families who were severely affected by the tornado that have happened there last 2021.
All his videos are about helping others reach their dream and it’s just so heart-warming to watch others finally reach their dream. His advocacy was really great and I really hope that he’ll be able to reach more people through the donations that he’s also receiving.
Speaking of dreams, I know that we are all dreamers and I know that we all have our own dreams. We might not be able to meet Charlie Rocket to help us reach our dreams but I know that you can do it, we can do it!
***Just continue to dream,***
***Have faith,***
***Work hard for your dream,***
***Don’t stop believing,***
***Never give up,***
***Never lose hope,***
***Keep going,***
***And eventually, you’ll be able to reach your dream.***
May this be a reminder for us to continue to dream, to go for our dream and to have hope that someday, we’ll be able to live the dream, to live in our dreams! Claiming that time will come that all our dreams will turn into reality.
No giving up, we just have to work for it. Be patient! Like flowers, our success will take time, but the time will come that it’ll finally bloom beautifully.
No matter how cliché it is, I’m telling it again. NEVER GIVE UP! You got this. :)
Keep dreaming, dreamers! I’m rooting for y'all!
Thanks for reading this far!
And if you want to watch Charlie Rocket help build the dream of others, here’s the **link for his Tiktok Account:** https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSe46Qjdy/
Also, here’s the link of the actual video I was talking about on the beginning of this article.
**Part 1**: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSe4RxptD/
**Part 2**: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSe4RYVSf/
**Part 3:** https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSe4Rue3j/
What's on my gallery?
It’s been a while since I joined a prompt and this new prompt from senpai @meitanteikudo seems to be fun so I’m joining in! I already scrolled my phone for some photos to share before starting this and I pretty have much photos to share so here you go.
Oldest photo
This was taken last August 22, 2021 and this was also the very first photo I took with my phone. This is really not interesting at all, I just took a photo of the receipt of my phone for warranty purposes just in case that I’ll lose the paper itself. As I’ve said, this is not really interesting so let’s move on to the next photo.
Latest photo
I just took this photo last night. We were walking on our way home as I saw the coconut tree and the moon. I though it looks nice so I decided to take a photo of it but the clouds are so fast, it already covered the moon as I took a picture of it. Also, I just tried using the night mode of my phone’s camera on this photo. It isn't that bad, I must say.
What I want to buy
Few days ago, my most awaited moment has happened. I saw an announcement at Facebook that the book I read on Wattpad will finally be published. I have been long waiting for this. This is the story of one of my favorite characters at Wattpad written by my favorite author but as soon as I saw the price, I feel like my soul left me. I mean, this is pricey!
The first photo is from the reseller, I wanted to buy that one since they have so many freebies that I like. The second photo is from the author itself, it is still pricey but it is lower compared to the reseller's price. Either way, I can't afford both for now. Lol
Place I want to go back
It’s not really a travel destination or whatsoever, this is just a photo from our University. Well, technically, I still haven’t left the University because I am still a student in there, but it has been almost 2 years since I went there and I would really want to roam around the University again because of its very nice environment. Look at the view! Isn’t it so nice to just sit on the grass and spend time with your friends after a stressful class with your terror professor?
Food I want to eat again
This is nothing special. It’s just noodles, a spicy one. What makes me want to eat this again is that it is spicy, and I love spicy foods. Aside from it is spicy, the noodles itself tastes really nice, it’s something that you could still taste aside from its level of spiciness. Actually, I am eating this again while writing this one. And I can already feel my mouth, down to my stomach, burning after just 3 scoops of it. Not really scoop because I’m using fork, but I can’t think of the proper term so let me just use that term. LOL
A photo with my friends
We live not really far from each other but we rarely see each other, as in just once a year. 2 weeks ago, I was able to meet with my friends and so here’s our photo/s. These are 2 photos since **carisdaneym2** wasn’t on the first one, and our other friend wasn’t on the second photo.
Twinning! A photo with lodicakes @carisdaneym2
This was taken when we are still on our first year in college and there are still face to face classes. If I remember correctly, we still don’t have a uniform that time so for the mean time, we are required to wear business attire at our College. And it just happened that we wore the same clothes that day.
Coffee
This is just random. I don’t even know why I took a photo of my coffee. Maybe I just like coffee so much so yeah, let’s have coffee? Hmm
Sunny side up
Another random photo. This is my nephew'a favorite food, as in! He eats this almost everyday, during breakfast and dinner and maybe that's what also practiced me to not break the eggyolk anymore. I must be proud for not being able to break the yolk that time that's why I took a photo of it.
The charging station
This was a photo taken when I was still on Grade 10. We were often asked if we don’t have power supply at home since all of us are charging our phone on the classroom. See how many mobile phone it was with only few slots from the extension. One of my classmates are always bringing an adaptor so that we’ll have extra room for charging, and the other charger can charge 3 phones at the same time.
Verse of the Day
This photo was saved from the bible app where there are ready made photos of the verse for the day that we can download for sharing. I always save some verses that I can relate too and I often share it on my Facebook stories and sometimes, even on noise.cash.
EHEM!
Lastly, here’s a screenshot of a QR code where you can send some BCH, I would gladly accept it. LOL. Kidding aside, I wasn’t really planning to share this but I just thought of it at the last minute. This is the wallet for my funds for my Laptop. I’m still far from the target amount but I’ll get there. I'll probably buy soon using my sister's money and I'll just pay her monthly without interest, of course. The problem now is that I'm still torn about what unit should I buy. Perhaps, you can suggest a unit for me with price ranging from Php30k-Php40k, or a little bit more than that if its specs is worth it.
**There you have it!** Actually, there are still a lot of photos to share but let me just save it for the next time. This is all for now, thanks for reading!
And hey daddy, thanks for the prompt! This was really fun. :)
Anyways, feel free to join in this prompt too! Just click this link below and it'll direct you to the prompt itself.
**Prompt:** Gallery Raid
**By:** meitanteikudo
**Link:** https://read.cash/@meitanteikudo/prompt-gallery-raid-6514130a
POV Differences
Our puppy got a wound and it was really bad. It is a big cut and it must be really painful but here’s a little trivia I learned from our veterinarian.
We got our dog stitched but it came off the next day probably because of her mom licking it. We were supposed to have her stitched again but before that, my brother asked the vet if the puppy will be anesthesized and the answer is no. The thing is, **puppies have high pain tolerance** so, even though the wound is huge and deep, the puppy doesn’t feel it that much. But if he were to stitch the puppy again, the puppy will still feel pain but the puppy can tolerate it.
Probably, you're already sick of reading my posts about our puppy, apologies for that. But the fact that I’ve shared above is related to the message that I want to relay to you today.
As I have said, the puppy have a really huge wound and that must really hurt, but that’s only on our point of view since the puppy isn’t hurting that much. What I’m just trying to say is that what is painful to us is not painful for the puppy. *What is painful to us might not be that painful to another person and what is not painful to us might be really painful for other person.*
We can never know what other people is really feeling. And we cannot expect others to have the same feeling that we have about a certain matter because what we feel is unique, and what we feel always have differences about what others feel.
**For instance**, my sister ate a *Chilimansi flavored pancit canton* and she said that it was really spicy. On the other hand, me, as a spicy food lover will have a different comment about that flavor because I have higher tolerance for spicy foods than her and for me, that flavor isn’t spicy at all.
**Now** that we are aware of each other’s differences, may it serve as a reminder to **be sensitive** of what others are feeling. Let’s be careful on our actions and let us always consider how other might feel. Let’s be careful with our words and let us always think about what others might think.
For us, we might say something as a joke but even though they are laughing, we might have offended someone already.
As for the pain of others, let us **practice empathy** and let us always try to imagine and understand what others might think or feel. Let us **be more understanding**, let’s cut them some slack and give them an allowance for mistakes. We might not totally comprehend with what they are really feeling, we can only imagine, but trying to understand them makes a really huge difference.
*Let us be that person who understands differences and let us be the bridge to connect with one another despite each other’s differences*. **Be sensitive, be understanding, and be emphatic**. Let’s not be selfish and let us always consider the feelings of others because it matters, they matter.
We wouldn’t want to be misunderstood, right? So let us not do that to others. :)
LOL. What am I saying again? Haha. This is just so random, something I thought of while cleaning my puppy's wound. I still think that it’s really painful but I believe the vet. And honestly, what he says gave me comfort and a huge relief. It’s just so painful seeing the wound but what I can do is to empathize and to take care of her.
Additional to my ramblings above, we might never know exactly what others are feeling but we can be with them, share the pain with them, and let them know that we’re there for them. Knowing that there is someone on their side may not remove the pain, but it can alleviate it. Or maybe it can give them courage to keep on going.
O--kay, I think I’m lost again. I can’t even understand myself but I hope you did get the thought. I promise to produce a way better content so consider this as a warm up on finding what I’m good at again.
Anyways, before I end it, let me say a huge thanks to @Kendy42 for the sponsorship! I promise to make this worth it.
