The Epitome of a Heartbreak

“Do you believe in LOVE,” three days ago, I was one of the many blind people who believed in this preposterous word.

But now, it all seems like a BIG JOKE.

Few years back, I’ve stumbled upon a pretty lady in a private school here in the metro who turned out to be one of the people who will play a big part in my life. We had fun for four long years; we enjoyed each other’s company; there even came a time when I thought she was the one.  But reality slapped me on the face, it’s not real love, it’s something you call childish infatuation. It was like reality was a friend who told me, “Dude, WAKE UP and GROW UP.” She broke up with me due to very childish reasons.

I let myself be overcome by depression the whole night. My only companion was a bottle of whisky while I cried my heart out.  I woke up with a sore body and a bleeding heart, and the sun peeked through the windows telling me, “Wake up NJ, your dream is over.”

Few weeks later, I realized that her so-called rationality of our break-up was really another man. I saw her with another guy at our favorite restaurant at Tomas Morato. After realizing that, I swore to myself that I will never be fooled by lady’s love ever again.

I stood up and put my best foot forward. “Life must go on,” I told myself. However, in less than a year after, I found another girl who captivated my weak heart. She was one of a kind I told myself. Her whole composure was something that stood out from a large crowd.

I stood up to her and told her the way I felt. She reciprocated or so it seems. We had our times together. Good times in fact. We do dinners together, stayed up late for homeworks and projects.

But all the same it was a big fantasy that aims to destroy my intrepid personality, she tore me apart. She told me that it wasn’t love, it was just friendship and my pitiful heart misrepresented it. I let despair consume me.  Tears fell, a heart bled in depression.

However, after that event, I simply just didn’t learn how to hold back. Within a month, I met another girl in a convention, who really captivated me. And this time was different, she was drop-dead gorgeous, remarkably skilled and intellectual, and mature enough to handle situations like a real adult would do.

I courted with all my heart and won her love fair and square. We dated for quite a while, but I never knew that it would all end so easily. A minor issue breaks us apart. Despite the fact that I have tried to go all the way to their house in the south, it all was in vain. I was not able to resuscitate the dying flame.

Now, I am left alone with my heart in shreds, my emotions of grief. I bleed alone in the corner of my room due to emotional attacks.

Hitherto, I ask myself the question, “What really is LOVE?” and “How do you Mend a Broken Heart?”

FOREVER ALONE. 😐

Geography Matters

One of the highly misconceived fields of study in the Philippine academe is the study of Geography. Most individuals relay geography only as the science of map making. When you even ask a random person on the street, “Do you know what geography is?” They would answer, “Isn’t that the study of making maps?” then would follow questions such as, “Do you really need a college degree for that?” and “Isn’t it that even little boys know how to draw maps?” etc. It is a clear illustration of the outright fact that the common society are not in any way aware of the complexities of geography.

Geography: The Queen of the Sciences

To begin with, geography is not your average high school subject where you study the nominal or absolute location of this and that. Geography extends to the human patterns that occur on the area stated for inquiry. This gives way to the various fields of geography branching out from Physical Geography and Human Geography. Physical Geography as the name implies is the study of the physical attributes of a certain location, including its topography, climate, etc. The fields of Human Geography, on the other hand, reflect more complex fields of study. Under Human Geography are Cultural, Political, Economic Geography, etc.

What most average people don’t see is that Geography is not just a dandy course on locating stuff on the surface of the earth. Geography gives its constituents even more than that. It helps them understand more of the world and how it really revolves and the life around its surface as a whole. It gives geographers and geography majors alike a chance to be able to see the world in a variably different perspective.

Hitherto, we must not underestimate the field of Geography. Since, like other fields of study who proudly states that they know and analyze things that make the world as it is, Geography also boasts of the fact that it gives everyone the real picture on how the world really is from various perspectives of location and surficial living.

P.S. To know more about Geography here in the Philippines, check out the website of the University of the Philippines Diliman Department of Geography at http://geog.upd.edu.ph/

 

©NJ Villafuerte

DISEASE of the URBAN GENERATION

The worst disease are the ones that we are not even aware of it.

It is conceded that the generation today especially the city folks are having various problematic traits. There is irresponsibility, insensitiveness, sloth, only to name a few names on the long list. But all these traits have one thing in common. They all have been badgering the society since Mankind Day 1. But one trait begs to differ. This trait was born together with technology. This problematic trait was bornIt is conceded that the generation today especially the city folks are having various problematic traits. There is irresponsibility, insensitiveness, sloth, only to name a few names on the long list. But all these traits have one thing in common. They all have been badgering the society since Mankind Day 1. But one trait begs to differ. This trait was born together with technology. This problematic trait was born the same day the camera was invented. V.A.N.I.T.Y.

