Introduce MySelf

Whenever day to day stress seems too much to bear and I just want to loosen up, I get up, grab that handy racket and head to our green table with someone for a healthy, relaxing game of table tennis. I remembered it was summer camp, 2016, when I have spent almost all my time on playing table tennis all day. It has been an amazing experience! I have practice every day, twice a day; some days I only practiced one time because I have some problems with my body but some days I practiced 3 times. The practice has been hard but worthwhile. The mental battle while playing matches is unparalleled; and a simple repetitive motion cease to be boring when I feel the spin of the ball through the bat and onto my hand.

Now, in senior high with the “new-normal”, I felt like I officially knew absolutely anything about everything and at the same time, I felt dumber than a poorly translated instruction manual for a spoon. It wasn’t bad or evil. It was just like it was supposed to be - with the flashes of inspiration that were quickly quashed by long stretches of tedium, and the perpetual desire to be somewhere else doing something else. “You got to keep doing it and eventually it will start to feel good, and your body will adapt,” it was the same encouragement thing I said to myself once and still my mantra 'til today. By the end of the day, I hated it. Boredom can hurt like physical pain, like wearing an iron hat, like sandpaper clothes, like being crushed under a big stone. Sometimes I force myself to think that senior high school is one long hazing activity; if I am tough enough to survive this, they'll let me become an adult, and I hope it's worth it.

The best thing, with that being said, is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. Learning is the only thing for us. We begin to stop growing on the day we stop learning, so why not keep learning and keep growing. It does not matter how slowly we go as long as we do not stop.

Personally, I like it much better when someone else does the decision making. That way I have legitimate grounds to whine and complain. I tend to find both whining and complaining quite interesting and amusing, though sometimes--unfortunately--it's hard to choose which one of the two I want to do. Formerly I never forgave anyone. I judged people without mercy and praised people with equal lack of moderation. And now an understanding mildness has become the basis of my uncategorical judgments. I have come to realize my own weakness—and I can therefore understand the weakness of others. And be astonished at another's strength. And wish to possess it myself.

My family life has remained strong. Although I haven’t been able to see my friends lately, I do think that one of the few good things out of it is that it actually improved my family life more. We are an “all working, lovey-dovey nuclear family” in the first place. As a child we grow up with the habit of sharing everything with parents and having a good time with them, and my parents too put their best to give us all the attention and time they could give from their busy schedule. But as we grow up, though we still shared things with each other but we never got enough time to enjoy the same way we used to do as kids; eventually things started to get a bit distant but during this lockdown when we all are together back with sharing and caring I have become so close to my family like I was never before. My parents have always created an optimistic atmosphere in the house which has just blossomed to best during this quarantine bringing four of us even closer than we were earlier.

Generally speaking, I say, there are good days and there are days that are not so good. But I’m not complaining. I’m grateful for the lockdown. I’m happy to cooperate with whatever works for the good of everyone. This could be one of the unexpected upsides of COVID-19 and the lockdowns. It made us more aware and sensitive about the great markers of time: the precious moments spent with friends and our families.

I’ve always dreamed to make the world safer through better designed and easier to use products, to help factories reach their highest potential, and to allow more of the population to better their lives by being able to afford technological advances. Industrial Engineering, for me, offers a unique opportunity to make a real difference by improving processes or designing things that are more efficient and waste less money, time, raw resources, man-power and energy while following safety standards and regulations. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. With hard work, perseverance and self-belief there is no limit to what we can achieve. My name is Francis James P. Manalo, from Grade 11- Hydrogen STEM, your future Industrial Engineer.