Two...Zero...One...Two!

2012 in a bit. 2011 was filled with adventures and epic. Grateful, blessed and ready to face 2012 with much courage, inspiration, hope, faith and love. Thinking of a challenge now that I am able to "habol" a post at the end of 2011. How cool is that? Along with, I know, thousands of other bloggers. Haha. But, will be posting a "supposedly" year-end post which I wasn't able to do so because of scarcity of internet connection here in Bohol. But I will be posting as soon as me and my family are back in the city of Cebu.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope all your body parts are all intact even after the celebration has ended. You know what I mean. :)

But I'll leave you with the gist of my future posts. Kunwari gist...pero at the back of my mind there's a voice that says, in case my next post comes at the end of 2012. Haha.

I heart Pinterest for these amazing pin-ups. And I so wanted to learn photoshop just so I can turn into pin-ups our inspiring quotable quotes in GK. Wouldn't you want that? Wheeee!

Me and my family live by this. :)

My 2012 Tagline #1.

A reminder for me. And it's from Dumbledore. <3

I live by this too. 

My 2012 Tagline #2.

Hoping and praying. Where na you? Here na me. <3<3<3

My 2012 Tagline #3.

Will try my best to live by this for 2012. 365 days. 24/7.

My every year tagline. :)

My 2012 Tagline #4 together with "Courage is not the absence of fear but choosing to act despite of fear".

My 2012 Tagline #5. :)

That'd be all for now. Happy New Year once again dear reader. I pray that you find your way to your dreams and to your heart's desire this 2012. God be with you and your family!

God in the Picture of Life

• God has His amusing way of making you smile and excited...and smile some more. :) 
• "God's ways entails God's craze."
• Don't let go of your dreams...even if you think it takes a million years to make it happen. Or it's far from reality. Don't forget, God is in the picture. 

Just One of Those Days

...when all I could do is keep silent and feel my heart beat.

I'm not good with expressing myself verbally. Not even sure if I'm good at articulating myself on paper, on writing. All I know is when I'm in an intense mix of emotions, I wanna close my eyes...and dream that I am in my family's embrace. 

Dear Father, bless this heart of mine. That I may be able to control the sudden bursting of emotions. I might end up hurting people. Amen.

****

I believe selfishness is when you thought of nothing but that the people around you should choose to understand you...always. Not because you deserve it, or they love you, but because you are one person with many personalities.

Don't try to be someone else that you're not. That's exhausting.

Be someone that you are destined to be. Be someone that you are most comfortable with, and people around you will love you for who you are and not for what you are not. It is important to remember that God loved you first and always will be. No matter what. No ifs. No buts. Live and love. 

The Time to Love is Now

I created you with phenomenal imagination, creativity, and intelligence. Stuff I would want you to use! #GodWhispers

"Beauty Pageant: Beauty&Brains Human♥Nature: Beauty&Brains&Heart" - Anna Meloto-Wilk

"On the other hand, perhaps meaning can be found in how much we allow life to touch us...even in nothingness." - Bernadette Sembrano

"You don't just sit down to wait for inspiration. You have to go out and look for inspiration."

"Do not be afraid to love. Learn to love without boundaries. The time to love is now." - Tony Meloto

Links bookmarked!!!

I've been collecting lots of bookmarks lately. Web bookmarks to be exact. My top picks below:

Cute monster bookmarks! From Must Have Cute

• Cucirca TV series marathon, anyone? Woohoo! 
• Wonderopolis A general knowledge website. I love that they presented the information in bullet points, simple yet still full of information. Makes me feel so geek-y. Must tell my little brothers about this. They're gonna love it! 
• Join Me Great for working professionals who usually hold Skype meetings and screen sharing is necessary. And it's FREE!
• Learn Vest My top 1 pick! I badly needed an online application, a push, a read about how to maintain and organize my finances, and I finally found it in this website. Hope I'll be able to utilize it and actually use it. I already signed up. And they offer online bootcamps. For FREE! I love FREEbies! :)
• Khan Academy and Open Yale Courses As mentioned from my previous post, I really want to take up a crash course that'd help me in my work so I'm browsing thru these websites if they have related topics that I can read thru and listen to, parang classroom lectures lang, minus the classmates and the classroom setting.
• Stay and Hipmunk I'm saving and bookmarked this links for future travel plans and adventures. 
• Excercise TV Let's see if me and my roommates will actually get to use this. Haha. But I think it wouldn't be possible here in our room though. Hope a lot of their exercise videos are available for free.
• Summer Tomato Offer tips and recipes on healthy eating. Would want to share this with my Mama. We would need an inspiration for new recipes, fresh ingredients sourced from our front yard.
• Design Mom I am such a sucker for blogs which tells a story of their designing adventures. Just never fail to awaken my love for colors and design concepts.
• Wakerupper This is one interesting application. Need a scheduled alarm (other than your phone) to wake you up? Need to get away from a boring date? Need a quick break from a straight-whole-day meeting? You would definitely  need this! You can schedule from this website a phonecall. Pretty cool! Downside: It only works in US and Canada. Boo. 
• Free Rice I got addicted to answering the questions presented in this website for as good as an hour. And for every correct answer, they donate 10 grains of rice to World Food Programme. Go give it a try! 

