quill 2011 (part 3)
TRANSCRIPT
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March 2011 9Qui l l
Social Politics:byIsadoraRomeral
Back in high school, liking what
everybody else liked was a taboo. You
could not admit to preferring some-
thing mainstream over something un-derground without being shunned. But
then showing appreciation for a little
rock would merit you some poserpoints. Oh, yes. Such was the teenage
politics of my time confusing andtotally contradictory.
That was back in 2001. From what I
hear from my twelve-year-old nephew,though, not much has changed.
I remember sitting at home with
him one lazy afternoon, listening as hewas narrating the latest happenings in
his neighborhood in Mandaluyong. He
had just started a tiff with his closest
and longest friends over a discussion of
who discovered this one song first. Tomake a long story short, they did not
speak for a couple of weeks.
Now tell me, is this good? I mean,
why is it that we tend to hate eachother for being into the same thing?
What is so wrong with sharing a com-mon interest with a few (or a lot) of
others? Why do we have this urge tohate someone when we find out that
they too are into the band only a select
few of us are supposed to know about?
Do we not have equal rights to enjoy
the things made available to the public?I know it has been said before that
conformity is the best way to corrupt
the mind but what if it is by choice?
Because honestly, it bugs me when I
hear friends in their early twenties who
still subscribe to this kind of philoso-
phy. I admit, I was also the same wayonce-upon-a-time. But now that I look
back, it was just plain annoying. I can
no longer understand why we would
exert so much effort in dropping the
things we like just because everybodyelse suddenly likes them, too.
We should not have to feel the need
to be different just for the sake of be-ing... well, different. Like what YouTube
stand-up ItsKingsleyB**** said in his
You Are Not Cool video, If youreoriginal then theres really no need to
forceit.Itjusthappens.
According to the latest Census
count, there are nearly seven billion
people in the world. Now take into con-sideration the number of books, songs/
artists, television shows, movies, fash-
ion trends, and everything else pop cul-
ture has to offer. Yes, I am aware that
there are also billions of those. But we
cannot seriously expect that there willnever be a large number of people
somewhere out there listening to thesame songs or reading the same books
as us because only a few are generally
made available worldwide.
Just think about the situation this
way: Your favorite band or author orwhatever put time and effort into pro-
ducing their masterpieces. Their talents
were meant to be shared, and that is
I t s t o o c o n f u s i n g !
I s i t t i m e a g a i n t o d i s a g r e ea b o u t a n y t h i n g , e v e r y t h i n g a n d w h a t ' s o nT V ? I t ' s a v i c i o u s c i r c l e , n e v e r e n d i n g ; a
l i n e a r e q u a t i o n w o r l d l y - e x t e n d i n g . - T e e n a g e P o l i t i c s , M X P X ( 1 9 9 5 )
chose my organization as my second
priority. Now, I am certain that the con-
sequences our organization is experi-encing is the fruit of my decision.
I was never confident that I wouldexcel in my academics for I was really
in love with some other activities. More
so, I have always been convinced that I
can only do one thing at a time and Icannot manage to get the best of both
worlds. But eventually, one professor
made me feel that the only key is to
have the guts to lift both hands on the
same level to achieve balance.One time while pondering on the
things that served as factors of my fail-
ures, I smiled and realized that I neverhad a successful planner. I love buying
one but I only write on it on the month
when I bought it and then after, it al-ready becomes a display in our shelf. I
never made a schedule for each day ofthe week. I only do things whenever I
believe Im available.
This is not the best habit to bear inmind. It has led me to danger.
But as one of my Professors said,Giving up is never an option andThereisalwaysroomforimprovement.
Thus, I believed, prayed and workedhard to survive. Now, it seems that the
situation is already smooth-sailing.
From this experience, I learned that
surviving college is not just based on
the things you learn in class or the
tendency of failing a subject which gen-
erates consequences that I have to en-
dure for the next half of the school year.To some, it might sound really
irresponsible, but forme, it was like a
bell which
rings every
dismissal ofthe class. I had
been so used to
it and I had become
bitter because of it. I always
believed that I have beentrying my very best to
defeat the situation by
being responsible for a lotof things. In my mind, I
am amazed by the fact
that God still blessed mewith something good
which makes me think thathe still believes in my capa-
bilities. This became an in-
spiration for me to move forward andstart something new. But as the follow-
ing semesters sailed, it seemed really
hard to give my best especially when
nobody could help you but yourself.
