8 Stories (Reflection) By: Ershian Joaquin

Footnote to Youth

​Footnote to Youth talks about the early marriage of teenagers. In our generation that is one of the most common problem that we’re facing right now. I may not be one of them, but as a teenager im still concerned and worried about their situations that their facing in their early age. Being in love in early age is not a problem. But we should know our limitationsand we should know how to control our feelings. Me right now, as a student I had faced a lot of problems. What more if I enter of having a family in this early age? Having a family at the young age is not that easy. Easy to say, but hard to do. We must think not just once but hundred times before making our decisions. We must think about our future. And most especially we must think the hardship of our parents that they faced just to give us a better life. THINK FIRST!

Soledad

         This poem was so romantic. The love for each of the characters was showed. Soledad thinks that she is alone and no one loves her. As a person, sometimes i felt that way like soledad. Because there are times that no one understands my emotions and actions. Especially my family, friends and others. In that way i feel that my life is miserable. But, i was wrong because even though sometimes my family is ignoring me and don't understands me. They're always on my side supporting and loving me. And i got this lesson love requires sacrifices, facing all the consequences of such feelings. I believed that all the hardship we take there's still an happiness in the end. Being Alone is not a choice.

Geyluv

      Benjie doesn't want to put his feelings out in the open because of the fear of rejection. Mike on the other hand, doesn't want to follow his heart because he is still having second thoughts about his sexuality. There is no ending in this story, for they have to decide for themselves on what path they would take. Love has no boundaries and so is friendship. It may be difficult for the two to be mixed, but it is still worth a try if you really love the person. It is truly up to you to know your self and your wants in life. No matter what decision you make, as long as you are happy, do it.

Magnificence

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​In the beginning of the story, I found that the mother is too trusting. She has no gut feeling to let Vincent be a trouble in her family. She allowed Vincent to teach her children without knowing first the personal background of Vincent or knowing want is the real intention of Vincent on her children. She let the stranger enter their house without knowing it first. Because Vincent shows her his good intention to teach her children and by giving them a pencils. Because having a pencil was a wonderful thing for a child. But in the end she knows what’s the real intention of Vincent on her child. The mother attacks Vincent. The story shows us how the mother really loves her children very much. It also shows how bravery the mothers is. It tells us that a mother is not just the light of the home but also a protector and defender to those people that are not respecting and mistreating her children. I got a lesson on this story, Do not give your 100% trust on people you just met. Know them first very well before you give your trust on them. Because of this story I salute all moms out there especially my mom for being our mentor and protector and my dad also.

May Day Eve

​“May Day Eve” reflected me that even though men and women were different both must be treated fairly and equally. Because God made us equal. Women is not created by treating them as men slave or anyone else. Women also has the right to decide and fulfill their desires. Women are also brave like men in their own way. In the story the regret comes in the end to Badoy, when he realized what he had lost. He knew that he still love agueda in the end after all the struggles they encountered when they are together. It teaches us that we must not be selfish in giving and sharing our love. Because if we has a love in our hearts, everybody would be peaceful. “forgive and forget”.

How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife

​In this story, I realized that we should not rush things. It takes time. We should first prioritize our education before entering to a relationship, so that we can help our parents in the future. We must enjoy life first. Finish our studies have our own Diploma and have work so that we can save money for our future and at the same time we are giving back to our parents what they gave as when we are still studying. Because many people who are far from their families abusing their freedom. And that freedom takes them to bad things or bad doings. They never think about their parents who are working hard for them just to finish their studies and gave them a good life. They think that having their own family in early age is easy. They never think about what future they may have if they have no work and if they not finished their studies. We must make our parents proud. The best gift that we can ever gave to our parents is our DIPLOMA. Because for me LOVE CAN WAIT.

My Father Goes to Court

​In this story there are 2 types of family status the Rich Family and the Poor Family. The rich family had a conflict with the poor family. It shows in the story how the rich family was very selfish and don’t want to socialize with the poor people in the community. Being rich does not tells us that you’re happy in your family. Yes, they get want they want because of their money. But, they are frail, vulnerable and sickly. They have lots of money but they are not happy inside their house. Unlike the poor family even though they live of poverty but still they are happy living together and the most important is they are healthy. They live as a happy family and no matter how hard the problem is they just overcome it. So we should be happy and contented on what we have. Because money is not that much important.

Like the Molave

  Molave shows the importance of the young generation, and it shows how we must fight for our country and improve the Filipino way of living. It tells that the younger generation is the hope of our country. As a Youth, we should be brave in our own mother land. We can change our life’s with a little effort and a Hard work. The author of this poem wants us Filipinos to wake up and start to make a move to claim the freedom of our country. Youth is the future Leaders of the land.

8 Stories (Reflection) By: Jeric Mosquite

Order for Masks

The story shows the responsibility of being a girl it is so difficult being a girl because you need to be good all the times you need to show your innocence to your father and never did what is your brother wrong doing and do opposite before him. And when the time that their lovers came they need to be responsible of being a wife do all the things that their husband makes happy.

I see my older sister in this poem because she always teach me how to show a good manner to other she never do the same things that I did because she know that I am doing wrong things and about to our father she show respect and she always obeyed what’s our father telling to her she is so innocent from our father. I also see the third mask as my mother because she is a responsible and caring wife she love our father and us she never let us to be in bad condition. The responsibility of the girl is if you did all of the responsibility you will be satisfied your personality as a girl.

