The Legend of Balingasag in Misamis Oriental

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Centuries ago, there was a place located near the bay where you can find a lot of “casag” which is a type of crab. People who lived there used to catch these crabs for their daily living and business. Kids often used to play on the bay while adults are busy catching different kinds of sea creatures like fish, shells, and crabs. They sell it in the market. They catch crabs and other sea creatures by the use of fishing net which is called “baling”. 

That time, the place has no name at all. Because of the use of the net to catch crabs, they named the place “Balingcasag” to thank the gods and goddesses for the abundance of the resources from the sea. People that time kept on catching crabs for a bigger business and they became abusive and greedy. The gods and goddesses got angry and punished the people so they decided to control the sea by not producing or giving the people any kind of sea creatures or food. Several years, after naming the place, citizens were shocked because they can’t find anymore crabs and any other sea creatures in the bay. The people lost their business and some of them had difficulties producing foods for their families. The people realized how important and valuable the bay for them. They repent their sins and ask for forgiveness. They then change the name to “Balingasag” that served as their sincere apology for the gods and goddesses. Their apologies were accepted, and people were able to catch sea creatures again except for the existence of the crabs.

Until now, several decades had passed but still there hasn’t been any single crab seen in the bay. That serves as a lesson for the people of Balingasag to be aware of not harming and exploiting the natural resources of the place.

It Wasn't That Bad After All

Having different problems at a time could be a lot frustrating. Sometimes, you can’t just ignore them. You need to face them. In more often cases, sometimes people couldn’t take it anymore that they long to commit suicide and use it as an escape from the harshness of reality.

Every person is bound to have trials in their lives and it is part of our existence. As what I always tell my friends “Maybe their lives are not that bad after all”. Well, I just got that line from someone I know.

Several years ago when I met Claire on the internet, I was eighteen back then. We were chat mates. We talked about feelings and emotions. We shared about problems in life which we always encounter almost everyday. I told her how I hated life and the way it treats me. But then, that changed when she shared me one particular story.

“There was this girl whom I used to know”. Claire said. “She kept on isolating herself from people and pushing them away from her. She has a bad temper with a very bad attitude. She lived in New Jersey. She always hated life; she committed suicide by jumping off the building. The girl thought that her life was miserable and she couldn’t find ways to fix it”.

“As she jumped off the building” Claire continued typing message. “She saw a loving couple on the 10^th floor hitting each other. She saw the usually tough and strong person she knew named Louis on the 9^th floor, crying. On 8^th floor, she saw her friend Cindy who just found out that her lover is sleeping with her best friend. 7^th floor, a girl named Colleen is taking her daily anti-depressant medicine. On 6^th floor, jobless George, her father’s friend, still buys a daily news paper searching for a job. Much respected Mr. Blackburn on the 5^th floor is taking on his wife’s undergarments. 4^th floor, her classmate Rose and her boy friend are fighting again. Pensioner Marvin, on the 3^rd floor still hopes someone would come and pay him a visit”.

Claire stopped typing. I got impatient waiting for the continuation of the story so I buzzed her. “Then, what happened next?” I asked. She replied after a few seconds

“Before that girl jumped off the building, she thought she was the unluckiest person in the world” she sent with a smiley on it.

I paused, honestly, I did felt something strange. I did absorb the story. I then realized and recall those times I thought about committing suicide. Then Claire started typing again. I waited patiently for her message.

“Then she thought, maybe her life wasn’t that bad after all” Claire said

Yes, she’s right. Maybe the girl’s life wasn’t that bad after all. Maybe my life’s not that bad either. But then I felt sorry for the girl so asked Claire.

“She died, didn’t she?!” trying to express my solemnity

“Nope” she replied to me giving this laughing icon. “Miraculously, I survived” sending that message to me three times.

I smiled. Knowing a story like that and having a cyber friend like Claire, life wouldn’t be complete without it. Perhaps she told me a lesson which I know for certain that I hate to admit to myself how lucky I am for knowing her and having simple problems in life. I guess my life wasn’t that bad after all.

Rampant Globalization

Everybody loves innovation, evolution of technologies in a short period of time. The main reason of embracing it is because it helps us in our daily living. It makes every work a lot simple and easy. Well, we can’t blame people because as technology rises and evolves, people also do.

“People change by nature”, indeed it’s true because technology nowadays are creating a massive effect on our values. It influences a lot of people by using new innovated technologies and gadgets. It implements ideas on our minds by using media.

Media is a great way of knowing a lot of information. You could learn a lot of ideas from it and you could see different things that somehow affect our value system.

Several changes in our values have been made through the rampant globalization. We are being influenced by westerns and other foreign countries. We changed our clothes, culture, language, and even our religions. We imitate things we saw on television. Some people buy stuffs worn by their favorite actress or actor. We even like the foods they eat. It’s funny that we keep on buying them although we can’t afford. We also relate our lives from the melodramas we saw on TV. Kids are being imaginative, experimental, and liberated. They build a harsh imaginary world that result in ruthless crimes. Teenagers are being wild and aggressive. They engaged their selves’ on premarital sex and drugs. Even adults are being impulsive and outrageous. They’re now having difficulties in determining which is right from wrong. It’s kind of ironic that we love those changes on us. But somehow, I do understand. We can’t help it. That’s what we saw, that’s the way others did it, that’s how we are being affected.

Media showed us a different kind of perceptions and opened our minds on a different world. A world which we never though could exist, a world that made us the exact person we are right now, and a world that proved us that “change” is the only constant thing.

