Graduation Speech 2015.

Hello my fellow graduates. Welcome friends, family, teachers and administrators to the graduation of the class of 2015 at Portola Middle School.

I want to start off by saying thank you to everyone that is here today... to our parents that supported us even when we pushed them away; to our siblings who had been there to celebrate the happiest times in our lives and lift us up when we’re feeling down, to our dear teachers who prepared us for the life ahead of us; lastly, to our friends that became family.

I came to Portola shy and terrified of everyone. I did not know anyone and I did not know how I would survive middle school without any friends. When I went home that day, I begged my mom to home school me. Thankfully, she said “No”. I was forced to come to school the next day, still terrified until this girl named Osher came up to me and we became friends. She then introduced me to more people; with that, I gained confidence.

Throughout my two years at Portola, I made friends that became strangers and some stayed close to my heart. I gained a lot of confidence, that I even had the strength to start my own YouTube channel. I learned that fear will not be with you forever. You just have to face it. I learned that not everything is going to be easy; that we have to face difficulties in life. I learned that not everyone is trustworthy; you have to choose the right kind of friends. I learned how to build teamwork that we can’t do everything by ourselves without any help. I learned that opening up to someone can be very helpful and make your shoulders lighter. Most importantly, I learned that middle school is not the hardest part of our lives; it is only the beginning.

Fellow graduates, we have come to an end of the first battle of our lives. There will be more and even harder battles that we have to face. It will be difficult, but all we have to do is trust ourselves and learn from it. I want to wish each and every one of you a successful life. Never give up on your dreams, because Thomas Edison once said, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

We are ready and prepared for the next battle that we’re going to face. It is a whole new world in high school, and we should all make the best of it. Thank You.

Lying.

Legend has is it that George Washington said, "I can never tell a lie." but in the real world, most people do. Since almost everyone actually does lie, I think that lying is sometimes okay.

When deciding whether you should tell a lie or not, you should look at the situation first, like not telling your friends who you really like or what you really got on the test because you're too scared to hurt their feelings. According to the articles that I've read, people said that "it was OK to lie in certain situations, like protecting someone's feelings." because "we can't always pick honesty without compromising some other value that might be as important." This is basically weighing in the benefit and the consequence of a lie.

Although "every lie has its cost,...once a person finds out you lied, you lose currency in their eyes". It's true that when someone lies to you, it's hard to trust them again; the truth can always hurt one's feelings. People would hate you for being too straight forward and would tell you that you don't have to be honest all the time. It has its pros and cons, and sometimes it’s so hard when you’re in this situation.

Lying has a negative meaning, that, it is not good. But sometimes, given the consequences, we do lie to protect a person from getting hurt; it's basing what is beneficial from harmful. In reality, lying itself is morally wrong, because a person who constantly lies will be deceiving other people and can lead into a habit. Little white lies are intended to benefit someone and not hurt them.

Teenagers.

Teenagers. They said that a teenager is "a person aged from 13 to 19 years." This means, I am one and I know how we act and feel. I know that I am still starting my teenage years, and that I have much more to go through, but I think I can say some stuff base on what I have been experiencing lately.

Some say that we should enjoy and make the most of it while we are still this young. We shouldn't be so stressed and should be thankful that we have technology that makes everything, well, easier. We should live the moment and not worry or over think everything. I think people are putting too much pressure on us. People want us to act like adults, but when we do, they tell us that we’re just kids, or the other way around.

I feel like us, teenagers are the most stressed. We go to school for eight hours long, go home and do homework for a few more hours. Some teens have other activities outside school like sports, work or even socializing. We barely get any breaks to just relax and think about our life and not worry about what the next day would bring. We don’t get any sleep due to all the stress we get from the day. We don’t have time to have a nice and real meal due to all the things we have to get done. We get too pressured on getting good grades and being perfect.

No one is perfect in this world, but teenagers have to act and be one because that’s how society wants them to be. Some gets bullied, some gets too stressed, some get anxiety attacks, some gets depression, some gets hungry and some, well they just give up.

When will society realize that teenagers are people too? When will they stop pressuring us? When will they realize that we’re not too young to be stressed due to all the work they give us? When will they notice our sufferings? When will they realize that we are people too? When will society be fair and treat teens like we are real people like everyone else in this world? When will they realize that we are so close to giving up?  When?