Hope you'd be able to make use of the links that I shared above. How bout you, do you have any links that you might want to share? :) 

If There's A Will, There's A Way

Today's learnings:

• If there's a will, there's a way. If I will it, I can wake up as soon as my alarm went off. Who invented the snooze anyway? Relate much? Hehe. Finally found time to actually just sit and focus and pray fervently...for as long as 30 minutes! It's been a month since my last (irregular) prayer time and I finally made time to just sit and do away with the noise in my head and just focus on the silence of my heart and listen to God. He just continuously reveals Himself to me and it was just this morning that my heart finally exploded and I decided to just pause and allow God to embrace me and His spirit to consume me. 
•  "Should not have doubted God' grace." My bestfriend's reflection after she passed her LET Exams which I made it my reflection for today too. :) Congratulations bestfriend! 
• There's always a first time for everything. 
• The beauty in one's heart never fails to exudes and show physically. 
• I've been reading through today's #adcon22 timeline in twitter and I picked up some simple yet (what I think are) powerful marketing insights. I actually dreamed of being able to take up crash course/s in online/web/internet/social media marketing. I dreamed of being able to attend conferences that will enrich me and help me with what I currently do for GK. And the Ad Con is one conference that I would want to go but it costs P20,000. Yes, you heard me right. Quite absurd and impossible for people like me, in my current financial state. That's like my tuition fee for one semester way back in college! Mag twitter stalking muna ako for now. Mwahaha. Thank you technology! I truly heart you. So insights reposted below:
• Act out your brand's purpose to be effective. - Mark Tutssel, Leo Burnett. #AdCon22 
• People want to play an active part in a brand. They want to be involved. - Mark Tutssel, Leo Burnett #adcon22 
• Create connections. Not commercials. #adcon22 
• Joeri Van den Bergh: New meaning of Cool = Surprising. #AdCon22  
• Today, products are about feelings and emotions, not the products themselves. - Joeri van den Bergh, Gen Y expert. #AdCon22 
• Keys to Gen Y Marketing Succes: 1. Stay true to roots. 2. Warm is the new cool. 3. Be open and respectful. - Joeri Van der Bergh #adcon22 
• Top 3 models of this generation: my friends, my mom, my dad - Van den Bergh #adcon22
• Just got reminded once again that happiness is a choice, a decision. Thanks Pearl! :)
• Most of the things in life are meant to go through a trial and error process.  
• And I've got lots of online finds that I would want to share here. Today, we had a quick marketing  meeting and a short presentation of the survey we conducted. We were asked to "profile" our assigned target markets for our pre-work for GK's Online Planning next week. The source of this week's Friday Finds (another "segment", not necessarily found online) are:
• Time's Top 50 Best Websites for 2011
• From the survey that we sent the target audience assigned to us: the non-working youth.

So there you have it. My notes and learnings for today. I am excited for Human Heart Nature's Humanity Fair tomorrow. Can't wait to see my friends from Cebu tomorrow! Yay!

What I Learned Today #1: The New "Segment"

This will be my blog's new "segment". As if I had an old one. Haha. Just would want to jot down my day's thoughts, notes and learnings worth sharing and worth remembering years or decades from now. So here I am in my DAY 1 of the WILT Segment. O di ba, may initials pa. Social. Haha

No segments from hereon. I don't blog regularly so it doesn't make sense. :) My learnings for the day below:

• I know my sister would do anything and everything for me...like skipping the first 30 minutes of her laboratory class just to send me an urgent email. Thank you my dearest Nyn-nyn! :)
• Passionate people are everywhere. Each and everyone of us has our passion that we are willing to live and die for. And we excel when we do it because we strive to become better til the better becomes the best. 
• Answered prayers just send you praying more because God has shown you once again of His faithfulness to you, to His plans and to His people.
• This question still left us all hanging:  Is Youtube already classified as a social networking site?
• "If Facebook were a country it would be the world's 3rd largest." - Wikipedia.org: Social Media
• Wikipedia.org is a not-for-profit website and it looks like they need our help to maintain the site. - Message from Wikipedia founder here.
• What secrets? HAHA "What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…" - Social Mention Article here.
• Hope it'd be the least activity. "Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web." - Social Mention Article here.
• From WWF: Mark your Calendars: EARTH HOUR 2012 will be at 8:30 p.m., March 31, 2012
• "Masakit maging mahirap." - Mang Nestor Our GK Videos never fail to tear us up and it never fail to remind us that we still have so much to do! 
• Social Media is a PARTY (Plan, Act, Reply, Test, You measure) Taken from Dawn Gartin's twitter profile

That'd be all for today. Hope to be able to list more tomorrow! 

Categorization

This was supposed to be published last Friday but I didn't actually know what went wrong and it's still saved as draft in my dashboard. Anyways, here it is. 

Categorization is the science of categorizing and assigning categories to a lot of files for easy and quick access later on...duh! I made that one up. Benta ba? Haha. Btaw, so finally, I had categories for my blog. I don't even know if you're following me but I need categories in my current state of mind just to rev me up. Wala lang. OA lang. Haha So the categories that I wrote are listed below with "descriptions" unless self explanatory. The "descriptions" are more for me than for those reading my blog. Hay, I don't know if I'm even making sense here but yeah, categories are:

