Friday, July 2, 2021
Seeing Orhers
Sunday, January 24, 2021
A Long Awaited Answer for the people's comment
First and foremost I would like to apologize to all that gave their comment on the oratorical piece and the same time thank you so much for your comments. I started this blog as a therapy for my depression because at that time I had just lost the love of my life, my husband. Honestly I would sometimes peek to edit one of the post I made but for the most of the decade since my blog was created, me posting rambling thoughts, I had never, even once, in all that time look at the comment section since I never thought that this post of mine would be even catch anybodies eye, until now. To all of those who had commented my deepest apologies for taking a decade before answering your question. The reason that I kept this piece was that this was the ONLY piece and type of contest I had won. I tried once when I was grade 3 or 4, I just froze my stage fright was traumatizing that I never, even I my nightmares, would think of going up on stage and recite anything. I won this oration I was already 3rd yr. high school and the only reason why I became a contestant was my fluency in English to top it off my teacher made sure that I was the last of 10 contestants, like adding the cherry on top, I was the only one who had a different piece to orate. and that was not the least omnimouse thing happening on that contest I was challenged by a well known seasoned timer contestant hogging all the gold medals from balagtasan, talumpati and declamation. Me being a carefree person I did not know I was the reason he represented his class on that contest. It was brought to my attention the next day of school. After that I never again went up in any stage.
To all those who had placed their comments concerning the oratorical piece, to be honest that piece was not written for an oration it was written as a speech for winning the presidential position of school council in Ateneo back then. To those who said it was a great piece, well I could not agree more because the author of this piece is the son of my only idol in the field of journalism, in my opinion to which I can proudly say and would not accept any contradictions, the great Louie Beltran. My English teacher gave me a cut out from the editorial page of Manila Bulletin it was the one that was printed on the side of the page.
Monday, June 24, 2019
Chinese Drama Watched
It seems that I have to make a pause on my Kdrama marathon. I have watched almost all on my list so I'm currently on Chinese TV Drama series and the are as follows:
1. Ten Miles of Peach Blossom
2. Song of Pheonix
3. Scarlet Heart
4. Scarlet Heart 2
5. The Legend of Zu
6. The Eternal Love
7. Princess Agent
8. Nervana on Fire
9. General and I
10. Ice Fantacy
11. Lost Love in Time
12. Men with Swords 1
13. Men with Swords 2c
14. The King's Woman
15. Rakshasa Street
16. The Starry Night, The Starry Sea
17. My Mr. Mermaid
18. Perfect Match
19. Eternal Love 2
20. Fated to Love You
21. The Starry Night, The Starry Sea 2
22. A Love so Beautiful
23. My Mr. Mermaid
24. Dear Prince
25. Switch of Fate
26. The Rise of Pheonixes
27. Lavander
28. Ashes of Love
29. Daughter of Flames 30. Love and Destiny. 31. The Wolf Princess. 32. Prince of Wolf. 33. The Destiny of White Snake. 34. Novoland: Eagle Flag. 35. Love Lost in Time. 36. Listening Snow Tower. 37. Love and Redemption. 38. An Oriental Odyssey
In the midts of my drama craze, may it be Korean or Chinese, I took a detoure to watch a Japanese drama. It is not yet certain if I will shift to this but if tbe day would come that I have run out of drama series from the two surely it would be expected that a third list would be made.