Thus, I ended up choosing betweenwhich one to exert more effort to and
which one to give just a bit of attention.
I had to choose the main reason that
made me enter college in the first place.
I had to focus more on my studies. I
The end of the academic year is
drawing close. As I reminisce how it
was in the past four years of my sur-vival in St. Scholasticas Col-
lege, I realized that itwas only here
where I experi-
enced the hard-
est problems Ihad in life so far.
Being a teenager is
crucial for it is during this
period when a person is already
expected to be inde-pendent in manag-
ing his or her own
problems without
the help of otherpeople. It is during
this period when boysand girls turn into debu-
tants and become of legalage, too. Once they reach this
stage, they start to have that
tendency to think that they
need to solve their problems
on their own.As a student, it has never been my
goal to defeat the top students in our
class. I certainly believe it will neverhappen, but perhaps, this was the rea-
son it never did. In my four years in
college, I always ended up feeling like
placing my feet on the tip of the cliff
after each semester. I always had the
BalancebyCamilleMariePonce
ImagecourtesyofGoogle
Images
exactly what popularizing their work
will do. Why put yourself through the
unnecessary stress of worrying about
being like everybody else in one or twoways? Youll just be adding years to
your age.
There is more to life than social poli-
tics. Remember that the next time
someone discovers your latest secretobsession.
Imagesfromtumblr.com
grades that you get. Its also important
for you to balance things and use your
time wisely. Its when you focus on aplan that you can keep things in order.
It is the motto that I would keep on myway after I graduate. This is a piece of
wisdom I would treasure forever.
ITSNOTEASYTO BALANCEacadem
icsandextracurricularactivities.PhotobyCamilleMariePonce
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Qui l l
remember being young and ca-
pricious. I detested going to class
and opted to stay in my motherswell ventilated room. I remember ask-
ing her about the people outside her
place of work. For several years, I
failed to notice those people holding
placards and shouting their protests,remaining to be the same homeless
yet wide-eyed sympathizers they
were, even during the night. I was in-
solent and impervious I spent half ofmy life wasting the education and
money my mother provided by spend-
ing my time on bottled beers, peers
and designer goods.
Good thing I went to college and
learned in my junior year. I had my
internship in an alternative online me-dia organization which delved in peo-
ples views and stands on issues that
affect the lives belonging to the work-
ing class. I exchanged conversationswith various people: consoled the
widow of a slain journalist in Maguin-
danao, talked to a prosecutor, broke
down after covering a demolition andlearned with peasant and health work-
ers. The next thing I knew, heading
home would not be complete without
me thinking of them the struggle ofpeasants for land, workers for decent
living and working conditions, poor
for basic social needs and youth for
proper education. After my internship,
I thought that these sentiments wouldend, I thought of just moving on to the
next phase of my life, yet it was not so
easy, for this kind of rage didnt go
away with sleep.
Now, the office which I used to
stay at so often, the place which I
eluded because of people holding ban-
ners of protests and wrath, would bethe same office I would go to every
now and then, this time not mainly for
my mother but for the peasant work-
ers from Hacienda Yulo going on hun-ger strike or peasants from South Lu-
zon demanding for their right to land.
Just a week ago, I went with Ta-tay Pedring to the hospital, he used to
be a peasant worker from Hacienda
Luisita. His son, Jesus Lava was one of
the victims of the violent dispersal
that happened in Hacienda Luisita
back in 2004. Although old and sick,
the original and insightful conversa-tion I had with him helped me expand
my new perspective of what really is
genuine in our society that every-
thing I witnessed starting from televi-
sion news to newspapers were justblatant occurrences and insufficient
reports spreading like bushfire around
the world.
During the past few years, I have
always been amazed when hearing
colleagues begin each day with long
discourses about what the latest newsis on the mainstream media. After ex-
changing thoughts with Tatay Pedring
and his family, I began to notice more
of the intellectual life off the campus,too. Then, I realized that life is more
than just the best grades, scholarship
awards and right jobs. It is beyond the
four walls of the classroom. It does notonly comprise of secular education but
collaboration of knowledge obtained
from the eyes of others: informal set-
tlers, minimum wage earners, over-seas domestic workers, farmers, co-
journalists, and the like.
