Dark Side Of DAting...Am I Ready for It?

In many land, dating is viewed as a means of romantic entertainment, a fun activity. Dating thus takes many forms. For some, a date is a formal, structured affair---flowers, a lovely dinner and a goodnight kiss are all part of the agenda. For others, a date simply means spending some time together with someone you like. There are even couples who are constantly seen together but who claimed to be ‘just friends.’ Well whether I call it dating, going together or just seeing each other it usually amounts to the same thing; a boy and a girl spending a lot of time together socially, often unsupervised. Nevertheless, when carried out intelligently, cautiously and honorably, dating is a legitimate way for two people to get to know each other. And yes, it can be enjoyable. But does this mean that I should date? I may feel pressure to date. Most of my classmates date and naturally I do not want to seem weird and different. Pressure to date may also come from well-meaning friends and relatives. When my fifteen year old cousin named Gladys, was asked to go out on a date then my aunt advised her, “Whether you want to marry the guy or not, it has nothing to do with it. Dating is just a part of your natural development as a person…after all, if you always turn guys down, you’ll be unpopular and no one will ask you out.” My aunt’s words sunk down deep. Would my cousin be cheating herself out of a good opportunity? I know very well this guy we will be dating. He has his own car, lots of money and I knew he would show her a great time. Gladys really go and date with the gut. She was not close to her parents and turned to the boys she’s dating to find closeness and have someone to whom she could pour out her feelings who would really understand. Nevertheless, we should not begin dating simply because we are pressured to do so! For one thing, dating is a serious business---a part of searching for the ideal man. But really, what justification could there be for two people of the opposite sex to begin spending a lot of time together other than to investigate the possibility of learning to love each other? In the long run, dating for any other reason is likely to result in anything but ‘fun’. Why so? There is also a dark side of dating; youths are in the vulnerable period of life, “the bloom of the youth.” During this time, I may feel powerful surges of affection. There is nothing wrong with this; it is a part of growing up. Most young people today used dating in order to meet and have new friends and soon will develop and may survive to adulthood. Whenever you’re pressured to date because of your friends and not by your own decision. Never be tempted to that! Stay chaste and calm, don’t allow yourself to be cheap and worthless by just dating with anyone. In my age know I realize that dating is a serious affair and negatively it may also lead me to sexual desires that’ very premature to my age right now. Think about this!

UNFAIR!

" I can’t stand an unfair teacher! No doubt many students feel the same way too. I am upset when I get low grades for what I feel is high-grade work. I resent it when discipline seems excessive or uncalled for or seems motivated by racial bias. I am really angry when special attention or preferential treatment is given to the teacher’s pet. These are the students who always go near to the teacher’s table, talked to our teacher. Granted, teachers are far from infallible. They have their fair share of quirks, problems and yes prejudices. “Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended”, says one proverb. Even teachers stumble many times. If anyone does not stumble in word, this one is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body. Could I therefore give my teacher the benefit of doubt? I experienced to feel unfair to one of my subject teachers. I was really shocked when I knew was grade was 86, which was the lowest grade given by our teacher. I really felt puzzled because I have submitted all my projects on time. Do I deserve to get that very low grade? While the others submitted their projects late but given bigger grades because they are the teacher’s pet! My teacher blamed me because it was my fault that he didn’t see my project plan in his table. It was his responsibility to keep it because he told me to put it there. Soon I realized that we sometimes fail to accomplish their task because we are very busy. What about those special favors accorded to the teacher’s pet? I should bear in mind that a teacher faces unique demands and pressures. He faces a serious predicament in which they must try to hold the attention of a class whose some minds are usually elsewhere…they have before him a group of highly moody students. Is it any wonder, then, that my teacher may lavish attention or treat him with respect? True, it may gall me when seeming ‘apple-polishers’ get more attention than I do. But why should in be upset or jealous if some diligent student is a teacher’s pet, as long as my educational need are not ignore? Besides, it may be a good idea to be a bit more true to my self. We sometimes feel that our teacher is not fair to all of the students. But we should be bare in our minds that we should understand and thoughtful to them. They are also people, they need affection and to be loved. They are also one of us, let’s not put our minds that they are really unfair because they don’t. They want us to realize that we should be diligent, obedient, and attentive and be thoughtful in the class. We should cooperate with them and never think that they don’t love us because they do. We should respect them as our second parents and never behave distractible. Let’ love them and show to them that they are one of a kind. We too, should be fair!