And that would be all. Thanks for reading this far. Hope to see you on the next one! :)
***that sounds like a vlog outro. LOL*
The Unexpected Birth
Sunday morning, Kuya woke me up and told me that our dog is lethargic. I went outside to get her but she keeps fitting herself on tight spaces outside. That was so unusual for our dog since she’s really frisky whenever I let her out of her cage.
Later that day, I took the dogs to bath and I noticed that Chichi, our only girl dog, have bigger breasts and tummy. That’s when we consider the idea that she was pregnantbut the one who get her pregnant was still a mystery to us. We have 3 dogs at home and the other 2 are males, so either of the two are suspected to be the one who got her pregnant since all our dogs just roam around our yard.
We were still surprised and still processing the idea that she really is pregnant when this unexpected thing happened. On the same day, around 4 in the afternoon, while we were binge watching Kdrama, we heard a noise from outside of what seems like a cry. My 12-year-old niece went outside to check what it is and few seconds later, she came back inside wondering why there was a puppy outside.
Everything happened so fast. Last thing I hear is my sister telling us to pause the Kdrama that we were watching. I immediately get up on my seat and run outside. As I step outside, I found a puppy just in front of our terrace. I was astonished for a while before I immediately pick it up and look around to see where it came from.
On the front of our house, just under the terrace, I found Chichi with 2 other puppies. I don’t know what to feel at that time. It was mixed emotions. I feel like crying because I feel bad for our dog, that must’ve been tough. And I feel so happy and amazed at the same time seeing those cute little creatures.
Kuya went outside too and his reaction was priceless. We are honestly clueless about what to do because that was the first time that we’re having a dog who is giving birth so he immediately called one of our churchmate who's a veterinary doctor to come over and examine our dog as well as the puppies.
On the other hand, me, my sister and my niece keep looking for our dog to observe her and once again, we were surprised of what happened next. We just witnessed how the 4th puppy came out! I also watched how Chichi remove that thing like plastic that is covering the puppy and how she cleaned up the puppy. At that very moment, I just feel so proud. My baby dog officially becomes a mom and I can see it on her actions. We keep observing her for a few more minutes until we are sure that there is no more puppy coming out before we came back watching Kdrama.
On the evening, the veterinarian finally came and told us that everything was normal. And seems like Chichi is already strong enough so I already transferred her as well as the puppies to their cage after covering the holes where they could possibly fall down.
**And just like that, we have 4 newborn puppies!**
Names
So, the next thing that we have talked about are their names. All of our dogs and other animals before have names that starts with C. We have **Chelsie** before, and her puppies who are **Chesly, Chesny, Cheska** and **Chestnut.** Chelsie gave birth again which also caused her death but we have **Coby** now as her only puppy when she gave birth for the second time.
We also had a goat before who's name is **Chaychay** and her kid **Chuchay** and **Choi-Choi**.
We also had a pig before named **Chickie** who gave birth to 8 baby pigs whom we named **Chappy, Chippy, Choco, Cholo, Chico, Chile, Chirie** and **Chunkie.**
And our dog who gave birth this time, as I have mentioned above, has also have a name that starts with letter C. You see, **we really have a thing with letter C** but this time, we made a difference.
Chichi gave birth while we were watching Kdrama and the Kdrama that we were watching is ‘**Law School**’ so we decided that we are going to name the puppies after the lead characters from Law School. The puppies are 2 male and 2 female and here are their names.
The eldest and biggest puppy is **Jong Hoon**, the prosecutor turned professor who teaches criminal law at Law School. The other male is **Joon Hwi**, a first year law student who always get the top grades among his peers. The first female is **Ye-seul**, she’s just so pretty so we chose her name as our dog’s name. And lastly, the other female who is also the youngest is **Kang Sol A**, our favorite character from the show.
Accident
The puppies are all strong and healthy when an accident happen. On their 6th day, Kang Sol fell from their cage, I don’t exactly know what happened since I’m not at home at that moment and I feel awful not knowing how did that happened.
It was an open wound and it was really huge. I can even see the inside of her skin. We asked a vet what to do but we didn’t send the actual photo so he just told us to use betadine and cover it with bandage to keep the mother from licking the wound.
On the second day of the found, it was already night time, I was cleaning it and noticed that it’s not getting any better, I asked my brother again to contact the vet and asked him if the wound could be stitched. The vet must’ve assumed that it was only a small wound the first time we asked about it because when we sent him the photo of the wound, he told us that it really has to be stitched.
Just Yesterday, Sunday, I was finally able to bring Kang Sol to a vet clinic to have her wound stitched. It was so heartbreaking as I wait for her because I can hear her cries. Geez. It feels like I was a waiting for a family member who were being operated at the operating room.
It feels awful and I feel like crying whenever I can hear her cries. I feel so bad. I feel like it’s my fault for not being able to cover their cage that well.
Few more minutes later, it was finally done. The vet told me that the wound is already swollen so they have to make it blead so that her blood flow can be back to normal. That must’ve been the reason why she was crying so loud.
I was told to clean her stitches twice a day and she was also prescribed with antibiotic that she will be drinking for 7 days. And I do hope that the wound will heal faster so that it wouldn’t heart anymore. My heart is breaking everytime I am cleaning the wound. I really hope the pain will be gone soon.
But anyways, the puppies are so cute and healthy. I can’t wait for them to open their eyes and to grow a little bit bigger so that they can also roam around freely at our yard.
******I wrote this article earlier this afternoon but when we go home after work, I was supposed to clean the stitches of Kang Sol when I saw all stitches removed. Momma dog must've licked it.
I already separated her from her mom and the other puppies, I'm feeding her a formula milk and through the feeding bottle for the mean time. And I'll bring her again to a vet tomorrow so that the wound can be stitched again.
It is really painful seeing her wounded but I had a little relief as Kuya Doc told us that puppies have high tolerance to pain. I really really hope that she'll be all healed soon. I can't bear cleaning the wound anymore. :(
Giving away
And here’s another thing that is breaking my heart, we are all busy at home with studies and work so 7 dogs will be really tough for us. Kuya told us that when the puppies grow and if they are not dependent on their mom’s milk anymore, we will just have their deworming and have them vaccinated before we give them away.
I’m the one who takes care of them so I am really attached to them and I can’t even imagine giving them away, I just can’t. I’m hoping at least one puppy will be left with us. I just can’t give them away. Let’s see after two months, hopefully, my brother will change his mind about giving everyone away.
Maybe I'll just make sure the new owners of the dog will really take care of them the way I would. Maybe that can help to make me comfortable about the idea of giving them away.
*sigh
Anyways, I don’t know what to say anymore. This has been so long already. Apologies for that. I just adore our dogs so much. Thanks for reading this far. Hope I didn’t bore you with these things about our dogs. :)
2022 VMGO
If you’re not yet familiar with **VMGO**, it is an abbreviation for **Vision**, **Mission**, **Goals** and **Objectives**. Sorry for the term, a business student here. LOL.
You see, VMGO is important to every business, institution and organization for it helps them set strategies that are aligned with what they want to achieve. And I just personally think that we should also have VMGO for ourselves. Not exactly like those in the companies but just something that could help us see what we want so that we will be more motivated to achieve it.
My 2021 has been great and I know that 2022 could be even greater, I just have to work out on it. There are still a lot of things to improve and good news! There is still a large room for improvement on this year so let us seize this opportunity to create our goals and work hard for it.
***With that, below are my goals for this year of 2022.***
Cryptocurrency
Just the mere mention of the word makes my head ache. LOL
I’ve been here for almost a year yet I still consider myself a noob in terms of cryptocurrency. Comparing to my batchmates in here, I feel like I was left out, I mean seriously, I almost don’t understand everything. And it is solely the fault of my lazy self. Jeez.
I already said it before but I will say it again, but this time, I will really try to enter this world and not just look around on its outside. What I know right now is just the tip of the iceberg and I should make an effort to know more about it.
Fingers crossed, I’ll be finally able to explore this year. I’ve been playing safe for the past months now.
Read.cash
Guess what? I'll be celebrating my first year anniversary on the platform this month. Yay! I can’t believe I’m almost one year in here, it feels like it’s just yesterday when I signed up for an account.
*But I have been inactive in here for the past months and I ought to make up for it.*
Published not less than 20 articles
I’m planning to write an article daily, except on the weekends so that I can somehow have a break or when I am too busy to write. Last December, I was only able to write 3 articles and that was my most unproductive and inactive month in here.
I didn’t realize how I missed writing so much until now that I am writing this. I want to write regularly again and I want to make quality articles that can guide and inspire my readers, just like before.
Pay for the 'overdue' sponsorships
Yes, it has been long overdue and I apologize to my sponsees for that. Since I was really inactive, I wasn’t able to pay for the sponsorship payment of all of those that I am sponsoring. They were 33 in total before and I just found out today that all of my sponsorship has already ended.
I’m still pretty busy these days since I am helping out with the business but I’ll see to it that before the end of the month, I’ll be able to renew most of my sponsorship.