• Arts, Crafts and Creativity - I am one frustrated artist. I love colors, watching my brothers draw and paint and gets fascinated with cool design concepts. This actually is not my niche, but I am hoping to include here the works of creative friends who just tends to shy away from exposing their really cool and creative artworks. I am gonna do the exposing for them. :)
• Blogging and Other Challenges - I have this "trip" of joining blog challenges or doing challenges which I never get to finish. I actually attempted to finish a 30-day blog challenge thrice and a 21-day challenge once but I never got close of finishing it. Fail. But I would still want to do challenges, like 365 photo challenges or 365 stories to share. I am inspired by this blog, "1000 Awesome Things". Very simple but very "tagos sa puso". The only challenge I know I finished is earn 10 pounds in one year. Great. Haha. 
• Books - I love books. But I've stopped reading for almost a year now. I can't even remember the last book I've finished reading. But I am planning to pick out one and start reading again.
• Bucket List - I already have a bucket list and I hope to document and share every item that I have crushed out.
• Celebrations- Family celebrations and share every milestone worth celebrating!
• Childhood Memories
• Dear Diary - My rants. Yes, included this so if ever you don't feel reading rants, you can simply...um, find another blog to read! Btaw, I kid. 
• Family
• Filipino Culture
• Food
• Gawad Kalinga
• GK1world
• Green Lifestyle - Green warrior mode on! 
• Health
• Hope and Love Stories - Inspiring stories reposted. 
• I'm a Work in Progress - Self-checking from time to time. 
• In His Steps - My God stories. My journey with my ultimate Love. <3
• Life Learnings
• Missionary - My life as a nation-builder.
• Movies 
• Music
• Online Finds - I get to stumble a lot of interesting and pretty useful stuff online. Kahit online, magala pa rin ako. Haha
• Photography - Frustrated photographer din ako. Lahat na lang gusto kong pasukin. Ay ambot. Not because I have not found my niche but because I want to be able to try a lot of things. All I know is I just love capturing moments, especially with my family and the kids in the communities that I serve. 
• Projects - I see myself working on online and creative projects other than GK, to help me sustain my missionary life, provide for the family and start up my dream of being able to send kids and youth through college. 
• Quotes - I love collecting 'em!!! Same as how much I love collecting bookmarks. Web bookmarks. I've got hundreds of them.
• Shopping and Other Girl Stuff - I hope to share my Divisoria and ukay-ukay finds. 
• Sunshine Chaser and Nature Lover - My stories and adventures of witnessing sunsets and sunrises and exploring and preserving nature! The explore I get to do, the preserving I hope to do, with my family.
• Trailblazer - Mission work + Travelling = Trailblazing 
• Traveller - I love to travel, travel, travel! 
• Web Marketing and Social Media - I finally found what I want to do for the rest of my life, a job that I love, a job that I know I will strive to become better and I am grateful for GK for helping me discover that. So I dream now of becoming a Web and Social Media Marketing Rockstah so I can best share the inspiration of GK to the rest of the world. I wanna take crash courses, I wanna have an online mentor, I want that I'd be able to become the best in this field. 

There you have it. My blog posts will be categorized this way...until further notice. Now time to work on my bookmarks. :)

I Have the Right to Write

Yaaaay! Can I say I never have been so excited to blog again (and regularly, I claim it!) in my entire "blogging life" 'til now? Waaah. I can't exactly say/write the right words why I am. All I know is I wanna write, share, inspire, be inspired and just put down here all that's stuck in my mind right now. But, but partly, because I also found Shai Coggin's blog (that majorly caused the excitement, I am so lame that way...HAHA) which just stores or documents everything, and I meant everything, that she's into. Arts, online marketing, hobbies, her line of work, personal stories, writing, travel,shopping, music and all that jazz and she's been blogging since 2000. I wanna have a blog anniversary too! Babaw eh noh. HAHA I know I've told you, whoever is reading this (Hi bestfriend! *nagaassume* HAHA), time and time again that I promise to blog, and I never fail...to disappoint you. But now, I plan to take this to the next level. No holding back. Will put everything out there. Well except those I know that may hurt other people, or with lots of sensitivities or may cause a stirring online and offline. I promise to be a bearer of good news, hope and inspiration, no matter how boring it may be you for you my dear reader (Hi sister! *nagaassume again* HAHA)...but not bad news. Ever. I know you had enough of those on TV, radio and even here online (assuming that there really is someone listening to me ranting.). And I wanna put my writing muscles back to practice, back to work, since I want to write a GK1world-worthy post in the near future. Naks! As if di ko pwede i.post whatever or whenever I want to. Haha. Yes, I manage Gawad Kalinga's website and all of GK's social media networks. Spilt the beans. There I said it, I said it, I said it, cause I care! (Sorry, got carried away...on a Last Song Syndrome of that song.) Anywho, so I want to be able to finish 2 things first.

1. I want to be able to have standard "categories" for my blog that I wouldn't want to change ever for the next 5 years or so...not like what I currently have right now. I am so not good in creating "headlines" and that include categories and titles. If Bisaya, kaya pa. Or I bet even Tagalog, but English...maka-nosebleed sometimes. 

2. And I need and would want to organize my bookmarks first. Promise, it is kinda connected so I can proceed with my blogging career. Naks! But yeah I know, I'm just trying to make lame excuses just so I can procrastinate more. Hayzz, so me. 

The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life by Julia Cameron  Brought it with me during our Palawan trip but still wasn't able to finish it. 

But, but no, I will conquer thyself, thus the title. I just want to remind myself that there is no need to be conscious and be critical of my own writing because each of us has its unique style of writing and the the right to write. And pagnapapractice, napeperfect! And I wanna write because it gives me joy...it makes me think more...it makes me want to learn more so I can have lots of stories to write and eventually share to the rest of the world. Actually, the title of this post is from a title of the book that, I again, did not finish reading, The Right to Write by Julia Cameron. I love how she says that all of us has the right to write. It's pretty inspiring and refreshing, an eye-opener...and I am inspired to finish reading it! Lez dow dis! Okay, so I'll be off fixing and renaming and finding "cool" names for my blog categories. I promise I will not try too hard to sound smart or else I'll be spending the next hour doing just that, renaming. Hehe Let me leave you with a few lines from the book, "The Right to Write."

"I love it when I write well, but I love it when I write, period."

"Start where you are."

"Taking the time to write in our lives gives us the time of our lives."

"Writing is like breathing. I believe that. I believe we all come into life as writers. We are born with a gift for language."

"Listen with your heart. Let yourself listen. Let yourself write."

"Writing need not be fancy. It need only be regular and steady. That is deep enough. That takes us deeper."

"Heart is where the art is." 

Special thanks to Kuya Kirby Llaban for the book! He got lots of inspiring reflections and insights about life, family, friends and community life too! Visit his blog here. 

I am Home

I am back home...literally. But just for a week. More posts are coming soon, I hope, and I want to. Just want to test this new look of the blogger dashboard. Hope to be able to post before I leave for Manila again. And so I leave you with these inspiring quotes that I grabbed from my Facebook friends' posts that I so wanted to repost but did not. So here's my chance to post them all at once without flooding anyone's timeline. (Labo!) 

photos from Pinterest

Have a great week ahead! 