Death...Stairway to Heaven?

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Why am I afraid of death? I know you are also feeling the same way too. But what is it in the word death that makes it horrible? If you will have the chance to know when will be the day of your death, what will be the last things you will do? Wouldyou tell your parents and close friends that this thing will gonna happenorjust don't tell anything about it?

I've got a lot of questions and doubts that stucked up in my mind. I know no one will answer this but only myself. Which feels more pain, When you will be the one or someone you love so much will die? Even when I'm just a kid, usually when I go to bed I always say to myself, "What if one day my parents will leave me... Beacuse of death?" I thought if this thing will happen, I can't stand anymore becausethe whole world will cover me. That great loss in my life maybe the one to kill myself . But as I grew up and become a high school student,I then realizedthat I shoul not give up even th destiny will be very unkind to me because I know this thingswill strengthen my courage and fatih with God. Then I raised a questrion to myself, "If my very loved cat will die, should it be the reason to kill myself and grieve in my whole life?" No! No! No! We should bear in our minds that all of us will never last in this world because we are only humans that have our own feelings, we are not rocks that stay still in its whole life. The earth is just a preparatory school for us to develop and learn to love so that when the time comes, we are ready to face the gate of heaven and be with God.

What if I'm given a chance to know when. where and how will be my death, what will I do? ShouldI prepare and tell my parents and friends about it? That was the question that have never been decided by myself. Until I discovered an interesting website while i was doing this blog project. That said website was the deathclock.com where in it will tell you the day and year of your death by simply incoding your name, date and year of birth and then by just few seconds it will appear. Now a days we can predict our death ... Huh! But is it factual? For me, no creature have ever livedto provide the information about our death. I remembered a movie where in this things are possible and this movie was "Final Destination". The casts were able to see the future and could escape death. What, cheat death! Impossible! That were just some of my impression when I saw the movie. But there was a very remarkable line uttered by one of my favorite cast, "If you have cheated death, it will go back to you because death has its own path."

"Comb your hair while still you have it", a quote that I read from the Reader's Digest which was published in 1994. Yes, we should do our bes in everything we do and never waste your life in doing nonsense things and bad deeds. Tell your parents how you love them because someday they will also leave and be with God. Tell the precious people how you cherish them and express you true feelings for them... while still you have time. You may never have th time to tell it!

Contemplating Pure Beauty

Have you tried bathing in a well? I have tried and this experience made me admire the beauty of nature. Can you imagine how God made all this things? This is a very great miracle! Water under the land. Clean fresh and free… We had a vacation last month in our province, which was located somewhere in the northern part of Cebu. This place is very delicate and the environment was very clean. The beauty of nature was still preserved and in that place you will realize that people could live a simple and better way of living from the resources in the environment. The people were all friendly and this made my vacation remarkable. In the morning, we are awakened by the roaster’s load croak and not by the annoying sound of the alarm clocks as how we used to be here in the city. The fresh and crisp dew refreshed myself for a new day. To replenish my body I should take a bath first, but where? My cousins and I were planning to go to a nearby well and take a bath there. I was really excited about it and ready all the things I needed. The well was just a walking distance from our house. Around the well were the slender banana plants and other big trees. The mouth of the well was covered with the thick pile of moss and vines We started to take a bath and used the ladle with a rope in it or called timba in colloquial speech. The well was not that profound and the substructure could be visibly seen. The water was glimmering like a glass and was incredibly hygienic. It was really icy that I found myself shuddering with the coldness of the water. The vociferous sound of silence was really all around because we were only the ones there. So in order to thrill ourselves, we chat for our experiences in the school and the kind of classmates we have. Suddenly we found ourselves busy talking and accidentally the timba fell inside the well. The three of us really felt worried because our grandmother is going to scold us. We thought of way on how to get that thing out from the water. My younger cousin decided to go inside and get it but I refused because she might be injured and the more problem we will have. But she didn’t even care to listen to my words but went inside the well in order to get that ladle out. I was relieved when I saw her gong up bringing with her was the ladle and she was not hurt even a single bruise. The three of us hugged each other and cheered up. And now it was time to go home! That experience alone was really memorable for me. That made me appreciate the beauty of our ‘mother nature’. And I learned that a family that prays together stays together and that was the thing that determined to get over that obstacle. But the very special lesson that I learned was to ‘Contemplate The Pure Beauty”.

