A Mandatory Back-to-School Post

The mandatory back-to-school pic. :)

When you found someone who supports all your obsessions, "kalokohan" & "kagagahan" you're one lucky person. But apart from that, when you've also found that someone who encourages you to always seek for more professional growth, trust me. You are one BLESSED among BLESSED. Hence, you have to value that person as for he/she is a keeper.

"The Husband" long before I married him had been consistently and persistently persuading me to enroll for my Master's Degree. However, me being a snug as a bug in rug loves the comfort of my room with a cup of coffee in one hand a good book in the other during my free time. I've enjoyed the company of my books and some movies on weekend and some sort of out-of-the-city whereabouts. Yes, I'm indeed both an introvert and extrovert rolled into one body.  But apart from those, what really made me decide not to go to school was the idea of staying in a school from Mondays-Fridays and yet I will still have to spend my weekdays in again another school. How tiring and excruciating that thought! Blaaaaaah! 

He, on the other hand, had  never missed a single time to remind me of enrolling. This then went on for weeks to months to years. Until last month, (insert drum rolls here, hahah) when I finally decided to enroll. "The Husband's" motivation, which I will be sharing to you guys soon enough, really made me pursue my MA. Other than his way of motivating me, I got into thinking as to why won't I give it a try since "the soon to-be-babies" are way too out of the picture yet and while missing him on my free time is truly a palpable ache in my chest. And so yeah, finally, I enrolled and the rest becomes HISTORY! :)

a  very bad shot  taken by a very good friend,  Harry Mhel. ahahahha

. . . taking this shot lasted for quite some time before Harry got to perfect the pic. hahah!

At long last! hahahhaa 

. . . the beginning of a wonderful friendship <3
Left to Right: Charity, Rhea, Ate Jocelyn, Dea, Glenn, Yours Truly and AJ

. . . girls' thing in the comfort room never gets out of style. hahahah
Left to Right : Ate Jocelyn, Charity, Dea, Rhea, Meeeheheheheh :)

Photo grabbed from our Professor, Dr. Elsie Dajao

As much as I'd like to keep the rest as history, I couldn't stop myself as well in sharing what has been newly found and built for my first class. A friendship with these great people. Now that I have them with me in this journey, I know for sure how wonderful it is to continue learning, to continue making improvements for myself while sharing it with them. 

And just last weekend, we all were successfully able to finish one subject. Cheers to this minute leap of success! :) :) :)

And so we sealed our Teaching of Reading and Literature class with a little celebration. Indeed we were blessed to be under the tutelage of one great professor in the person of Dr. Elsie L. Dajao who IS never too high and intimidating to share with us our little success. :)

Photo grabbed from Charity :)

Photo grabbed from Dr. Elsie L. Dajao

A Day in a Life of A TeachCEEr

Teach. Teacher. Teaching.

Three of the words I once loathed. In fact, if you have been following my posts, in a revelation I had in 2013 ,  you will for sure know the reason why teaching was not my first priority.

But then, it must have been part  of God's grandeur plan that you are reading this and I am at the present time a . . . teacher. :)

Being a teacher is indeed a tough job. 

It's like being a gardener who takes even the smallest and less likely to sprout kind of seed, plants it in the ground and nurtures it. Someone who keeps it from the weeds, provides water, and gives access to a good amount of sunlight needed for its growth.  Someone who is hopeful enough to see that tiny seed sprout into a flourishing plant. 

It's like being a doctor who has to attend to a lot of patients when in call. Someone who makes sure that the individuals whom he focus his career are healthy enough to partake the life lessons they are to learn in the course of life. 

It's like being a surfer who requires observation than action. Knowing how to push up, stand and guide your board is useless if you are not in tune with the ocean, its movement and timing. Each wave is unique and never will you enjoy  the one you're on now again. 

It's like being an artist whose true art contains heart, passion, emotion, experience and finesse to fine-tune the idea into a beautiful product. Someone who understands the fundamental of their craft but they're also able to insert a large portion of themselves. Teachers, too, see their students as their masterpieces, and they draw on more than just a set of code of techniques to teach their learners. They don't just paint with varied brushes but with their students' array of colors - their personalities.

It's like being a juggler who manages to fling three, four, five and even more balls in the air without letting them fall while looking effortlessly entertaining. In the same way, teachers manage to somehow balance students' needs, tend to colleagues,  communicate with parents, plan for lesson, homework, compute grades and make the rest of the forms while maintaining some semblance of a personal life.

But as a teacher for more than half a decade , my most favorite comparison is that being a teacher is  like being a  mother. A passionate mother. Someone whose main concern is the well-being of the children she has in her classroom. Someone whose aim is to produce well-equipped individuals in this globally competitive world. And someone whose heart belongs to her learners forever.

As our school, Ozamiz City National High School, celebrated The World's Teachers' Day last October 05, 2017, I'd like to express my heartfelt greetings to the great teachers whom I have considered as my best mentors and have inspired me in one way or another.