Also, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my current and previous sponsors. I feel so guilty for I feel like what you paid for last month is not worth it because of my inactiveness. But thanks too for remaining to be my sponsor, rest assured that your sponsorship will definitely be worth it this time.
Increase reading activity and engagement
This is a long-term goal and this will always be one of my goals. Engagement and building camaraderie is one of the main reason why I had such a great time and experience here on the platform, therefore I plan to continue to do so.
I will always be the one of the users in here to encourage this thing and if I will to do that, I’ll make sure to lead by example so that others, especially the newbies, will be able to see how amazing this platform is.
Anniversary giveaway
As I’ve mentioned above, I will be celebrating my first year on the platform this month. I still don’t have a solid plan but I want to host a simple giveaway as a way of paying back, or more like paying it forward. I’m still honestly clueless about what to do, I don’t know, let’s just see what’ll happen when the day comes.
Noise.cash
I only have **2 goals** for noise.cash and that is to **post more quality contents** and to **be more interactive.**
I rarely visit noise.cash these days and I barely post at least 3 times a day. And when I post something, I don’t even know if that makes sense. I also have a channel on there which I should be posting daily but I wasn’t able to do so.
I just so missed making noise in there and having random conversations with my virtual friends and strangers.
Spiritual
I praise God for making my **devotion series** such a success last year. Ever since I became a Christian, personal devotion has been one of my struggles and through the help of my Devotion Series, it pushed me to always do my devotion knowing that I have to write a summary of it every end of the month.
But I’ll be honest, last year, I had missed a lot on my devotion and I don’t know if you can relate but if you missed even just a single day, it’ll be easier to missed another day and another and another. Thankfully, I was able to begin my devotion again since the first day of this year and I do hope I won’t be able to missed a day for this whole year.
Aside from not missing a single day, I also want to improve the **quality** of my devotion. ***Joshua 1:8*** tells us to **meditate the book of the law, day and night** but I was only able to do it at night because I can’t squeeze it into my morning rush. This will really be a challenge but I’ll make it a lifestyle to wake up early and to **do my devotion very early in the morning** without rushing through reading so that I can comprehend every word I read.
Another thing is I want to **spend more time in prayer.** I feel like my prayers are being routinary and it shouldn’t be like that. Prayer is a conversation with God and I should talk more to Him.
Lastly, I want to **start my own ministry** and for that, I’ll be needing a lot of courage to overcome shyness and to be bold about my faith so that I can share it to others.
Academics
To be honest, one of the reason why I was so inactive last month is because of academics. Not that there are a lot of requirements, well yes, there are really lots of requirements but that’s my own fault. I procrastinate a lot and that leaves me with tons of requirements with the same deadline.
It was very stressful and I don’t want to experience that again. I know I always said it every semester but I really do hope to not procrastinate on the coming semester. May I be able to manage my time wisely so that I can study our lessons.
Online learning is tough and its tougher if us students won’t make an effort to learn. I really want to do well this time. I’m not aiming for a very high grade, I just need to passed, but I hope to be spared by the stress that procrastination brings to me.
*Co-students, we could do better so let’s do better this semester, yes?*
Organization
Aside from academics, joining into a student organization really ate up my time. Last semester, I was still an applicant but now that I’m already a member of it, I’ll make sure to do my responsibilities and duties on the organization doing exactly what we said on our preamble.
I don’t want to be a seener on our group chat anymore. Also, I feel like I’ll be really busy with org this coming semester since I will be leading one of our activities. Actually, I just finished my Activity Permit for the said activity.
Personal
Last year, I was able to buy a mobile phone for myself through the help of BCH. And for this year, I hope to buy a **new laptop** since it has been a while when my laptop broke down. I have been borrowing the laptop here at home since then and it is really laggy so I do hope I could buy a new one already.
I’m still saving up for it and I’m still far from the full amount but hopefully, I’ll be able to buy soon.
Another personal goal of mine is to **exercise regularly.** LOL. This will be the toughest, I guess but let’s say yes to a healthier lifestyle! Wish me luck people! LOL.
And this would be all. How about you? Have you already set your goals for this year? Care to share it on the comment section? Or you can provide the link of your article at the comment section below and let me give that a read. :)
Welcome to Dinosaurs Island!
Happy New Year!
There’s a lot of risks and restrictions these days that are stopping us from travelling like before, but thankfully, last January 1, we were able to go on a trip with the whole family. That was the first time that the kids were able to go out since the Covid19 has began and I am just so glad to see them run free on a wide space again.
But before anything else, let me just share our simple celebration for the New Year’s Eve.
Surely, there were no dull moments for us as we wait for the New Year. After preparing all the foods that we’ll eat, it’s the time for the games that Ate and Kuya prepared. It wasn’t that much, just some trending games at YouTube and TikTok but we truly enjoyed a lot.
First game, I don’t know how to call it so let me just describe it. There are prizes lined up on the table, all we have to do is to pull the tissue that has an overflowing glass of water at the edge, the moment the tissue was ripped off, you got the prize where the glass of water stops. We really don’t have much prizes, highest prize is only 500php and luckily, I got it. I won in the game! LOL
Second game involves pingpong ball. There are cups at the end of the table that has an equivalent prize. All we have to do is to roll the pingpong ball and let it fall into the cup. We have 3 tries until we shoot the ball on the cup. Highest prize is only 200php and again, luckily, I got it on first try. LOL. I was really in a competitive mode on because it involves money. LOL
Third game, the *sandok pera* challenge. This challenge was really trending these days and so we tried it. But since we’re on a tight budget and we are so many at home, there are only limited players in the game. We had to play rock paper scissors just to determine who the players are. Sadly, I wasn’t able to play this game. It was still a lot of fun though.
Last game, this is something that is always included on our every party. It’s none other than, **Bingo**! LOL. We are already in a rush that time since 12mn was just 15 minutes away so we only played two games. First is the ‘*pabahuan*’ or the game for the unlucky because to win in this game, you must be the last one standing that doesn’t have a mark on your bingo card. In short, you should not have any of the numbers that they will call. My nephew won 1000php on this game. Second is the *blackout*, meaning that all numbers on our bingo card must be called. The first person who will mark all the numbers on his card wins 1500php. Again, I didn’t win this time.
2 minutes before New Year, we were done with all the games. We then shouted a loud Happy New Year. After that, we declared blessings throughout the whole year through prayer. What comes next are the sound of the horns and fireworks, we don’t really have fireworks though, we could only afford the fountain. Then we ate until we’re full knowing that we got to sleep in the next few minutes and of course, a toast for the New Year. Cheers!
Next day, New Year’s Day.
We slept late so we woke up late too. We don’t really have plans but a Facebook advertisement showed up. Dinosaurs Island is open and they are offering a promo. They have this Barkada and Family Package that originally costs 4750Php but on New Year, it was only 3000php and that is good for 5 people.
We’re only 2 hours drive away from the place and so it was decided, next thing happened is that we’re already on our way to Pampanga.
**Dinosaurs Island** is an **Animatronic Theme Park and Museum** that aims to offer visitors an interactive learning experience about the Dinosaurs Era with life size moving creatures. It is located at Clark Freeport Zone, Mabalacat, Pampanga.
We are 20 in total so we have availed 4 packages and here’s what is included in the package.
First off, we have free meal each at the chicken restaurant inside. It was only rice, chicken and iced tea but that’s already good enough. That was our first stop as we enter the place since it was already past 2pm that time and we haven’t eaten lunch yet nor a decent breakfast.
Right after eating, the tour to the Dinosaurs Island has begun. As we enter, life size dinosaurs welcomed us. And what’s entertaining about it is that it's moving and it has sound effects which the kids truly enjoy. There’s also information about the dinosaur’s name, it’s scientific and its Latin name. Characteristics of the dinosaurs is also included so it is really educational.
Look at how my nephew is enjoying! He doesn’t like taking pictures but in here, he’s the one who asked us to take a photo of him. He’s really thrilled in seeing all the dinosaurs in a bigger size since what he only sees them on his toys and from YouTube.
At the end of the tour at the Dinosaurs Island, just beside the exit, there’s a show featuring dancing dinosaurs mascot. It was really entertaining and kinda scary at some point. LOL. Because there were parts when the head of the dinosaurs will reach out to the audience.
Since what we have availed is full package, we also have access to a different theme in there which is the wonders of the world. In there, there are miniatures of **The Wonders of the World** like Taj Mahal, the one on the photo, Great Wall of China, Pyramid of Gisa and many more.
Aside from the Dinosaurs Island and The Wonders of the World, at the other side of the place is **Insectlandia** where life size animated insects are featured. Like in the Dinosaurs Island, before the exit, there is also a show in there featuring insect mascots where they dance and act as with the story telling.
Aside from the 3 places I mentioned above, there are also other attractions at the place like the **playground**, **zip line**, **wall climbing** and **bike rental**. And if you like foods, there are enough places inside where you can buy your snacks.
What I also like about the place is that there are photographers everywhere. You can ask them to take your photo using their cameras and you can also lend them your camera and ask them to take your photo. There’s also a booth somewhere in there where you can see all your photos so that you can choose which photos you want to be developed.