1. Hanayori Dango
2. Joshu Naotora - Female War Lord
3. Your My Pet
4. Hakuoki SSL: Sweet School Life
Friday, August 24, 2018
SOCIETIES NORMS
If you're skinny, you're on drugs. If you're fat, you need to lose weight. If you're dressed up, you're conceited. If you're dressed down, you've let yourself go. If you speak your mind, you're a b*!@%. If you don't say anything, you're a doormat. If you cry, you're a drama queen. If you’re sociable you're a party animal. If you stay to yourself, you’re detached. YOU can't do anything without being criticized. We live in a society where people can't survive if they're not judging the next person. Love me or hate me, but you will never change me. Believe that.... Get to know people before judging.... If you're proud of who you are copy and paste this with a pic of you. X
Friday, June 9, 2017
Korean TV Drama Watched
The first foreign series that made an impresion on me was a Japanise series "HANATORI DANGGO" and "FULL HOUSE". I have had a Korean TV Drama phase in which I had almost watched all of the recommended top or best, even the not so good ones. Like other fans I have mine and watched the tv dramas they had made in the past. Most of the series I have watched are historical based type of drama. My list is as follows:
HISTORICAL DRAMA
1. Dong yi
2. Jumong
3. Yi San
4. Kingdom of the Wind
5. Emperor of the Sea
6. Arang and the Magistrate
7. The Scholar Who Walks the Night
8. Huwarang
9. Dr. Jin
10. SungKungKwan Scandal
11. Faith
12. Jackpot
13. Love in the Moonlight
14. The Kings Face
15. Scarlet Heart: Ryeo
16. Iljea
17. Warrior Beak Dong Soo
18. GunMan in Joseon
19. Flower in Prison
20. The Great Doctor
21. Queen In Hyuin's Man
22. Shine or Go Crazy
23. Moonlight Lovers (The moon that
dawns the night)
24. The King Loves
25. Mirror of the Witch
26. Queen for Seven Days
27. Hwajung
28. My Sassy Girl
29. 100 Days My Prince
30. Moon Embracing the Sun
31. Mr. Sunshine
32. The Night Watchmans Diary
33. The Great Queen Seon Deok
34. Jewel in the Palace
35. Slave Hunters
36. The King 2 Heart
37. My Princess 38. Mr. Queen. 39. Country 40. Tales of Nokdu. 41. My Sassy Girl. 42. Haechi.
ROMANTIC/COMEDY DRAMA
1. My Love Donna
2. Winter Sonata
3. Fated to Love You
4. Balde Man
5. Blood
6. Doctor Strange
7. Good Doctor
8. Secret Hotel
9. Secret Garden
10. Unvontrolably Fond
11. The Heirs
12. My Girl
13. Full House 2
14. The Bride of the Water God
15. My Seacret Romance
16. Suspecious Partner
17. My Venus
18. Emergency Couple
19. Vampire Detective
20. My Love from the Star
21. The Lier and His Lover
22. Chief Kim
23. Prime Minister and I
24. Noble My Love
25. Kill Me, Heal Me
26. Cheese is the Trap
27. My Shy Boss ( My Introvery Boss)
28. Come Back Mister
29. I Do, I Do
30. It's Ok, Its Love
31. Temperature of Love
32. Devorce Lawyer in Love
33. Strong Woman Bong Soo
34. Let's Fight Ghosts
35. She was Pretty
36. Birth of Beauty
37. Marriage not Dating
38. While You were Sleeping
39. This is my First Life
40. Dringking Solo
41. My ID is Gangnam Beauty
42. Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim
43. Korean Odessy
44. Boys Before Flower
45. Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo
46. Pinocchio
47. Queen In Hyuns Man
49. Emergency Couple
50. Rooftop Prince
51. My Girlfriends a Gumiho
52. I Order You
53. Full House
54. Welcome to Wikiki
55. Shopping King Louie
56. Dream High
57. Dream High 2
58. Moorim School
59. Miss Hammurabi
60. Fashion King
61. A Gentlemans Dignity
62. GOBLIN
63. Romantic Doctor Kim
64. Shining Inheritance
65. The Gang Doctor
66. Because this is My First Life
67. Doctors
68. It's Okay thats Love
69. I Hear Your Voice
70. Let's Eat
71. Please Come Back Mister
72. I Hear Your Voice
73. Judge vs Judge
74. One More Happy Ending
75. Beating Again
76. You're Beautiful
77. Boys before Flower
78. Yong Pal
79. Dr. Romantic 1 & 2 80. Whats Wrong Wirh Secretary kim 81. Hotel De Luna 82. Hwayugi. 83. You're All Surrounded. 84. The Gang Doctor. 85. Kiss Goblin. 86. Suspicious Partner. 87. My Love From the Star. 88. The Secret Life of My Secretary. 89. The Bride of Habaek. 90. True Beauty. 91. Tale of the Nine Tailed. 92. It's Ok To Be Ok. 93. The Last Empress. 94. Doctor John. 95. Angle's Last Mission: Love. 96. I Hate Juliet. 97. Romance is a Bonus Book. 98. Witch's Love. 99. Black Knight. 100. The Uncanny Counter. 101. Start-Up. 102. The King: Eternal Monarch. 103. It's Okay to Not Be Okay.
Saturday, May 3, 2014
The Best Job
Being a mom often neglected they provide services without payment. At the end of each day the sight of happy kids and a contented husband is a priceless moment in life.
Being a mom asks for more than any one who could maintain several part time jobs at a time and to be an actress is the hardest but they never get nominated nor win an award.
