Inevitable Change & Disguisement

"Foul is fair and fair is foul" -  A line uttered at the first part of the story by the three witches in one of the most amazing masterpieces, Macbeth. It's a simple and short quote, but means a lot. A lot of truthfulness and reality. Many of us find it difficult to understand, but I tried my best to explain what the line means to me.

For me, there may be two meanings for the line. The first is that change is permanent and inevitable. Change is within our world, within us. In the story, it means that someone may change for the better or for the worse. Someone may have a fair personality and attitude, but it will eventually change into a foul personality and attitude. Though humans want the change or not, they can't stop it to occur. This happened to Macbeth. At first, he is kind and kindhearted. But when his wife tempted him to do terrible things, he changed. He was aware of the change happening to him, but still, he continued. Because of it, he completely turned into a bad guy. He wanted to refuse, but he cannot. Deep inside, he feels guilt. The guilt of murdering innocent people just to have the throne he's been aiming for.

Another meaning of the quote is disguisement. It means that people who have foul appearance may have a fair attitude or personality. The ones who have fair appearance may have a foul personality or attitude. Throughout the story, fair appearances hid foul realities. When Macbeth started killing the innocent ones in the play, the people thought that he is the good and kind man, that he should be the king. His evil plans were hidden beneath his appearance. Thus, everyone believes that Macbeth's innocent. In the end, he paid the price of his selfishness.

In our life, the quote may be also applied. The people we chose to be friends with does not mean that they are the 'true' and 'real' ones. Sometimes, those people are not the same inside. They may show you good deeds, but you may never know what they are thinking of deep inside. We may also experience changes in our life. But no matter how good or bad the change is, we must still know what path should we take and be responsible enough to accept the change.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Climactic Scene

Most stories have their own exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement - or simply sequence of the events. But sometimes, do not have the 'official' or 'made by the author' sequence of events. Oftentimes, the author does not focus mainly on the sequence of events. One best example are the masterpieces of Shakespeare. Specifically, one of them is A Midsummer Night's Dream which is a product of Shakespeare's creativity and imagination. 

A Midsummer Night's Dream has a very, very interesting plot and story. It is uniquely made by the creative imagination of Shakespeare. Because there is no specified climax in the story, our teacher instructed us to choose our own climax of our story. For me, this part was definitely the best scene to be the climax:

When Lysander and Hermia got in the woods, Helena and Demetrius followed them. When the couple, Lysander and Hermia, fell asleep on the forest grounds, Puck poured the love potion to the Athenian youth. (Lysander). Unfortunately, Puck poured it to the wrong person who is Lysander, instead of Demetrius.

The love potion worked in the morning when all of them woke up. Lysander immediately fell in love with Helena and Demetrius also fell in love with Helena. The love story was changed. Now, Helena has two lovers following her, Demetrius and Lysander. Because of this, the anger was built up inside Hermia. She thought that it was all Helena's fault.

The two Athenian men follows Helena wherever she goes. This made Hermia even more angry. She went to Helena and challenged her in a fight. Hermia said that Helena took everything from her. Hermia was obviously jealous of Helena. Their fight was supposed to be physical, but it turned out to be emotional. Demetrius and Lysander also fought for the heart of Helena. The four young people got their lives miserable because of Puck.

That was the part I consider the best climax. For me, this part has a very exciting scene and conversations. The four of them fought, making the story more interesting and exciting.

The Same Way Around

"I do not forgive because I am weak. I forgive them because I am strong enough to forget and understand that people make mistakes."

     Life is full of imperfections and mistakes. Life won't be complete if there are no things such as problems, misdeeds, sins and mistakes. They are given to us so that we can learn something. But sometimes, God lets others commit mistakes to test the person they have hurt. As usual, the hurt ones may feel sad, mad, angry, down, hopeless and lonely. It is normal for them to feel the way they feel. It's part of our life. But if you are on the shoes of the hurt person, will you forgive or forget?

     For me, forgive and forget goes the same way around. Forgive comes with forget. When you forgive, you also forget. When you forget, you should forgive. The best way for forgiveness is the art of forgetting. If someone treated me wrong, I won't avenge. If someone said something bad about me, I won't revenge. To be honest, the first thing I will do is to feel disappointed. I'll also feel bad about myself. I am going to ask myself why did others commit mistake towards me. Then, I'll hate them. It's inevitable for a hurt person to be angry, but the decision I'm sure of is that I will never ever revenge.

