Informal Theme 4.3

With great power, comes great responsibility.

I won't argue that sacrifices are part of man's existential dilemma. It is so true that we need to sacrifice our time, possessions, dreams, or whatever to gain something that we think is worth sacrificing. But when our responsibilities comes at stake, life would take its toll on us and we should find a way, even if it means a lot, to solve it more likely when you know there'll be many lives who'd be in jeopardy.

Sacrifices are inevitable. We cannot escape the fate of losing something or someone because that is human nature and sometimes it is about how we lost them that we get the motivation to continue on doing the right things. As to what happened to Aeneas and Hector, they both chose to do what they thought is right (which I think is also the right thing to do), to fulfill their tasks as heroes. Even if Andromache and Creusa pleaded for them to stay, they didn't because they are no ordinary people that can live a simple and merry life. They were those who have power, and with power comes great responsibility. It is their gift, the curse.

With their selfless heroic sense, they both chose not stay but to carry on because they have lives to save which is far more important than their love affairs. And of course it was hard for them because both are dear to their hearts but they need to pick their side and they chose what is best for many lives than them. Hector along with his son died but Andromache survived and Creusa was the one who died and Aeneas did survived.

This question was asked to Igi when we had the room-to-room campaign for the SSG elections and I guess it somewhat relates:
If the ship is sinking and your parents don't know how to swim and they were far from each other and you can just save one person, who will you save?
Far-fetched answer: I will fix the ship so I can both save them. (Which is basically not true given that you only have like a few minutes to save one of them and the other will drown because he doesn't know how to swim; and am I even a carpenter or a seaman that can fix a sinking ship? Just kidding).
Igi's answer: I will save my mom because she was the one who suffered and carried me for 9 months and I guess that's the least way I can pay her back.
Titanic's answer when sinking is inevitable: Save the women and children.
My answer: Just like Igi’s, I will save one of them but by which I can’t still decide who. I will take the chance of losing the other neither losing them both without choosing whoever I would want to save.

Informal Theme 4.2

Ultimate victory through terrible loss

Just like what an old quote says, life is too ironic to fully understand. It takes sadness to know what happiness is. Noise to appreciate silence. And absence to "value presence." And ironically, ultimate victory comes with real terrible loss. I don't know why it ends up like that though maybe it's some kind of a human nature and I can't argue with that. As benevolently unfair as it seems, victory can be genuinely felt if you have experienced the terrifying feeling of losing.

Everything happens because of destiny and all and that we need to sacrifice a lot to obtain something great which is primarily true if you are a bit of unfortunate to get what you want without sacrificing a lot.

In the epic Aenid, Aeneas had the greatest terrible loss throughout the story. In my opinion, ultimate victory through terrible loss is quite inhumane because it kind of tells me that i need to lose something or someone dear to my heart or else I will not have my ultimate victory. Which is quite fair I guess but still sad. I mean, in case of Aeneas, yes he had his ultimate victory but along with it,  a lot of people died and are all important to him. It's like sacrificing all of your possessions just to buy a gadget you badly want.

Anyhow I guess the decision is always yours. If you think the sacrifices aren't worth sacrificing for something else you badly want, then better not fulfill what you thought is your ultimate victory. And I guess that is what Aeneid tells us: to weigh things better so you can decide better and think rationally. In Aeneas' case, his ultimate victory was something that's maybe worth fighting and sacrificing for. His decisions were very selfless that even if his loved ones were dying, he still continued to strive hard to fulfill his destiny for the Trojans. And that is where I suppose the ultimate victory is exactly used, for selfless decisions that you know will help a lot of people.

Informal Theme 4.1

Caught between fighting and following destiny

You built a house that you treated as your home, a storm came, everything and everyone was gone but you are alive. I think that’s how bad it feels like for Aeneas’ case. Hearing the sounds of fire burning up Troy and Trojans alive and in a far worse scenario, your wife being left and captured and maybe, burnt alive.

As Aeneas tells the fall of Troy, I can’t help but to feel sympathy towards everything and also to be annoyed on how life is so unfair. It’s so sad to see your homeland broke. It’s like watching a rising action of a tragic movie when you now that as far as you watch, things will be more tragic than the last. Just because some prophecies and irrational decisions were made, people die. Even if this story is an epic poem, I can’t help but to relate it to history like the Reign of Terror in French Revolution when approximately sixty thousand people died via guillotine because people there thought they’re being rational and they’re doing the best for the country.  Aeneas was there but he can do nothing to help and he needs to fulfill his destiny for him and the Trojans’ own sake, thus leaving immediately to found a new city in Rome (no, I think Italy). He was caught between fighting and letting go and he chose to move on and let go because that was his destiny. And that sucks because destiny, yes DESTINY. It’s like a natural phenomenon, inevitable. Because I think Aeneas would really stay there and fight with all his might until he dies or save his wife if not for his destiny.

