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!