Now, having a particular journal-istic knowledge where I can protect
existing information could be of help
to my fellowmen. Through writing, I
am able to do my little share by intro-
ducing unraveled issues into the pub-lic sphere and creating poems where
my pen can be a sword to fight injus-
tice, oppression and tyranny taking
place in our country. I also get to de-claim poems to the toiling masses.
Frankly, I still do not know what
to pursue once I graduate from col-lege I have given up being a lawyer,
filmmaker or even a development
communication practitioner. It never
crossed my mind to be in the main-
stream media. But one thing I am cer-tainly sure of is to never decline those
people holding their banners of pro-
tests; those people struggling for their
rights. I wish that someday, I couldprofusely give my service to them: to
Tatay Pedring, to Tito Lito, and to
Nanay Rhiza.
March 201110
Months from now, I will be walking to thecadence of success and fulfillment. It is not only me who would be present but
my debonair batch mates and professors who also yearn for thatspecial day to come.
Then, everyone would contemplate on what one would want to pursue r ight aftergraduation: fashion cr itique, top model, actress, media practitioner, etc. but not
me.
Marching offbyAndreaZarahDayao
SOMETIMESTHE BESTLESSONS IN LIFE ARE LEARNEDOUTSIDETHE CLASS
ROOM. The author shared snapshots of rallies she has attended and hope she can
makeadifferencesomeday. PhotosbyZarahDayao
I
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March 2011 11Qui l l
YoungLoveLove, love has come my way.And
everything is gonna be okay, Heart
Evangelista sang. I was 14 years old andhe was 21. I was a sophomore in high
school and he was a bum. I lived in
Makati and he lived in Quezon City.
These were big differences, but love
kept us together.It was the 25th day of the month of
August 2004, when we committed our-
selves to each other. We saw each otheronce a week without my parents con-
sent. We painted plenty of
memories with one an-
other for 22 months. Itseemed perfect. Ithought he was my
forever. I dreamt of
spending my lifetimewith him. But every-
thing ended unexpect-
edly.It was late at night.
It looked as if every-body was sleeping, but I
was still with him and
his friends. We werelaughing out loud at the
basketball court. Our
laughter and happy
voices filled the air when
suddenly, my phone rang. Ilooked at the screen of my
phone and saw my mothers name.
With an anxious heart, I answered the
call. A restless and angry voice blockedmy eardrums. She was asking me to go
home immediately, before my father
scolds me.
I decided to go home alone but he
insisted and went home with me to for-mally introduce himself as my boy-
friend. I did not know what to do. All I
know was that I was in trouble at that
moment.As we got near my house, I saw my
brother and mother patiently waiting
for me. My knees were shaking as I got
down from the jeepney. I left him withno words. I only glanced at him once
because I went inside our house quickly
to avoid being nagged. My mother came
to my room and warned me. She re-
minded me that I was too young and Imust prioritize my studies over my love
life. I loved him but I love my mother
more. Since that incident, I never an-swered his calls, responded to his text
messages, and stopped connecting with
him via Friendster.
Missing:MeLove hurts. Two years with him
was not that easy to forget. My heart
was broken. My mind could not take the
pain. I lost all sense of direction in mylife. I had no reason at all to wake up. I
did not attend my classes and locked
myself in my room. I threw things
against the wall. I did not talk to any-
body. I messed up my life. I stopped
living. My family did not know how tohandle me, and it came to the point
when they sought professional help.
ArtofLettingGoI was not myself that afternoon. I
tuned in to MYX channel and sang out
loud. A lady dressed in blue scrub suit
and pants came to our house. In herwhite shoes and with
her hands inside her pockets, she
walked towards me, sat beside me and
stared at me. Behind her, a man in
white top and pants and with good phy-
sique also walked in and sat in front ofme. I sat beside the lady. She said hello,
she took an injection out of her pocket
and injected it to me. It caused me diz-
ziness.She stood up and asked me to go
with her. I followed her as the man ac-
companied me. The three of us boarded
a van and suddenly, I fell asleep.It was already dark when we ar-
rived at an unfamiliar place. She opened
the one-way glass door for me and I
stepped in. The moment I walked in, Isaw a living room full of strange people.