My feelings did change knowing that Aeneas himself will leave to found Rome because I feel no sympathy anymore but annoyance because destiny overtakes again. But then I know everything will be a HAPPILY EVER AFTER if he does it so I think I’m fine with Aeneas going to Rome. We make our own destiny. No one can dictate anything for us because we have our own mind and it is supposed to be used. There is no artificial intelligence walking around us, telling us to do things and not to do things because this life is real, it is no poem or fantasy but life itself. I don’t know, I hate the thought of destiny even if stories end up merrily because of it.

“When bad things happen, I know you want to believe they are a joke, But sometimes life is scary and dark. That is why we must find the light.” – Jake, Adventure Time

Informal Theme 3.5

Fifty Shades of Smile

They say smile can speak thousands of words. But what if you can't even fathom it to be a smile or not?

Mona Lisa, a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, had been very famous for its enigmatic smile, a smile that can be first discerned as one, then later becomes sardonic. It all depends on which part of the eye sees it first, experts believe. Science says that it depends on what cells in the retina pick up the image and what channel the image is transmitted through in the brain.Sometimes one channel wins over the other, and you see the smile, sometimes others take over and you do not see the smile.

It's kind of creepy for me, the smile, to be honest. Because when I started to look  at her, she was really smiling a happy smile then when I tried to look at her from the left of her lip she was serious then it turned to a grin. I believe Leonardo didn't intend to do this thing but people tried to stir it up then we were all brain washed about the fact they gave to us, that Mona Lisa wasn't smiling at all, which I guess wasn't true for Leonardo's opinion. Or i don't really know.

Above it all, whether she was grinning or not, we can agree to a fact that Mona Lisa is a really beautiful work of art and it deserves the critical acclimation of people worldwide. It may not be for her smile nor for its cost, but of course its beauty and grandeur.

Say what you mean

Tell me I’m right

And let the sun rain down on me

Give me a sign

I want to believe

Woah, Mona Lisa,

You’re guaranteed to run this town

Woah, Mona Lisa,

I’d pay to see you frown

-The Ballad of Mona Lisa by Panic! At the Disco

Informal Theme 3.4

Tete-a-tete with the girl who rather died.

It was a busy Saturday morning. Everyone are doing something worthwhile but I just woke up from my gleam of empty dream and as I did, I reached for my Looking for Alaska book by John Green which I had been reading since that night. I can be really very lazy sometimes. Incidentally, I got out of the bed, fixed it, and ran to the kitchen because it's really getting late to eat breakfast. I had pancakes and a glass of milk. I should not be talking about breakfasts anyway.

I should probably do something better than what I am doing, because then I might be able to find my Great Perhaps, as what Pudge had been telling. OR MAYBE NOT. I decided to just head to the mall, not to meet people of course but to notice and understand them. Arriving there, bunch of people were rushing through botiques and every shoppes they come and fro, oh yes, Christmas Sale. I wondered who among them had waited for this event, and those who deny about it, or those who didn't really care. And as much as I'm thinking about that, I had a milk tea on my hand and the other is holding my LfA. I tried to read it but with all the drums, calling-the-attention-of's and mall music, I just buried it on my hand.

Shortly before I even go to where I really want to, I saw a kid, lost I suppose, and he was crying hard. I mean really hard then this little girl just a few years older  with awkward dress that made her look out-of-place if it wasn't for the thickness of people, tried to cheered him up and help him look for his mother. Shortly thereafter, they found his mom and the kid barely thanked to the kid who helped him because he might have reached his ecstasy of happiness already, having been found by her mom. Okay, I thought, the odd looking girl was take for granted. Then suddenly...

"No I wasn't taken for granted Miss." She had an accent, an Italian one. She said wearing a big smile on her face that made me forget about how odd she looks like.

"Oh my go-" Shocked as I was.

"Don't use the name of our God in vain." She reminded me. I was ashamed. The accent was both funny and cute for  girl.

