high school = discernment

My answer to this Formspring question became too lengthy so I made a blog post about it instead!

What was your high school experience like? Did you enjoy your high school experience? What did you learn from it?

Loved high school! I've always loved school and I'm thankful that my parents brought us up to do really well and work hard for our grades. Wasn't allowed to go out much, never tried clubbing. My parents were strict, in a good way. :)

I was always a part of the committee for all the events and performed a lot... Sometimes I would even work backstage AND perform at the same time in our school productions. I had so much fun! I didn't really get much sleep though. Aside from our extra-curricular activities, I also had to maintain a GPA of 90+. I was quite a perfectionist during my grade school years but I mellowed down during high school since I wanted to perform, too... Thankfully I managed to maintain the GPA I wanted. Was also in the student council, prom committee, etc. Our school's reaalllyyyyyyy small (24 in class, and we were 45 in the graduating batch) so the ones who were into the extra-curricular whatnots automatically worked for every committee...

I learned A LOT about myself and people during my final year in high school. I was pretty happy-go-lucky as a friend and student, but was really strict as a leader. Yeah, I pretty much scared people and we sorta needed that to win all the competitions. Thankfully I don't have to do that now :)) . I discovered that my personality was totally different from the other girls. Mum never told me that she knew it all along, but I'm more of a thinker than a "feeler". I wasn't afraid to voice out my opinions, and during my senior year I found out that some girls get offended easily. I hate gossiping and trash-talking (things said out of spite, not based on facts). I was more of a logical thinker and liked analyzing the good and bad behavior of my peers, so I pretty much learned to understand why some girls started saying negative things about me. I never entertained those things because I never started fights with anybody and I knew I never did anything wrong. High school is when most people have the tendency to be immature, so they misinterpret a lot of your actions and say unnecessary things. Some people also thrive for drama!

I became closer to the guys in my class since we pretty much had the same outlook about everything. They also helped me shield myself from all the drama that was unnecessarily developing during the last few months of our senior year (ugh how very timely haha). I still maintained good relationships with the rest of my classmates, although I was kinda hurt cos of some of the things they said about me (for some strange reason, I always end up knowing what was up with everyone since people would just randomly tell me- that happens up to this day!). My final year was still very fun and we managed to work with each other really well! My friends also helped me start a more meaningful relationship with God. By slowly letting go of my happy-go-lucky mentality (which made me think that everyone around me was nice and friendly), I learned to be more cautious about trusting just anyone and I became more focused about what I wanted to achieve in life.

I can ramble on about my high school experience but to sum it up:

I learned that being an exceptional student is not enough to succeed and live a happy, meaningful life. You need real friends who are passionate about the same things (for me it's faith/spirituality, family, meaningful relationships, global awareness, social responsibility and a never-ending eagerness to learn, gain more knowledge and wisdom). Grades are just numbers. A single event can change your life. Your definition of wealth should not be about "cash". You shouldn't care about what other people think about you (that will not contribute to your success!). Getting advice from people is good, but those shouldn't serve as instructions- YOU have to decide for yourself. Trust noone but yourself.

Plus I learned a lot of things about myself.

I can get pretty insensitive. Although this is a good thing on some cases, it's also important to show compassion and be concerned about the things that matter. Okay, I am not sappy or sensitive. It's my responsibility to use that trait to make better decisions (think with your brain, not with your heart!) and act better than others. I have learned that not all people (especially girls) think like me and my friends, so I have to be more cautious about what to say. I cannot force people to change and think like me, but I want to influence other people to stop judging others and have a more positive outlook in life. Whenever I don't do well in something, I cringe at the idea of feeling sorry for myself, sulking and blaming others cos that will get you nowhere- a total waste of time. If I wanna see some changes, I have to initiate change. With meaningful relationships, I will start a trend. I will succeed and LIVE.

:)

I signed up for modern jazz the summer before entering high school to lose weight (major problem for me ever since grade school!). After that, I got hooked!

QUASAR (Math&Science club) trip to Guimaras island :)

One of those high school dances we had to organize

LOVED folk dance competitions.

LOL this was before everyone got Macbooks. Check out Car and Rizbelle with the little English-Korean dictionary! LOL!

During the "Party to End Poverty" event our school organised

my "office". Typical scene especially during thesis crunch time.

