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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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Again, I am Agnes Julien R. Rabago from OPTO 1-61B :)

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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11: Exploring another world

Tumbang preso, patintero, and luksong tinik are just some of the games that I used to play during my early childhood. I usually play those with my older brother and our playmates just within our street. The thing that I remembered at that time is that we aren’t allowed to go out and play with our friends if we won’t take a nap at 1am-3am every noon. It somehow serves as a requirement because the elderly always say this, “katulog aron mutangkad ka”.

But those are just memories now. We are in our own new world. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and mobile games are some of our source of entertainment. From those larong pinoy who made us experience being so dirty, sweaty, and got bitten by our parents because of going home so late to watching YouTube videos, posting on Facebook, and playing games that we all can do using one gadget in one sitting. You see how the world turns to another world?

As I get older, I get more digitalized. I get dependent on what the modern world or the internet can offer to me.

Entertainment --- I depend on the internet whenever I need some ice breaker or entertainment. I watch YouTube videos. What content I mostly want to watch from the vloggers are school videos, clothing haul and some trending challenges that catches the attention of the viewers. Facebook is also one of our sources of happiness because we get to see some funny videos and some memes. We deny it or not, the digital world really became a big part of our life for it became our happy pill and it gives off positive vibe for we are entertained by it.

Education --- we all wanted to get things easily and quickly done and with the help of the digital world we have access to the internet and social media platforms which helps our life be better and easier. We are more used with searching in google whenever we have assignments, projects, and even questions about our curiosity. We are not used to the traditional way which is reading books. I’ve also experienced crying while watching a YouTube video because I didn’t really understand our physics lessons and during the night before exam my friend sent me some YouTube links that will help me understand the lessons and I don’t know what’s gotten into me but I cried while watching because maybe I’m pressured for tomorrows examination and I didn’t understand any lesson.

During this quarantine, the technology and digital is a big help for this sector for it’s the only mean of getting in touch with the students and teachers. This is also a way for them to learn their lessons.

Communication --- communication is a must for people because we can’t survive in this life if we don’t have someone whom we can share our thoughts, memories, and problems to. I always use Twitter to share my feelings, and my experiences for the day because I always think that Twitter is safer than Facebook because I get to post something that’s beyond the reach of my parents. My time for social media this quarantine is about more or less 12 hours. I always use social media to check my friends because we are all aware that it’s very hard to keep our mental health healthy and the one thing I can do for them is to ask for their current situation. Communication is indeed a must for us because as the famous quote says, “no man is an island”.

The digital world in this quarantine is a great platform for all the people for they can build a venture for them to provide their needs. Online shopping became very prominent at this time because of its perks like, easy to find with just swipe and scroll technique because you don’t need to go to the mall and find it yourself and of course saves your time and effort.

Aside from online selling, one of my classmates in grade 12 used this digital world to make some money. She offers some of her skills in writing and editing to students who are in need of help. She offers to write some essays, critique papers, graphic designing and video editing for a reasonable price that can really help her personal and school finances.

The digital world also helps us to be more aware of what’s happening in the world. Many people use social media platforms to inform people because it can cater many users. Now, people are more aware of the LGBTQ + community and #BlackLivesMatter that they don’t deserve every petty discrimination, and hates that some people have for them.

Through this digital world, we are being educated and more informed than we are before. But we must always keep into our minds that we must always be responsible on what we post because we don’t know the effect of those to the readers. We must always be cautious on what we search online because some posts may trigger our anxieties that are harms our mental health. We may be very dependent in the digital world at this moment but we must put into our minds that an internet or social media detox is also a need for our health.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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10: Humanity must be the Top Priority

Hierarchy is a must to keep things in peace and in order.

The executive branch governs our country. We wait for their plans in our country and we hope and pray that their plans are for the humanity. The government helps the citizens to have a better place to live in and have a bright future with their plans.

As we always say, challenges are inevitable. We lose hope when there our calamities that have the ability to destroy our homes, our livestock, and even our whole life, but our government gives us hope and chance to live again. Typhoons, earthquakes, and other calamities gives us a reason to stop living and discourages us to have hope again but our country, the citizens, the government officials provide help in terms of giving relief goods and shelter to live.