Another thing are the ever-friendly staffs on their cute uniform with smiles you can see on their eyes.
All in all, it was a great trip, and though it is very child-friendly, I can see that the adults that we are with also enjoyed the trip. Geez. How could not they? They made me their photographer. LOL
I also did enjoy and it was really a time well spent. :)
This is the last part for my holiday season articles. At last! LOL. I hope you guys enjoyed the holiday season too. And I hope that you were able to find time to relax and spend time without all the stress coming from studies, work and whatever stuffs that we are facing, even just for a while.
This has been so long so yeah, I gotta end it here. Thanks for reading this far. **See you around!**
Tagahatid Pasko
Holiday season are now over and most of us are already back to work. For a short while, we were able to have a short vacation and was able to spend time with family, friends, or even alone. Most of us were able to relax, have fun and enjoy. Some might have travelled, some might have go to beaches, to theme parks and many other places.
Everyone is enjoying and have enjoyed going to places, eating from their favorite restaurants while spending the time with their loved ones. *But have you ever thought about those people and employees who served you with enthusiasm on the places where you’ve been?*
On New Year’s day, last January 1, we were able to go to Dinosaurs Island at Clark, Mabalacat, Pampanga. It is an Animatronic Theme Park where kids can learn and enjoy. I was amazed about how their staffs were trained to be attentive on the needs of the people. They were smiling and they were so polite.
After walking and taking a lot of pictures, for the last part at the Dinosaurs Island, before the exit, there’s a room where we can watch performances of dinosaurs in a mascot. At that very moment, while they were performing and while seeing everyone laugh and smile as they perform, I suddenly became sentimental thinking about how those people wearing mascots and all the staffs in there work hard just to keep us happy and satisfied.
I cannot imagine how heavy the mascot is, I cannot imagine how tired they were on their faces behind the mascot, or their faces behind the mask. I cannot tell how they were feeling behind those smiles. I cannot tell what they are thinking as they watch families that are so happy while they are there working, away from their families.
Holidays must be already over and we are now back to work. The short vacation might not be enough but we’re still lucky to have one, because there were people who were working while we are enjoying. I don’t really know where this is going but I guess, I just want to remind you all to be more polite and to treat every employees with respect.
Yes, we do pay for the service we got but their service with enthusiasm will always be more than that. Treat them nicely, smile back at them, give tips if you can. They made a huge contribution in serving us as we enjoy the holidays.
For us to appreciate and understand more what I’m trying to say, you can watch this video from Coca-Cola entitled **The Last Customer**, featuring our **Tagahatid Pasko** or the employees who are working during the holiday season.
https://youtu.be/i-oVg_Ga4Ks
May this serve as a reminder to all of us to always treat every employee nicely, holiday or not. Let’s appreciate their work and let us thank them for that.
We might not have the same experience about customer service, some staffs might not be that enthusiastic and sometimes, we might even find them rude, and it might be our right as customers to be treated right most of the time, but please, let us be more patient towards them like how they were patient to us. Let us try to understand their behavior. They might be tired already, they might have problems at home, they might be experiencing pain, we wouldn’t know and we can only imagine so let us try to widen our understanding.
Always think about the staffs who served us, the people at the gas station, the people at the toll gate, the staffs at the supermarket, the doctors, nurses, and other medical practitioners, and all the people who worked during holidays. Let’s think about all the employees who wasn’t able to spend time with their families just to be of service to people who needs their service.
To all the people in here and out there who might have worked during holidays, my deepest appreciation and thanks for your service!
Now that I have already written about the sentimental me during New Year, will write another article about our day at the Dinosaurs Island.
**Thanks for reading!**
Gifts Sponsored by BCH
It’s already a New Year and this is really way behind Christmas but allow me to share how we had a Merry Christmas because of Bitcoin Cash.
As a student who doesn’t enjoy a scholarship grant, I do not have any other source of money aside from my allowance which eventually was gone too because of online classes. What I’m saying is that I do not have the means to spend money for my own or even for my family.
Thankfully, I have discovered about read.cash and noise.cash which allows me to earn bitcoin cash. With it, I was able to provide for my personal needs. But let’s not talk about that, instead, let us talk about how we celebrated Christmas and how BCH became a big part of it.
Since all of my siblings already have their own family, we still make sure that there will be a time that we will all be together in one place. With that, it has become our family tradition to celebrate Christmas together and every year, it was a blast being with the best company.
It was just a simple celebration as always. At the 24th of December, all of us are already gathered on our home. All of us are busy with the preparation and cooking the foods that we will eat. Then, at night, we have a simple program while waiting for the clock to struck 12.
We have games, exchange gifts and our most awaited Bingo with exciting prizes. I didn’t win anything but that was really fun. And then before we eat, comes my most awaited part. It was the time to give my gifts for everyone. The gifts that I was able to buy from saving my BCH earnings since September.
That was actually one of my goals to buy gifts to every members of our family and so, with the help of BCH, I was able to do so. Below are the gifts that I was able to give to them.
A pair of clothes for the youngest
I have a 3-year-old, 5-year-old and a 7-year-old niece. In addition to that is another 3-year-old niece from my cousin and so I decided to give them a pair of cute sleepwear. It was a real challenge ordering online because I was afraid the clothes won’t fit them. It’s a good thing that I ordered a bigger size than the suggested size for their age. Luckily, I got the exact sizes for them.
A Ryan’s World T-shirt for my nephew
He’s my youngest nephew and so I bought his gift separately. He’s 4-year-old now and he really loves Ryan’s World. Actually, he has been bugging me to order him a merch but I always forgot to do so. Finally, I was able to buy him 2 shirts from Ryan’s World and he really likes it. I was so excited wrapping the gift since I know that he’ll love it.
A hoodie for the teens
It was really hard to think what gifts to give and so upon browsing, I saw the hoodies and it looks really cute. Without second thought, I ordered hoodies for my teenage nephew and nieces as well as for my closest cousin and my other sister in law. It was 7 hoodies in total and I’m glad that they liked it.
A watch for the guys
I have this 16-year-old nephew who likes watch and is always asking me to give him watch and so I did. I looked for watches and I thought it’s a nice gift for the guys, for my 15 and 16-year-old nephew, and to my brothers and my brother in law. I am so satisfied with my purchase since the watches looks nice despite its cheap price.
It was 8 watches in total. For my 2 nephew, 3 brothers, 1 brother in law, 1 sister in law, and 1 for my eldest sister.
A sunglasses for Kuya tough love
This was really a challenge. He already have everything and so I had a hard time picking a gift for him. I remember he likes shades or sunglasses and then its settled. It was so awkward giving him the gift. LOL.
A scripture inspired shirt for my sister
She already have everything too but what I know is that she likes everything related to the bible and so when I saw the shirt with a ‘*grace upon grace*’ print on it, I didn’t even hesitate on purchasing it. I got it bad on size though, it was so big on her! LOL. I wonder if she’ll ever wear it.
A phone for mom
Lastly, a mobile phone for my mom. This was actually a gift from me and my sister since I couldn’t afford it alone. Mom had a mobile phone before which was given to her by my cousin when she went to Japan but she gave it to me when she go home. After that, she never had a mobile phone again.
It was fine before since she doesn’t need it, more like she doesn’t know how to use it. Besided, she can borrow my phone anytime to call her sister abroad but then, I almost can’t get a hold of my phone whenever she’s borrowing it. LOL. And she also wants her own phone now. She has been meaning to buy it but can’t since she has a lot of expenses on the past months.
And so, I asked my sister to split the price with me so that we could buy mom a phone. She agreed and there we have it. I think I’ll have the ‘mom’ role now nagging my mom to stop using her phone. LOL. Imagine your mom saying “*selpon ka ng selpon*!” chour.
I may have to spend for the gifts and sell some of my BCH but all those gifts are definitely worth it. The smiles on their faces is the one that matters. Christmas is really the season for giving and I had so much joy in giving.
I owe it to this site, I owe it to this community and I owe it to Bitcoin Cash. We had a Merry Christmas, thanks to BCH and of course, to our Lord most high.
Aside from the gifts I have given, I was also so blessed last year. With BCH, I was able to buy things for myself and most importantly, a mobile phone for myself too. I don’t remember if I ever shared it before but last August 2021, I was able to buy a new phone for myself after not having a phone for almost a year. The phone model is Samsung Galaxy A72, awesome black.
BCH was a really huge help for me and it has provided for my finances for almost the whole year. It was nice knowing read.cash, noise.cash and BCH. It has been a great year, thanks to BCH!
**To more BCH to all of us in this year of 2022!**
Romans 8:28
Looking back at 2021, there are a lot of things that have happened. Things that is not even good at all. Though we are already slowly getting used to it, the fact remains that Covid19 is still everywhere. Accidents happen, sickness happen, natural disasters happen, death happens. We could not possibly stop those things from happening.