The only sport I was into

Campaigning is always fun! And winning, too! :))

home ec class/TWE (teaching work ethics)- our group always got the highest grades! LOL we had to make a model house once and when I found out our teacher was so impressed with our glass house, I felt like I could prolly enjoy Interior Design :P

Powernapping after the cheer dance competition and participating in the Sportsfest! Forrealz :P (we always won the cheer dance competitions!)

music class <3

Organizing the grade school parties

Our last high school dance :)

Rewarding ourselves with Pipo's Ice Cream after circling Mabolo, going door-to-door to distribute flyers for this final thesis we had to do (helped an underprivileged family- micro-entrepreneurship)

Issa and I always did the makeup for school productions

Forgot the name of our "crew". LOL

Do they take your crown after prom? Our school does that. Crowns and batons are only lent to the winners :)) I think I only got a Parker pen with something engraved on it. :))

One of our last trips (to Red's mountain house) before graduating

Yes, this is the whole batch! Our leadership camp and retreats were pretty memorable :)

Look how dark I was before! Can't get it back :(

I cried on stage before my parents came up. Teacher Nelia said some pretty inspiring things! LOL

I MISS HIGH SCHOOL!

:)

April randomnosities

mixed set of photographs that make me reminisce...

I have a couple of photobooth photos dumped in my folders

First Canton Fair experience

Mum and I think I may have been the youngest one in this convention- everyone else appeared to be established entrepreneurs! :))

And oh, people thought I was from Kazakhstan.

That's only 1/4 of Area A, and there were 3 (A-C)

Walking 100 hectares is no joke! Dad forced me NOT to pack heels for this trip. Good thing I trusted his advice :))

"under the sea" in glass

Loved walking on the glass part of this overpass. :)

Tempted to sell brushes... Gotta see if I have a market for those!

I love dolls.

At Area C, looking at Areas A&B... The days were cold and gloomy in Guangzhou.

on the morning of our last day, sans the makeup.

As I've mentioned on my Tumblelog, my dad's been helping me come up with things for an online enterprise/trading biz to start my own corporation.

My mom and I flew to Guangzhou, China last Thursday (April 22)and we attended the 2nd phase of the Canton Fair. It showcased 100 hectares of booths filled with ceramics, furniture, dining/kitchenwares, gifts, home decorations and consumer goods. Twice a year, this event takes place at Guangzhou and it's China's biggest trade fair of the highest level, of the most complete varieties and of the highest attendance and business turnover

So glad mum and I were grouped with Filipino-Chinese people. They weren't first-timers like us, so they offered us some great advice about purchasing, shipping, etc. They helped us a lot with the language barrier as well. Almost all of the workers at the hotel and around the city couldn't speak any English, so they were our translators.

At the fair they don't sell anything per piece. There are only a couple of stalls willing to hand out samples, but you had to wait until the last day of the fair (28th, and we left on the 27th). The typical thing that happens is that you'd have to purchase at least 2000 pieces of something, or fill up a 20-footer container vehicle before they can ship the items to you. So if you go to these things, you have to be serious about foreign trade.

As an investor/buyer (like myself), you have to go there with tons of name/business cards, and collect all the catalogues/brochures/business cards you can from the booths whose products you're interested in. You can then communicate with those people later on and arrange for samples or orders... At the fair, buyers were all over taking photos with item numbers, and a lot were also listing down items and negotiating with the exhibitors about their purchases already. It was so cool!

Entrepreneurship requires great risk... Out of the 5 businesses you'll put up, only 1-2 of those will prove to be a success, and only 1 will survive in the long run. Obviously, the key is perseverance and determination. Again as with all things, in order to succeed, you have to be FEARLESS.

I spent my younger years in a school focused on business and leadership (we had trade fairs each year and had to make our own products, booths, commercials, brochures, business plans, etc). I think it contributed a bit to me being hesitant about getting into merchandising at such a young age. But I know it's always been in me. You can ask my friends- I used to sell a lot of stuff during grade school! Organizers, cards, photos, stickers- all of which I made myself. I bought my own things from my earnings (I think what I'm most proud of was buying my own mountain bike. LOL). But I think I can run a corporation through the guidance of my dad, and of course, patience and perseverance!

I won't be announcing anything official about it just yet, this thing takes time. I haven't made up my mind about what goods/services to offer. This whole thing has to be fun, and another learning experience of course. Going to the Canton Fair was an amazing experience. Planning to go to the Shanghai World Expo next!