School is a form of politics. We get to be instructed with our teachers. We feel that they control us with their rules but those rules will surely make us a better person. Going to school is not just all about learning science and math. It’s not about finding friends. It is also about getting disciplined, learning moral values, and a training ground for youth. In school we learned how to follow orders, say for example, we must always wear decent clothes in school, no hair color and we must always be polite when we meet our teachers or other elders in the institution.

I’ve learned how to be a leader in school. I never tried being part of the officers in school, aside from when I was in elementary, because I never had the opportunity when I was in junior and senior high school for the reason that I know that they are still more deserving than me. But I did try to be a leader in a group work, research group and such and I learned that we must always hear the voice of others and not close our minds with our own decisions because we may deny it or not, we do have lapses at times and the people around us are there to fill-in those lapses and we have people around us to educate us and to inform us about new things.

Family is another form of politics. We are ruled and molded by our parents. They plan out everything even our future because they believe that they know what’s best for us. When I was still young, early childhood, I am informed that my father is the ruler of the family. He gets to decide what school to enroll for his kids, I and my brothers. He gets to decide what appliances to buy and other stuff in the house. My father is in Saudi at that time because he’s an OFW but even when he’s away, my mom always ask for his permission when there is something to decide and that made me realize that indeed my father is the head or the leader of the family.

But things changed. As I get older, problems arise. My father didn’t have a job right now and he doesn’t have the will to find a job anymore because he’s tired. I saw my mom getting tired day by day. I’m very lucky to have a mom who’s always willing to sacrifice everything just to provide for her children. I somehow lost my respect to my father because he doesn’t have this urge to help his wife at times like this, especially now that we are under quarantine and jobs are getting harder to find. But since I’m well aware of my role as a child, I still follow his orders and respect him but at the same time I share my thoughts, complains and opinions to my mother, which I’m closer to, because I’m very well aware of my freedom to tell my opinion.

I realized that things get change when there are problems because everything is not just about following the orders, happy, peace, and order. We also encounter challenges that leads to chaos. And that’s what I’ve observed right now. Our country is in chaos. The Philippines is in chaos.

During this pandemic, I can really say that the government is not ready for this problem. They tend to prioritize those things that aren’t need to be prioritize of. We need to focus on the current problem --- the pandemic. Many citizens are saying their opinions and making their voice louder for us to be heard but what do we get? The white sand of manila bay. The higher ups must always remember that the citizens constitutes our country and we must make the people’s welfare as the top priority.

Having this political self in us helps us to be aware of our rights, our roles and to not be blinded about the happenings around us. We aren’t naïve. We know what’s right and what’s wrong. We know how to differentiate the urgent from trivial. We know our role as a friend, a child, and a citizen that we are not born to just sit back and relax, but we are born to leave a legacy, to share our opinions, to be a catalyst of change and to be someone who can change the life and the world of others.

We must always be reminded to not be contented with what our situation right now and keep in mind that a leader is not just meant to lead and to decide. Always remember that a leader is also a great follower.

The world may never be perfect but I believe it will come close to being perfect if we have the urge to help each other and prioritize each other’s life.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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9: Strengthening the Faith

When we talk about spiritual self, the first thing that comes into my mind is really the part of ourselves who have relationship with the divine or our relationship with God. Aside from taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional self, we also need to take good care of our spiritual self for I believe that this part of our self helps us to always do good unto others and be moral. When we have unhealthy spiritual self, we can be disappointed easily, we can be paranoid sometimes and I personally agree to that because those are some of my personal experiences when I don’t personally have relationship with God and when I don’t have faith in Him.

Having this spirituality within us indeed helps us to be a better person. Whenever we do something, we always think twice because we are not just thinking about our happiness and our welfare but also other’s happiness and welfare for the reason that one of our goals in life is to act and be like Jesus, who is so good to others.

People who are serving God for how many years always testify that it’s never easy. We can’t just expect that it is smooth along the way, there are many rough roads as they say.