This is Farewell

Been procrastinating...still...haven't overcome it yet. Difficult. Painful. But must discipline myself. I think I deserve to be shouted at and be reprimanded but my boss chose to deal with me gently and reminding of things I must finish. I am grateful. I am lucky. But I am embarrassed as well. I won't be as lucky always. Must do the switch, from procrastinat-er missionary to hardworker missionary. Right now. List things I need to do and lay them all out and finish them all in one month's time. Before I go home to Cebu. I don't wanna be hard on myself though. God wouldn't want that too. He'll be hurt more than I will be. Don't want that. Will take it one great day at a time. Will take it one-item-in-my-things-to-do-list at a time. Must learn to time manage. Reminded for the nth time once again. Must know when too much is too much. Praying for the grace and strength and courage and motivation to be able to do so. I was able to do a week of sleeping early and waking up before 8. I can do this too. My boss, my team and my family trusts me. That is more than enough encouragement and strength. God has planted a seed in me, love towards online and web marketing. I will nurture this. I will allow myself to learn and to share whatever I am taught. To God be the glory! Bye, procrastinat-er me. I will miss you...NOT. You have not served me well. You have stopped from allowing myself to more growth to achieve and work for my dreams and plans for the future. This is farewell. This is goodbye.

Posting this on my blog para pressure on my part...Teehee...

It's a Sign

I miss writing randomly and posting long posts! So I'm back to updating my blog since we'll be having a blog activity with my sisters. Fun! But I'm still trying to figure what to do to make our online interaction fun and interesting! But for now, I'd like to share what I took as a sign to visit my blog and write again. Actually when I "encountered" the sign, I just couldn't stop laughing the whole day. Haha.

Kerygma, the biggest Catholic magazine in the country, asked us to submit an inspiring GK story. They feature GK stories from time to time as their commitment to helping spread GK awareness and reach out to more people, especially in their network. So I sent them an article written by a GK volunteer and a couple of photos to go with the article. But what came out was...guess what...it was written by me. Haha. Hay. Kaya nagpress release na ako. I panicked when friends started congratulating me. It was actually my fault because I failed to check if the writer's name was in the word file that I sent them. Kakahiya talaga! Haha Yes friends, the Kerygma article is not written by me but by Ate Marjorie Duterte who writes beautiful and exemplary transformation stories as always. You can read more of her inspiring write-ups here. No don't ask me for a photo cause I don't actually wanna see it. Yes, that's how OA I am. :p Haha. But, but, please do grab a copy of Kerygma's September 2011 issue and tell your friends about it. No, not this story but the story, "Songs from Her Heart". And yes, I am going to start writing again from hereon.

Blast from the Past: CamSur Adventures

CamSur. Camarines Sur. Home to bicol express, laing, pili nuts, the famous adventure water park, CamSur Watersports Complex, and home to majestic and old churches that will definitely bring history alive. I am always excited when I am off to travel to a familiar place which holds a lot of happy memories. CamSur reminds me very much of Bohol. I've been there thrice already. First was during the Lakas ng Rebolusyon YFC ILC Conference after our 2-week inspiring stay in Sorsogon for the GK Bayani Challenge 2007. Second was last Sept 2010, during the 1st CamSur Marathon, where GK was a beneficiary. Third was last February 2011 for this year's I Stand SFC ICON. Photo dump of my CamSur Adventures below:

CamSur last April 2007 for the YFC ILC Lakas ng Rebolusyon. Yes, we have been over burnt because of our 2 week inspiring adventure in Sorsogon for the GK Bayani Challenge 2007. But it surely fired up the passion of service and loving in us!

CamSur last Sept 2010 for the First CamSur Marathon. 'Twas a fun-filled 4 days with GK Marketing. We went all the way to CamSur, an 8-hr bus ride from Manila, to sell shirts...and to represent and cheer for those running for Team GK! Woot! And yes, we ended up joining the 3-km marathon...but not officially. Just because all the roads back to the finish line were blocked and we have to be there to take photos so we didn't really have much choice but to join the crowd. Haha

Celebrity spotting during the CamSur marathon. Yes, I am an ultimate fanatic...and stalker, at times. When I see one, the "probinsiyana" in me never fails to surface. Haha. Ms. Iza Calzado was so nice during the press conference. She readily posed for the camera with a giddy smile raising her GK running jersey...and posed with the rest of Team GK before the run. Aga Muhlach was really "gwapo"! And so is Marc Nelson...and little Matthew Castillejo. Side story: I was too excited to take a photo of me with Matthew and Marc when there was no one interested (yet) to have their photos taken with them and so I was approaching them. But suddenly, a group of more "fanatic" girls started to surround the 2 guys so I suddenly became hesitant, but my ever-supportive photographer, Ate My, was insistent. I was starting to step back and turn away but Marc Nelson already saw me (and I think he saw me already and sensed that I was lining up for a photo when Ate My was almost shoving me near them before the swarm of girls arrived. Feeler! Haha) so he called me up and told the girls that I came first. I was so "kiliiiig"! And with Matthew pa. Sigh. Haha. And that photo appeared in the official CamSur marathon website which kinda embarassed me...just because. Kunwari pa. Haha Donita Rose, Diane Castillejo, Tessa Prieto-Valdez, and Studio 23's Bettina (which our GK boys totally adore!) were also there.