"Stress is the spice of life!" - Hans Selye

:)

MOTHAHACKER

For the past couple of weeks I've been trying to change my YahooMail password since I noticed that I couldn't get into my Facebook account anymore... Being the Facebook addict that I am, I quickly noticed so I refreshed all my passwords and transferred my Facebook e-mail to my gmail account. My Yahoo account's password still kept changing so I concluded that someone was messing with it... For a few months, I slowly stopped using Y!messenger cos I didn't have enough time to entertain anyone who started a convo with me.

When I went to Guangzhou last Thursday, I learned that the great firewall of China blocked Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogger so the only way I could communicate with people was through my Y!messenger account. The hotel we went to didn't have Wifi, too. We had to use LAN but it didn't matter since we were at the convention center the entire day. They had WiFi there so I was able to chat using my iPhone for a bit while going around...

I still kept getting signed off, so yeah I accepted the fact that it was hacked, but I just didn't have the time and patience to use my iPhone and fix everything. I was sooo happy that I got to chat with my "boyfriend" for 2 days while in the convention, and I spent so much time chatting while walking around since that was the only way I could talk to someone to keep myself from going nuts during the trip (LOL I love my online accounts).

ON THE SECOND NIGHT, I tried to continue my conversation through Y!M by connecting to the internet through LAN at the hotel. I also managed to webcam with my "boyfriend" and although he wasn't able to use his webcam and mic (he blamed the firewall from preventing me to see or hear him plus he said his Skype or Macbook might be "bugged"), I continued to say hi and stared at the camera...

AND THEN MY REAL BOYFRIEND CALLED ME... I was sooo happy, and the conversation went something like this:

me: "OMG HIIIII! Why'd you call me? We can just keep chatting, this call will cost a lot!"

him: "What??? Aren't you happy to hear my voice? And hey I haven't talked to you since you left for China!"

me: "What do you mean? You're chatting with me on Y!m now!"

him: "No I'm not!" -- i can hear him parking his car

me: "SHIT!!!!!!!!"

At this point I demanded the faker to reveal his true identity (I KNOW IT'S STUPID, I WAS SHOCKED AND TRAUMATIZED, YOU CAN'T BLAME ME), and he kept typing "what do you mean?" He finally ended the convo when I said that I was talking to the real Paulo on the phone.

What he did was create two fake accounts using Paulo's Y!M ID, but he added an extra letter/vowel so I wouldn't notice... Plus I discovered that the real account was on my ignore list on Yahoomessenger! Wow. I was so surprised at how quick he was able to make the Skype account as well-- I waited for him to "fix" his Skype while I was taking a break at the convention, just cos I wanted to talk and see my beau! Good God... This weirdo was looking at me the whole time!

How would YOU feel if a crazed person such as this fooled you into thinking that he/she was someone close to you for two full days? Imagine, this could've went on longer if Paulo didn't make that long distance call! And oh, he pretended to be SICK so I wouldn't notice that it took him a while to reply to each message- and so I wouldn't notice that his style of chatting was different! He is a maniac too, he freakin said things like "I need you to take care of me, my sexy nurse!" OMG X 1,000,000! Of course if he was my real boyfriend I'd think that he was only kidding! But how would you feel if you realised that this guy was a COMPLETE STRANGER and you don't even know how the hell he looks like!

I am still angry, shocked, traumatized and scared about this whole incident... According to my friends, my Y!M account still keeps signing in and out. I was in China and couldn't go online cos I kept going around the 3 buildings (Canton Fair). My mom was with me so she should know!

It's all so weird!!! I was being sweet, sharing my experience and having a looooooong conversation with this complete stranger who pretended to be Pau! I HOPE THE HACKER WHO STOLE MY ACCOUNT DIDN'T CHAT WITH ANYONE ELSE OR THIS DOUCHEBAG! I WONDER HOW THEIR CONVERSATION WOULD END UP LIKE! OMG!!!

Please, do not entertain "ral_joyce" on Yahoo Messenger. And if ever that video chat of me gets released somewhere, GAHHHH! Don't get fooled!

Okay, I just had to let everything out... Sheesh.

I'm okay now. I'm in Manila again and I've made a new account for Yahoo. Friends, please send me an SMS or message me on Facebook for my new one :D

Lesson learned, moving on.

:)