The lady in blue showed me my room. I
thought it would just be a room for me
but it turned out to be a ward for eight
girls. I was going to sleep with a bunchof girls I didnt even know.
My first new friend was so caring.
She offered me a pillow and a blanket.She also gave me a book entitled, OurDailyBread. She told me that the next
day, she would be going out becauseher doctors said that she was already
cured. I did not mind what she was tell-
ing me because I could not understand
what was happening. After our conver-
sation, few people were shouting out-
side our room. They kept on yelling,Bible study! Bible study! They
knocked on our door and invited me to
Iwasanaddict.Not
todrugs.Nottoalco-
hol.Rathertolove.I
devotedmyselfto
lovingsomeonetoo
muchwhodidnot
lovemeasmuch
inreturn.
byMarieGaieNolledoA Patient of Love join the so-called Bible study. As Istepped out of our room, I found at myleft the girls bathroom and at my right,an orange-black painted room with
pumpkins painted on the wall wherepeople were gathered for the so-called
Bible study. Bibles were on the chair. I
sat down and looked around the orange-black painted room. It was getting coldinside the room and there were no
more vacant seats. We started. A for-
eign guy in a checkered polo began the
activity with a prayer. He was a pastor.
He shared the good news but I couldnot help my eyes from closing, so I
stood up, unconsciously dropped the
Bible on the floor and walked out. Iwent straight to my bed and slept.
The next day, I know I was still not
myself. I looked for the lady in blue
scrub suit because I wanted to go home.
She refused to tell me the truth, con-vinced me to go back to my bed and
asked me to wait for the wake up bell. I
failed to find out where I was and wentback to our room sadly.
I did not know what was happening
until the lady in blue explained to me
that I was in a rehabilitation center, the
Life Change Recovery Center (LCRC). Iwas in a place for drug addicts, psychot-
ics and old people. Sadness and tons of
questions filled my mind and heart. I
did not know why I was there in the
first place. I was not a drug addict nei-ther a psychotic. All I knew was I was
broken hearted.
Every afternoon, we were requiredto take a nap. Then few hours after, an-
other bell would ring for a session with
psychology interns. We always had ac-
tivities concerning our painful life ex-
periences. Through those activities, Islowly and unconsciously felt healing.
I did not see my family for a few
weeks. I did not have my cell phone to
text them, landline to call them andeven paper and pen to write a letter for
them. I felt so alone when I was there in
LCRC. I was so helpless. I did not havefriends. I did not trust anybody until I
started to have a new set of friends. We
were four in our group and I was the
youngest. They were all my kuyasandmy ate. I had two kuyas, Mike andMighty and one Ate, Karen who was a
Paulinian. They were all drug addicts
but with good hearts. They only heeded
attention and love from their parentsthats why they took drugs. They all had
different life stories that inspired me as
I continued my journey inside that re-
covery center with them. I felt at homewith them. I started to fix my broken-
ness and felt complete again. I never
felt I was in danger even though they
were drug addicts. I was in good hands.Aside from establishing bond with
other patients, I asked and talked to
God. I always got up in the middle of the
night, grabbed the Our Daily Bread
and read it for guidance. I felt His touchand His unconditional love for me. That
was my motivation to survive in that
rehabilitation center.One afternoon, after taking a bath, I
went to the living area to watch TV with
my friends. I did not feel anything unor-dinary but when I unexpectedly saw the
familiar top of my elder sister, I glancedslowly from the top to her face and real-
ized it was my Ate Grheyzie. She gave
me a hug and I felt so much love and
happiness. My parents and my brotherswere also there and did the same thing.
My whole family and I were happy as
we entered in the orange-black painted
room with the psychologist. She was Dr.Violet Bautista. She explained to me
that we were having a family therapy.
She asked me about my experiences
inside the recovery center, how my re-lationship with the other patients was
and so on. I shared everything from my
adjustment period until that day. Aspart of the healing process, the psy-
chologist asked me to narrate my bro-kenness. I completely revealed my love
life and my biggest secret was dis-
closed. They all seemed deaf becausethey did not utter a single word. All I
saw were smiles - smiles of forgiveness
and acceptance. I felt I was loved.