And what is CamSur without its super spicy and tasty laing and bicol express, a favorite! We were in the lookout (for more than a day) for laing and bicol express served in large portions. We ordered in restos and they serve them as side dishes...only as side dishes...in small portions. Imagine our dismay?! Our disappointment! But the GK Bicol boys, particularly our magiting na GK Area Coordinator, is always in the rescue. He bought laing and bicol express (in large portions! Imagine our happiness!), but I forgot where he bought those from, and cooked bicol express for us to bring back to Manila to share to the rest of our GK family. Thank you Kuya Eric! We too are grateful to Tita Brenda, who included CamSur in her list of towns to visit during her Luzon trip, for treating us to a sumptuous and delicious dinner in Red Platter, Naga City. And yes, we love all that was served before us and their chocolate cookies are to die for. She also treated us the night after to a resto that serves great pasta (I totally forgot what its name was...I just remembered that they allowed their guests to write on their walls and I spotted Donna Cruz-Larrazabal and his hubby's signature and short message there.) We were also treated to a Filipino resto on our last night in Bicol by Tito Jonny and the rest of Team GK CamSur were there too to send us off. We have Tito Hayee and Tita Weeny Azana to thank for for providing a home for us, in their huuuge place, for the whole duration of our stay there, and yes, they absolutely filled our tummy to our heart's content every morning for breakfast. I especially love Tita Weeny's Brazo de Mercedes!

My recent CamSur adventure was, last Ferbruary 2011, for this year's SFC International Conference I Stand in CamSur Watersports Complex. I had fun, fun, fun! Starting from the road trip with my YFC Kuyas and Ate from Cebu to CamSur, worships and praisefests, inspiring talks, seeing my YFC mentors and friends from Cebu, seeing GK friends, being with my SFC household and SFC chapter, touring around Naga City, church hopping, and food tripping! No wonder I've gained so much weight ever since my stay here in Luzon.

Sunset in CamSur. Sunsets never fail to capture me and remind me of God's majesty and glory! And yes, I am definitely coming back to CamSur! I have yet to try CWC's water boarding and aqua obstacle. I can't believe that I allowed my fear (of falling in the water in front of so many people that I don't even know or haven't even met) to overpower me and stopped me from trying out water boarding. I let my laziness of changing from wet clothes even stopped me from jumping to the water (and to think I love everything that is blue and water! Psh) and just allow the child in me to enjoy the slides and trampoline and canoe-ing. And it was all for free! Yes, for free! Thanks to Governor Lray Villafuere. Lesson learned, I have to push myself at times or maybe even all the time, just so I would be able to try anything and everything that I know later on that I will forever cherish. 

Yes, I am coming back for many reasons. First, I wanted so much to visit GK Libmanan and GK Iriga ,which are our bed-and-breakfast model GK communities. Second, I just have to try the water boarding, even just once, and the aqua obstacle course, a hundred times. Haha. Third, I have to pass through CamSur to get to Albay since I also want to see the Mayon Volcano, Cagsawa ruins and try out pottery. So many things to do and I definitely am listing them down. Time to save, save, save so I can travel, travel, travel, and serve, serve, serve. Exciting days ahead! Woot!

Random post.

I sooooo want to blog again but haven't had the "push" to do so. And the "push" came just because I have so many things to do and I want to clear my head. Thus this post. My mind's filled with so many blog ideas and stories that I wanna share but I don't know where to start, very much like doing our digital strategy for GK1world. Darn! Clear up your head Maymay.  I just am grateful for a very supportive and amazing boss who guides me all the time and I learn a lot from her every time we talk about what I need and have to do. I wanna write about my recent visit in Cebu, Human Heart Nature, my work in GK, upcoming GK events, food trips, new adventures, new learnings, realizations. And I just turned 23 so I was kinda hoping to write a deep and sensible post. Naks! Haha Hope I actually can find the time and the urge to write about all of these. Inspirations are just everywhere and they ought to be shared! And my God Whispers today just got me all excited for the days to come. Well, especially with our online projects and campaigns. I also need to start on my resolutions. It's delayed for 6 months! 6! Haha I need to have my brain working and grinding again. My God Whispers below. Just what I need to hear today.

Dear Maymay,

When you give to me your availability, I will supply you with your ability.

Storeroom Manager,
God

P.S.  Just say Yes, Maymay.

LIFE OF A NATION-BUILDER: Adventures and Misadventures

Published last September 2010.

It's been 5 months and 3 days now that I left the comforts of home, of family and friends, of Cebu!!  These past 5 months have been filled with daily doses of new learnings, new sense of freedom, new inspirations, new friends, new adventures, so many "firsts", self- discovery, and small to big time surprises. God can never be outdone. And it was just yesterday that I again decided to push myself and try to set aside the laziness so I am able to write about my new GK adventures and finding a family and a home away from home. Woot! So this blog's gonna be numbered for now because I am going to compress the 5 months in one looooooong post.

1. First LRT ride. Memorable!!! On our way to Irwin Theater, Ateneo for the 2nd GK Ateneo Heroes  Academy (AHA). Commuting from one place to another is an adventure especially when it's your first time taking that route but I always make sure that I can call or text someone anytime and have enough money to take a detour, well, if ever I get lost for maybe more than an hour, then ride a cab! But so far, haven't taken a detour yet.

Speedy LRT.

2. GK Ateneo Heroes Academy. Inspiring to see the young especially those in our GK communities to be part of that musicale after a week of creative training with the best from Ateneo. Kudos to the Ateneo community who has been supportive and working with GK, all the way.

The talented SIGAs do what they do best: sing, dance, act and inspire which almost brought me to tears. Trying my best to control it though. :)

3. GK CYD Olympics. It was a rainy Saturday morning but the rain didn't stop the kids from getting all excited and ready for the day's event filled with lots of sports, games, prizes and lots of cheering. Woohoo! And there's free Chuckie and Selecta ice cream too!

These kids are just talented and amazing. The audience were just holding their breathe and watching their every stunt and praying that no one would get hurt with all the liftings that they're doing. Good job, kids!

4. GK Builder's Night. 5 Builder's Night in all. And it gets better everytime. Inspiring and mind-blowing. Hearing the respective stories of every GK champion, volunteer and resident never fails to to make me excited over and over again of what God has planned for GK and the many lives that it has touched and will continue to touch. 