We were challenged and it was tough but amidst all those, there are a lot more things that we should be thankful for and it is incomparable to all the challenges we have faced for the past year. So, I want to thank God and praise God for the whole year of 2021, for all the things that have happened and I have experienced. The past year was a proof that He have fulfilled His promise on Romans 8:28 which is stated above.
I have started this Devotion Series of mine since January, and as a wrap for the whole year, I want to share the promise of the Lord from Romans 8:28 to all of you.
A promise for believers
*…in all things God works together for good for those whole love him…*
Romans 8:28 has given us the promise that all things work together for good and it is indeed true but what we tend to overlook most of the time is its prerequisite. If we read the whole verse, it has a condition that all things work together for good for those who love Him.
We can’t just claim the “*in all things God works together for the good*” part and leave the “*for those who love him*” part behind. Romans 8:28 is a two-way street and we must be a believer for us to claim this promise.
This verse is for all those who love God and are really trying hard to obey His commands. This is God telling us that no matter what happened or that whatever we are going through, may it be bad, evil or wicked, He will use those things for good, for our good.
Not all things will be good
*…God works together for good…*
Romans 8:28 doesn’t give us an assurance that all things will be good. Crimes are not good, corruption is not good, sickness is not good, typhoon Odette is not good, Covid19 is not good. There are so many things that aren’t good but what God promised us is that all things will work together for our good. Bad things may happen but know that God has a purpose for it, God is in control and that He allows all that to happen for our good.
NaCl
*Let’s make Sodium Chloride as example.*
Sodium can be found on most of our foods but a little too much can be poisonous. On the other hand, Chlorine inhibits bacterial growth in water such as in the swimming pool but it can really be poisonous. But with both Sodium and Chlorine combined, or the Sodium Chloride, or the salt we all know, 2 poisonous things, or element rather, can become really useful on our everyday lives.
The assurance of Romans 8:28
*And we know…*
'And we know' have given us an emphasis that there’s an assurance, there is no maybe, there is no perhaps, we know, and we are sure, that God will make all things work together for good.
Let us claim the promise. Let us claim His promise! We might not see it now, there will be situations where this promise can be doubtful but let us keep our faith intact. We just have to believe and to be patient until we see all the bad things now turning into something good someday.
There are a lot of things that our minds can’t understand, sometimes, most of the times rather, some things just don’t make sense and we don’t get to know why. But what we can do is to pray, claim the promise of the Lord, have faith in Him, until His purpose in our lives can be revealed.
It has been a great year and truly, God’s guidance was with me throughout the year. I thank and praise Him for that. As we welcome 2022, I pray that you will find it in your heart to claim the promise of the Lord on Romans 8:28 regardless of what we have experienced in the past and the things that we are experiencing in the present.
May this year be a year of breakthrough to all of us. May we all experience God’s provision and protection in our lives. May He give us promotion, good health and may He give us the desires of our heart.
Keep in mind that whatever you want, ask Him in prayer and He will give it to you. This is the year of the Lord’s favor so keep on praying and praying and praying.
**Have a blessed year ahead!**
2021 Devotion Series Summary
**NOVEMBER**: **Martha, Martha** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/martha-martha-4e0eb6d6
**OCTOBER:** **Keep the Faith Going** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/keep-the-faith-going-620dce55
**SEPTEMBER:** **3 Points I Learned from Galatians 6** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/3-points-i-learned-from-galatians-6-3f8bee1a
**AUGUST:** **The Bridge of Life** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/the-bridge-of-life-68056e7f
**JULY:** **The Life of Joseph and Moses** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/devotion-series-the-life-of-joseph-and-moses-617f19fd
**JUNE:** **Highlights and Realizations From The Book of Genesis** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/highlights-and-realizations-from-the-book-of-genesis-33fdfcf3
**MAY:** **Ends and Beginnings** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/devotions-on-may-ends-and-beginnings-ff4d61d6
**APRIL:** **A Compilation of Daily Devotions** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/april-a-compilation-of-daily-devotion-855496b6
**MARCH:** **Finding my Purpose Through Daily Devotion** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/finding-my-purpose-through-daily-devotion-bff1abd5
**FEBRUARY:** **A Compilation of Daily Devotions** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/february-a-compilation-of-daily-devotions-fe2934f7
**JANUARY:** **A Compilation of Daily Devotions** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/january-a-compilation-of-daily-devotions-fa658410
The Stealing Game
A day before Christmas, I know most of you are already done with Christmas parties. And when there is a Christmas party, most of the time, there are also exchange gifts.
So, let me introduce you to this stealing game that made our exchange gift very exciting. Lol. It's not really named like that, I just have to come up with something to call it. Well, I do hope you still have parties left where you can apply it, if ever you want to. But if there's none left, you can always apply this next year.
Before anything else, this kind of exchange gift are for those who are '*sport*' and won't go mad or sad of they did not get the gifts they want.
***Enough with the delay, here's how it goes.***
Since, it's not your ordinary exchange gift, there is no draw lots of whom you will give a gift. It's also not like numbering all the gifts and then you got the gift based on the number you'll get.
The only challenge here is that it's really hard to find a gift that is unisex. But I'm telling you, it's really worth it. LOL.
Going back, the thing here is that yes, there is draw lots. You have to make numbers based on how many are the gifts. Suppose, there are 20 of you who joined the exchange gift, then there should be 20 numbers. But no worries about the gifts, you don't have to put number in it.
Everyone will get a number, see what you got and whoever get the number gets to choose a gift first. Yep, number 1 can choose from all the gifts and once he has already chosen, he have to open up the gift for everyone to see.
There comes number 2 who's next on choosing his gift but the twist here is that once he opens his gift and he doesn't really like it or he like the gift that number 1 get, he can steal number 1's gift and swap it for what he got. Did you get it? LOL. That's what I mean when I said that everyone should be sport because stealing of gifts can really happen but that's also what makes it more exciting.
Next is number 3 and same drill. He choose a gift from all the unopened one and if he doesn't like it he can switch his gift either from 1 or 2. The same things happen to everyone until you reach the last number. Funny thing here is that you thought you already got the gift that you want but just a second passed and that gift was already stolen from you.
**But wait, there's more! We're just halfway the game.**
Number 1 won't be number 1 for nothing. Of course, he got the immunity for once all the numbers were done, the counting goes backwards from the last to the first. Last number will be really at a disadvantage so you wouldn't wish to get that. The first time I got that number, I thought I won the lottery but then they say we have to steal again backwards and that's when I know I'm doomed. LOL
So, as the last number chose his gift, second to the last can now swap his gift... and so on. Until it's number 1's turn to finally get the gift that he wants without anyone stealing it from him since he's the last one to choose.
LOL. I hope you get what I'm saying. I don't know if it looks fun as you read it but it is really fun. It's way more enjoyable if everyone is aggressive stealing the gifts they really want.
If you have exchange gift left, maybe you can give that a try. As for us, we still have 2 more exchange gifts left and I bet it's going to be crazy.
Thanks for reading this far. Wishing y'all a Merry Christmas! :)
Article No. 170
Date: December 24, 2021
By: mary
Inactive and Unproductive, but still here.
January 21, 2021, that is the day that I won't ever forget. Well, I actually forgot about it before but thanks to this read.cash feature where we can see the exact date and time when our account was created.
As I was saying, the 21st of the month is something that I always look forward to. *Wala kasing jowa kaya kami nalang ni readcash magcecelebrate ng monthsary diba Ate* @Ruffa ? Kidding aside, what's not to look forward to with this amazing platform, right?
I was really active since my day one in here, if not, the longest time I was away is not less than a week but for this month, I have been inactive for more almost 3 weeks now for the reason that it was really hectic here in real life.
Sem-ender can be really stressful. Actually, our first semester have already ended but I am still left with 2 items on my to-do list. *sigh. **research**. :((
Aside from requirements at school, we're very busy with business too. Just yesterday, December 20, we started the day 1 of our 3-day Christmas sale just in the front of our store. Earlier was our second day and I am really spend.
We also have a lot of Christmas parties which is really fun but it makes me really tired. Last 15th of December, we kind of had a virtual Christmas party with our viewers as our way of paying back their support for our live selling. We started live selling just this year, on January and they have been with us since then. So, we prepared items such as appliances and draw it as a raffle for that night.
Another Christmas party is last Sunday, October 19, it was a party with our network (cell group) along with our staffs on all our 3 branches. It was really fun with all the games, foods and great company. We also played Bingo wherein Kuya provides all the prizes and I was lucky enough to won Php1000. What I also enjoyed was capturing photos all throughout the event. It was nice capturing their faces filled with joy, and of course, those epic faces specially why they are playing the games we prepared. LOL.
We also had another Christmas party yesterday, December 20, with our outreach on our neighboring city. They were so happy and so was I. It was just a simple celebration filled with laughter and I just couldn't ask for more.
Tomorrow, we will have another party with our cell groups here on our barangay. They are just 3 families and they will just come over to our house to celebrate. Another one is on Christmas eve with our family and lastly, at Christmas day with our whole neighborhood which includes most of our relatives. That is the one that I really look forward to this year. Will share it once it's done.