The family therapy happened twice
a month. I also had consultations with aforeign missionary and my psychiatrist,
Dr. Randy Dellosa, the Pinoy Big
Brother registered psychiatrist. I felt Iwas a celebrity patient.
After three months, I received very
good news. The nurses were instructed
by my psychologist and psychiatristthat I was ready to be released from the
rehabilitation center.
On the very
day of my
release, therewas a small
gathering
and they
called it myGraduation
Day. A bou-
quet of flow-
ers; a notefrom my fam-
ily and
friends; and
words of wis-
dom fromthe heads of
LCRC were
some of mysouvenirs
from that
place I considered home for three
months. I could not explain what I felt.
Overflowing love and happiness filledme. I already loved the people the
heads, the nurses, the staff, the patients,
and my friends. It was very hard to saygoodbye. But in every goodbye there is
a new beginning. As I stepped out of the
one-way glass door, I brought home
tons of memories to keep, new life les-sons and a changed me.
LessonsLearnedEverything has its own time. Maybe
I rushed love and did not care aboutmyself. I am so grateful for having a
loving God; for all the people behind my
changed perspective in life; and for my
family who sacrificed a lot for me. I felthealed through that haven. I would
never be shy to share with anybody
that I once lived with drug addicts and
psychotics. Rather, I would be proud ofit. I enjoyed every single day of my life
with them- my first and I hope, the last
time of being a patient of love.
THELIFECHANGERECOVERYCENTER assistpeoplethroughtheir troubledtimes,
especiallyduringtimesofcrises,sothatpatientswillexperiencewholeness,wellness,
growth,andhealingintheirlives. CreditfromtheLifeChangeRecoveryofficialwebsite
YOUDONTNEED
TOBEADRUG
ADDICTOR AN
ALCOHOLIC
toseekprofessional
helpandhealing.
Photo
courtesyof
GoogleImages
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is a laboratory paper produced as final output for theFeature and Technical writing class of 4MCPJ.
It is a thematic paper that contains purely soft news/
feature articles focusing on the theme, Scholasticans in
the service of Christ, Country, and Creation.
March 201112
Editorial StaffJasmine ShewakramaniEditor in Chief
Camille Anne De AsisManaging Editor
Anne Ednalyn Dela Cruz
Camille Marie Ponce
Maria Isadora RomeralEditors
Carmela QuidolesLayout Artist
Karen Marie PastorCirculation Manager
Andrea Zarah Dayao
Rose Anne ValledoPhotographers
Jenny de Venecia
Cielo Eunice Flores
Tiffanny Queen Navarro
Marie Gaie Nolledo
Kleir Pineda
Cristina TupazReporters
Atty. Prima Jesusa QuinsayasAdviser
OTANG
D.A.MS. PJ
KLEIR
ISSA
CIELO
JAS
CAMZYEDZ
INNA
KAI JEN
CARMELAZARAHTIFF
GAIE
Noodles; Para kanino ka bumaban
gon? an ad for Nescafe Coffee, andHonest Annie, an advertisement for
Milo. All three advertisements were
made by Publicis Manila advertisinggroup.
In the field of broadcast journalism, a
special citation was also given to AkoMismoTV in addition to those receivedby Castillejo and Soho.
For projects and works dealing with
d evelopm ent com m u nication ,
Gabrielas ProjectRunaway were givenawards, as well as ABS-CBNs Ma
tanglawin and the Vote for Kids cam-
paign by Tulakabataan.
Special citations for print and online
media included Anne Marxe Umalis
articles on womens issues published
on Bulatlat.com, an alternative onlinenews magazine. WomeninAction, the
magazine of Isis International was also
given recognition, as well as PCIJs CashOverload,MediaOverdrive:thePressand
theMay2010elections.
The award is named after St. Hildegard
von Bingen of Germany, the celebratedmedieval Benedictine nun considered
ahead of her time. St. Hildegarde was a
counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist,
philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet,
visionary and composer.
The Hildegarde Awards is an annual
event staged by the department of MassCommunication and its graduating
class. It is said to be the sole award-
giving body recognizing womens roles
PROF AMELIA LAPENA BONIFACIO AND CAROLYN ARGUILLAS shared their in
sightsandexperienceswiththeaudiences.ThetwowomenarethisyearsHildegarde
lifetimeachievementawards. PhotobyMelcaSison
SSC holds......frompage1