NO.7 APC non- smoking campaign

The campaign against smoking is really important to me because I lost both my parents because of cigarette. My father was a chain smoker and he did not realise the risks of cigarette to his health and he was diagnosed with lung cancer and after three months he passed away because of what cigarette did to his health.

8 years after my father passed away, my mother was also diagnosed with lung cancer because she inhaled the second hand smoke of my father, again, after three months she passed away. It’s really hard to lose our parents because of smoking.

Many of the smokers are not really aware of the risks of cigarette smoking.

I have many questions in my mind that I always ask to the smokers, like: “Why do you smoke?”

I asked students, employees, and even ordinary smokers why they smoke; and here are their common reasons:

Smoking is a great stress reliever:

The student reasoned out that it is to relieve their stress from school; from their subjects anxiety or tension from exam and they also want to relax themselves from pressure in school and family. They also think they can forget all their stress if they smoke.

Employees also think that if they’re pressured from their job or boss they need to smoke cigarette to relieve their stress. They feel calm and relax because they believe that taking a break from anything help the nerves. Even though it isn't confirmed that nicotine decrease anxiety or tension, many people start to smoke or continue smoking thinking that it relieves stress.

It’s a great conversation starter:

Most of the smokers when someone asked a fellow smokers for a light that’s the start of a new friendship. Like in the parking slot in APC, I observed that most of the students begin to bond with each other or talk while they are in smoking session and they look happy when they share cigarette with each other. More cigarette, more conversation; and the parking lot resembles a chimney because of the volume of smoke that comes from it; but the student don’t really care about it because they are enjoying their smoking session.

I remember when I asked an 18 years old boy why he smokes. He told me that it’s just for fun because most of his friends are smoking and he was curious so he try to smoke. He then started to enjoy smoking cigarette. I asked him if he knew the effects of smoking cigarette and he answered me “No. All I know is I’m enjoying smoking.” that’s when I felt sad for him because he really don’t care about his health.

Most of the smokers don’t know the risks of smoking or they know but they ignored it because they feel good and they think that smoking is helpful for them and they also don’t care also about the second hand smoke.

I really think that it’s unfair that smokers are smoking in public places like in APC parking area. I would like to tell them “Please think about yourselves and those people around you especially the children because they don’t have any idea of the risk of smoking and second hand smoke.”

Smokers need to be responsible because second hand smoke can cause very serious diseases. Both the smoker and the people around him are at a risk because of smoking. Tobacco smoke is harmful to smokers and non smokers, cigarette smoking cause many type of CANCER including cancer of the lungs, esophagus, larynx, mouth, kidney, bladder, 

pancreas, stomach and cervices as well as acute myloid leukemia.

To the students, chain smokers, and to the youth that start smoking: please stop or reduce your smoking, because you don’t realise the risks of cigarette to your health because you thinking that this is helpful to you and you’re enjoying it; but you are really, really wrong! Cigarette is not a cure for your stress or a good way to relieve boredom or a good way to bond with your friends.

Cigarette smoking can harm nearly every organ, destroy your health, your body, destroy people around you especially your future.

There are many things you can do to relieve your stress; you can sleep, watch movie, talk to your family to become relaxed, you can bond with your friends without smoking cigarette and many many more things that we can make happy and relaxed. We need to enjoy our life that God gave us and we need to appreciate what we have and especially we deserve to have a healthy lifestyle. Life is so good and we must enjoy every moment, everyday because we cannot bring back the past..smoke free+healthy lifestyle=happy and long life.

NO.6 the movie "turn left turn right"

Turn left turn right is a romantic drama movie about two lovers, John Liu, an aspiring concert violinist and Eve Choi, a literary translator who prefers to write poetry. The two are destined

for each other, but destiny just keeps on playing tricks on them.

When I watched this movie it filled me with mixed emotions, like excitement, sadness, feeling in love, and joy. I was wondering why the movie was entitled Turn left turn right; then I realised that probably it’s because John Liu keeps on turning left while Eve Choi keeps on turning right; but I was really glad that at the end they finally found Each other.

I’ve learned from this movie that there are many things in life that we don’t know and can’t control; and that all the actions that we make has its consequence. There are also many kinds of people that we me in this life time and one of them might be our destiny. I believe in second chances, be it in career, in love life, or even in our daily life. All of us deserve a second chance, that’s why if we fail we should not be afraid to start again or wait for the right time.