I started being active in our church when I was in fourth grade. I joined our praise and worship team, I always attend prayer meetings during Wednesdays unless if I have homework because it’s weekdays and I have classes, and I always practice during Saturdays for the Sunday’s service. I’m very passionate and I’m driven to always serve our God and it didn’t cross my mind that I would stop doing that because I’m always happy whenever I’m at church. But as the elder says, it’s never easy. We will encounter challenges, trials and temptations that will really test our patience, our faith, and our trust in ourselves.

When I was in fourth grade, I was so focus in my life inside the church that I almost forgot my life outside of it. So whenever there’s problem, my state of shock will always be longer than me dealing with the problem. I want to be in solitude if I have problem. I don’t want to harm other people. I really believe that if it’s my problem I’d rather keep it with me. I get easily disappointed. Whenever I see or feel things that I don’t like in church, like backstabbing which is normal for teenagers because I’m joining the young teens at that time, I usually then decide to stop going to church and be back like after a month or two.

At this age, I really don’t have confidence talking in public and my church mates know that because they are like my older sister and brother and I always share things to them. Unfortunately, during the farewell party of our youth pastor, they put my name in the program and I’m assigned with giving message to the youth pastor. Since, I don’t really like talking in public, I made a horrible excuse, I told them that I will just go to the comfort room but little did they know, I already walk to our house. I’m so ashamed of what I did, I didn’t go to church for many months because I always think that they hate me for what I did but it turns out they don’t because they understood.

I was still so young at that time and all I think is my relationship with my church mates and not my relationship with God. So whenever, I do something bad or I feel something bad with them, it’s so easy for me to decide to not go to church for the next months. I didn’t know the reason behind going to church and being active in church. I didn’t really know the importance of spirituality because all I know that if you attend mass, prayer meeting and if you join to several ministry is enough or it constitutes the spiritual self but it’s not. Spirituality influences the individual through acts of faith, hope, and love. Your connection with God is much more important than the activities in church but it is way better to combine those.

As I get older, I realized that having a healthy spiritual self helps a person to also have a healthy well-being. It helps you to be strong whenever there are challenges because we strongly believe that our God gives us strength for us to endure all earthly challenges and make us learn our lessons and discover our abilities.

Discussing about logotheraphy or the search for the meaning of life made me realize how important soul-searching is. Whenever I see some posts on the internet about soul-searching, I feel like it’s no help. But after discussing this logotheraphy, I realized that it is really a big help for people. Whenever we are in solitude, all our hidden thoughts, that even you yourself could be surprise, come out.

Searching for the meaning of life indeed helps us unveil our true selves. It’s the same as whenever we have a problem, we can discover our personality whenever we deal our problems and after we surpass the problem, some may be boastful and some may remain humble. Unexpected changes in our life, be it our personality or our mental thinking, really happens whenever we have problem.

When we know our purpose and understand our existence, we have enough reason to keep on living because you already understand all the happenings in the world. You understand that challenges are always there for our growth and development as a person.

I may not yet reach the peak of my life, I may not understand the real meaning of my existence because I still am on the stage of discover and searching, but I know that I’m brave enough to face the challenges in life because I truly believe to this quote and it’s one of my sources of strength.

“God gives His toughest battles to His toughest soldiers.”

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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8: Practicality over Impulsiveness

I am an average person. We are not rich and we are not very poor. Our family’s income is not big but it’s enough to feed everyone in the family.

I am frugal but there are also times that my impulsiveness reigns. During quarantine, this was the time that my impulsiveness attacks me. I am bored. So the money that I kept every time there’s left from my allowance was spent to some clothes and accessories online. There’s this one moment that I’m browsing some clothes in shopee and I checked out these clothes because I’m afraid that it will soon be out-of-stock because of its good reviews. I suddenly regretted upon receiving the product because I don’t actually need this. We are not allowed to go outside so I can’t use it. That’s the time that I told myself to always think not just twice but many times when buying things.