First, to my school principal Sir Pat Rara and my Department Head in TLE, Mrs. Rodelia Balcita. the ones I consider as my parents who have guided me and have given me the best opportunities as I began my teaching years in the public school up until now.

Second, to my best partner-in-everything, from food to laag and to other trippings, to a sister/mother who has been constantly at my side and in all moods I am in, Mam Merit, salamat kau sa tanan Mam for giving me pieces and thousands of advice and for helping my teaching and life endeavors easier. With you I have found a mentor and a very good (usahay maldita, ahahaha)  life-long friend.

To the teachers I will always look up to, my sister from different mother, Mam Darel, 

the teacher I aspire to be, Mam Yields,

and to that "strikta kaayo"  teacher I had in my high school years who is now a very great mentor and colleague Mam Gelyn,  thank you ninyo for guiding me and for sharing wonderful friendship with me. :)

To another mother and sister who were not with me for they have been given great merit and recognition, Mam Uriarte and Mam Rosell, CONGRATULATIONS kaau ninyu. I am one proud follower of your steps down here. Truly, the two of you are stars from above I will always be inspired watching from a far and wish someday I can also shine the way you two did. :)

To my newest family, my SSC Family - Harry Mhel, Jhimson, Jane, Elona, John, Mam Cecil, Mam Christy, and Mam Flor (who also celebrated teachers's day with Mam Rosell and Maam Bebe), thank you guys for welcoming me whole-heartedly in your family and though we are different kinds of flowers,  may we continue to bloom together  beautifully in this garden called - TEACHING.

And to the rest of my friends who I have not mentioned individually, you all are in my thoughts. Once again,

HAPPY WORLD TEACHERS' DAY TO ALL OF US! :)

The Fading Light

 (A Random Thought in Desolate Oblivion) 

As individuals, regardless of what our professions are , we emit light so others may see their paths and may shine through us. Sometimes we are way too unconscious to notice this, but more often we truly are. Sometimes we are not so blissful about it, but more often we feel felicitous in doing so. Sometimes we put limitation in sharing our light, but more often we consume ourselves so that others may succeed.

But what if we, being the candle to the people around us, stop giving off our light? What if we try to shut ourselves off so we can live a little bit longer? By then, will we become a part of the Selfish Faction? Or even worse to the insensitive one?

In cases wherein the candle's light is being valued by the ones around, it shines even brighter. However, when it becomes neglected and unappreciated, its light slowly fades out.

Photo from http://www.medievalists.net/2015/01/candlelight-offers-little-light/

These are then the instances  it wants to be placed in a nook and just stay unnoticed and not being ignited. It's the crucial part wherein its fire thinks to give more life of the candle itself.  But will this then give glee to the candle?

Like any other candle, it is given much honor and value when the ones around benefit from it, when the ones around see its fire. The candles are just way too generous of their light. And when  they think of not being kindled, their thoughts go like:

"Can they still see?"

"Will they be guided?"

"What if they've chosen the road not taken?"

And the most inconsolable one:

"What if THEY stumble and fail because of my absence?" 

Sometimes the world gives a candle an all-at-the-same-lighting-or-nothing-at-all kind of chances which make itself feels like shutting off forever, because sometimes, life just sucks. IT SUCKS. And just like this sequitur, it sucks!

  

The Girl You Must Date :)

"To the girl who reads by flashlight, who sees dragons in the clouds, who feels most alive in the worlds that never were, who knows magic is real, to that girl who dreams. . .

this is for YOU." (Photo from web)

Just lately, while I was busy trying to search , by all means how to bring back to  life my site , I've randomly opened a wonderful article I found so relatable. Hence,  I thought of publishing it and "why not" it's worth sharing though by the way and so here it goes:

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who ha a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card when she was still twelve. 

Find a girl who reads. You'll know what she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.  She's the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds out the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages from an old book in a second hand book shop? That's the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow. 

She's the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. The non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she's kind of engrossed already. Lost in the world of the author's making.  Sit down.  She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted.  Ask her if she like the book. 

Buy her another cup of coffee. 

Let her know that you really think of Murakami.  See if she got through the first chapter of the fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce's Ulysses, she's just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or if she would like to be Alice. 

It's easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday. for Christmas, and for anniversaries. 

Give her the gifts of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cumming. Let her know that you understand that words are love.  Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by God, she's going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does. 

She got to give it a shot somehow. 

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world. 

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failures always leads up to climax. Because girls who can understand that all things will come to an end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two. 

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight Series. 

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 a.m. clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her.  You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She'll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for awhile, they always are. 

You will propose on a hot air balloon. or during a rock concert.Or very casually, next time she's sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn't burst or bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe on the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots. 

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you'd better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads. 

Or better yet, date w girl who writes." 

******

And to share to you a little something special, my ex boyfriend just married her girlfriend who reads. A. LOT. :)