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Not all people in your life will be yours forever. Change is constant and you have to bear with the fact that you don’t own each person’s life. And no matter how you choose to be with them, if it’s God’s will to take them away from you, then be it. Be thankful instead because in a way, somewhere in your life, you met them.

These last few weeks, I came to a point where God tested my survival power. I lost my fourth year high school adviser, Ms. Daisy J. Flores. God took away her breath last July 15, 2009. She battled for a couple of days with a very drastic disease. I never thought she would leave us that soon. It was like a nightmare when I read a group message coming from my HS teacher and classmates. All our memories played consecutively in my mind right after I got the message. It was like going to a time machine where I want to go back. For the last time, I want to feel her presence—hug her, kiss her, and tell her how much important she is to me. It’s been four years since the last time I saw her but it feels like yesterday.

She taught me a lot of things during my last days in high school. Yes, I was a nerdy girl before with zero confidence and negative thoughts in my mind but she believed in my abilities and pushed me to run for Student Council President. However, I didn’t have the guts then, so I end up running for Student Council 4^th Year Representative instead. I was also a crybaby before and littlest things can already make me shed tears. I was super clumsy too and accident-prone before. I would go down and fall in the last four steps of the stairs, hit my head with our classroom window, leaving large bumps at my forehead, drive the scooter with heels hitting a post straight on(I had a lot of bruises after!). She comforted me and even told me that I should be extra careful. I never thought she would research that during full moon, I always do have accidents. Scary much?

Celebrating Valentines Day with Ma’am Flores (4^th year - St. Lawrence Batch 2005)

Ma’am Daisy J. Flores

Then there’s also countless times where I thought of quitting but she motivated me to reach for my goals. Ma’am Flores was there during my tough times. She was there whenever I need a mom, a friend, an adviser, and a confidant. I became mature enough to face life’s challenges because of her. I became First Honorable Mention and Student Council 4^th Year Representative of the batch. And she’s one of the reasons why I made it!

Thank you, Ma’am Flores. You inspire me to do more and lead me to where I am today. I would surely miss you. ‘Til we meet again. We love you! :’(

It’s only been (approximately) two months into the school year and I’ve been going crazy—with thesis and lit papers and theology readings and long tests and GUIDON. Seriously, thesis is only three units but I feel like it’s eating up my entire curriculum. Even though I had to resign from many of my affiliations (oh how I miss working for that certain documentary show) to be able to juggle my workload, I’m still dropping everything-this is also my excuse for not being able to regularly blog.

Oh senior year, you were supposed to be the best ever but it’s turning out to be a drag.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m just ranting. I like school. It’s just that, it’s different when you feel the pressure of senior year and the “senioritis” that comes along with it. But despite the (hopefully) temporary feeling of crummy-ness, I’m going to miss it-the academic stress, the automatic swagger seniors have, the school, everything. I had my yearbook photo shoot last week and it sort of hit me that this was really happening, I am (knock on wood) about to graduate. Those 20 minutes inside the boiling studio is the primary mark that I went to college and I actually graduated.

Because I had long tests around that time, I asked my sister to help me with my creative picture. I wanted to be a jack-in-the-box because 1) I wanted to be cute and 2) I wanted to highlight my randomness. She made my costume and decorated my box. I nearly broke my ankles posing for the photographer who wanted me to squat inside the box (I was wearing four-inch heels that sadly were cropped out of the photo). We also had the formal and casual photos taken.

When it came to choosing the photos, I laughed because there were checkboxes that indicated which “enhancements” we wanted done—eye bags, zits, freckles, beauty marks, et cetera. Without thinking, I immediately checked the first one. After all, who wants to be remembered with dark circles under their eyes? It was weird though. Those bags were the actual marks of senior year, the stress and the pressure. It’s strange—it’s like being remembered but not really because in the end, those pictures won’t have a stitch of imperfection on them.

I’m not against photo-editing, believe me, I do that quite often. It’s just that it made me think. Thirty years from now, I’ll be leafing through my yearbook and I’d see myself as a senior but will I remember the pains it took to get there? The pains that were the reason why it felt so great in the first place.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of my pictures but I will post them as soon as I get them.

If you read my 24^th blog entry entitled “Sentiments of a Confused Unemployed Girl” a couple of weeks ago, well this week, I feel very far from that (except maybe for the “confused” part!)

Why? Because now, I’m torn between two employers and both are really promising that’s why I don’t know what to do…

Let me start by giving you the basics. The two employers I’m choosing from are as follows:

COMPANY A

I’ll be working for the leasing department on this one and the fact that it’s part of one of the esteemed real estate companies in the entire country should be a no-brainer for me already! However, the work involved is really challenging and I have to exert extra time and effort. But of course, hopefully all of those will pay off in the long run.

PROS

*a subsidiary of one of the esteemed companies in the entire country
*office is located at Glorietta 4 (yes, the 5^th floor of the mall, just above the cinemas! hahaha!)
*in Papa’s memory (my father used to work at the same Glorietta 4 office for his auditing firm)
*possible “promotion” in the future to the actual “esteemed company” in the country already!
*networking (I’ll be dealing with a lot of clients, tenants, brokers, etc.)
*I’m already hired and I just need to sign the contract and arrange and complete my requirements (SSS, NBI, Philhealth, and the like)

CONS

*workload
*temporarily under an agency
*8AM-6PM office hours (maybe even Saturdays)

COMPANY B

This one is almost “like” a call center but it’s not what you think it is! haha! I applied as an Online English Tutor, catering to Korean students, who will “provide corrections and feedback for student essays through Company B’s patented online writing engine” and I think it’s more of my “kind-of-thing.”