I agree that the basic components of the material self, such as house, clothes, and body determines your social status. Especially on the house and cars, people will really notice your social status if you have elegant cars and big house. But in terms on clothes, we can’t easily judge the person because there are some rich people who always wear simple clothes and don’t want to be flashy, and there are some average people who wants to be flashy and in trend because they want to be presentable. But these basic components of the material self are not enough reason to shame others. Let us always be reminded to be respectful and responsible of our actions.

My normal self is not really materialistic. I always save almost half of my allowance in school to buy my wants and my needs. I don’t usually ask money from my parents to get what I want; I want to learn how to earn my keep as early as today. I save money to buy clothes, shoes and other stuffs that I want. But if I need something that is beyond my limit, I ask for help to my parents to provide my needs and I usually explain to them why I need it.

Being a materialistic person is okay as long as you have enough means to get what you want. It’s bad when you buy things that is beyond your limit and if you are risking other’s lives.

I think embodying materialism is common in our age because we are looking for this “satisfaction” that we feel as we buy clothes and other stuff that are socially trend. But as time goes by, we must be practical and only purchase those things that we indeed need. I bet we must always save money to be ready for future circumstances that may need financial assistance.

We must learn how to be contended on what we have and we must always think not just twice but hundred times when we purchase something especially if it’s very expensive and beyond our limits.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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7: Overcoming Temptations

I’ve already shared on my previous blog about my physical appearance, that I’m tall, have morena skin, and big eyes. I’m the only girl in our family, aside from my mom. My mom once shared to me that they have no plans to have another child, they are contented on my two older brothers already. But what makes my mom happy after my sex reveal is she has now a baby girl. Even if they are not planning to have a third child, they are still happy because I’m a baby girl.

Being a woman has advantages and disadvantages. There are times that I just want to be a man because of the burdens that girls carry all the time. We have this monthly period that we all really hate because it includes mood swings, itchy feeling and even dysmenorrhea. This is the time when we want to be somehow alone and at the same time cared by someone. We get irritate easily without even having definite reason.

Woman will also suffer during pregnancy. There are so many reason for women to hate their sexuality but there are also reason to love our sexuality. We can easily cry even in front of many people, we can be clingy and some other personalities that are expected by the society. Some people may say that women are dependent and weak but us, women, have many reasons to change their perspective about us and make them believe that we are strong and independent just by simply doing good at school and doing good for the society.

The chapter 7 focuses on the sexual self but since I’m don’t any experience to what is really focused on this chapter, I would rather share to you my thoughts, and experiences to the other topics under this chapter.

When people talks about love, everyone will be wild and some might say, “sana all”. Love for me is indeed unconditional. We do things that we don’t expect we can because of love. We are all aware that being in love is one of the best feeling. I don’t have any experience yet but this is just based on my observations to the people who are deeply in love and in a relationship. We love being in love because it’s so ideal to have someone love and care for you. It gives you a lot of happiness when someone makes you “kilig” and when someone always ask what you’re doing and remind you to be safe always. But as I can observe, relationships are not always happy. They have this so-called “ups and downs” where we can test their faith, trust, and love to each other.

When we talk about relationships, the first thing that came into our minds is the kind of relationship we have with our special someone but it’s not. We also have our relationships with our family and friends.

My relationship with my friends have this friendship type of love. The intimacy and liking component are present. We are clingy to each other. We hug and sometimes kiss each other’s cheek depending on how close we are. I also sometimes check on them through messaging them on messenger especially right now that we are on quarantine, it’s my way of expressing my love to them and making them feel that I’m their friend who is always there for them.

Some may argue that consummate love is just for your special someone, I can still consider that mu relationship with my family has this consummate type of love. I have this type of love for my family because I can’t imagine myself if I’m not with them. They are one of the reasons why I’m happy. They are the one who made me strong and independent.

Even if I still don’t have experience regarding having an intimate or special relationship with someone, I’m well aware that we must choose someone who will truly love and take care of us because entering in a relationship is not just about risking you heart but also risking your mental, emotional and physical welfare.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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6: Overcoming Insecurities

Tall, morena skin tone, not too fat and not too skinny, big eyes --- these are just some of my physical characteristics that are easily noticed by my friends and people who have seen me.