Being a mom plays different roles depending, not per movie, on the events that she faces everyday. Most of the times she's the leading lady to her husband but more often than others she the villain not only to her husband but to her kids as well.
Being a mom also calls for a wide knowledge in medicine
* giving medical advice to girls to any physical, psychological or heart illness
* being a good listener to the boys to what ever they wanted or needed to say then having an advice to them
* patching wounds that may be visible ( nothing a band aid and a kiss would do the it) or invisible
* mending sibling quarrel wounds and most of all nursing all of them back to health when they are sick or pretending to be sick
SO WHY SHOULD I BE DEPRESSED IF I CAN'T GET A JOB, BEING A FULL TIME MOM IS THE MOST IMPORTANT JOB OF ALL!!!!!!
Posted via Blogaway
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Discoveries in Life
Chapter I
Moving
Many people ask the question “why would this happen now when things are going the way I wanted them to be.” This is what Nicky asked herself when that dreadful day came into her life. The news was so bad that she cried for hours and when there were no more tears she could shed she started calling her friends telling them to meet her at their favorite café, It did not took too long for all of her friends, Kristy, Joan, Amy and Olivia, to arrive and as they were all seated comfortably Nicky slowly, not wanting, removed her shades. It was such sight, having both eyes swollen from crying, that all of her friends asked her “what’s wrong Nik, why are your eyes like that,” Kristy asked. "Yah! Tell us you know you can tell us anything and that we are always here for you you know that don't you?” said Olivia But before Nicky could tell them one of her friends said “I knew it’s that guy who keeps following her we really should do something about this.” And before another word could be spoken a burst of ear droping chatter from each of her friends speculating the reason for her condition, “guys I have something to tell you this will surly need your undivided attention,” “go ahead Nik tell us” Amy said curiously. Joan who was sitting biside her grabed her arm and said “yah! Nik tell us so we could help." "The reason why my eyes are like this is because my dad just told us that we are going to move to California before the summer ends" Nicky said. As soon as Nikky stop talking and put on her sun glasses utter scilence was drifting in the air. Each of her friends was staring at her like they were waiting for the punch line of a not so funny joke. But it never came after Nikky maid a long and deep sigh all of her friends franticly gave thier opposing comments on how bad the news was and it would be unfair to all of them, specially to Nikky to move because the first year of thier high school life just started. Kristy suggested that she should talk to her father about this and ask if there was a way for Nikky to stay in New York. They all gave possible scenarios in which Nikky could stay behind. But after a few argumentative points Olivia, her best friend, suggested “you could stay with us I'm sure mom would love for you to stay with me” being an only child it would be no burden on Olivia's family if Nikky stayed. All of her friends if's and what not pinched Nikky's heart in which unwanted tears flooded her cheeks. The three other girls tried to console her so that she would stop crying but as it would be expected all four of them were having difficulties with thier vision from all the tears flooding all of thier cheeks. After all the racket they have made they started to reminisce their first time they all meet and how four noisy little girls, and usually the cause of trouble in class, became closes of friends. After a look back in memory lane Kristy, Joan and Olivia decided to treat Nicky the best day she could ever have so that Nikky could add this as one of the important events that happened to them and before the day ended and made thier seprate ways home her arms were full of souvenirs form all of them. Her heart was in so much pain that she didn't came out for dinner that night. On the day Nikky and her whole family was to leave she never expected that the pain she felt, after three days has passed since she told her friends. All of the goodbye were made and the promises to keep in touch was another gut to the freshly bleeding wound in her heart but as she watched her three friends slowly fades to nothing Nikky never expected that such pain would have a much worse feeling, like she would never see Kristy and Joan make a goal in thier soccer games but most of all she was afraid that Olivia would never be there when she needs her.