Yes, sometimes it may feel like  destiny is deliberately playing tricks on us, and that we may feel like giving up an just accepting our fate, but this should not discourage us. Each one of us has a unique destiny therefore we should pursue it in different ways. While searching for our destiny we could already learn a lot of important things like being strong, patient, wise and not losing hope; just like the characters in the movie. Both of them were very patient, waiting for the right time. Even if they have missed a lot of chances, they did not lose hope.

Sometime we think that we already found our destiny like the character of Dr.Hu and Ruby they though their destinies are for John and Eve, but they were wrong. They were heartbroken and reluctant to introduce John and Eve to each other, but they realised that they are destined for each other.

I had a relationship before I thought that I already found my destiny, but I was wrong. Sometime you need to make a decision for the better no matter how hard it may seem at first. We made a decision that’s better for both of us, we broke up in a nice way and I know we decided for our own good so that we could both grow more and we gave ourselves a chance to search for our destiny.

Now I'm willing to wait for my own destiny. I know I will find him in the perfect time. I will meet the right person for me. Maybe I need to go through it all to discover myself and how to become strong, patient and better person.

There is a saying "if two people meet and they both fall in love that is destiny, but no matter how many times two people and one of them did not fall in love with the other then it’s not destiny."

I know we meet lot of people in our daily life and there are times that we think we meet our destiny and if in the end we fail don’t be afraid to try and give it another chance, maybe destiny teaches us to be patient and strong and every person we met we learned from them. In a perfect time it would happen that the universe would let you meet once more, indeed timing is everything.

Life is like a road, most of the time we should find the straight path so that we could reach our destination faster, but sometimes we have to travel the winding road where our journeys might take longer because of all the twists and turns. But no matter road we choose to travel, what matters is the lessons and experiences that we get from our journey.

Our life depends on what we chose, whether the right decision or wrong decision; but the important thing is whether we made a right or wrong decision we learn how to handle the consequences. What’s important is all of these experiences in life make us a better person.

NO.5 "ANG TATAY MONG KALBO"

Last Saturday, my classmates and I watched the theater play "ANG TATAY MONG KALBO". It was one of
the requirements in our EEP subject. It was my first time to watch a theater play, that's why I didn't know
 what to expect. "Ang tatay mong kalbo" was written by Isagani Cruz and directed by Levvie Congson and 
Cled Fransis Laranang.

The characters are Mr.and Mrs.Santos they are sweet husband and wife but they argued sometimes 

because of the nonsense they are talking about. Other characters are Mr.and Mrs. Reyes they are husband 

and wife but when they first meet they don't remember each other after, until  later on they realised that 

they are husband and wife. Other characters are Maria, who is a maid of Mr.and Mrs. Santos. She's really 

fat but funny. Hepe is a friend of Mr.and Mrs. Santos. When he visited Mr.and Mrs. Santos' house he was

 telling lots of story and suddenly Maria appeared and they recognised each other. They are lovers. Mr.and

 Mrs. Santos told Hepe that Maria is just a maid but Hepe still accepted Maria because he loves her.

When I was watching the play at first I was really confused. I didn't understand what they were talking about,
and the fact that they kept repeating their lines confused me even more.

The duration of the play is about 2 hours. I tired to understand and get what is their point. I didn't get why
they have to express their thoughts to the audience. But later on i realised that the play could somehow be
reflecting real life. Sometimes there are things that we do not understand and sometimes the repetitiveness
of our daily life bores us. But this only teaches us to be patient and to try and understand things as best we
 can because sometimes we might thinks what's happening is all nonsense but later on we'll find out that
it has a meaning or a lesson to be learned. 

 The confusion becomes a  challenge, boredom becomes excitement and nonsense becomes entertainment.

When you looked back in our life maybe we'll smile and tell ourselves that i've learned from my mistakes and
now you will be matured enough to choose what you want in you life..
That is life, sometimes we feel confused,we don't understand everything, we get bored but despite all of
that life is really full of joy, colourful, and entertainment.