Yes, a lot of very vain people were born together with the camera. the same day the camera was invented. At first, the society is not bothered with this problem for the people of the Early Tech Age were not much addicted to taking shots of themselves or whatsoever. But these past few years, the illness [vanity] has gone to its extremities or so I have heard. Together with the worsening of the illness was the birth of new categories of people i.e. jejemons with all their signature poses. Also, there are now the ultra-VAIN people.

People especially those who own cameras take tons of pictures of themselves. One face, one scene takes a hundred pictures due to different poses, different angles, as they defend. This kind of situation is very disturbing.  They have become more than a fad actually. The worst part is that some people don’t even realize they are already incurring this disease. They would only know when someone would stand up to them and say, “Hey, why are you so vain?” and of course it would come as a surprise to them that yes they haven’t noticed yet.

So why did I write this article about vanity? Simple. I was a victim. I never realized that I use my webcam and my camera more than necessary. Now, I learned a lesson, vanity is no simple trait, you don’t even see it coming. Hope everyone would also be more careful next time to avoid embarrassment.

Me and Vanity

©NJ Villafuerte

Sound of 2011

It’s not about the money, We don’t need your money, We just wanna make the world dance, Forget about the price tag

-Jessie J. (Price Tag)

As 2011 comes into its midway, it is about time to recheck who has been winning the top charts.

Music has been a very vital part of the society especially in this very modern set-up. iPods, mp3 players, music cellphones, sound systems are the “in” things today. This is enough to show that the society is hooked to music. Even headsets now have varieties from beats by dr. dre, and skull candies to wireless headsets and bluetooth dongles.

Jessie J.

Above is a photo of Jessie J., a fresh artist and is currently deemed by BBC as the Sound of 2011.

Up-and-coming pop singer Jessie J is number one on the BBC Sound of 2011 list, which was compiled by asking 160 influential music critics, broadcasters and bloggers to name their favourite new acts.

Here are some of Jessie J’s goals for the next 12 months: have a number one album, go on a headline tour, launch a perfume, set up charities and youth clubs around London, write a musical, do a duet with Leona Lewis and write Britney Spears’ next hit single.

The 22-year-old is pretty well placed to have a go.

She has already co-written a US hit song, scored her own top 30 single in the UK, starred on the West End stage, been named the Brit Awards’ Critics’ Choice and now come top of the BBC Sound of 2011 list.

Not bad considering she is under doctors’ orders to take it easy as a result of an irregular heartbeat and a minor stroke four years ago, after which doctors could not guarantee she would sing or walk properly again.

“It’s one of those things that makes you think, OK, life isn’t guaranteed for anybody,” she says. “So it’s time for me to turn this on and really do it justice.”

-Youngs, I. (BBC Entertainment)

Jessie J presented us songs that were reflective of the truths of this world, Price Tag, Who you are, to name a few. And of course, the beat and fast pace is there as well which went well with pop style. Truly, Jessie J is a promising star and may indeed be deemed as the Sound of 2011

©NJ Villafuerte

Easter Sunday

Gumuho man ang mundo, ang pagmamahal Ko sayo’y di maglalaho, wika ng Poon (The world may crumble, but my love for you remains the same, said God)

Today, the Philippines (being a 75% Christian country) celebrates the Easter Sunday, the day Jesus Christ overcame death and lived to cleanse everyone of their sins.

Keep Calm and Pray

After a long week of fasting, examination of conscience, abstinence, prayer (for some of us that is) the holy week is coming to a closure. Palm Sunday, we walked together with Jesus Christ as he enters the city of Jerusalem. Maundy Thursday, we celebrate with the apostles the Last Supper, also known as the institution of the Holy Eucharist. On Good Friday, we mourn as Jesus Christ dies on the cross. And lastly, Easter Sunday where everyone celebrates the Pasko ng Pagkabuhay (Feast of the Resurrection).

In the due course of the Holy Week, have we come to realize our shortcomings and have left them as Jesus Christ also left death? Have we tried to live life anew? Or are we still buried deep in our sins?

Easter Sunday (like the New Year) is a good time to start anew and forget the old sinful people that we were. Have a blessed Easter Sunday.

©NJ Villafuerte

Christianity. Secularism. Philippines.