As highlight for the parties, our exchange gift is really fun. It's not your usual exchange gift because it comes with a twist. I will share it in another article hoping it could give you an idea.
I may really be unproductive here for this entire month of December but I am still here. Just busy, but still here. I'm so glad to be able to right even just this quick article right now. And I can't wait to write regularly again which I can only do once all these requirements at school is all done.
Anyways, I will end it here for now. I still have to edit our research poster after this. LOL. It was really nice writing again and it was a great and amazing 11 months of experience with read.cash. Cheers!
Thanks for reading this far. I hope to catch up with you soon. :)
Article No. 169
Date: 22 December 2021
By: mary
Let the Countdown Begins!
**24 days to go before Christmas,** I can already feel the heights of our excitement. Filipinos have a long Christmas Celebration for as soon as the *'ber'* months has started, the spirit of Christmas can already felt in us. But December really hits differently. This feels like the *moment of truth* that this is really it. Christmas, here we go!
*Before I proceed to our Christmas plans, allow me to wrap up my November first.*
My second article from last month was about me **'getting back on track'**. That's me trying to set up goals once again, goals that I wasn't really able to fulfill but regardless of that, I still had a great month. https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/getting-back-on-track-3c01a17a
I said that I will have a *daily grind* but I only end up publishing **15 articles** and I am already contented with that. It is more than enough. Last month has been tough, we really are busy, it's hard to balance time between being a student, a block president, a student organization member, plus the tons of responsibilities at home as a daughter, as a sister, and as an aunt. Actually, I'm not the only one busy. My friends from here who are also students has been MIA for a while. Our professors must really 'love' us for bombarding us with a lot of requirements. But hey, no matter what happens, let us keep on going. We got this!
I also made a goal to **increase my level of interaction** and to **get the badge back** but that didn't succeed either. Well, for maybe 2 weeks after I set my goal, I was really doing well with my goals but midterm happens and I have no choice but to focus on the thing that is more important.
I may have another failed attempt to achieve my goal last month, I am still wrapping it as a great month. I'm honesty surprised on how I was able to produce those number of articles despite my busy schedule. And of course, November has been good to me so I was able to save a few sum that I can use for my plans this December. I won't share screenshots anymore but I was able to earn **0.357 BCH** from read.cash and noise.cash combined.
***Cheers to November and another cheers as we welcome December!***
**24 days to go, here's what I still need to do:**
**Buy gifts**
This plan would have been simple only if we are a small family. But the thing with us is that we really have a huge family. Since September, I already started saving up some BCH for my preparation this Christmas but for some reason, I was able to spend some from my savings.
As of now, I only have $160 on my Christmas wallet. If I transfer it to our fiat currency it will be around PHP 8,000. Honestly, that is quite big already but not really big if we will look at my list of people that I will be giving gifts.
Currently, I have 45 people on my list. I am still considering other people if I will include them to the list but this is it for now. These are my siblings, my siblings in law, my nephews and nieces, closest cousins, closest friends and the closest people in my life. Just by seeing the list, I feel like my savings wouldn't be enough but let's see where this can bring me.
As for mom, I am planning to buy her a mobile phone since she never had a new one and I know how she wants to buy already but she doesn't have the means yet so I am thinking about buying for her instead. But that would be too pricey so I am crossing my fingers so that my sister will agree to split the amount with me.
Now that I am typing this, please, please, December, be good to me. I still need to save more for Christmas. I just want all the people who are close to my heart to be happy this Christmas and I'll be the happiest if that happens.
**Christmas Parties!**
Yes, you read it right, parties! We have bunch of Christmas parties to organize this year.
**First**, it is with our very own network (cell group) as well as with all of our employees. They are the closest whom we already treat as family so we decided to only have one Christmas party for that instead. Exchange gift is expected here too so another gift to buy. LOL
**Second**, it is with the 3 families here from our neighbors. God has entrusted their lives to us and praise Him for we have been handling these families for cell group since July. Since we are just neighbors, we decided that we will just celebrate together instead of celebrating 3 separate Christmas parties.
**Third**, it is from another families that we are handling for cell group. They are our outreach from the next city to us. They are 3 families who are all relatives and who live in the same compound so we are hosting a single Christmas party for them too.
**Fourth**, it is with our valued dealers but this one is to be celebrated virtually. We have been doing live selling for quite a while now and to give back to them on a simple way, since September, we have started a promo where they can get a raffle coupon for every 500 peso worth of their purchase. They are really looking forward for all the gifts that we are going to give as well as the raffle that we are going to draw.
**Fifth**, it is with our own family. This only includes me, my mom, my siblings and their own families. That's still pretty big though but it is just us. This will happen at the 24th of December as we welcome the Christmas together. We will have an exchange gift, we will also prepare games with prizes which we can enjoy, and of course, the foods that we will be having for our *Noche Buena*. Seems like we'll have a lot of chicken this Christmas since we bought chicks last month that we have been taking care of so that we can serve it on Christmas. This always happen yearly and this is the where I am the most excited.
**Sixth**, it is with our family as well as with our relatives. On my hometown, our family and our other relatives lives together on a compound so all of our neighbors are also our relatives. For this year's Christmas celebration, at exactly on the 25th, we decided to gather together and to share what we all have. Different families are assigned to provide for lunch, snacks, and dinner. As for us, we got the snacks covered and we are also the host for the games and prizes. That will be really exciting! Geez. I can't hide my excitement. All of us will also have an exchange gift and I bet that will be really fun.
So, six Christmas parties in total. Don't worry though, we will still maintain safety and health protocols, we wouldn't want to be the reason for Covid19 to spread more. Protocols will be observed and I assure you all that we will all be responsible for all these parties.
**Gift giving**
This gift giving is different from the the gifts for my family that I am going to buy.
Our business, I mean, my brother in law's family business has been growing strong for more than 2 decades now and we owe it to our valued dealers *(customers)*. So, as a way of giving back, every year, as early as January, we have been saving up gifts that we are going to distribute to all of them during Christmas season.
Usually, we are hosting a Christmas party for all of our dealers on all of our branches but that is not possible for now since the virus is still out there. The gifts these year are also not as big and not as many as before but what's important is that it comes from our heart and we really do hope that they can appreciate this and that this can put a smile on their faces.
Every year, as the *ber* months begin, we are already trying to squeeze in to our schedules the wrapping of gifts. We spend lots of time on wrapping all the gifts and I am just excited to give these all one by one. I am so excited to give all these, after all, Christmas is about giving so let us give cheerfully the things that we can give and rest assured that God will bless us more abundantly.
I really can't wait for the Christmas to come. My excitement is overflowing. My joy is also overflowing and I hope to keep it going that I may be able to spread it throughout the whole month. How about you? What are your plans for Christmas?
Anyways, thanks much for reading. Wishing and hoping for a merry Christmas for us all. May God bless you abundantly! :)
Spread love!
Artice No. 168
Date: 01 December 2021
by: mary
Martha, Martha,
It is another month-end for us and I just want to congratulate you all for everything that you have done on the past 30 days. For every failures, for every loss, for every achievements, for every wins, for every learning, for every lessons. We can only do so much in a day but I am sure that we encounter different things and different challenges everyday and all those happenings contributes to who we are today.
The end of the month is something that I look up to monthly for this is my time for me to publish another installment for my devotion series where I can share to you something from the scripture. It is my own way of spreading the word through the talent that God have given me. Honestly, I am pretty spent for today but I just wouldn't missed this for the world. Without further ado, let me share to you this story about two sisters named **Mary and Martha.**
Above is our Scripture Reference for this article but let me tell you about the story again in a more detailed way.
*If you know Lazarus, the man Jesus raised from the dead, he is the brother of our main leads here in the story which is Martha and Mary.*
*There was one time, Jesus and his disciples are on their way to wherever their destination is, they made a stopover to a certain village and they come over to Martha's house as she welcomes them.*
*Mary, Martha's sister, immediately sat down and listen to Jesus as He enters their home. On the other hand, Martha focuses on the preparation. Meanwhile, Martha noticed that she's the only one doing all the work so she went to Jesus and complained about how Mary isn't helping her.*
*Instead of receiving a response that she's expecting, Jesus then said that Mary did the right thing and she shouldn't stop doing that. As for Martha, He said that she shouldn't be worried about so many things.*
As much as I hate comparing, let's compare Martha and Mary into something that we can all relate.
Mary
**She is the one whose priority is the Lord.** Her action of sitting with Jesus and listening for what He is saying illustrates a type or Christian, or a person in general who puts God first above all else.
She's the type to pray first and thank God first as she wake up in the morning. She's the type who allots time for the Lord, and she's the type who worry less for she have her trust and hope in the Lord.
Mary is of God and not of this world.
Martha
She's the one who works on her own thinking and trying that she can do it alone. She is surely a hard worker but she forgot that the Lord should come first. She seems like a busy person who thinks about her work and all the things that she need to do as she wake up so instead of praying, she's worrying about how she can get all the things that she needs to do in such a short period of time.
