Never Give Up On Your Dreams

"Education is the key to success."

I still have a vivid memory of the slogan posted in my 4th grade classroom wayback 2001. Since then my urge to study and graduate motivates me to strive hard to fulfill my dream and my parents' dream for me finish my education.

We are not rich. We don't have a plenty of money. My parents got no stable job and we only depend on the money that we can get from a coconut farm and my father's (senior citizen that time) pension amounting to $40 (approximately). It was tough but the fact that we don't have sufficient money did not stop me to DREAM BIG.

Let me tell you some story of how I started.

Elementary.
I graduated on top of my class maybe because there's only few of us in the class. Haha. I don't know. But graduating with honors and good grades was enough to make my parents proud and happy. My school was situated around 500 meters away from our abode thus money for transportation is not yet a hindrance that time. Every lunch I went home and eat whatever is on the table. I even remember eating rice with salt, vinegar and chili as my viand.

High School
Since I graduated with honors, I got a chance to be enrolled in High School without thinking of any school fees because of the government scholarship granted to eligible students like me. I was with the Section 1 Class and few of my classmates were daughter of teacher, son of goverment official, some were fortunate since their families have business and their parents have stable job and income. Not only that, students level of competitiveness were higher compared to my elementary classmates. Thus, I instilled in my mind that I have to work harder.
The school was located in a different barangay therefore my parent needs to prepare for my transportation and food. It was not easy, there's a time that I came in late because my mother need to borrow a small amount of money to my aunt for my transportation and food. I don't have brand new uniforms because we can't afford it. Those things pushes me to study very well. I may not be able to graduate in high school with honors but my grade were good and no line of 7, all 80+ and 90+.

College
I survived high school. We survived the challenge. Here comes another story of struggle and victory.
I am already decided to take BS in Information Technology when my parent asked me what I wanted to get. My mother and father supported my decision even of my mother really wanted me to take BS in Elementary Education, she wanted me to bcome a teacher. We were able to get another scholarship and that helped us a lot since we just need to find way to pay for miscellaneous fee, bording house and food. With all the prayers and hardwork - I was then officially enrolled. I completed my first year - 1st semester with no problem however here comes some unpleasant news. My parents talked to me and asked me to stop going to school for the mean time and work since they said that they can no longer support my education. That time, everything was blank, I cried, I screamed, I even shouted to my parents that if they cannot support me then why did they let me live in the first place and I even threatened them that I'll run away from home. It was a product of my frustrations and disappointments. But after a long argument, my mother hugged me and said that she'll do anything to support and asked me to stop crying. And miracle happens. I was able to survived college with a lot of promisory notes from the finance every examination time because we can't pay the school fees. I can still remember the time I was in the boarding house, studying in my room while crying and waiting for mother to arrived hooing that she'll have my clearance paper signed by the finance officer for me to be able to take the exam.

The journey was absolutely challenging but fun since we were able to survived with perseverance, drive to suceed and faith in God. I am really grateful that my parents are very supportive and never gave up on me and my dreams.

I graduated college last 2011 and started working that year as well. In order for me to fulfill the dream of my mother of me becoming a teacher, I took earning units for secondary education last year and took the licensure examination for teacher this year and fortunately I am now a licensed teacher major in Social Science.