It was almost noon when a large moving truck and a van parked in front of the only apartment building on Cherry Street. The hot summer sun stared it's scorching hot rays at the people who, at first sight, we're new at the place and would look like they were lost or something. But with all the shouting and the pointing no one noticed the busy people unloading different sizes of boxes and some furniture’s. It can be said that the neighbours in Cherry Street were friendly foks and would surly welcome any new comers but that particular day it would seem that the street was extra quiet. Maybe some were out making the last minute school shopping or they were to busy making sure everything that is need for the first day of school was done. It was midafternoon when some of the neighbors saw the last boxes being unloaded in which the doors of the moving truck were being closed. All of the hallo balloo was at the last apartment house on a three building apartment its address was knowen to #19 apt. C on Cherry Street. The said house was the largest of the three apartment houses and would be found at the inner end of the lot. Since the location of the apartment was situated at the very end having a tenat was hard to find which is why it has been vacant for a very long time. A family from New York, such origin would see a drastic difference with their new home, having extra spaces, that New York apartment house lack, for this the unloaded things and furniture’s seems to be lacking in size or number for a spacious house. Such details was not a big deal to Eleanor this was, for her, a good thing because she sees it as a challenge to her capabilities and abilities as an interior designer. And as the moving truck drove off Eleanor was standing at the side walk, carrying a small box of personal belongings, taking a deep breath with a smile on her checks saying to herself “this is the start of a new journey I just hope it would be worth taking.” As she turn and make her way to the end of the lot her mind was busy thinking of how the lack of thier furniture would fill thier new home. Eleanor busy brain needed to take a pause since it was already dark, dinner was the at most priority in which would take extra time since all the needed kitchen wares were still I boxes but most of all she hasn't made her trip to the grocery yet. Joe suggested " how about we order take out", " but all of the take out menus we have are from New York so we can't" said Micheal.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
THOUGHTS
"How Can I Love"
I had found the person I longed for fullfiling my destiny,
Even at a young age I Knew then that youth was never a question for love it was for the simplest reason having your soulmate for the rest of your life and for that having no no doughts that happiness would surely follow you like a sick dog.
Realizing the truth on what I had then I made my world revolve on my love (IROG) and for 19yrs there was no other for he was everything to me. Through the years we live our lives side by side, may it be good or bad, happy or deep in problems he gave me three gifts noone could not be proud of, my children.
But life is to short for us to hold on to our promises that we would never leave each other, that we would grow old together and that in every storm we sorpass we will be strogner than before. We made it a part of us to be ready for anything and everything, expecting the worse or the unexpected.
But when the time came that he left me we were not ready nor we never expected the worse for we choose to spent every bit of time we could spend cherishing every moment we were together becouse his time was drawing near.
Now after three years the pain I felt the very moment he left me hurts more and more than ever. And as the days pass I dred for his touch, his voice, his arms aroud me and evern the things he did to hurt my feelings or the fights we had I so much miss them all.
No song, movie, place we went or things we did could not hold back my tears from falling. Its so hard to move on even making a mockery of my self having others to foul my self that I am trying to get over him, swendeling my very self im showing others that I am happy for the reason I have somebody new to love. Don't be fooled by te smiles nor the sheer happiness you see because when I am all alone specially at night I still cry with no reason and not knowing when to stop for as time passes by the wound gets deeper and deeper.
NOW TELL ME HOW CAN I LOVE!!!!!!!
"What Is Forever"
Another two years it would be a DECADE since you left. I have had my UPS and DOWNS of life as a SINGLE person and most of those turns were unforgettable. There were events that I chose to forget for they were the times, not to be ashamed of, a person would regret later in life and I don't want to have any regrets when I die.
In the many years that I had you, may the time or day started and ended peacefully or jaw clinging fight, can never be compared to the days and years you are gone. I may always say that I have no HAPPY MEMORIES with you, in which I have a really hard time REMEMBERING, but I have a ton of things I MISS about YOU.
The years may have come and gone like the MEN that I have had AFTER you would seem to be that I have already moved on. Many would see me HAPPY and CAREFREE like I never had you. Others WHO think they know who I am say "I lack so many things so much that would be said I CAN NEVER PASS AS A MOTHER AND A WIFE" but what would they know. They were never there 8 years ago when YOU were still here in which I had a porpuse in life.
It is true what the phrase say "YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING, YOU ARE MY WORLD." Back then I was the most LUCKIEST, HAPPIEST person alive not minding the endless house work, rasing three kids, in which became four, over the piles of school work and tutoring the kids. Even the last three or four years before you left, as my patient, was a bliss of joy, not mentioning the ocassional fights with me or the kid, that I WOULD NEVER TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING IN WIRLD.
Having a FAMILY has and would never have a guide book nor a course in college, even in graduate school, that a person could take and learn. One could also say that such individual could never have such knowledge, IN HOW TO RAISE YOUR OWN FAMILY, from the life they had with thier parents. The MANNEE on how a couple would handle every single moment in thier MARRIED LIFE is ONLY a REFLICTION on how thier PARENTS raised them. As a peraonal educational experience with MY OWN FAMILY how it ran its course, EVERY couple would have thier own way of how they will run thier own, may they be up or down the wheel of life, specially to those who had to say to themselves "I WOULD NEVER BE LIKE......", may it be thier father or mother, make it a reality.