A look at How I Look

They say that beauty is only skin-deep. But why is it though, that the good-looking people seem to get all the advantages? And how can I cope with all the pressure to dress and look like those gorgeous girls? I don’t like the way I look! Well few of us are entirely satisfied with our own appearance. Unlike Narcissus who fell in love with his reflection in a pool of water. But for us we fall into depression when we see our reflection. I think I don’t look so good! I don’t like my hair, the way it looks from the others. To make matters worse, our appearance change so rapidly that we sometimes ‘feel like strangers in our own body.’ Thus, sometimes I fret about my own face, hair and figure. “Everything has made pretty in its time” And how I look can indeed have a profound effect upon the way others view and treat me. “Body image is a part on self-image.” For me this can affect my self-confidence and what I do and don’t in life. A healthy concern about my appearance thus makes good sense. However, when I find myself become so self-conscious that I withdraw from others or feel bad about myself, and then such concern is no longer healthy, that I do sometimes. Interestingly, distress over personal appearance is not always due to real physical defects. From a situation like this: a slender girl sits in the class wishing she was heavier, while on the next aisle, a buxom girl laments how “fat” she is. From where does this dissatisfaction come? What made me think that they’re unattractive? Was it their size that may not be as fit as the sexiest celebrity or maybe they might not have the fine-looking face? “Adolescence is a period of transition in which major reorganization of the body takes place…” To deal with the awkwardness of a new and changing body I rely upon the security of my peers. But under their scrutiny on how tall, short, fat or thin they are, can become a great source of anxiety. And when some of my friends get more attention than me or when I am chided about my looks, I can easily begin to feel bad about myself. But before I will admit that I’m an ugly duckling, I’ll ask myself first, to what extent of my physical flaws are real or imagined. Is this facial feature I fret about really so unattractive? Or have others pressured me into thinking this? “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould”, a proverb says. There is thus no reason to feel depressed because I do not look like a TV or magazine model. Nor are my peers the final judges on how tall, short or slim I must be to look attractive. I am comfortable with how I look and I should give other people a heed. Ironically, the very thing I dislike about my looks may be the source of someone else’s envy. “Charm may be false, prettiness may be vain.”

Breaking the Ice

It is Saturday night. I sit alone in my room "I hate weekends!" But there was no one in the room to answer. I pick-up a magazine and saw a picture of young people enjoying at the beach. I hurled the magazine against the wall. Tears well up. I clamped my teeth on my under lip but tears keep pushing. Unable to fihgt it any loger, i fell on my bed sobbing, "Why am I always left out?" Do you some times feel the sameway I do ? Cut off from the world,lonely, useless and empty? if so do not despair. Because feeling lonely is no feeling of fun, it is just like having a very fatal disease. Simply put loneliness as a warning signal. This warns you that you need companionship, closeness and intimacy. Sometimes loneliness is imposed to us by circumstances beyond our control, like being away from a very close friends as a result of moving to a new location. Back home, Rose and I were very close pals, closer than sisters. When our family moved away, i knew I'm really going to miss her. When the time has come for us to board on the bus, I got choked up. We hugged and said our last goodbye. I felt something very precious was gone. How did I make it out in ym new environment? It was really rough. Back home, my friends like me and care for me but here some folks I lived with, made me feel as if I were no good. I rember looking at he clock and counting back hours and thingking what Rose and I could be doing at this moment. I felt very lonely. When things are not going out well, I often dwell on better times that I had in the past. I always ask myself, "Why has it happened that thet the former days proved to be better than this?" Then I realized and promised to myself never ask such question again. Why? For one thing crcumstances are changed for the better. Then, i could thus overcome this loneliness. How? By talking about my feeling with someone who cares. I can't always live in the past. I forced myself to meet other people, smile at them and show interest on them. It worked! I found new friends and I become happy as I was before. But what about Rose? I was really wrong! Moving away did not end our friendship. The other day I phoned her and we talked for an hour and fifteen minutes. We need food to function well. Likewise we need companionship and friends to feel well. When you take one coal at a glowing heap the glow of that single coal slowly dies. But after you put the coal back into the glowing heap it glows again! In isolation, we similarly do not 'glow' well for long. The need of companionship, closeness and intimacy is built into our framework. We need them in order to "Break the Ice". The ice that separates us our happiness.