Officials of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) are not amused by McDonald’s latest TV commercial and want the giant fast food chain to pull the ad out pronto.

-Uy, J.R. Philippine Daily Inquirer

There are now a lot of issues badgering and lingering in the Philippines and one of the most prominent of them is the idea of the Catholic Church intervening with the issues in the country.

Yes, we know that the Philippines is a conservative democracy and that more than 75% of our entire population is composed Christians. However, the Catholic Church should still incorporate state secularism. In a democracy, every member is entitled to a freedom of speech and expression. But, the decree on secularism is clear in stating that any church is not permitted to intervene with state matters.

Yes, we know that the McDonald’s commercial is not that much of a state matter but please, these past train of events have been all about the Church intervening with State matters, i.e., they lobbied against the RH Bill by adding a prayer against the RH Bill in Holy Masses or by releasing public statements that clearly lobbied against the said legislation.

I am not against the Catholic Church and whatnot for I am a faithful Catholic myself. What I am abhorred of is the actions being done by the constituents of the Catholic Church. I think that the Church should veer away from these issues and focus more on what they do best, guide their constituents towards the right path with the Divine Providence of the Almighty.

 

©NJ Villafuerte

 

I Like Debate because…

…Debate helped me reason out things and think more of life. ❤

such was my answer on the PIDC 2011 Championship Dinner Freedom Wall.

It was a cold November’s evening of 2010 when I decided to take a path that would change my life forever. I have decided to step it up and join the Parliament: UPLB Debate Society.

I pursued the application process and finished the Final Stage with my batch, Exemietate cum Ratio. I trained as much as possible; but of course there are exterior factors that affected my trainings. Academics, Health Issues [not only of mine but also that of my mother’s], fiscal crisis [yes, there are times when I really get broke], peer pressure. When there are times that I wanted to raise the white flag and say, “I surrender,” I think of all the possibilities that I will miss, and think that I must pursue this.

Then came the team-ups for the Manila Intervarsities 2011 [MINT 2011] to be held at UP Manila. I was teamed up with my batchmates [Darlene and Sidney] and formed to be UPLB Team H. It was a four-round debate competition in one whole day. First up was FEU B, then came UPLB B, FEU A, and lastly FEU C. We won one of the matches. MINT was fun since it was our first time to be immersed in such an actual competition.

UPLB Team H at MINT 2011

After the MINT, I was faced with the bigger competition: PIDC 2011 [Philippine Intercollegiate Debating Championship] YES, I am pursuing Nationals.

I had a lot of inhibitions with PIDC 2011 since I am also fixing my transfer papers and of course, we are talking about Nationals: where we meet the debate gods and goddesses of the Philippines. More than that my team [UPLB Team E constituted with Me, Erik, and Melchi] did not train that much.
However, we proved that we can compete in a national tourney and win a few rounds. We got four wins out of seven rounds which was not bad after all. Then came the Socials [e.g. Break Night, Championship Dinner, simple chit-chat] which enriched the heart of the debate tourney. I met a lot of new and old friends from ADMU, MIT, UPD, DLSU, FEU, CSB, etc. PIDC and the whole of the Philippine Debating Community is a truck load of fun and is something that I will never ever forget.

UPLB Team E at PIDC 2011

Now as I leave UPLB and transfer. I ask myself the question: “should I still pursue debating? or is it time to focus on my academics?”

 

© NJ Villafuerte

 

A Summer’s Day

one hot summer sun

It’s been around a week and two days since the summer vacation officially started for the students of the University of the Philippines System and as an average reasonable student, I chose not to take summer classes for they eat me up.

Back in the good old school days I was eager for breaks, rests and stuffs like that but now that I have what I wanted it was just like plain weird. I am now hoping and waiting for otherwise. Boredom is literally eating me up.

Not only that, I have more reasons why summer vacation is not as fun as I expect it to be:
1. BOREDOM
2. NO MONEY
3. NOTHING TO DO
4. NO ONE TO TALK TO
5. ONE GETS FAT EATING ALL THE TIME
6. YOU DON’T GET TO SEE YOUR CRUSHES
7. YOU ARE STUCK WITH YOUR FAMILY
8. NO STARBUCKS MOMENTS
9. EXTREME HEAT
10. FEAR OF HEAT STROKES
11. FEAR OF TANNINGS
AND MANY MORE TO FOLLOW.

But I ask myself, is this the right thing to go? I think we should look into a brighter side. Take a look, and ask what really is it in summer that makes you happy?

©NJ Villafuerte