NO.4 THE MOVIE "GENERAL ANTONIO LUNA"

I've watched General Antonio Luna, a week ago with my niece and my sister. At first I was curious because every time I watch the news or go to social media sites, the movie is receiving a lot of complements and good reviews; and now I understand why; it’s because it’s an excellent movie.

 I've learned many lessons from it. It is good that this kind of movie was made for the student/youth who wants to know more about the history of the Philippines, although I know that it’s not 100% historically accurate, I still believe that it was able to capture a very important essence of our history.

I admired General Luna for his leadership of the Philippine Revolutionary Army during the Philippine-American War. He had a brilliant idea; he assembles an army of 4,000 soldier by declaring his infamous "article one" to fight the American soldiers led by General Arthur McArtur Jr.

General Luna is one braved soldier he fight for the right of liberty of our country, he sacrificed his life for us.

Until now I still remember the words of general Luna in the movie,(Business or freedom? Country or family? Freedom can't be won by protecting their love one's, we need to pay the price, which is blood and sweat. We have to jump into the abyss. We have an enemy bigger than the Americans…ourselves..

I am really proud to have a Filipino hero like him. Our heroes made it possible for us to experience the freedom that we are enjoying now.

I felt sad because General Luna was killed by his fellow Filipinos, and that he did not die in the war. I have many questions in my mind like, why do Filipinos kill their fellow Filipino? I know nowadays this is still happening, but I hope that all Filipinos will be reunited as one country, one nation. We need to continue to protect our country, to love our country and to love our fellow Filipinos because we are live in one country, one nation and we need to treasure the right of liberty from our Filipino heroes. Be proud that you are born and raised as a Filipino!

I’m really thankful that there are people who make this kind of movie. From the director, Direct Jerrol Tarong,The Producer Artikulo Uno Production film, the writters who had a brilliant idea to make this movie and especially John Arcilla as General Antonio Luna is definitely excellent playing the role he did a very good job of representing Genaral Luna. To the cast, staff and crew behind this movie; you deserve to win the best foreign language film at the 88th Academy Award. Good luck and God bless to all of you!

NO.3 MY HOBBY "CROSS STITCH"

My hobby is doing cross stitch, I start when I was 20 years old. Most of the time I’m doing cross stitch when I am in the mood, when I want to be alone or sometimes when I’m stressed. It’s a good way for me to relax because it relieves stress, moreover it teaches you how to be patient, and the best part about it is I actually love what I’m doing. Loving what you are doing is an important factor, because sometimes when you make a mistake you have to start all over again, and there are even times when you would not appreciate your work until you finish it. It would be up to you on how you would handle the difficulties that comes along doing a cross stitch, you could either be frustrated or you could enjoy what you’re doing, be patient and be proud of yourself once you finished because you’ll see that you did better than you expected. I did a cross stitch of angels, "Angel of autumn and angel of grace and angel of light.” I chose these angels because I believe in angels, I know each of one of us has a guardian angel. I chose autumn even if we don’t have autumn season here in the Philippines, because I really like when the leaves fall from trees, all is quiet and serene and everything turns brown and drab. The “Angel of grace” brings with her open heart that allows love to pour in abundantly. Like her, I also want to open my heart to the people who needs my help. The “Angel of light”, comforts me whenever I’m experiencing a dark time in my life. Whenever I see her, it feels like she’s giving me light and hope; she is guiding me to choose the right path. I finished this piece in two years, although I was not working on it everyday.   "ANGEL OF AUTUMN" " ANGEL OF GRACE"  "ANGEL OF LIGHT" Another piece that I made was " My secret garden and my summer garden" This is the one of my favorites, because I really love flowers and plants, for me they are quite relaxing. That is why one of my dreams is to own a farm. I want to live a quiet and simple life outside the city. This always reminds me of going back to my province. I recall all the good memories that I had there; the happy but simple life, the trees and the flowers in the backyard, and the kind neighbors that we had. Those simple things in life always gives me pleasure. I finished this piece in three years. "SECRET GARDEN" "SUMMER GARDEN" One piece that I made was "The wedding". This was my wedding gift to my two closest friends. I chose to make them a cross stitch for their wedding day because I want them to remember me, and I want them to know how important they are to me as a friend. I wanted to be a part of their  wedding memories. I managed to finish each of them in 6 months. "UNITED MARRIAGE" "HAPPY WEDDING"  My latest cross stitch is "The last supper" but I haven’t finished it yet because I was quite busy for a while. I’m hoping to finish it before Christmas. This is the very close to my heart and very especial because the last supper is symbolic of Jesus Christ how he loves us, He suffered and sacrificed His life to safe us.. "THE LAST SUPPER" Cross stitch for me is comparable to our life, at first you don’t know how to start, there are many obstacles or we make wrong decisions in our life but we always need to start again. We just need time, focus, patience and love for ourselves and others. Don’t lose hope everything is in the right time and it depends on us how we would handle it how to became a better person. If you face all obstacle and you won’t give up, in the right time you will achieve all your dreams and you will be a better and stronger person.