5. I turned 22. Yay! Celebrate, celebrate! Special thanks to the Llabans. They wouldn't allow us to go home after the Builder's Night because it was my special day and a special day has to be celebrated. And so this wonderful couple treated us to a late night dinner at UCC Cafe. Then, honoring came after.

With the most gwapo Llaban in the world, SEV! Thanks for sharing the cake with me Sevy!

6. Spending time with my relatives in Laguna on free weekends. I love it there! I can take whatever I want from their fridge and I get to practice my Ilonggo. And spending time with them means reconnecting with my mama's Ilonggo roots which I know will mean a lot to her since we haven't been going home to Iloilo as a family for a long time now.

With my two pretty and "kulit" cousins. Their laughter and stories never fail to cheer me up!

7. Visiting GK villages, which I would like to do more often. The transformation is just captivating and truly is a work of God.

with GK volunteers from France. Even if they aren't really that fluent in English, we had fun talking and exchanging stories with them. (I was the photographer, in case you were looking for me. :)

Ate May's first turn-over ceremony here in Luzon. and we decided to join her for moral support! all the way to Pangil, Laguna. yey!

8. Trekking after the turn-over ceremony and the sumptuous lunch! Yay!

So we were trekking on water...huh? haha. Btaw, it was more of like a 600 metres trek then ride a raft then trek again, then  ride a raft, we repeated that exercise around 3 or 4 times and the end of it was the pot of gold! The short but powerful waterfalls.

9. Nonoy's Inauguration. But we weren't there. We spent that holiday in the office to keep Ate Melai company since she had office stuff to finish.

with the Green Kalusugan team since they had a meeting that day too. watching Noynoy speak, livestreaming, and everyone listening intently and clapping and cheering at the right moment.

10. Decided to tag along with the CYD team for the whole day, shooting at Bulacan then in Bagong Silang for a GK video featuring the CYD program. Inspiring stories of letting go of old ways and living a new life because of Gawad Kalinga. And the fruit that GK has bore especially hearing the stories of the kids who were in Sibol or in Sagip when GK started and are now actively part of the SIGA program at present is just moving.

Tita Tess and Tito Dale Lugue. One of the teams who started GK in Bagong SIlang with Tito Tony Meloto. I have goosebumps whenever I hear how GK started years ago. Thank you CYD team and ate Jill for allowing me to tag along that day.

talented SAGIPs who came from SIBOL.

11. PBA Live. My first. It was my first time in Araneta too. Soooo excited! Thank you GK PMG for adopting us and for the free tickets.

watching PBA live at Araneta Coliseum with the GK PG people. Thank you Rain or Shine for the free tickets! and to ate Pinky too. :)

12. Divisoria is love and the place to be for people who enjoy buying cheap stuff like me and my roommates!!

13. Paraisong Pambata. Ascott sponsored and will be sponsoring Paraisong Pambatas in around 10 GK sites. So we came to help out in the second one. Fun, fun, fun! I miss serving and spending time in a jungle of kids, their smiles, their laughters, never fails to remind me that this is one of the reasons why I will never stop working and praying for GK's grand vision of GK2024.

JOLLIBEE!!! The smiles and the excitement on their faces are priceless! Way to go, Ascott!

 14. Goodbye Gutom Day. This event was held in 4 different places simultaneous and me and my roommates went to GK Amalia Village Tarlac. A first for me to visit a GK Bayan-Anihan Farm. Another item crushed out from my GK Bucket List. Wootwoot!

GK Globe Farm.

15. SBMA training at Subic. We all got body pains after the two day training but it was really inspiring to meet another breed of heroes who dedicate their life to save other people's lives.

Proud to be able to meet another breed of heroes and proud to be part of the GK Team! Whoah! (correct spelling of the chant, according to Kuya Dan)

That's it for now. Just want to document everything I've been up to while away from the family cause I promised my younger siblings that I'll update them from time to time. And I wanted to finish this so I can start really writing about my GK adventures without compressing them this time. I'm going to CamSur tomorrow with four other GK co-workers to help prepare for the CamSur marathon. Yay! Excited!

GK EXPO 2010 is fast approaching too! Exciting days coming up!

Praise God for GK.

LIFE OF A NATION-BUILDER: The Beginning

Hello everyone! I can't believe I haven't written for months now. I recently came to a conclusion that I can't even write on this blog, so there's no reason for me to maintain a different blog for my GK adventures and misadventures. So I'm moving here all my articles in my other blog. There are only about 3, and just for the sake of a new post. Teehee. :D

10 years ago. A movement was born when a couple of selfless young people and those young at heart decided to go beyond youth evangelization and started building homes for the least then later on communities. They have chosen to leave the comforts of their family and friends out of great and selfless love for their fellowmen who have less and who have been stripped off of their dignity and called them family.

And 10 years ago, when families chose to spend their family day in malls and beaches and resorts, my family chose to spend most of our Sundays in the attention deprived leper community in Eversley, Mandaue City, Cebu.

I was then a first year student but in my young mind, I know that there will always be someone or a family who out there who needs our love and "kalinga". It was my first experience of being exposed to those who have long been forgotten by the society because people are just too scared to just even be in the same room with them. But my papa and the GK team never had second thoughts of having the first ever GK village in that community. Their families have been looked down by our society for years just because a family member has contracted the disease. But the GK family stood by them and embraced them. They're eternally grateful for the love because it made them see their worth and brought back their dignity. Some have missing body parts brought about by the disease (but they're not contagious anymore) yet they chose to help in whatever way they can to "pasa-pasa" sacks of gravel and sand and painted their homes and their neighbor's homes, their chapel and multipurpose. I gained new friends and new families. I learned that loving my family means loving the least, the broken and the lost. I realized that my parents are the most generous and loving people in the world (I am very biased on this, i know, but hey, this is my blogsite) cause even if we have just enough resources for everyday, they still chose to share our blessings to these communities.

