The Assassin who became a normal college student

I stabbed Five people with a knife and it felt so good!

I grew up playing online games I tried to cut it off permanently but I just cant because its a part of me. Every time I play, I feel carefree which is an awesome feeling. It felt like I am all alone in my own universe of content and happiness.

I used to be a hardcore online gamer who has no life. My daily routine is wake up, grab a bag of chips, sit on the couch all day and play gun games online. Honestly, I feel that time tend to slow down when I am not playing. It became my dope and soon led to my downfall.



 I live in a cyber world called Call of Duty where I kill a bunch of people with a knife or throwing knife while they are armed with guns!(to humiliate them of course). Also, I like pissing other gamers by talking trash to them and make them rage over the microphone which is really really funny!.

This hobby has its big drawbacks: my school grades and weight started to plummet, my eyesight became worse and I stopped spending time with my friends.

When I started attending my classes in Southwestern college I started to learn to regulate my bad habit of gaming all day. Thanks to the lessons thought by my professors about self and procrastination I don't see gaming as a "NEED" anymore now I see it as a way to break away from stress and as a way to "TREAT" myself for working hard in school.

I also met real friends in school that helped me move on from being a gamer namely Mac Bilog, Jonathan Sison, Aldrich Raguine, Aaron Canacio, and Joshua Macias. We always eat or play sports like Basketball, Football and Volleyball after class.

If you are a gamer I bet you can relate to this. I hope you guys learn from my big mistake and balance your gaming time with everything because you have a great life out there, don't waste it in front of the monitor all day, live life the way it should be.

My long lost family

This is my first year attending college here in United States. I definitely felt lost and paranoid at first because its a whole new world for me plus, I didn't have a good time on my senior year which makes entering college more intimidating for me. My previous counselor Mr. Armando Melendrez recommended me sign up for the Bayan Learning Community.

PD 100 and English 114, known as the Bayan Learning Community. I call it my extended family, This is where I can be myself, learned more about who I am, and the best place where I can grow and learn with my friends at the same time.

No matter how cool it is to be a part of Bayan, It doesn't mean we just chill every meeting. We also do many school works. The best part though is when you do them with your fellow Bayan Scholars. Most of the time, our assignments  involves teamwork which makes our bonds closer and improves the way we socialize to other people.

I feel really blessed that I am a part of this family and I will never take for granted what I've learned on this class. I've met lifetime friends and awesome professors whom I look up to. I strongly recommend these learning community to new students who wants to learn more about themselves and those who are undecided about what they want to major in. 

I cant really find enough words to describe this community, This Learning Community gave me my bearings in order to face my future and I am forever grateful for that.

Yum Yum 101

Nom nom nom! ugh ahhhhhh *burpppp*

Aye! I'm Mark, back when I was a kid my grandma and grampa  always host banquets and reunion. They raise native pigs and chickens which they butcher when we will host a feast. Grampa's specialty is Lechon , its really simple to do. just kill a pig, remove the guts, punch a bamboo from the rear end of the pig through his mouth, and lastly cook it really slow over the charcoal while carefully spinning it to cook it evenly. It takes a couple of hours before the pig gets perfectly cooked but the wait is totally worth it!. While gramps is busy with the pig grandma prepares the lumpia, pancit, sisig, and dinuguan.


A few minutes later, one by one, our relatives are coming bringing their own specialties. I remember one of my Aunt always bring Chicharon which is a best seller specially for my uncles and cousins because it goes along with beer. Before we even notice it the table is full of food like Buko pandan, Spaghetti , Adobo , Lechon Manok , Ice cream , Halo Halo, name it and we have it!. I remember chatting with my cousins and uncles while eating, we laugh at each others story like there is no tomorrow. For some weird reason the food magically taste even better while we talk.

Filipino food is a must try, if you haven't tried it you are definitely missing out a big part of your life!. I suggest that you go out there and rush to the nearest filipino food store you can find! the clock is ticking just... just go!

Untangling Identity, Self, and Personality

Who are you? Do you really know who you are?
Teenage life, the time where we are in shambles about who we are. We only care about the present and what is in front of us. We adapt to what the majority do. The point where we are most vulnerable to many influences. These influence comes from our friends, family, media that molds our identity. This is the point where we rarely checkout our self and we don't care what will be our identity.

