To whom it may concern...

Good day. I won't mention your name here because I expect that you know who you are. I'm writing this to let you know how much I appreciate your company. I've never had this much fun.

I'm sorry if lately my temper is somewhat short. If lately you feel that I'm too serious. If lately you feel that I'm being dramatic. Maybe is because like you, things are beginning to pile up and I feel that I am running out of time. I really need your help but I know that you're also busy. I respect you that much. So for the meantime, I guess I'll have to settle for a smile and a hug.

Just wanna share something with you... its excerpts from a song. I won't tell you the title. Give it a guess.

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I've been sittin' here Tryin' to find myself

I get behind myself I need to rewind myself

Lookin for the payback Listen for the playback

They say that every man bleeds just like me

And now I feel like number one Yet I'm last in life

And when your walls come tumbling down I will always be around

People don't know about the things I say and do

They don't understand about the shit that I've been through

I've been gone....I've been gone for way too long

Maybe I forgot all things I miss

Oh somehow I know there's more to life than this

I said it too many times And I still stand firm

You get what you put in And people get what they deserve

Still I ain't seen mine No I ain't seen mine

I've been giving just ain't been gettin' I've been walking down that line

So I think i'll keep on walking With my head held high

I'll keep moving on and only God knows why

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Take care always...

One week to go...

I've always been a sucker for dates and celebrations. I remember almost all the important events that happened in my life. And now, another one is fast approaching.

I believe that the reason we have birthdays is because we need a time once a year to "review" what we have done so far in our lives and at the same time plan for the future.

So hows my life been so far? I'm still a statistic (or should that be statistics?). In laymans terms, that's jobless. I'm a freakin newly grad and jobless 26 year old. Before I get into a "sulky" mood, I think I'll just look at the significant years (if you can call it that) of my life and see what has happened to me so far.

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12 years old - graduated valedictorian from my beloved garde school alma mater

- won the city's whiz kids tilt

- enrolled in a very good high school

16 years old - passed and enrolled in a cool university

- joined a great fraternity

17 years old - joined a political organization

- had my "worse" sem (12 units had a grade of 5.0 and 6 units had 3.0)

19 years old - had my worst sem ( ZERO units passed but still managed to stay in school, hah! beat that!)

- had my first girlfriend (we would last around 4-5 years)

23 years old - decided to go back to the province to finish my studies

24 years old - had my second girlfriend (would last for about 1 year and 11 months)

26 years old - graduated (at last)

- meet someone whom i thought i would never meet

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Thats about it. I think.

So what are my plans for the future??? Hmmmm. Here's a list so far of what I have in mind...

1) Finish my damn clearance so i can get my TOR

2) Finally decide if to continue with my tutorial in Tambo

3) Get a job by October or November

4) Take care of my "new" little sister

5) Quit smoking (eventually)

6) Visit the Great Wall of China

7) See France in a hot air balloon

I guess thats it for now... doesn't make sense now does it?

Murphy and the X-Factor

Ever heard of Murphy's Law? Although it's often misqouted (which is what I am also about to do), it goes something like this, "when something can go wrong, it will."

I believe though that Murphy is too negative. So I call it by another name. The X-factor. The X-factor is something that can either make or break something. Say you join a contest and you prepared well for it. It turns out the questions asked were difficult for you so you lost. On the other hand, say you joined just for the heck of joining and then you win. In both these cases, you had the X-factor.

There are other names for this. Good and Bad luck. Yin and Yang. Good and Bad Karma. Call it what you will. It's all the same.

The thing about the X-factor though is how you deal with it. Now I won't talk about the X-factor working for you except that you enjoy it. I wanna focus when it works against you.

What do you do then when it works against you? Simple. You accept it. Most people, when trouble smacks them in the face, they either run away from it or pretend its not there. What happens then is it snowballs. It becomes bigger until it reaches a point when they cannot handle it anymore and breakdown. Skeptics to this idea may say that they can handle it and have done it over and over again. But I say this, we all breakdown sometime. The question is just when.

So if you have problems, face it. If you can't solve it alone, then ask help.

Remember, though life is simple, its never easy.

College 101

We have many reasons for going to college. We want to make our parents happy. We want to get rich. We want to have a good future. In short, crap! So asking people why they are in college is useless. The good question would be, "why did you choose that particular course?"

I mean, why did you take up BS EE? BS BIO? AB ENG? If it was a personal choice, how personal was it? Did you really think hard and long about it and said to yourself, "I'm going be an engineer!" So how do we decide what course to take then?

Parents. This is the most obvious. When I say parents, this is two-fold. We take up the courses we are in because it is what our parents want or it is what they are and we want to be like them. These are usually engineering courses and those related to medicine.

Money. Undoubtedly one of the stongest consideration in choosing a course. Its because the money is there. It may be because there's a part of us that wants to swim in lots and lots of moolah! Engineering again is the product of these. As with nursing.

Childhood dream. Remember when you were young and your teacher asked you what you wanted to be when you grow up? Most of us probably answered "I want to be a doctor so I can help the sick!" Well, if you did, what do you think your younger self would say to you now? Students who choose education usually belong to this category.

Love of the subject. The academicians and those who are in the quest for meanings. Arts and science students are usually in this category. I mean if I were to take up AB English, I would do so not because I want to teach english, rather I want to write a book or maybe poems.

There are still many categories. But these four are the major ones.

For me though, it doesnt matter what course you take up and for what reason. Whats important is that when you graduate, you have to share what you learned. At the very least, the community within your reach must benefit from your knowledge. What use is earning millions if your next door neighbor cannot even afford to send his children to school.

Doctor Octavious was right when he said that, "intelligence is a privilege. A gift to be used for the good of mankind."

How about you? How have you been using what God has given you?