A couple who truely, deeply and utterly, cristal clear, TRUST and RESPECT each other, for ME, possess a LASTING LOVE that can, if it permits, stand any obsticle that would come. In every RELATIONSHIP there is always a KEY on HOW they would SMOOTHLY stay TOGEYHER. For us COMMUNICATION is the ONLY thing we NEEDED. We were set FOR LIFE.... After all the agreement and disagreements we had, believe me there were more disagreements than agreements, If we were GIVEN the chance to have ANOTHER LIFE, next life, we WANT to be TOGETHER. We have NO REGRETS with the life we had. Even thou YOU can never read this I STILL WANT YOU. To be with you, I don't care may it be our second, third or even a thounsanth life and even in every single life time you still leave me early in life, and spend each and every life time, if God would grant us, IS A CHOICE THAT WOULD NEVER CHANGE!!!!!!!!
Friday, April 15, 2011
"Knowing Me, Having You"
I may not be beautifull or am I to be seen as sexy, but I possess a heart that is big enough and soft enough to LOVE who ever you may or might be. There are women who has an obsession on having flawless skin, most of them are younger and full of LIFE unlike me. I was not fortunate to be born with a beauty consious mom that is why I never wanted to be whom I never was. Besides I was never praised to be cute or pritty. Even so I am thankfull to God that He gave you who accepted me for what I look. And having YOU beside me not just a man whom to be known as my HUSBAND that would be my COMPANION for life. You are also my ADVISER, may it be for the simpliest thing like my appirance to the most complicated challanges in life, and most of all you are my one and only BEST FRIEND, to whom I can confide my deepest darkest thoughts. That is why I did not aquire any thoughts nor fellings of ENVY towards OTHER WOMEN that you know, may they be made known to me or not, in which you always introduce me or tell me who they are. All of those WOMEN may have all the qualitiest that would make a QUEEN, they may exibit the charms that all of the men they encounter would certainly go for or fall for them head over heel on, But I AM THE ONE YOU LOVE. With which you chose to spend your life with until DEATH DO AS PART!!!
"ALL AND EVERYTHING"
"COMFORTING YOU"
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
EVERYTIME by Anna Margarett B. Solleza
With EVERYTIME behind and everything light
And EVERYTIME I feel so down
but when I look up I see a cloud
A cloud so white it shines above
And when I'm in sorrow I look up
And see a sky above and say:
"A sorrow person look up to me
Do not be afraid
Be here with me
Fly with birds so up, so high."
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Please Hear What I Am Not Saying
Don’t be fooled by the face I wear
For I wear a mask
I wear a thousand masks
Masks I am afraid to take off
And none of them is ME
Pretending is an art that’s second nature with me.
But don’t be fooled for God’s sake,
Don’t be fooled.
I give you the impression that I am secure
That all is sunny and unruffled with me
Within, as well as without,
That confidence is my name and coolness my game
That the water is calm
And I’m in command
And I need no one.
Don’t be fooled by me. Please!
I dislike hidding, honestly
I dislike the superficial game I’m playing
The superficial phony game.
I’d really like to be genuine and spontaneous and ME
But I need your help, your hand to hold
Even though my mask would tell you otherwise.
It will not be easy for you
Long-felt inadequacies
May make my defence strong.
The nearer you approach me
The blinder I may strike back.
Despite of what books say of men,
I am irrational
I fight against the very things
I cry out for.
You wonder who I am?
You should’t
For I am Everyman
And Everywoman
Who wears a mask.
Don’t be fooled by me.
At least not by the face I wear.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Our Deepest Fear
An insperational poem often heard in movies like coach carter, finding forrester and some others. It is a short poem entitled "Our Deepest Fear"
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who as I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talentad fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shringking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all ment to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
This was from the book "A Return To Love: Reflections On The Principles Of A Course In Miracles" by Marianne Williamson
Friday, February 8, 2008
A Winning Oratorical Piece
This was title of my oration in which I won the Gold (I was in high school then,1988). My english teacher gave me a cut out piece of newspaper which I knew it was from an editorial portion, such speech was a challange since I had the only different oratorical piece, among the 10 contestants. As they say "save the best for last" I was the last to orate and because it was different the judges listened and liked the piece that for a fact it was longer than the monotunous piece the previous 9 orated. The speech is as follows:
As a teenager I find my self through an akward age
When I am niether man nor child, and by the way I feel, neither animal, mineral nor vegtable. . . when my voice cascades down from high C to B flat minor and every pimple assumes the proportions of Taal Volcano.