A few weeks ago, in my english class, we discussed the difference of identity and self. We read a short article written by Catherine Latterell. She gave three assumptions that Identity is what were born with, shaped by culture, and shaped by our personal choices. According to her we all have the choice to pick the traits and opportunities that will shape our identity, at the same time there are those things about ourselves that we can't choose, they are just given to us when we where born for example : name, skin color , religion , gender.

Identity, personality, and self are three different part of us. We sometimes roll them into a giant ball and consider them as one. Always remember that Who you will be is decided by you. What you are is given to you when you where born. Lastly, You are the only one who knows who you really are, you are only one and cannot be copied.

Fist damn day in college

"This is just a dream! this is just a dream! this is just a goddamn dream!".

First day of school, the worst feeling ever! I don't know what to do and pretend it is just a bad dream but then my alarm clock wont stop ringing. I get out of my bed, crawl to the shower with a big frown on my face.

"Holy snap! what am I suppose to do now?!."
The question I have at the back of my mind at the first day of class. I feel so dumb because I don't really know what to expect in my new school. While I'm in the bus I started to compose a short speech on how am I gonna introduce myself in front of the whole class.

By the time my bus stopped in front of Southwestern College I started to breakdown! my knees started to shake! and my heart felt like a overheating piston engine!. After the bus door oppened, I instantly ran! not to my classroom but to find a restroom. Shortly after that I finally get inside my cassroom. By the time I just got my sanity back after telling myself that "I got this, it will be okay." then suddenly our professor told us to talk to our seatmate!. After that I forgot everything, all I remember is I was excited to go to school the next day.

To all freshmen who are reading this, you are called freshmen for a reason. don't look so haggard the first day of school stay fresh and everything will be alright. Just smile and say "hi" and I am sure that you will earn a friend.

Mainstream Virus Alert!

"Teach me how to dougie, teach me teach me how to dougie!" I bet you want to dance now don't you?. I love that song but I can't dance. Every time my friends play that song they all get into their zone, forget everything around them, and dance like a drunken worm.

Media is the strongest trend setter. Anything the media advertise becomes the mainstream which the community follows because it is something new and cool. I personally follow mainstream every now and then for two reasons. My first reason is that I find the new trend cool and it suits my personality. Second, I follow it because I don't want to be left out by what's "in". I noticed that it changed me and the way I think. When I started to stop going with the flow I began to lose the feeling of belongingness. Before I knew it, following mainstream became my addiction and it felt like my identity can't exist without it.


I have a good friend back in Philippines who got really into mainstream. He started to change because of the "SWAG". He began to talking sh*t and joined a gang. He became less interested about his studies and chose to spend most of his time outside the campus, smoking cigars all day with his gang mates. After a few months, we passed by each other as if we were complete strangers and that's the last time I saw him.




There is nothing wrong about following what's "in" especially if the the community accepts it. What makes it bad is when it started to corrupt your essence and dictates what you should be. Try to reflect on yourself, check how your identity is right now, before it's too late and you lose everything.

Why so racist??

Skin color, does it really matter that much?.
Today most people prejudge a person by his
race or skin. Most of the time, the reason why
 a person tries to mimic another race is because
 he/she idolize someone in that particular race.
 Some just want to look "better" than others
 because they think looking like a foreigner
 in their native land puts them on a pedestal
 that makes them more attractive. To cut the long drama,
 we are all human beings, we share the same
 DNA so why bother changing your appearance? or judge others by their skin?

I found this video that shows how hard it is to be
accepted by people. The young lady talks about
how her mother applies hazardous cosmetics on her young face to make her look white to stop her playmates from teasing her because her skin
 is black.


 When I first attended my senior class in
 Southwest High School I felt really lost.
 Everyone seems to avoid me because I look
 different and I can't speak their language.
 The worst part is I hear clumps of people
 talking about me in every corridor I pass,
 they judge me and call me "chink" each and
 every time.

 In our present time, no matter how well you were raised by your parents or how nice you are as a person, there will always be those kind of people that will judge you by your race the first time they see you.