From that time on, GK has always been a way of life. Our family's way of life. A lifetime commitment. I will be forever grateful to GK for just bringing us closer together as a family. I see Christ in every GK volunteer and worker I come across. They are living witnesses of the love of God to the broken. GK has taught me to be braver and stronger and love amidst the pain and hurts. And as I continue my journey in this path I chose, I could not help but look back to the humble beginnings of being a GK advocate. I am still overwhelmed by the gift of GK to my family, to the poor, and to our country after all these years. And I promise to document and share every heart-capturing GK trip and inspiring GK story that I'll witness. All for the love of God and country! Yay!

Trivia: GK Sto. Nino, Eversley is one of the first few GK villages that has been constructed across the country. But it was in GK Ermita, Cebu which GK first existed. SIGA, the youth program of GK, was first launched there but the GK village for the residents there was not materialized since the residents refused to be relocated. GK Ermita is the most dangerous place in Cebu and is a den of thieves and serial killers, small time and big time. But the youth were quite welcome for change. It even came to a point that if you're a GK worker, and if you're wearing a GK shirt, Ermita will be the safest place for you. No kidding!

I can vividly remember there was this time that papa brought with him a youth who was shot (but he was actually innocent, he just came to their place because he left something...talk about bad timing, but he was a former thief and drug-user before GK came) because the place where they usually had a pot session was raided. He stayed at our place for a week. It was also the first time that I visited the police station because my papa was helping him work out his papers. GK moment: he was so touched of papa's gesture of having him stay at home for a few days that he actually shed some tears when he left. Personally, at first, I was really hesitant and scared that papa brought him home, a total stranger to us and a former criminal. Who wouldn't be scared? But then, I am just thankful that papa has risen above the norm and welcomed him. I was just touched and moved!

Blast from the past:

Team GK Cebu. Old school!

My First Love

I have this dirty, little secret that I am about to reveal and I am going to shout it all out in 5..4..3..2..1..

I LOVE TO DANCE! I MISS DANCING! I WANNA DANCE AGAIN!

I've been watching dance videos non-stop in the last 2 hours (but our internet is crawling at this hour so I am able to watch only 3 videos in the span of 2 hours...haha) and as much as I want to hide it, I simply can't. So there, I've finally spilled the beans. I've been into dancing since I was a kid. From the tune of macarena to mmmmbop, sha-lalalala to hot in here in the early 20s. And I wanna dance again. It's been years since I actually danced a full song in front of a crowd. But I do have this strange thing. I usually dance in front of the mirror when no one's around. Haha. Sorry, but you can't just run away that easily from your first and true love.

The closest thing I have to dancing presently is teaching action songs to our kids in GK during GK activities. I'm not complaining or anything. The feeling of being able to teach a thing or two to these kids, returned with hugs and kisses and "sipon" is priceless, but I wanna dance away in wild abandon like I usually do back then. Break a move, learn new steps, twist your head, shake your booty. Something like that or even more. Not until recently have I accepted that there's no way that I can be able to get rid of the feeling that I wanna dance again. And I don't want to. So I'm looking for dance studios who are offering the cheapest dance lessons on weekends. Hmmmm. But I have yet to save for it and this would be my "first" formal dancing lessons ever. So I want to prepare for it. I even included it in my must-do list for 2011. Thinking about it makes me all giddy and excited! Sigh, this must be LOVE. Reminiscing about it brings out all the good memories I had with dancing and so let me leave you with the only decent photo I have while dancing onstage. And a STEP UP 2 video of their final dance that I'll be watching to cap the night. Enjoy!

My only decent photo, dancing during a YFC Regional Conference.

2011 Resolutions

I decided to come up with one and will try my very best to accomplish it. Reading this blog inspired me to have a one-year goal and planning out what I have to do to achieve such goals. For 2 consecutive years, I've been making "100 things to do for 200_". And for last year, I was able to accomplish 50% of it which is not bad at all. But still, it'll make you ask, how come I wasn't able to accomplish the other 50? Well, for some reasons, it is because I tend to NOT push myself when needed and I have this crazy attitude of sleeping things off. Literally, at times. I am aware that I have become so lazy that I tend to set aside a lot of things needed in my work, doing errands and achieving goals I've long set for myself. Yes, I believe being a sloth can cause such big personal rift and it affects your personal growth, gets in your way of wanting to be excellent in the work that you love and slows you down in achieving your dreams for yourself, your family and the people who needs you the most. It's getting way out of control so I am doing this 30 day thing. I just stumbled upon this blog and it actually contains a lot of good stuff. I am hoping to be able to follow some of those in the list (which requires me to do it daily) in the next 21 days, which they say creates a habit.

So I listed down goals/things to work on/things to do for 2011 below:

• Be on time.
• Wake up early everyday.
• Stop procrastinating in everything.
• Lose weight. I weighed myself yesterday and I currently weigh 56 kg/120 lb.Have a regular form of exercise.
• Track down all my expenses.
• Spend time with family when in Cebu.
• Go on mission trip with the family.
• Keep in touch with old friends. Greet them in their birthdays (which I suddenly stopped doing even if you see it in Facebook. Dunno why. I'm weird like that.)
• Meet new people.
• Write more often.
• Read a lot of books.
• Travel more. (CamSur, Bantayan Is, Cebu, Bohol, Puerto Galera, Iloilo, Boracay, Australia)
• Increase traffic of GK1world. Hits will be 250,000 at the end of the year. Registrants will increase.
• Have a regular prayer time.
• Learn a lot about online marketing.
• Find other source of income online.
• Laugh, hug, smile more often.
• Be more grateful.
• Take lots of photos.
• Pay all debts.
• Increase sales of human heart nature.
• Crush out 10 things-to-do in my bucket list.
• Minimize drinking sodas.
• Be a more positive person.
• Be organized.
• Stop complaining.
• Deliver best performance at work ever.  I want to be excellent, for God and country, for our GK communities.
• Take up a class in dancing. I miss!
• Drink more water.
• Stay away from junk foods.
• Learn from every struggle and trial.
• Take time out to rest.
• Be open to surprises.
• Adjust to changes.
• Live and enjoy life to fullest! And love in wild abandon! :)

Major, Major 2010

2010 is the best year of my life. I wanted THAT to be the title of my first post for my year end review. But a very inspiring man thought and wrote about it earlier than I did so I make do with a lame one. See his exceptionally inspiring write-up here. But I promise you, THIS, will be a great post! Well, I'll try. So here it goes...