I am prone to anxiety, fear freaquent changes of mood, sensitive to criticism.
I spen sleepless nights worriying about bad breath, homework and the exquisite agonies of unrequited love.
It is the age when I feel the first stirrings of man's primodial urge.... TO BE FREE!
To be free to pursue the pleasures of youth,
to watch TV and use the telephone for hours on end .......
FREE to settle arguments with my brothers and sisters with a kick in the pants.
"Papa, I WANT TO BE FREE TO DO WHAT I WISH"
My father's answer was short and devastating:
"As long as I provide you with the roof over your head and the clothes you wear, YOU ARE NOT FREE, my son. TO BE FREE IS TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ONE SELF."
Even as I stand before you, our country the Philippines stands before the rest of the world as the first democracy in all of Asia --- still in it's AWKWARD AGE, a nation not quite yet a nation,
trying to be politically independent while economically insecure, and every bit as PRONE to
ANXIETY, FEAR, FREAQUENT CHANGE OF MOOD and SENSITIVE TO CRITICISM as I ever am in my own AWKWARD AGE.
Here democracy first dawned over the high tide of WESTERN COLONIALISM at the end of the last century.
Yet in 1989, we Filipinos dared to rise against the tide of history and to declare ourselves free, the first in all of Asia to brake the shackels of Western colonialism.
Even in 1946 when we regained our independence, we were still the first nation to achieve independence from the colonial powers.
As the oldest democracy in Asia, we watch other people in our part of the world painfully following our footsteps, fighting and dying for the same dream. Elsewhere in Asia, a Buddhist monk douses himself with gasoline, lights a match and burns in the glow of a lost cause... an Indonesian student waves his placard over the street-barricades to the vision of a distant dream, in the teeth of machine gun bullets... a Chinese peasant makes a daring dash for freedom to the border, is shot and lies dying in a ditch, and his eyes search those of the people just across, so near they see him and take pity on him. The Buddhist monk, the Indonesian student, the Chinese peasant and millions of Asians look to the Philippines for lessons learned in the struggle for democratic freedom, and wonder, after all, as they watch us grapple with graft and corruption, smuggling, political goons, high prices, unemployment, murder, treason and so on into the long and lamentable catalogue of human crime -- and wonder after all, whether the lessons we learned are worth learning at all. We have learned one thing: that the death of tyranny does not automatically mean the birth of democracy. Democracy has a mind of its own, and does not necessarily follow a successful revolution against despotic rule. What was started on the bleak December morn when Rizal was led to martyrdom in Bagumbayan is still by far unfinished. You can destroy a tyranny quickly, you must build freedom slowly. Freedom must be renewed like soil after yielding good crops, must be rewound like a faithful clock, exercised like a healthy muscle. Vigilance is the price of liberty -- a little civil thinking everyday, shouting your mouth off against crime and corruption, voting in season, and demanding from your representative that he be representative. Another lesson we learned is this: Democracy in its turn does not automatically mean prosperity. For prosperity also has a mind of its own, and does not follow democracy around like a faithful dog. Prosperity too must be earned... by land reform and industrialization; by postponing consumption to build up savings and investments, passing up the temporal joys of English Leather for an extra clink into the piggy bank; by patronizing our local industries; and most of all, by a policy of protectionism that promotes economic development and national self-reliance. To be free is to be responsible for oneself. To put our lessons hard to work is the greatest need of all. For today, Communism is coming up like thunder, dedicated to the proposition that prosperity and greatness can only be attained at the price of freedom. We owe it to ourselves and to the rest of Asia, to prove otherwise: that freedom and democracy can lead to economic prosperity and national greatness. To remain free, we have no choice. For the price of failure is great. Take the case of that boy in a hovel in Intramuros who was asked to take care of a baby sister who cried all day and all night because she was hungry. The parents were out... the father looking for a job, always looking and never finding one… .the mother, searching the garbage cans for scraps and rotten bananas. The baby cried so much that it twisted the mind of the brother who watched over her... he reached out with his hands on the baby’s neck and... killed her. My friends, when you come home at night from your office or factory, and lay your head on your pillow to claim the rest you earned at the end of a long day... between the closing of your eyes and the coming of sleep...in that twilight zone of wakefulness where thoughts and plans and prayers dwell -- Think. Plan. And pray. Pray that our nation shall under God prosper in freedom, and survive to greatness through its awkward Awkward Age.