PROS

*I think it can be considered as a Multinational Corporation (MNC) because it has different branches in a number of countries across the globe (including Korea, the United States, other Southeast Asian states, etc.)
*office is located at the Tower 1 of the Enterprise building (also in Makati)
*9AM-6PM office hours (Mondays to Fridays only)
*work involved is my “kind-of-thing” (at least I think so!)

CONS

*4-day training (it’s actually this week and not yet a guarantee that I’ll be hired; I need to pass the final exam and training on the fourth day or nada!)
*possible “shifts” (5AM-2PM or 2-11PM)

I know that the above offers are both unrelated to my course (A.B. Consular and Diplomatic Affairs) but as a beginner and an incoming “soldier” to the “battlefield” of the real world (more about that on a future blog entry! haha!), WHO AM I TO COMPLAIN? Like I said, both are promising in my own perspective and what’s most important is the WORK EXPERIENCE I’d be gaining from either of the two. (Tip: I can only “complain” afterwards and follow the career path of my “course” once I already earned my much needed “experience” or something like that!)

And hopefully whatever I choose when I finally decide where to work for and build my career, I’ll be able to live by the words below, just like as it’s written in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens,

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

I want to know what you have to say, my dear Candy Girls! Will you help me decide? WHAT DO YOU THINK???

Thanks in advance.

A confused and undecided soon-to-be employed girl,
Mika <3

I’ve been visiting Tumblr a lot these days. If you grabbed the July ish of Candy, fellow COC member Katya, wrote about it in the COC Corner. Like she said, it’s a really awesome and interesting site because the pictures and quotes that the members post are one-of-a-kind. One of my favorite blogs is “The Architecture Blog” They post pictures of houses, rooms, and interior spaces that are really, really unique. Some of them even want to make me try out interior designing and more than that, have houses that look just like them! Here are some of my ultimate faves:

1. 
   I love houses that are all white. It makes the house look so clean, so fresh, and sophisticated. I also love the swimming pool over there. Who wouldn’t want a pool in their backyard? Oh, and look at the lighting of the house! It’s really pretty!
2. 
   Don’t you just love how the kitchen looks? It makes cooking and baking a more delightful experience. It also looks so homey! I also really like that chalk board up there—it’s like how restaurants put a board up and say “Special of the Day.”
3. 
   Three words: OH. MY. GOSH. The room is absolutely perfect! The color scheme and the furniture of the room make it so homey, calming, and relaxing. I could just lounge around the room the whole day. And the view is spectacular! I wouldn’t mind waking up to that every day.
4. 
   If I were still a little girl, I would absolutely want a room like that! Don’t you think it’s such an amazing idea? I’m sure little princesses out there would love to wake up in a room like this. In the future, when I have my own little girl, I could decorate her room like this!
5. 
   I squealed when I saw this! I just find it oh so adorable and COOL! The closet’s below, the bed and the computer are right on top. Look at the shelves and the stairs! It’s so innovative! I seriously want a room just like this.

If you want to see more AWESOME interior spaces, go to http://architectureblog.tumblr.com. Look around Tumblr, too! You’ll find random and interesting stuff over there. Have fun!

Fight A! Fight T! Fight E Fight N Fight E Fight O!

No, I’m not cheering for the UAAP. I’m singing a musical version of this classic Ateneo cheer arranged by the band, Fuzz.

With their saxophone, violin, drums, and guitar, I was expecting them to play something mellow and bluesy, but this band made the crowd sit up when they opened their performance with the Ateneo Blue Babble Battalion’s Rhumba Yell. They also sang “Feeling Good,” “Shrink,” “Babaero,” as well as a couple of their original compositions.

Funk is a funk-jazz band formed by high school friends several years ago. They, along with two other acts, performed during The GUIDON’s re-launch of their e-zine, g.

DJ Mike O also impressed the audience with his unconventional performance with his synthesizer and great vocals (although now I’m not really sure if that was his real voice or it was modulated with the synthesizer). The idiosyncratic Noli Aurillo also wowed everyone with his guitar-playing skills. I honestly thought he was very fortunate that he didn’t break a string. Except for his Michael Jackson instrumentals, he sang bluesy songs. If I had a lighter, I would shamelessly raise it, and wave my arm to the beat.

The whole night was filled with food, drinks (non-alcoholic, of course), friends, and lots of music. Kudos to The GUIDON Externals team for making everything successful.

Hosted by Sab Jose and Pao Salapantan, the g launch was held last Friday, July 24, in Mag:Net, Katipunan.

But of course here I am blabbing about a launch and music when I haven’t really explained what it’s for, anyway.

Formerly known as Alt+G, g was developed in 2001-it was the first e-zine counterpart of a campus newspaper. G focuses on lifestyles and cultures of students. It offers reviews on the latest music, movies and plays; provides features on the most interesting places and people and so much more.

Call it shameless plugging or simply being proud of how far the e-zine has improved, g is a great source (apart from candymag.com, of course!) for reviews, tips, and so much more. In its latest issue, g wrote about BLAH BLAH

So when you’re in need of a little culture, be sure to visit g.theguidon.com.