I Will Survive!

There are many things that made each and every one of us special and particular. We have our own feelings of disappointments and frustration, our own feelings of happiness and pleasure. Every individual has destined horizon to journey and obstacles to face. I know all and sundry are determined to “reach the unreachable star, that impossible dream…This is my quest to follow that star no matter how hopeless, no matter how far,” according to one of the most famous song. From my younger years to my present teenage life, I always wanted to be a star, a very bright and glimmering star among the others. The stars made me think that they are the happiest things God ever made, for them no time seemed to be sad and gloomy. I then realized that God made them to enlighten, guide and let the people know that HE never let’s distressing feelings lives in the people’s heart. “Everything has a purpose” My interest about the stars made me a better person and met new friends. Our last stargazing overnight was really noteworthy for me. There were a lot of things that took place in that special starless overnight. Though there were just few visible stars I really enjoyed that overnight. Last February 2,we had our third stargazer’s overnight and I really felt excited for it. But before the overnight I seemed to be very nervous but I didn’t know why! My father fetched from school very late and then he told me that my grandfather had been involved in a car accident. My Lolo was an old man in his 60’s but though he is old he could still mange to drive a very big grader. He accidentally bumped a man riding a pedicab who was the breadwinner of a poor family. The man was totally dead on the spot! After I heard the news I felt very worried but my father assured me that God would never leave us in this kind situations. I arrived at the campus around 7o’clock in the evening and I saw my classmates already preparing their mats and sleeping bags. After we have settled our things we take a pose for a picture taking. All of us gave a big smile in our face with an alluring pose. We had a short discussion with Mr. Christopher Go and the other University of San Carlos’ astronomical club. I couldn’t help myself to feel a little bit weary and heavy-eyed while the discussion was going on.

After the discussion we watched an outrageous movie entitled “Shatter”. I was sitting near the jealousy and suddenly, terror crippled up my spine when someone pulled my hair. I found myself shaking and trembling with panic. When I bear out who was it, I was relived when it was a second year guy who accidentally lose his balance in the dicey floor. Huh! That almost killed me. Then, a fourth year student come within reach of the DVD player and turned it off and said that she was told to turn it off because watching bloodcurdling movies is not allowed. Everyone was really discolored with her!

We just go to our sleeping bags at the playing field and it was really chilly. I wore my thick black jacket, my cap and my socks but I was still shivering because of the frosty nighttime zephyr. We didn’t feel dozy so we babble on gobbledygook things and fool around with each other.

When I finally lied down on my sleeping bag, I looked up in the sky and saw a single star shining in the darkness. It was the star that seemed to catch my eyes. While I was looking at it, I remembered my hard times; the trials that tried to let me down, the problems in my studies and our family, my personal afflictions, the peer pressures that tried to tempt me. Then I realized that I’m still alive and I survive! With that few moments on staring at that star, it determined me strive harder and to keep my passion burning in achieving my dreams. The lessons I learned from the stars’ “I WILL SURVIVE!”