JOURNEYING TO A BEGINNING OF A NEW LIFE

                One fair morning, a pregnant woman together with her two sons about 3 and 2 years old, walked along the grassy road in the farm. She was heading to the workplace of her husband, to the father of her sons. While walking, she felt tremendous pain coming from her womb. Yes you’re right! She’s going to give birth but wait, there’s no one she could look for help and in just a blink of an eye, a man carrying a heavy bag with a plastic of bread on his hand stood panicking before her. He carried the pregnant woman to his house together with the two cute little boys; for he knew the woman couldn’t resist the pain anymore. He looked for someone what we called a “paltera” and when he came back he had already found a paltera named “Nang Monday” in the nearby house in the farm. Nang Monday was not a strange for them because she’s a well-known paltera in their barrio. When they arrived, the pregnant woman felt uneasy and she knew once in a while that the baby she was carrying about 9 months was going to go out excitedly. Nang Monday helped her and said “push…push…” The woman pushed out the baby and the only thing she heard before she lost her presence of mind was the cry of her beautiful daughter. She smiled and then suddenly closed her eyes. Nang Monday cleaned the baby and cut the umbilical cord that attaches her to her mother. Yes I’m that daughter we’ve been talking with but I’m only pretending beautiful. That man was my responsible father and the two cute little boys were my unserious but helpful brothers. The woman was my very beautiful mother where I inherited my own beauty. I really thanked my mother and father because they were the one who gave me life most especially to the Almighty Father. I thanked them for the opportunity in starting my journey in this beautiful world!

THE THING I NEVER HAD

          “Fretzy, don’t leave the classroom yet. I have something to tell you”, ma’am Marie June Bautista said. She was our English teacher during our Grade 2.

          “Yes ma’am. Hat is that?” I replied softly.

          “you are going to be our contestant in English Declamation for the upcoming Literary and Musical Contest”, she added. My blood felt the tense in the air and I began to felt cold. I suddenly replied her with a yes without any hesitation. I went home after that and I couldn’t believe what ma’am had said. I told my mother about it and she was very happy when she heard about it. The next morning, ma’am Bautista gave t me my piece and I read the title, “Florante at Laura”. When I touched the bond papers printed with the dialogues of the characters, I felt doubted because I first thought the positive and negative sides. Positive, because I know that I have something to showcase, that I could build myself confidence. However, there are negative instances like I am doubting myself if I could do it and nervous ran in my body cells and being shy shaken me a lot.

          But indeed, I bravely memorized my piece every afternoon in our house. My mother taught me of some of the lines which I cannot pronounced well. In school, ma’am Bautista trained me a lot but sometimes I felt nervous because I can’t perfectly do it. The day when the contest came, my mind eventually turned as an empty bottle. I delivered my piece and at first I already knew that I’m not gonna won on that contest. I realized that I am lack of what we called self-confidence. I doubted myself that’s why I’m not helping myself. The contest ended up without calling my name as one of the winners of that category but I’m not really disappointed of what happened.

          Indeed, I realized that confidence really brings out the very best in every person, the very best in me that I never had during the contest.

A FAREWELL DAY

          All of us are send by our parents in school to know everything, to learn the battles in life and to face the problem counteracting with us. You cannot proceed to secondary education without undergoing in elementary education.

          Elementary years are very memorable for me. This is where I learned many lessons not only in school life but also in the real life, utter different words, phrases, sentences, know the parts of my body and many others. This is also where I acquainted myself to other people most especially to my dear classmates and to my lovely and gorgeous teachers.

          Every battle has its own end….and for the eight years for staying at my beloved alma mater, it was hard for me to finally bid goodbye.

          The day of graduation came and I saw different faces…the face of triumph for they will savor the fruit of their labor, the face of happiness for their untiring parents and the face of sadness for they will no longer see each other. After so many years, here we are now, waiting for several hours to be soon called as graduates. The program ended and we had our picture-taking. My classmates tried to smile while others cannot control their feelings and emoted a lot. Me, I don’t know what to fell because graduation is indeed a remarkable event that happened in my life and to feel happy and sad or even mixed emotions combined in myself. I realized its okay to feel sad because it takes many years for them to see each other and might be a lifetime. However, there’s no reason to be sad for me because this is my goal…this is the right path that I should accept and a step towards my success.

          Moreover, that day was a farewell day for all of us. Goodbye to my alma mater and hello to my own future!  

LOVING WHAT I AM

          We all know that we all came from our old ancestors specifically from our native Itas and Malays. We can see the evidence as of today. Noticed some of the people they have curly hair, black complexion and others until now believe in Gods and Goddesses of the nature and superstitious beliefs.

          One day, our teacher asked me if I could be their contestant in Buwan ng Wika together with my classmate Jason Desaca representing for the Grade 2 in that contest. Through our curly hairs, not as darkly black complexion, our teachers were confidence that we will win in the contest. My parents also supported me but that time I was really ashamed of myself because my mother taught me some that I could use in the contest. It was really embarrassing!

          The day came for the contest and I was nervously shaking on the stage. After all the contestants showed their selves finally the announcing of winners broke my peace of mind. I began again tensioning myself and felt cold eventhough I had a partner. The master of the ceremony called the third placer…and the second placer. I was hopeless and accepted the fact that we would not won that first place anymore but the announcer called the first place winners as Grade 2. I couldn’t believe it, we won! Our parents jumped with aces of joy I thought. We stepped forward and everybody clapped their hands.

          At first, I doubted myself if we would won in the contest because of our simple costume but indeed I realized  that this is what really I am and loving what I am really matters a lot for me.

MAMA, MY FIRST UTTERED WORD

If you are a mother and you have a baby having an age of about 1 to 2 years old most preferably you would like to hear your child utter and said a word.

          When I was young my parents always forced me to speak words but they were always disappointed because I can’t do it. My mother often spoke words like mama and papa and hoped that I could repeat those words but no words came out of my tongue. Until the day came that while my mother was cooking I was playing with my toys and suddenly I called and said “mama”. She looked back and hugged me with tears in her eyes….tears of joy because after so many years and months of waiting I finally uttered a word.

MY FIRST WALK ON THIS EARTH

          When we say about the word “walk”, we merely prefer to as series of steps that a person do. For an adult person, walk is just only a simple easy to do but for a growing baby just like me, walk is the hardest thing to do.

          Learning how to walk is a very difficult lesson most especially for babies that are undergoing in the stage of toddler. I began to practice walking when I was about 1 year old and finally walking without the guide of my parents at about 1 year and 3 months. My parents felt fulfillment for they saw their achievement and success in my first walk. I never remembered that day anymore but I will keep it in my mind and heart always that one day in the past I had made the greatest success through my first walk on this Earth!