     The healing of a wound takes time, but worth it. No matter what and how big their sins are, they are still humans. Humans who are made imperfectly by a perfect God because he wants us to forget and accept each other the way they are. Forget every details of their misdeed and learn how to forgive them completely. Some may think that it won't benefit them, but what they do not know is that forgiving and forgetting have a great benefit for us. It makes us strong and sturdy from any problems we may encounter towards our journey to success. It lets us realize that everyone has in-capabilities. It teaches us a very essential lesson for our life which is acceptance.

Sportiness or Excellence?

If we're given a chance to choose between excellence and sportiness, how will you know which quality has the greater importance?

Excellence and sportiness - two essential qualities for an individual, particularly for teenagers. Each of us has our own choice. It always depends on our interest. If a person likes physical activities more, then he/she will choose to be sporty, rather than being excellent. If a person wants to be academically good and smart, then that person will choose to be excellent. The choice of an individual also depends on their experience. If one already experienced to be active in sports, then he/she might choose excellence to try a new one. The same happens if a person is academically good.

We all have that one choice which was the best choice for us, but the worst for others. One thing that might help us is by learning their advantages and disadvantages. In excellence, a person may be the top of the class, the smartest of all, the most envied person and the one who's well known for his/her academic performance. Other people will idolize you, teachers will give you high grades and your family will be proud of you. Those are the sweetest things in being excellent. Your parents will be happy for you and you'll be able to repay their good deeds. Despite of all those advantages, disadvantages will always bother us. Being excellent could make you a nerd, your friends will go away from you because you're in a higher rank and you won't experience the fun of being outdoors and playing. A person's social life will be very much affected.

In sportiness, an individual may be physically fit, healthy and strong from any physical activities and diseases. A person can enjoy his/her social life and will be able to have so many friends. Other people will idolize you because of your skills in sports. It may give you fame and recognition when you are good in sports. On the other hand, there will be an effect to your academic performance if you'll only pursue your sportiness. First, a student's grades will all lower, leading to more bigger problems. The teachers will get worried, so they will consult our parents. Our parents will feel ashamed, sorry and angry, which break a heart of a son or daughter. To see your parents' sorrow is powerful enough to crush us. The relatives and the whole family will question, ask, blame and judge him/her. The problem becomes worse.

If I have to choose a one quality between the two, I'll undoubtedly choose excellence. I will choose to be excellent because I want to experience the feeling of knowing very well the lessons and the feeling of being able to express or explain your ideas, thoughts, knowledge and opinions. I am not worst academically, but I'll still choose to be excellent because sportiness can be practiced. If you want to be good at a certain sport, then you can train yourself. But if you want to be excellent in every subject, practice is not enough. A person needs to memorize, learn, compute, understand, review and many more. It's difficult to train yourself on how to be excellent in majority of the subjects. The feeling when your parents are proud of you convinces me more to choose excellence. Nothing's more valuable that seeing your parents proud and happy of their child. My parents now are proud of me, but there's still comparison between me and my brother. It's incomplete and unsatisfying. I also see that being excellent has greater importance than being sporty. If you're excellent, you can graduate from the best school, get the best job and live the best life you can have. A person's skills in sports dies and fades away, but excellence never fades.

Each of us has our own choice to defend. But no matter what it is, as long as we know we're taking the right path, we'll succeed in anything.

Disaster-brought Prayer

The creator, savior and Lord God almighty

Clothed with everlasting majesty and glory

The one who puts everything back in harmony

Here I am, adoring your great divinity

You’ve filled this world with unity and happiness

But we, humans, had filled it with thy selfishness

With the courage you have given me, I confess

We, watchmen, wasted the beauty your gifts possess

We all know that you offered humans your power

Power to rule and prevent the world to suffer

But the gift you gave was misused by us, sinners

Then we knew, we failed and were your hope’s abater

Many typhoons and strong winds from these past few days

From those disasters you have sent, then we might say

This is the time for the destroyers to repay

So all that we can do are lay our hands and pray

Lord, we lowly ask for your forgiveness and love

For the irresponsibleness we show and hove

Remorsefulness and repentance are all we have

To offer to you wholeheartedly from above

Father, I thank you for your boundless providence,

For keeping us safe from thy severe experience

For giving us the courage and the confidence

And for telling us our misdeeds’ consequence

I know I do not have the right to beg, but please

Grant my desire for the victims to live in peace

Protect them and thy loved ones from any disease

And let the victims continue their life at ease

This we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.

The Peculiar Letter

Ganito Ka Rin Ba Mag-ENGLISH?

(To whoever gets to understand this letter, CONGRATULATIONS!)