Ever since I’m an elementary student, I haven’t experienced being the first person standing in front during flag ceremony. I’m always at the back because of my height. And it’s still the same even during my junior high school years.

I got these height, skin tone and eyes from my father. We have the same physical appearance as compared to my mother who’s smaller than me and has a fair complexion.

I love all of my traits. I like being tall, I like my skin and I like my body. But when puberty came and acne became present, that’s when I started to feel insecure. Whenever taking pictures, I always want the camera to be away from me and capture either my whole body or just from my waist because I don’t want the picture to see my imperfect face. I’m always insecure about my face up until now but I’m doing my best to accept it because I know it’s normal for teenagers. I tried so many products to lessen my acne but none of them worked, so now I’m just learning to accept it and hope that it will vanish as I get older.

I’m always comparing myself to my mom for the reason that my mom has a clear skin and fair complexion. Since, I’m a teenager who’s insecure about her body, I always wanted to be like my mother but as I’ve said to my previous blog, we can’t get all we want. Heredity may somehow one of the reasons why we have this appearance, but we must not forget the external factors or the environment we are in.

One of the reason why I have dark skin tone and many acne is because of the environment I’m in. Both my school campus from junior high school and senior high school are very dusty and hot which is one of the reason why I have acne and morena skin.

During our preparations for our supposedly graduation ceremony and year book, we’ve conducted several personality tests online and one of that is the temperament test which determines whether you’re sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, or choleric.

I am sanguine --- sanguine people are spontaneous and pleasure-seeking. They are also sociable and charismatic. I can say that the result is very accurate. I am indeed a sanguine. I am very extrovert, that’s why I’m sociable. It is easy for me to make friends even if I only met that person for days. I am always talkative. I am sometimes labeled as the most noisy person of my group. I can’t just control myself, I always find myself talking and talking and sharing all of my experiences to my friends.

Even if some of my friends think that I’m very confident because of how I act, I also carry some insecurities with me. Both my body and my face are my greatest insecurity. I’m insecure about my body for being now physically fit like others, so I sometimes do workouts to get rid of the unwanted fats but I’m not that consistent because I’m lazy. I’m insecure about my face because of the acne that are present. But I believe it’s normal to teenagers to be insecure on how they look because we are at this age when we want to always look comfortable and presentable.

Our society made us realize that having a beautiful face is the way to having lot of friends and is one of the ways to be accepted in the society. But let me tell you that the one thing which is more important than having a beautiful face is having a beautiful heart and beautiful soul.

Indeed, our world needs not just a beautiful face but a lot of kindhearted people.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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5: Beauty Amidst Diversity

Beauty Amidst Diversity.

Different races, different faces, different beliefs, different views, different personalities, and different people --- these constitutes the world and makes it complete and makes it beautiful.

We are different people so we have this different concept of self. As we don’t get to interact with this group of people we are currently in all the time, so our concept of self changes as we get older.

Toddler --- group of people who are always there for you. People who are willing to take care of you, may it be your parents, your teachers and your nanny for some. This results to us realizing that at this time, we are here in this world only to be taken care of.

Elementary --- group of people who always want to play around. Kids want to have fun always. They feel these satisfaction and fulfillment whenever they are happy with their friends which results to me believing that the concept of self at this moment is to always be happy and have companionship.

Junior High School --- group of people who are somehow in the stage of being mature. I got to interact with different people here. Some just wants to hangout and chill. Some wants to study and achieve awards. Some doesn’t care at all. This is the time that it is so hard to decide what path are you going to take. Personally, this is the stage where I can say I’ve experienced many challenges. One of that is my spiritual self, I really don’t know the purpose of serving our Father that time. The main reason why I go to church at this age is to have fun with my church mates, that’s all. I don’t know the essence of attending a church service. If I sense something disappointing with my friends at church, I can easily decide to not go to church for the next months. This made me realize that maybe the concept of self is about experiencing trials in life.