NO.2 THE SIMPLE "JEM" FULL OF HOPE

My family and my friends call me "JEM" I am 31 years old and single. I was born in December 29,1983. I grew up in a small town of TUMAUINI province of ISABELA. My parents both already passed away, my father 10 years ago and my mother almost 2 years ago. I have seven siblings and I’m the youngest.  They already have their own families and most of them are staying in our province, while one of my sisters and I are staying here in Mandaluyong. We spend every Christmas with them and my nieces. When I finished my high school at School of Saint Matthias, I moved here in Mandaluyong with my sister, I was not able to continue my college education before because of financial problem, I chose to work. I worked in different kinds of jobs. I did not think of going back to college because I enjoyed working and I earn money for myself.

I’ve been living in Mandaluyong for almost 14 years. I’m quite shy but friendly, I don’t have lots of friend but I have a few, real friends. I live in the same tower with my sister but in a different unit . I love living alone, it gives me a sense of being independent. I run my own small business were we are supplier in a university. I’m happy with my life because I can buy anything I want, I drive my own car, and I can go anywhere I want. I thought I’m satisfied with what I am, but I was wrong. I want to become more successful in my life. I realized, how can I expand my small business to become big and more successful if I don’t know how to manage and how to handle it? I realized the importance of having a degree. I want to earn my degree and I want to have confidence in myself and I want to do more. I want to become a successful business woman someday and I want to have a successful career in the future. I want my parents be proud of me even if they are not with me. I know they are happy because I made the right decisions in my life.

I decided to enrol in Asia Pacific College. I took BSBA business management. I want to learn how to manage a business. This is my first term in APC and all are subjects are English. I know this subject teaches me a lot on how to properly communicate in terms of business. This is very challenging for me because I changed my lifestyle, it’s different now, I need to wake up early and go to school every day. I need to study and do my assignments. Unlike before, I was in charge of my schedule. But I’m willing to cope with it because I am committed to learning and earning my degree. I know it’s not too late for me to earn my degree to became more successful in the future and to became a better person.

NO.1 My first term in college

I'm Jemarie,31 years old and single. Despite my age this is my first term in college.I was not able to continue my college education before because i chose to work and i thought work and earning money is enough for my daily needs. I thought i was satisfied with what I'am but i was wrong. I want to be more successful, I realized the importance of having a degree especially today to become successful in the future. So i decided to go back to school at ASIA PACIFIC COLLEGE. Honestly this is a very challenging for me because some of my classmate are younger than me.

My first week in class was really hard  for me because its's the first I'm going back to school after 14 years. I felt very nervous,scared and anxious because i know that i need to refresh my mind. I need to learn how to effectively study my lesson and how to do my assignment. It was not an easy  adjustment for me because sometimes. I'm at a lost for what to do. I needed to ask my classmate for help.I needed to go back to basics.

Some of  my challenging ordeals are having to speak impromptu in front of the class and doing my assignment after school. I actually spent a lot of time doing my blog because I don't know how to register its something new for me, but I'm really willing to learn.

Going  to school is always a challenge because I don't  know what to expect. At time i feel pressured because  don't want to fail. I know that  i have to finish my  degree on time because of my age. This is just the start of my college life, and I know that there are a lot more challenges ahead, and I', very willing to face these obstacles, I won't give up. I try to take things positively that's why I always make it a point to go to mass before going class. Doing this fills me with good vibes and I know that God will give me the wisdom and strength to do better.
I know that this is just the first step in achieving my dream to become more successful in the future and to be a better person. I know that everything happens for a reason, and when you trust in God there is no need to fear