"Oh yes, sorry. You just scared me, that's all. I don't even mean it." I felt my cheeks go hot as I momentarily realized that I was reprimanded by a girl who waa a lot younger than me. What is really sick about it is that she can discerned what is right from wrong, which I honestly can't.

"He didn't took me for granted." She got back to our topic.

"How did you know? He didn't even thank you." I was trying to be smart.

"He looked for me afterwards but then I was already gone. He really felt sorry I know." She said. This girl really seemed familiar to me I just can't remember where I saw her.

"Oh okay, you win girl. Anyway, where's your mother? You're very young wandering alone in this huge mall I mean, you can't be alone right?" I asked. Trying to change the topic and get my dominance over her.

"I am alone. My mom was long gone and so were my brotheren sisters" She said. Not a trace of sadness can be seen from her face.

We talked for a little while, the topics had gone haywire but inch-by-inch I'm feeling pretty good, spiritually I mean, she had constantly reminded me to love God and keep my faith and all and I didn't even swear when I was talking to her unlike when I do to any of my friends. Time had past and I need to bid good-bye so...

"Hey, it was really nice meeting you kid but I really have to go, you know play some stuffs." I was considerably nice without being nice anymore.

"Okay Miss, have a good time! Never forget to pray okay? May God bless you."

"Before I forget it, what is your name again?" We had quite a while and I don't even know her name. Shame.

"Maria, Miss. Maria Goretti." She said then smiled like a good-bye smile.

"Oh funny, Maria-" She was gone and chills ran through my veins and I felt glorified and holy and all. Oh my. I had talked to Saint Maria Goretti, the girl who rather died than to submit to her rapist because it is a sin and God doesn't want it.

Informal Theme 3.3

Where the HELL do I belong?

It was pitch dark, all I can see are smokes belching from places I don't even know, seldom fireflies flapping their wings to it's full extent and a light from a far-off building, which I guess is not within our school grounds. Oh mi gosh, Where am I? I have been walking for quite a while when I realized that I'm not in a place where I'm supposed to be, not at this moment, not at this time. I'm at Cavite National Science High School, alone in the dark with no light and money to guide me home but just myself, and I think my guts to help me survive at least the very moment.

I walked down an isle, one that I haven't passed on before. I was trying to get rid of the place because it was creepy and dark and I feel totally lost. As much as I go through, the walls narrowed so was the wooden floor, which was dirt like three seconds ago. I closed my eyes, try to just walk randomly so that maybe I'll be out of this labyrinth as soon as possible but as I open it, I'm standing in front of the very gate of CNSHS along with Kuya Eddie and the sinners of the First Sin: Tardiness. Students here are punished by having them write a 10-page-long narratives in 5 font size. I swiftly tried to drift away because I can see some of my friends there but I can't touch them, it's like being helpless to something you could be of help.

Things were dragged again and then I was in our II-Nitrogen room where the students who commit the Second Sin: Laziness are punished by Ma'am Jenette by making them clean the room and the room was like producing its own tons of trash and dirt. I cannot take it anymore then everything was dragged again. I fainted.

When I woke up, I was at the clinic and it was written there Third Sin: Lying then students were punished for their fake diseases they made up when they want to sneak classes and go to the clinic and it lasts for 5 days.

I ran and ran. Panting, I tried to get my breathing back but it became worse than what it's supposed to feel then it felt like everything was dragged the gate, students, buildings and furnaces until I was in a room, I was in the Biology Lab With Ma'am Elaine punishing the students that committed the Fourth Sin: Forging. Students here are punished by having them hypnotized into making them feel the pain of having their nails pulled off, without having their nails really pulled off. It was awful that I cried.

I walked this time, maybe I took the path to the gate but then I realized I was heading for the principal's office. 'Fifth Sin: Cheating' was written at the door of it and when I sneaked a peak, I saw students punished by Ma'am de Vera, Ma'am Pareja and Ma'am Lenny and the punishment was indescribable. I can't take it anymore and I tried to relax and all thinking all these things are impossible then I prayed and swear to God that I won't do any of these ever. I woke up, alive, breathtaking and everything was fine and I felt a great relief.

Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain... To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices - today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it. -- Kevyn Aucoin 

Informal Theme 3.2

Lame conversation with Aimee Monique.

Direct Speech

Me: Hey Monique! I just watched the new movie of Emma Watson titled "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". Have you heard about it? It's really a good watch.

Monique: Yeah! I've heard that that's a great movie but I only knew few about it. What was that about?