Sounds like she's a worrier. What could be the reason why? Hmm
Martha represents people who are so busy with this world. I mean people who are so caught up with this world. Just a normal busy person who have lots of worries, probably because she's not yet surrendering it to God.
After I typed it, I feel like I did not give Martha's character a justice. LOL. I don't mean harm about her, or the type of people like her. I suddenly lose confidence about what I'm trying to explain. I feel like I went overboard but I gotta continue this.
Now that we know what Mary and Martha's character is representing, let me ask you this question. **Are you like Mary? or Martha?**
Personally, I want to answer I'm like Mary but I'll be guilty claiming that for I can still be Martha sometimes. God clearly told us in His words in Matthew 6:33 to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and everything will be given unto us. But sometimes, we are just too focus on wanting to have things, to achieve things, to get things done, that we forget that there is Lord where we can cast our worries away.
Just like what He said to Martha, we don't have to worry about all things. Put God first and everything will go to its proper places. Things of this world are stressful and may this be a reminder that we can't do it all alone, no matter how much hard work we put into it.
Let us humble ourselves before the Lord. Let us ask for His guidance, for His help, for His strength. And always remember his words from John 15:5 that apart from Him, we can do nothing.
***May we all be Mary and Martha at the same time.*** Let us be like Martha who works hard to get things done, but let's also not forget to be like Mary that before anything else, before all those tasks, God should comes first, all the time. That doesn't lessen our work load, but it can definitely makes things a lot way easier.
Pray more, worry less. As humans, we cannot do it alone, so let's save ourselves from a lot of stress by letting God carry the burden for us. Pray, pray always. Don't forget to pray.
Thank you for reading this far. I can't believe we're on November already. Just 1 more month and I'll officially be able to do this for a straight year. Just for reference, let me put all the links in here of the other 10 installments for this devotion series of mine.
**OCTOBER:** **Keep the Faith Going** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/keep-the-faith-going-620dce55
I have shared here the story of Job, as well as ours for we just lost a loved one last month and that is to keep the faith going regardless of all the bad things that are happening. Things won't always go our way but we have to learn how to thank God in all circumstances and to keep our faith strong even if things aren't going our ways.
**SEPTEMBER:** **3 Points I Learned from Galatians 6** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/3-points-i-learned-from-galatians-6-3f8bee1a
Look out for one another. v2
Do not compare. v4
Do good all the time. v9
**AUGUST:** **The Bridge of Life** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/the-bridge-of-life-68056e7f
A must read. This is literally the message of salvation. If you still haven't accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I suggest you read this and pray the prayer of acceptance right away.
**JULY:** **The Life of Joseph and Moses** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/devotion-series-the-life-of-joseph-and-moses-617f19fd
This is from my actual devotion. I have learned from the life of Joseph that God is in control and that we can experience His presence in times of difficulty. As for Moses, we may be lacking with many things but still, God can use us mightily.
**JUNE:** **Highlights and Realizations From The Book of Genesis** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/highlights-and-realizations-from-the-book-of-genesis-33fdfcf3
Basically, these are just the highlights from the book of Genesis such as the story of creation, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, God's Promise to Abraham, How Abraham's faith was tested, and the story of Jacob and Esau. This also includes all my realizations about their stories.
**MAY:** **Ends and Beginnings** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/devotions-on-may-ends-and-beginnings-ff4d61d6
Another one from my actual devotion. I just so happen to finish the Book of Revelations that time and then I started reading the Book of Genesis. Ends for Revelations and Beginnings for Genesis.
**APRIL:** **A Compilation of Daily Devotions** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/april-a-compilation-of-daily-devotion-855496b6
It is what it says on its title. These contains some of the compilation of my daily devotion, fresh from my devotion notebook.
**MARCH:** **Finding my Purpose Through Daily Devotion** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/finding-my-purpose-through-daily-devotion-bff1abd5
Another part of my devotion series that I really recommend for you to read. I have shared in here the 40 Days of Purpose by Pastor Rick Warren, the author of the book **"The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I here for?"**. The 40 Days of Purpose tackles things from the book. It is a devotional for 40 days. Link from where you can get the workbook as well as the audio message is on this article.
**FEBRUARY:** ****A Compilation of Daily Devotions**** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/february-a-compilation-of-daily-devotions-fe2934f7
Another compilation for you all. It includes each verse from the book of 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. All worth to read verses and all those are my striking verse.
**JANUARY:** ****A Compilation of Daily Devotions**** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/january-a-compilation-of-daily-devotions-fa658410
The very first from a series where I shared my very pattern for my devotion which is the STAR Pattern. So if you are curious how to do devotion, you can learn it from here. That pattern is really simple. Do a daily devotion! It can only eat at least 15 minutes of your time.
Quite a long plug but there you have it folks. Thanks for reading again. Till next month for the last installment of this series for this year. :)
Article No. 167
Date: 30, November 2021
By: mary
Topic: Devotion Series, Bible, God
A Time Well Spent
I've been busy on that past days and my tasks can't fit in to the time I have. Semester is about to end in just a few more weeks and I don't know if it's supposed to be a good news or a bad one.
We just had our midterms last week and now, I can already see the finals peeking. Aside from that, our professors are being unstoppable in giving us requirements. Papers after papers. There is research, there are case studies. I don't even know which subject is the major subject, ah no-- more like minor subjects feels like they are major subjects for they are giving more and way heavier requirements than our major subjects.
To do lists in the google classroom cannot be emptied. The moment we finish one activity, 3 more will come. I rarely complain about this situation and just to be clear, this is not me complaining. Just simply telling a story. Hehe
As I was saying, I'm not complaining about the situation but dear professors, can't we take it slowly? The only break we had for this whole semester was on November 1-3. I wonder why we weren't given a at least one week academic break which other Universities did.
But since we're already into this and we're nearing the end already, I guess I just have to endure for a little bit and this will all end. We got this. I got this!
So much for an introduction, what I just really want to share is how I watch Korean Drama or KDrama with our family. I know, I just said that I was buy yet I still have time for KDrama. What a joke, right? And there's more joke into this. The KDrama that we are watching is something that I have already watched recently. What do you think? Am I wasting my time?
The day always starts with me wanting so bad to cross items on my to do list. But as the night comes, they will call everyone to watch KDrama together not that it is required but I just love my family and I love spending time with them.
So, nevermind my plans, I'll spend time with them. Because a time spent with them will always be a time well spent. It will always be worth every second. Our every laugh, our every chitchats as we watch, our violent reactions, our unsolicited opinions about what we are watching, that made my time worth it.
Actually no, it's not just worth it for every moment with them is priceless and it has to be cherished. Now, we all know why I can't resist them huh?
Just tonight, I was supposed to face my endless readings at our Social Science subject but they called in for a KDrama session and I ditched my readings immediately. Now that we have finished watching and as I write this, I realized how I will suffer the consequences tomorrow. More school works for me. But the difference about this consequence is that I am more than delighted to face it.
Anyways, it's past 11pm now. I have a new rule for myself that I should be asleep before 12 midnight so I have to end this for now. I didn't even know if I made some sense but it's been 3 days since I last written an article and I just missed you guys. I missed writing like this. I missed letting my fingers to type whatever it is that comes to my mind. I missed writing as if I am just telling a story.
Thanks for reading this far. I hope all of you are doing fine. And hey, just a little reminder. Always work hard but never forget to take a rest. It is essential, our body needs it. Work hard but don't be too hard on yourself. Whatever we are facing right now, we got this. Wishing y'all success after success on whatever thing that we are doing.
Thank you, take care and may the Lord bless you. :)
Article No. 166
Date: 24, November 2021
By: mary
Topic: Daily Life, Family
Ten Months
**T**he exact date and time when my account in here was created was on January 21, 2021 11:59PM. I still remember the reason why I created my account as well as the very first article I wrote. I remember that we had our grades released for the first semester that night and I was so frustrated for having a '**no grade**' on one of my subjects. It's bothersome and I feel the need to let all my thoughts out. And then I remember the platform which my friend carisdaneym2 has been talking about so I immediately searched for it, created my account and without hesitation, type and publish an article. https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/no-grade-1fae9b02
**E**nchanted by the platform, I keep on using it until it became part of my day to day life and my day wouldn't be complete without it. It became a platform that gives rest to my mind for it gave me an opportunity to share the raw product of it. Reading has been so fun too. Hearing different opinions and knowing other people from the stories that they have shared. It has been so fun meeting a lot of people from literally all over the world, encountering different cultures and understanding different point of views. Maybe, the enchantment I got is from the interaction and the lots of friends I gained on this platform.
**N**ow that I am already a 10 months user, I can confidently say that I have really learned and improved a lot. Ever since, my weakness is that I can't express myself clearly, may it be through speaking or through writing. I may be organized with my stuffs but not with my mind. I just can't express myself properly. But now, I can say that at the very least, I can share my thoughts in an organized manner that my readers can comprehend. I know, I'm not always good at writing, there are still times when I am losing confidence for I am anxious that I wasn't able to explain myself properly but I am confident that I already have progress and I will have more progress soon. After all, progress is an on-going and continuous process. There are still a lot to learn and I am looking forward for it on the following months.