The following is a letter found at a certain bar in Manila and has been preserved in its original, unedited form. Enjoy reading and you may try direct translation in Tagalog. Pls. read with feelings . . .
Original Version:

October 1996
To Marije,
I am not surprise of wander why Dennis leave you why? What reason can you think about but you're very fat body. I thought before that Dennis only use me to his toy but sooner and later I'm realize that he really can't not beared or stomached to be with you anymore because at first, Dennis say he could not stand your habit of making pakielam all his walks (lakad) and always calling to their house what he go home or this or that.

And then he say he get ashame to me either in school or in his family and then asking you to exercise you're very very, very fat body. But you hate it. Thought you're the most preetiest girl he knows about. What do you think you are "BeautifulGirl" of Jose Marie Chan?

Even you are beautiful face (to your think) you do not have the right to called me whatsoever or else difference name one time or the other for the real purposed to insults my personality because I'm never call you names either in the front of Dennis or in the back of Dennis, but if you start already to calling me different name, I don't have any other choice but to call you other different name to. Like you are a PIG, FAT, OBSESSED, OVERWEIGHT, AND UGLY SHAPE girl. Shame to your body that is to a building.

You can't not blame Dennis for exchanging you to me because I am the more sexier that you when you look to us in the mirror. I'm repeat again that you are like Ike Lozada when she is a girl. 

Love, the sexiest Girl of D.M.

P.S.
You say that I'm the bad breathe but who is Dennis want to kissed. Me or you? And the final is me. There you go.
Reaction:

The letter was slightly hard to understand, but I enjoyed reading it. I understood that the girl wrote a letter to his boy friend's ex-girl friend, Marije. She insulted her and said some things about the past relationship of Dennis and Marije. I found it humorous, but it caused my headache. I need to re-read it before I can totally understand the writer's thought.

I felt bad for the writer of the letter, but I am also thankful to her for the realization I made. It is definitely important to have a correct grammar in letters, essays, or other compositions. It is also important for us to learn and practice the correct use of English Language.

I found the revising part difficult, especially the first paragraph of the letter. I also had difficulties in some parts, but I was able to find the words that would fit in the thought.

Revised Version:

October 1996
To Marije,

I am not surprised or even wondered why Dennis left you, why? There is no other reason I can think of but your very fat body.I thought that Dennis only used me as his toy before, but I realized that he can't bear to be with you because at first, Dennis said  he could not stand your habit of interrupting his appointments and your habit of calling to their house if he already arrived.

He said that he's ashamed of you in his school and family. He asked you to exercise, but you hate it. You think you're the prettiest girl he knows? Do you think you are the "Beautiful Girl" of Jose Mari Chan?

Even though you are beautiful (just like what you're thinking), you don't have the right to call me any other name anytime for you to insult my personality because I never called you in different names in front or at the back of Dennis. If you already started calling me in different names, I don't have any choice but to call you in different names too like PIG, FAT, OBSESSED, OVERWEIGHT, AND UGLY SHAPED GIRL. Shame to your fat body which is like a building.

You can't blame Dennis for choosing me over you because I am sexier than you even if we look at the mirror. I'll repeat that you are like a girl version of Ike Lozada.

Love,The Sexiest Girl of D.M.

P.S.You said that I have a bad breath, but who does Dennis want to kiss? You or me? Obviously, it's me. There you go.

Blogging: Modern Formal Theme

With every new year in CavSci comes new lessons, teachers and teaching strategies. Of all the new techniques from our teachers, the blogging strategy for our informal theme was the best. I haven't experienced blogging, but I think it's quite fun. Some of my classmates were used in blogging and said that it's very enjoyable. I believe that I will enjoy it more than the written Informal theme.

At our first blog, I really do not know what to do and how to start. I explored my account and found out that everything was amazing. definitely amazing. I successfully did my first blog and felt contented with it. All through out my blogging days, the state of complete boredom never crept in me. They never made me feel tired. Whenever I compose a post for our blog, many ideas sink in my mind because the topics given by our teacher were interesting and inspiring. They're not common, but not too rare. This strategy gave way for technology to be used in our subject. The idea fitted in the latest innovation nowadays.It lets the teenagers these days express their feelings. Blogging as a formal theme suits the interests of teenagers like me. I find it easy and more comfortable because I can make a long composition without getting tired easily. Our energy use is minimized, but we can still express ourselves more. Students like us may also share our blogs with other people. Other people can read and be inspired with the compositions made by students.

Blogging as an informal theme is a simple start and innovation which helps humans educationally and socially. The use of technology is maximized, but the learnings and ideas are still there. It satisfies the educational needs of the students, but also lets us enjoy technology. This modern informal theme gave us, students, the opportunity to show who we are.