Me: Well, it was about Charlie, a socially-awkward freshman who later discovers that he is a wallflower and then he meets his friends, Patrick and Sam who'd make him feel what a real party is like and make him have his social life while dealing with school works and all the stuffs.

Monique: That really seems to be a great and interesting movie . By the way, is Sam Emma Watson?

Me: Good guess there friend! Wait, you're getting interested now right? Tell me. Anyway, Sam is the girl that Charlie loves, much older and the sister of Patrick. She's pretty cool and I loved her character.

Monique: Yeah right! I guess the book is better than the movie. Am I right? Because many says that their not contented with what they had watched.

Me: Bull's eye. But with consideration to the movie, I mean disregarding the book, it was quite nice. Splendid actually. The soundtracks, effects, and everything are perfect. It even had an 8.3/10 IMdB rating which proves it's worth to be watched. Incidentally, the book is better if you're a really dedicated one.

Monique: I read an article about it and it was said there that it was nominated a number of times.  I’m very sure that it garnered a lot of awards. Do you know what those are??

Me: No, not really I'm not that keen about those but I do know that the movie was directed by Stephen Chbosky, the author himself  which was nice because his point might have been well implied.

Monique: Really? Cool! I didn't know that. By the way, I've heard that Charlie died at the end. Is that true? If he really did, then that will make me more interested.

Me: Oh no, not really. Charlie didn't die. He almost committed suicide or something because all the things his Aunt Helen did to him is swimming into his mind and when he was about to do it, he called his sister and the police came rushing then BAM, they he already at the hospital. You know, movies have cuts and that had one. *laughs*

Monique: Ohhh, I see. Do you have any copy of that movie? I would want to watch it. Then I'll read the book afterwards.

Me: Yes dear I have one. I'll burn you on a disk if you want. Anyway, I really need to go because I think I need to pee or something. Bye!

Monique: Thanks for the time! Bye!

(Conversation ends.)

Indirect Speech

Sheila greeted Monique. She told Monique that she just watched the new movie of Emma Watson titled "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". She asked her if she had heard about it. Sheila said it's a really good watch. Monique agreed. She said that She had heard about it that that was a great movie but only knew few about it. Monique asked her what was it about. Sheila Replied that it was about Charlie, a socially-awkward freshman who later discovers that he is a wallflower and then he meets his friends, Patrick and Sam who'd make him feel what a real party is like and make him have his social life while dealing with school works and all the stuffs.Monique later said that it really seemed to be a great and interesting movie. She asked if Emma Watson will play the role of Sam.Sheila exclaimed that she had a good guess and asked if she's getting interested already. She asked Monique to tell her. Anyway, she told Monique that Sam is the girl that Charlie loves, much older and the sister of Patrick.She said that she's pretty cool and she loved her character. Monique agrees once more. She guessed if the book was better than the movie and asked if she's correct because of the people said that they were not contented with what they had watched. Sheila said Monique had it "bull's eyed." And then she argued that with consideration to the movie, she meant disregarding the book, that it was quite nice. And it was actually splendid. Sheila said that the soundtracks, effects, and everything were perfect. And that it even had an 8.3/10 IMdB rating which proved it's worth to be watched. Incidentally, she said that the book is better if you're a really dedicated one. Monique told her that she had read an article about the movie and it was said there that it was nominated a couple of times. And that she's very sure that it garnered a lot of awards. She finally asked Sheila if she know what are those. Sheila said No, and said that she wasn't that keen about those but she do knew that the movie was directed by Stephen Chbosky, the author himself  which she said was nice because his point might have been well implied. Monique can't believe her at first then said that it was cool and that she didn't learn about that. She added that she'd heard that Charlie died at the end. She asked her if it's true and said that if he really did, then that will make her more interested. Sheila answeres back that that was not true. She said that Charlie didn't die. and that he almost committed suicide or something because all the things his Aunt Helen did to him was swimming into his mind and when he was about to do it, he called his sister and the police had come rushing then BAM, then they were already at the hospital. She said in a matter-of-factly that movies had cuts and that had one. Sheila laughed. Monique understood what she meant then asked her if she had any copy of the movie and that she would want to watch it and read the book afterwards. Sheila replied that she had one and that she'll burn her a a copy on a disk if she'd want. Finally she said that she really need to go because then she might be needing to pee or somthing. She bid farewell.Monique did too and she thanked her for the time. (Conversation ends.)