Senior High School --- group of people who are driven to finish the school with flying colors because they’ve set their goals ahead of them. This made me go to the reality that the concept of self is achieving a successful future. That life is about perseverance in order to be successful in the future.

Interacting with different people with different views in life influences my character development. From a kid who always wanna play to a lady who thinks about her future.

Tackling the western and eastern concept of the self help me think deeply about my character, my personal character. I may have change because of some internal factors that causes my character development, but I always agree to the Hinduism and Confucianism belief since I was a child because that’s what my parents have showed me.

Hinduism --- the law of karma. People get exactly what they deserve. If you do good things, you will be rewarded, if you do bad, you will be punished.

Confucianism --- Do not do to others what you would not want others do to you.

I always think before I act because I can’t get off these beliefs out of my head so I’m scared whenever I do awful things to people. I always think about their welfare and their feelings to avoid future circumstances.

We may have different personalities with other people, but that makes us unique and beautiful from each other. We can establish our own identity. We can help people to see things in another point of view. We can help people appreciate and accept things which they aren’t used to and those things outside their bubble.

Indeed, there is beauty even in diversity.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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4: Who I wanna be

Attaining something we dream in life is one of the happiest moments we can feel in this lifetime.

Human being are always striving for self-fulfillment or self-actualization. When the needs of self are denied, severe anxiety may arise.

It’s indeed human nature to ask for something and expect that it will be given to you immediately. One simple situation for us teenagers, if we ask money or a thing to our parents, we want them to give it right away. We sometimes pressure them and do unforgivable things if they won’t give what we want.

Luckily, my parents raise me in different way. They taught me to always earn my keep whenever I want material things. They are the main reason why I’m frugal because I want to spend my money to important things.

But, I am no saint. There are also times when I’m disappointed to myself and to people who are responsible of me not getting what I want.

I think it’s human nature to be unhappy if we don’t get what we want because we always expect that we will receive the things that we always dream of and we tend to be lethargic and not cooperative when this moment comes because we are disappointed.

I remembered the time when I was young and I want my parents to buy me a new phone. When they told me to just wait, I got pissed and decided to not talk to them even at home. But, I changed this attitude when I got older. I realized it’s toxic. I set into my mind that, not everything I want in this life will be given to me. It may take time to make that as my mindset, but it’s worth it knowing that you won’t have to deal with the anxiety all the time.

And that is one of my real self --- afraid to not achieve or get what she wants. I can easily say that my current self or my real self is somehow toxic. I get jealous easily, not the romantic jealousy with my special someone, but I get jealous whenever my friends forgets about me and hangout with their other friends, and some other petty stuffs. I am moody. My mood changes from time to time and I hate it. One minute I’m happy talking to my friends, the other minute I’m irritated, and i don’t know why.

Aside from those characteristics, I’m also a pessimist and paranoid which I really want to change and have a better ideal self. Achieving a better ideal self wouldn’t just help me personally but will also help to make my relationships with others stronger and healthy.

I’ve realized that, what I really want to achieve in my life aside from being successful in my chosen profession is not just having those material things that I always wanted but to have a greater character for myself and for the people around me.

And that’s what I want for my ideal self --- to be optimistic, to strengthen my faith, to be practical, and to be critical whenever I have to decide on something.

Achieving this characteristics may take time and not easy for many trials and problem may arise along the way but I know it’s for my betterment. I always believe that those trials and challenges are there to make us stronger, and to let us know our capacities and abilities in life. Because somehow, we’re able to unveil our true selves whenever there’s a problem ahead of us.

We may be shaken as the years go by, but let us make our goals and dreams as our inspiration to stand firm and keep on living.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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3: Inheriting Behaviors

“Mura kag imong papa”

I always hear this. Every time. When I’m with my relatives, both from my mother and my father, and even when I see some of our family friends. I’m like my father, from the eyes, face, and the way we talk. I resembled him.

Anthropologist have emphasized that culture is not behavior itself but the shared understanding that guide behavior and are expressed in behavior.

Both of my parents are bisaya so, we are not soft-spoken. Many people tend to misinterpret our voices and think we are mad even if we are not. When this happens, my father will always say “murag wala naman nasanay”.