**M**aking celebratory articles for every month, this has always been my practice since my first month in here. It helps me to track down and see my progress and this is also somehow a reflection on how and what I have been on the past month. I just feel good making an article like this every 21st of the month.
**O**ne month, two months, three months, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and I just can't believe I'm on tenth now. One year, let's go! Time really flies fast when you are enjoying. I have always been open about my journey here which I always share every month. And if you were able to read just some of those articles, you can say that I am really enjoying my stay here that I didn't even notice how fast the 10 months have passed.
**N**ew learning, new discoveries, new friends, new hobbies, new likes and so much more new things that I have encountered on this platform. And I was able to experience all that by means of interacting with other users. I must say, you can only love and experience read.cash to the fullest if you have friends everywhere on the platform, and the only way to gain friends is through interaction. A tip from a 10 months user, read.cash is not very demanding but if you have a few minutes to spare, you might want to spend some on reading articles of others and leaving comments to them. Not that it's a must but that would be nice. As a writer here, of course we would want others to read what we wrote and so if that's what we want, we should also be willing to give it.
**T**here are lots of things that read.cash can offer us. Proven and tested, this is not just a platform where we can write and earn. This is also a place where we can learn and where we can fully express ourselves. This is a place where we can practice our craft. This could be our safe haven. This is a place that can give you an understanding about how diverse our culture is. A place to open our minds with different views from people. A place where we could unleash our potential and be more than what we can be. A place to hone yourself, to improve and to be better.
**H**eartfelt thanks to all of you who have been part of my journey. To those who became my friends and to those who continuously supports me. Thank you so much to all my awesome sponsors who believes in me. I can feel the support! 10 months and I already encountered a lot of people who eventually became my friends. I would like to mention each of them by name but I'm afraid the list won't end. They are just a lot and I know they are just there somewhere. Anyways, be sure to check out the articles of these awesome users from my sponsorship block.
**S**ee and find out more about how awesome of a platform read.cash is. This article isn't enough to share all my experiences and to share how great of a platform this is. But I hope you'll be able to see it for yourself as you continue to explore the platform. If you happen to be a newbie, you'll see what I am talking about, just keep on writing and interacting. Be patient and you will experience all these greatness too.
If you noticed, this is an acrostic type of writing. I have been thinking about what kind of article will I write this time and I ended up with this. This is something I saw from the **#PromptFactory** but the original challenge was started by @McJulez. Ate Jane is also one of the users I know who often use this type of writing. https://read.cash/@meitanteikudo/prompt-factory-d13f5d4b
If you want, you can also exercise your mind by writing this way. I honestly didn't expect this to be this fun, quite challenging and easy at the same time.
Anyways, cheers for the past 10 months! Thank you for reading this far and thank you for being part of my journey. See you on the next one. :)
Read about my previous journey on the past months at this link: **Looking back for the past 9 months** https://read.cash/@immaryandmerry/looking-back-for-the-past-9-months-c6e8e21a
Article No. 165
Date: 21 November 2021
By: immaryandmerry
Topic: 10th month, journey
11.17.2007
*It has been 14 years since he was gone.*
For the whole year, there are 3 days on which I kinda feel sentimental. First is when it is Father's Day, second is his death anniversary and lastly, on his birthday.
**November 17, 2007**
Although I was just 7 years old that time, there is this scene that I can clearly remember. It was past midnight and its just me and my 2 brothers at home. My father is at the hospital that time and my mother is with him.
I was in the middle of my sleep alongside with my brothers. I woke up in the middle of the night, I don't know if that really happens or it's just from my dream. As I was saying, I woke up, rub my eyes and there, I saw our father in front of us. He's on his black sweater but he's just sitting there, maybe watching us sleep. Then there was a thick smoke and the next thing I saw, he was gone.
I woke up the next day and everyone at home was so busy cleaning the inside and the outside of the house. They were even setting up tents, tables and chairs. After the cleaning, my two teenage brothers sat side by side on a long chair and they were sniffing, they were crying.
I was so dumbfounded why the atmosphere was so heavy and I found out from my sister in law that our father is dead. As a kid, it didn't sink in. He's dead? Okay. That's just my reaction. It didn't affect me that bad and for the whole funeral, I didn't even shed a tear while everyone around me cries like a river.
Growing up
I was fully aware that my father is gone but seems like the weight of that fact hasn't sunk on me yet.
As the youngest, I have everyone's attention in the family. I was a spoiled kid, I admit. Whatever I want, they will get.
During my whole elemtary life, there weren't any longing. Until Junior High School, I can casually talk about how my dad died. It's not a taboo topic and everyome around me knows it already.
The longing
But as I grew up, the more that my eyes are opening to the realities of the world, that's when I started to feel the longing.
I don't exactly know when. Maybe it's when we had a recognition ceremony at school, when I saw my friend'a dad proudly put the medal on her. Or maybe it's when I was stuck at school with my classmate but few minutes later, my classmate's dad pick her up while I have no dad to do that for me.
Or maybe it's all the time. I mean everytime I saw a father and child having a bonding of their own. Whenever I see the closeness between father and child and how the father can do everything for his child.
I wasn't really that dramatic but I just woke up one day, feeling this way whenever I am seeing a father and child. I just developed a soft part toward dads and that is making me emotional.
It isn't that painful but there is longing. I guess, there will always be longing.
I always think about if I were lucky or not that my dad passed away when I was young. Lucky because I was too young to remember and I was too young to understand what was happening before. Or unlucky because I wasn't even able to have many memories with him unlike my siblings who was able to be with him for a long time.
My memories with him
I don't remember so many memories with him. Maybe I was just too young to remember but thankfully, there are still some that I can remember and I am really treasuring it in mind and in my heart and I am trying really hard not to forget it.
I remember that he was the one who taught me how to write. Unlike other kids, I didn't try tracing letters, he will write my name as my guide and I will have to copy that.
He was also the one who taught me how to add and subtract. My mother always says that my father is the smart one so the task of teaching me is on him.
My siblings memory of my father is that he is strict and disciplinarian. All of them had experience some spanking from him. But as for me, never did he gets mad at me. Never did he nag at me, and never did he hit me.
He was a smoker and I know it's bad for him. And everytime he'll ask me to buy him cigarettes, I always buy him biscuit instead. And he never scold me for that. He will just smile or laugh and we will eat the biscuit together.
I also know him as a joker. My cousins allways go to our house to call me so that we could play. And what my father always do is to hook his finger on their shirts and he'll always tell them that he can't remove it. So we always end up staying at home for a while before he lets us go.
There was also this one scene when my father sweep all the dried leaves and the trashes on our yard. He keeps it on one area and then burned it afterwards. It was in the morning and I woke up, went outside and that's when he saw me. He immediately stop on what he's doing and he prepared me my breakfast.
Being a curious kid, I picked up a stick, wrap a plastic on its edge and I place it on the fire. I played with it but it accidentally drops on the dried rice straws near it and since it's dry, the fire became big instantly.
It was 2 mountaisn of rice straws which my uncle own as the food for his carabaos and cows and I burned it in an instant. It was a huge fire and the entire neighborhood helped each other to stop it.
I thought I was a dead meat after that but my father just give me my food and on his tired voice, he just asked me to eat my breakfast like nothing happened.
Sadly, I can't remember any more memory with him. We didn't even have a photo together and so even his face is ready deteriorating in my mind. So these memories that I still know, I hold it dear in my heart and I hope to never forget it.
A day to remember
I once heard it from a Kdrama that I am watching and it's all about how people only remember the person's date of death and not their birthday.
Maybe it's because the date of their death is so painful and is something that we won't forget. But through the years on how we celebrate our father's death anniversary, I realized that it shouldn't be a sad day.
We should not remember the pain from his death but only the good memories that we have with him. He lived a good life and that is something that we should not forget.
We should celebrate the way he live and not the way he died. So it is indeed a day to remember. A happy day to remember, to reminisce all the good memories we have with him.
I honestly have a roller coaster of emotion as I write this. As I've said above, there will always be longing but such day as the day of his death will always be a celebration for us. Because what's not to be happy about? All our family always gather on his death anniversary. Then we will visit his grave, bring some good food, and spend the day together and have bonding with each other.
I don't know how my mom and my siblings handled his death but this is my point of view and my version of the story that I finally released for the very first time. I had a roller coaster of emotion as I write this but it was a nice feeling to finally let it all out.
I will be ending it here now. This is very personal and very close to my heart. I'm sorry for all the drama, don't worry, it's only for today that I am sentimental. It's just one of those days and tomorrow, I won't be anymore. Thank you so much for reading this far. I just wanna say that if your parents are still with you, treasure them dearly. Life is short so live it wisely.
Article No. 164
Date: 19 November 2021
By: immaryandmerry
Topic: Personal Blog, Memories
@immaryandmerry