-anna-

It Could Be Something Better

often times we see different kinds of incident going on in our society. We even give a comment to the situation we currently hear and see. Different opinions and evaluations could be given and its because we do really feel different about every issues.
But one of the recent news that I can say that interest me was the hostage taking done by police chief inspector Rolando Mendoza. The incident showed the people how a certain hostage taking could be a mere reason for our country's failure. Well, everybody share the same sympathy on the case. The "police incompetence" thing created a massive destruction to some of our government officials. But honestly, we can't blame them. People saw things and interpreted it on that way because that's the way how they see it. That's the way how they felt. Perhaps things could change if we do share common sentiments. I just realized that people learn to commit mistakes at some point because they do believe in something and tried to fight for what they believed in. there could be a harm in risking but he might regret it if he didn't do anything. We have to admit it, these incident that had happened already happened before. We simply just ignore it. These repeated experiences teach us the things we refuses to learn. If we can only see what are the stories behind every person's actions, judging the person would be difficult. As the hostage taking ends, it leaves a mark on every persons mind. Marks that could basically make them think and realize if what they believe is really worth dying for.
Sometimes it's better to be clueless about what's happening around us rather than knowing everything that would silently kill you because we can never go back and change what has been done, but we can always earn the lesson learned to make things better next time.

The Way I Handle It

I always wanted to live a simple life but it has always been complicated. I used to be the person who I wanted to be and never mind others. I always say that I don't have to explain myself to anybody because I do not exist to please them. I'm not a perfect person and I don't want to try to be one.
For me, I guess conflict arise when misunderstanding happens, in the sense that both of the person do not agree on something. I used to experience conflicts everytime. With different people from different places. They always judge me for who I am, which is basically normal to anyone. They keep on saying bad things about me specially on my ideas. People always argue with me when it comes to the way how I live my life. As I can say, I wanted it to be practical. I hate loosing. They don't like the idea of being always optimistic. They say that too much expectations could severely damage me. But I don't care. That wasn't my point why I always put my optimistic attitude up in my head. I'm not "expecting" like the way they interpret it, it just so happened that I see positive solutions in a negative situations. That was precisely what optimism means for me. It wasn't always about expecting good. It means fighting for what you believe you can do.
well, solving conflicts like that, contrasting of ideas, is not that hard for me to solve. Because honestly, I don't do anything to fix it. I just let them think that way and say whatever they want . Absorbing everything and using it as a tool and power to move on and prove them wrong in the end. Because again, i don't have to explain myself to them. People who judged me for who I am only know my name, they don't know my story.

Determining Determinations

Determining Determinations

"The difference between the possible and impossible lies in a person's determination." Tommy Lacorda

It implies that a certain success connotes a different ways of achievements. Pain and hardships has its own way of saying that it is enough, but through determination, a single struggle and difficulties could be overcome. Even if we know it's kinda hopeless, we still try because of the fact that we always want the things we know we thought we could never have. But through determination..everything could change. As what I've always believed in, the way you see things in life depends on how you look at them. Impossibilities simply connote a certain thing which limits your capability of doing something. But life doesn't stop there. You can always meet the challenge every single day and the possibility of measuring a persons limitation will be based on how determined a person could be. As i always picture out, there maybe harm in risking. But there could also be regrets in doing nothing. Success is the failure turned upside down, so rather stick to the fight when your hardest hit. It's when things seemed worst that you must not quit. That's determination. It gives us patience to do simple things perfectly and acquire to do difficult things easily.
As what I've wrote on my first blog.. a sense of purpose is the best driving force for you to live. Because when you have reasons to fight, you will never have reasons to quit.

Click It

Click It

Time is gold, a common saying we always hear. It implies that time is precious that once you ignore and waste it, there's no chance of turning it back.
As for "click", the movie showed how valuable time is. Yes, it's amazing that on the movie, you can go back to the past and correct the mistakes you've done for the present. But you can't just fast forward everything simply because you're in a hurry to achieve something in the future because you'll gonna miss all the good things that might happen on those times that you forwarded. Like autopilot, you can jump to another year depending on the event that you would want to. But focusing on that certain event would make you regret the moments you wished you skipped time. well, it's just a simple movie with a simple concept. Adam Sandler wants to finish his work so badly to achieve his goals which is to become successful on his career but never knowing that he was starting to ignore the special thing that really matters to him...his family. Yes it's a nice feeling that people find time for you despite of their busy schedules. But isn't it wonderful if they never see their schedules in times that you need them? It's better to learn to value the people around you and never wait for the time that in a blink of an eye, you can never give them reasons to stay.
Never trust time to decide for you. Yes..it is proven that time is the best decision maker. But sometimes, time makes each decision a little bit too late.

Activity 1

Life never seemed to be the way we want it. You can not just step backwards when you figure out that certain things don't go your way. Facing yourself is more difficult than pretending to be someone you're not suppose to be, but in the end, you'll find out that those changes will remind you who you really are. As I've gone through a lot of experiences, there are people surrounding me that made changes. Influencing and guiding me to become the exact person that I must be. But it doesn't end there, people actually assumes that growing up happens automatically as you grow older but I believe that growing up is a decision you choose to do. My perceptions gave me the courage to change my ways in life because you can't find certainties. But if there's a certain mission in my life that I'm sure of, that would be the initiative to have the courage to get out from my comfort zone and do the things I actually thought I couldn't do. It's always a sense of purpose. When you have the reason to live, you will never have the reason to quit. It was really confusing how you manage to handle life the way you want it. Challenges happen and reality gave meaning for the changes that might come. As I picture myself, the way i wanted to see things will depend on how i look at it.