What makes YEAR 2010 the best one I've ever had in my 22 years of existence? What sets it apart? Well it had some highlights that beat the highlights of the rest of the 21. Know what I'm saying? Read on...(not in any particular order)

1. Turning 18. My sister turned 18 last year and so did the rest of her barkadas. Her highschool barkada had become one of mine since I've spent almost every other weekend with them since they all got involved in GK and YFC. I've seen them grow and bloom for more than 3 years now and I can't imagine my sister's life, and my family's too, without them. So I was present in every one of them, well except when I moved here in Manila for work last April. 

Lynlyn's bestfriend, Totot, turned 18 last January at Crown Regency.

My sister, Princess Lynlyn (in pink), turned 18 last February in VDR's Multipurpose Hall.

My sister's barkada in Deedee's 18th soiree in Waterfront, Lahug.

2. Finished college. And I finally did! Nightmares totally over! Woohoo! I hated that I have to wake up feeling uninspired and uneasy just because school days meant facing scary professors and difficult course subjects. But knowing that I need a diploma to pursue the path I want to take, I don't really have much choice but to keep on going. And having smart and witty thesis mates and batch mates makes school more bearable. It pushed me to fight the urge to just give up and skip classes more often. Teehee. I will never forget the feeling of hearing that I passed all my subjects and finished our incredibly cool thesis which is one of the major, major requirements to walk through that long aisle of our school gym for graduation. See our thesis story here.

With my thesis mates Mayang, Knyl, Me, Twinkle and Jorge  in our thesis defense get-up.

With my supportive parents during my graduation day.

 3. Working full time for GK. My life long dream. True story. When others dream of becoming an engineer, or a doctor or a celebrity, I dreamed of being able to touch and inspire people in a massive way, thus my choice and life long commitment. It was not really difficult for me and I thank God for supportive parents who never asked me for anything in exchange of the years that they took care of me, showered me with love and provided me with good education. I was blessed that I was given the free will to choose the path that I want to take. A path less traveled but I truly love and I know I would be able to give my best. Read about my adventures in the first few months of working for GK which brought me to Subic, Camarines Sur, Tarlac and Laguna.

Our Subic Adventure. Water and Rescue Training.

Our Laguna Adventure. Turning over of new GK homes and ended up that day trekking and riding rafts alternately.

Our CamSur Adventure. We ended up walking the 3 km run. Haha Long story.

 4. The Moving Out. This I have to do after I chose my GK path because I'll be assigned in the main office which is in Mandaluyong. It wasn't difficult than I thought it should be. I just have to keep reminding myself that I'll have long Christmas vacations to be reunited with the family again. The urgency of the work and the "biglaang" decision pulled me out from the comforts of family, friends and the familiar environment of Cebu which allowed me to grow as a person and as a Christian. I am grateful to my GK family for being always there to guide and watch over me as I dock on a new chapter of my life. And not to mention my roommates and my teammates/office mates. Thank you y'all!

My roomies, ate Melai, Joyce and Ate May.

Team GK Marketing (where I belong) and GK Partnerships Group.

5. Ultimate Family Time. I am super happy that in a span of one year, I was able to visit my Mama's hometown, which is in Iloilo, and Papa's, in Bohol, again. Haven't been able to visit Iloilo that much since we moved in Cebu 9 years ago. Our cancelled Palawan trip turned out to be a blessing in disguise (but at that time, I wanted to swim all the way to Puerto Princesa just to attend the Bayani Challenge). I miss living in my grandparents' farm and doing farm chores like feeding the chickens and ducks, sending the carabao and goats to their grazing area, climbing on our siniguelas, mango and santol trees to name a few. So ecstatic to see my Nanay Estelita in Iloilo after almost two years! We also just recently spent our Holidays in Bohol which made us spend time with the Balatayos, see my Nanay Odag whom I miss the most and reconnect with nature.

With Nanay Estelita, my mother's mom, who I haven't seen for 2 years already. It's great to be reunited with the rest of the Laridas.

With Nanay Odag, my father's mom, which we never fail to visit every year since Bohol is a P150.00 boat ride away from Cebu.

6. GK's 7th Anniversary! The culmination of the GK777 campaign last 10/10/10 which gathered about 60,000 people from across the globe. Happy 7th GK! I am very proud to be part of such inspiring movement!

7. Faith Journey. I am officially a member of SFC. Yes, I finally am. Thank you Kuya Fredney for the invitation and for SFC Makati for taking me in and allowing me to grow and deepen my faith slowly, but surely.

...those are the major, major reasons why 2010 will be majorly special and the best. But I wouldn't mind if 2011 could beat that! 2010 has allowed me to grow as I adapt and adjust in the many changes that happened and that will continue to happen. But I am grateful for everyday that I am able to say "thank you" to our Maker for sharing every waking and sleeping moment with me, for just abundantly blessing me. 2010 held lots of surprises, new learnings, many firsts, and a dozen adventures. A year of forgiveness and moving on. A year of taking a leap of faith, making sacrifices and making bold decisions. A year of conquering my fears and pursuing after a dream. A year of creating new and keeping the old relationships beating: meeting new people, having a new family away from home, being in touch with those who drifted apart, and keeping in touch with those who are miles away. Indeed, it was a year full of love, inspiration, hope and faith. And the greatest of all of these is...LOVE.