Family oriented, industrious, and hospitable --- these are some characteristics that are commonly observed in Filipinos and we are all guilty of that.

I am family-oriented because I grew up in a family who values the welfare of the members. I haven’t observed this attitude just in our family but also to my friend’s family.

I am industrious, not always but most of the time, because I’ve seen how industriousness makes our life successful.

I am hospitable because I’ve seen how my mom treated our visitors, her friends and her workmates.

We indeed acquire those characteristics we’ve seen and turns out to be a habit and eventually become our culture.

But among all the people I’ve met, I always want to be like my mother. I always admire my mother for being such a good person to the people around her. I want to be like her. She has such a good heart. Maybe, I am now a sociocentric because of her. My mom is selfless and so am I.

I always think about the welfare of the people around me. I always check if they are fine. My happiness depends on them. I am more glad when I am with people rather than being alone. I’m happy if I have someone or group of people whom I can always talk to. I value my relationship with other people and I will do everything to keep it.

I enjoy joining to medical missions. My mom always invites me and I will gladly say “yes”. There’s this time that i got teary-eyed because during the giving of reading glasses, I asked this woman to write her name and sign, then she told me, “aha dapit ma’am? di man ko kabalo mubasa”. And I realize that life is indeed fair because it is unfair to everyone.

Even if we knew our cultures firsthand and we apply it as early as we are informed about it, there are still some of it that we don’t want to follow and some that we just observed from others and we want to apply in our lives. We want to leave a legacy in this world the way we want to be remembered. So, we have this identity toolbox in us because we really want to be remembered the way we want.

We are commonly remembered by our names. I am Agnes when I’m at school. I’m Julien to my church mates, my neighbors and our family friends. I asked my mom when I was young why my name is Agnes Julien. She told me that she got this Julien from her Chinese customer when she was still young, and she can’t forget that lady because of her kindness. My two older brothers and my father have letter A as the first letter of their names and my mother wants my name to be like that as well, so the first A-name that came into her mind is Agnes, that’s why she decided to name me as Agnes Julien.

Carrying my name for me is a big responsibility because I wan’t to be remembered by my classmates and teachers as a good student who always value education and value the welfare of the people around her.

One’s identity is not born. It is something that people continuously develop in life.

Our culture may have a big role in our lives but our experiences sometimes steps ahead our culture for this experiences show reality and give us lessons, and later on develops our true selves.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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2: Am I who they think I am?

People indeed have a special power. We were able to communicate with different and diverse personalities each day. We can easily adjust. We can easily interact.

Indeed, society have a big role in our lives. The group of people whom we interact always have a big part or causes significant change in our lives.

As a student, I got to interact with different people who came from other places. I also got to interact with people who are in different levels in the society, such as my friends or my co-students, my teachers, my parents, my church mates and many other people who have different ways on how to influence me.

But aside from those group of people mentioned above, my personality is also influenced by the modern technology. Posts in social medias greatly affect our thinking especially we, as a teenager, are still on the stage of having a difficulty in decision-making. Thus, ourselves is indeed a product of society.

Personally, my personality never changes at all whenever I am with my friends or with my family. I am always the bubbly one, the talkative, and the active one. I don’t change at all, maybe sometimes if I’m with a person I’m not really close with. I am open to my family and friends. I share my problems to them to ease the suffering.

I’ve encountered many people in my life and one common thing they rant to me is they have different personality when they are with their friends and when they are with their family. They don’t have this rapport over their family. They are bleak. But when with us, they are nutjob.

Some of my friends honestly told me that they envy me for being open to both of my family and my friends. I have nothing to hide to both parties. And I’m glad to be like that.

George Herbert Mead supports the view that a person develops a sense of self through social interaction. I can truly agree to this because it’s a human nature to interact with people and acquire some of their beliefs, actions, and views and life especially when you spend a lot of time with them.

When I studied at MSU, almost half of the populations are ilonggo. I’m not an ilonggo. But i’m shocked that after how many months communicating and talking to my friends who are ilonggo, i suddenly got to practice their language and accent, too.