A Letter to my Future Self

NOTE TO SELF: READ THIS ONE YEAR AFTER YOU GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL!!

Dear Future Me,

Hi! It's me. I mean you.. well we're technically the same person, I'm just younger. Well, I'm the 14 year old you, and I haven't experienced that much yet.

Anyways, how are you doing? Are you okay? Or are you down? Is there something wrong? Is there something that is bothering you at the moment? Are you still friends with the people you became close to in middle school and high school? Do you have a boyfriend at the moment? Is he cute? How's YouTube? How are your videos? Did your editing skill improve? Did you at least reach our goal of reaching out to more people? Do you still have the weirdest mood swings ever? Did you find someone who can keep up with it? HAHHA. How's Lerry? Or Esteban? Or Fluffy? Do you still need at least one of them to be able to fall asleep at night? Are you still a One Direction fan? (wait, of course you are!! we're always going to be 1D af)

Enough questions, and let's talk about how we are right now.. well, I am actually doing great at the moment. I'm graduating middle school in less than four months. I'm catching up on everything, I even have good grades. Cool right?

Anyways, I made some new friends since I got here last year. I miss everyone in the Philippines. I still try my best and contact them, but it's really hard because of the time zones. I always imagine what will it be like if I never moved here. Like am I still friends with some people? and you know, other stuff.

I hate a lot of people, to be honest. Everyone just bothers me you feel? I can't have the same connection with my friends here, as I did with everyone back home.

I'm saving a lot of money for different kinds of stuff. Like better filming tools, better closet and especially, a ticket to go back home, even for just one month.

I really hope that you've reached our goals. I mean I just see things certainly right now. I really hope that you see the world differently now, that you're reading this. I hope you are happy.. and contented. I also hope that you at least went back home once or twice. And I wish that you're still friends with Ivan, Ericka, Ianne, Dawn, and the rest(not gonna name it because there's so many that I want us to keep in touch with).

Anyways, that's all that I can say for now. I just wish you the best and good luck on the future.

Love, 14-year old you.

TIME-OUT

 'Bitch', 'Slut', 'Selfish', 'Ugly', 'Annoying', 'Stupid' and many more..

Sometimes people say things, that they don't even think about other people's feelings. Sometimes, they call you all of this because you're too loud or too enthusiastic. Sometimes they don't realize, that what they say can hurt other people too.

Life now is all about drama. You can never be happy without people judging you. You can never be sad without people judging either. You can't do what you love, because you're scared that people would hate you and say all these stuff behind your back.

At times, you try and act like you don't care about what other people say, but deep down you're crashing. You try and put a smile on your face even when you are facing too many obstacles in life just to make other people happy and not worry about you. Sometimes, you try your hardest to keep the positive vibe going, but you just can't with all the stuff people tell you behind your back.

You'll crash down soon, and you'd hate yourself for not keeping up. You break down in front of people, and you mentally slap yourself because you don't want them to worry or care about you. Sometimes, you just sit there to avoid crying in front of your "friends" and everyone thinks that you're being rude. Sometimes you just need to be by yourself but people hate you for it because they think that you're being too selfish. Sometimes, you just don't want to tell anyone what's going on in your life because you're too scared to break down in front of them, and the one and only reason that you hate about breaking down in front of people is that they will judge you. Not understand you, ignore you and talk behind your back.

I just hope that people would realize how hard it is for someone to keep it all up, and that sometimes, all you need is a break... from everything. A break where you can just hang out and and be by yourself.

So if you're going through so much at this moment, put all of you're problems aside and have a 'time-out'. Listen to you're favorite band, stay in your room for as long as you want, eat as many as you can, go online shopping, turn off your phone so people won't bother you, jam out, sing as loud as you can, have a party by yourself, and all the other stuff you want to do. The only thing that you can't do is worry about your problems or think of what others will tell you. Take a break from the real world even just for an hour, and I assure you that you'll fell better than you did before.. not 100% better but at least you had a break.

Just keep on doing 'time-outs' as long and as many as you want and I'm sure that you'll be back and smiling and ready to face the real world again.