Our personalities are really molded by the society. But we must always observe the characteristics that are presented in the society and weigh in if it’s good to acquire those characteristics or not.

Hence, the reason why most people have different personalities depending on the person whom they interact with is different group of people have different expectations to you. Your family expects you to be timid and firm. Your friends expects you to be all out and crazy. Thus, results to developing many personalities because we always have this feeling that we want to fit in in the group. We want to be like them, so at times, we changes our attitudes depending on what that group of people wants to satisfy their needs and expectations to us. This concurs Mead’s second division on the theory of self, ME, which represents internalized attitudes and demands of other people.

With that, it concludes that humans are flexible and must always be responsible.

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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1: My self as my priority

I am my top priority.

I am fully aware that my self is my top priority. I do things that makes me happy. I do things that fulfill my wants and my needs. I do things that satisfies me. But I can assure you that I don’t do things to the extent of harming others. I know my responsibilities. I care for others.

Upon prioritizing myself, doing everything to enjoy this life, I also somehow got to a bizarre state that I don’t know myself anymore. I don’t know why am I doing this. Am I doing this for myself? Am I doing this for others? Or am I doing this because I am used to it?

Understanding the Self as a course subject have a really big role in someone’s life or someone’s personality. Understanding the self for me is also a way to fully and deeply know yourself and also a way to love yourself.

Being able to meet philosophers who will help you to understand yourself in their own perspective is a big help. As much as I want to choose a philosopher whom I really agree on and focus on it, I have chosen to share my experiences based on these three philosophers’ perspective that I can truly relate on.

Socrates --- one of the most prominent philosopher of all time. He reminded us to examine our life, know who we are, know who we should be, and know who will we become.

As a person, I am goal-oriented and I know what I want in life. I didn’t take this course, Doctor of Optometry, because my mom wants it. I didn’t take this course because my brother is an optometrist. I didn’t take this course because a lot of people around me influenced me to become an optometrist. I did take this course because even when I am on my 5th grade, I know that I want to be an optometrist and I can see myself doing what an optometrist does. I didn’t have the time to think and contemplate in my senior high school days about what I really want in the future because I’m exposed and hooked to this field as early as I entered junior high that results to me wanting to be an optometrist.

Aristotle --- reminds us that pursuing happiness leads to a good life.

Every person wants to be happy. They do things for them to be happy. As stated on the first part of this post, I do things that makes me happy.

After a hell week in school, I always reward myself to go to the mall and either watch a movie or eat with my friends. I always find a way to create happy memories and gradually forget those stressful memories during an exam week or hell week.

I also attended several medical missions with my mother and it makes me glad seeing people fulfilled whenever we give reading glasses to them. I am glad that even with that simple action it makes someone’s life better. Whenever I am reminded about the smiles on their faces, I am motivated to always do good unto others.

I am happy whenever I’m helping others. I always bring biscuits with me because I prefer to give food to unfortunate people rather than money to assure that they have something to eat. I always set in my mind that if I have the chance to help, I will help before it’s too late.

St. Augustine --- believes that self is known only through knowing God.

I am a Christian and I can testify to this. I am awakened in the belief that knowing God will make you a better person for you will be responsible of your actions. You will not just think about yourself, but also think about other’s welfare and situations before doing things because you are taught to be good like God. Like God who is always thinking about others. That’s why I always think first before speaking to avoid circumstances.

Learning about the perspective of these philosophers helped me in understanding myself better. It helped me to understand that my self is my priority not because i want to always be happy, but rather it’s my priority to make me a better person for myself and also for others.

Indeed that understanding yourself results to knowing yourself deeply. And this is a good foundation in order to not easily be influenced by others for the reason that you know yourself better than anybody else. Also be reminded that ourselves isn’t just for ourselves, we are here in this world to help others to have a better life.

Be a person who can change not just yourself, but can change the world and the life of others. :)

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unveilingtherealself · 4 years

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Hi. I am a freshmen college optometry student and I am going to share to this blog my life experiences which are related to our course subject called Understanding the Self. Enjoy reading!

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