Geyluv

Sa lahat ng ating karanasan sa buhay hindi natin masasabi kung sino ang tunay na nag mamahal at mamahalin natin ng tunay kung babae ba sya o lalaki dahil kahit kanino pwede tayong magmahal. Ngayong panahon madami ang kagaya nina benjie at mike na nagmamahal ng tunay kahit na parehas ang kanilang kasarian dahil sa panahon ngayon mahirap makahanap ng mapagkakatiwalaan mo ng iyong pagmamahal dapat mo muna itong makilala sa mahabang panahon lahat ng ito ay nagsismula sa pagiging magkaibigan tulad nila benjie at mike hindi nila namalayaan ang panahon na nagiging komportable na pala sila sa isat isa hindi man nila sabihin eh may nabuong pagmamahal sa pagitan nila takot lng silang umamin dahil nasaktan na sila sa kanilang nakaraan. Ang pagmamahal ay hindi mo lang makukuha sa iyong opposite gender kaya huwag dapat natin husgahan ang mga nakikita natin na magka relasyon na parehas na babae at parehas na lalake. Nabuksan ang isip dahil sa kwento ni benjie at mike kaya masaya para sa mga taong nagpakatotoo sa kanilang sarili ung mga taong nagbigay ng kanilang kalayaan sa kanilang sarili. Respetado ang lahat ng nagmamahalan sa mundo dahil hindi kasarian ang pinag uusapan pag dating sa pag-ibig ito ay tungkul sa kung gaano kaimportante at gaano mo kamahal ang taong pinagkatiwalaan mo ng iyong sarila ang kaylangan ay oras dahil walang pagmamahal sa maikling panahon ng inyong pagsasama.

Magnificence

The story does not only point out to the mother but to all women who finally had the strength to rise up against male abuse. The story describe vicente as a gentle and kind man so the mother trust him to tutor his children. The man intend to molest her daughter and the she did not let that happened she gave her full force to protect her children no matter what happened to her she did not stop to slapped vicente until he goes out of their home so they free to the bad guy. This represent all the bad stranger they acting like they are willing to help but they only want to do something for you. For all the mothers do not trust your children in any strangers even if you see that he/she is kind still don’t trust them because nowadays even tito’s or any relative can molest your daughter you need to educate your children to know if the person is doing bad things to them so they can identify if they are going to trust that person or not. Trust is very difficult to find in other people even your relative’s can’t be trusted nowadays so we need to be careful in our daily life we need to take care of our love ones.

Like the Molave

Rafael Zulueta De Costa would like to say that Rizal is not yet done to his mission there are always many struggles that the new generation will encounter. Our country need a young blood that will continue all the things that undone by our ancestor. He likens us to be like beautiful and strong Molave tree even we are experiencing a very poor living we need to be more productive in our life. Many people are suffering and very poor they are very hard working but they still don’t have a good life even they are suffering that they never surrender in life they are strong as a molave tree. As a new generation of the Philippine I will finish my course to make my life became better and I will not surrender ever there are many struggles that may I encounter. I will help people and educate them how to become a better person and became successful in a time that I became a successful man. If we stand like a molave tree strong and beautiful we can make our dream possible but if we just sit down like grass in the field we cannot help our self and others to grow higher,

Footnote to Youth

As a teenager I see what Dodong’s life is he did not wait for the right time so he did not enjoy the teenager life because he have many obligation for his family. If we choose to love at early age our life will become miserable because the obligation of being a husband, wife and a parent is not suitable to our age we need first to fix our self and focus to our future and become a better person before we make love and build our family. If we did things unplanned we cannot success in our dreams because all things need to be planned for us to have a motivation in our life. Love is not wrong but at our age we can love but just for inspiration not a destruction because if the love become our destruction it is not easy to recover because love make people weak what so for us young people?

Education is very important to us don’t let anything to destroy our education we are going to school because of our dreams people who had no dreams will not know himself. Our parents want us to be in good condition so give our 100% love to our parents not in anyone else. Obey our parents because they are the only person who can help us to became a better person in this world.

Soledad

The story of soledad is very important to the girls generation now because many of them are experience what happened to soledad her life become cruel because of too much love. Virginity is very important to girls but nowadays many of girls are not aware of being a virgin living they don’t give importance to their self and all of these is because of too much love. Girls are very emotional about love they give their all to their love so when the time come that their love left they will condemned because of it. Soledad was depressed of what happened to her because she gave her soul to her love but he not stay to soledad that’s why many girls are lose their direction in life they are very sensitive they are easy to get hurt so being a man I should respect and love the girls because I don’t want them to became what happened to soledad. For all the girls love yourself because no one know how to care for yourself but only you.

My Father Goes to Court

The story show that the poor people are helping each other it depicts the typical Filipino family. Even they are poor they are happy in life they are hardworking and has a strong relationship with each member of the family. Like in my family we are not rich but we are happy in life because we love each other and we live with each other. Even there are a problem in our family we still laugh and stay happy because being weak is like you are giving up in life. The rich man in the story was very selfish he don’t want to be friend to the poor in the community he only cares about his wealth and money so he got sick because he never experience to enjoy life and to be happy also his children. The story tells what is the advantage of the lower class to the upper class of society is. We can see that the rich people are very weak in their physical strength and they are not laughing they are always has a serious face and they don’t like socialize in anybody. The message of the story is don’t look down to other if you think you are in the always look above you because our god is always in our top.

How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife

This is the story of true love like in reality if you love someone you are willing to do all the thing just to be with your love but in the story it is the girl who gave more effort just to be with her love she did all the test without complaining even she is not doing that in the big city still she has done it for his love. The parents of Leon want to sure that the love of their son is true for him just to our parent before they accept our boyfriend/girlfriend they make sure that we are in good hands so don’t get angry if your parent question you about your gf/bf because they are the one who respons

8 Stories (Reflection) By: Mikaela Meisenhalter

My Father Goes to Court

By: Carlos Bulusan

​The story is focused on a simple poor but a happy family that knows how to be contented.  The family in the story was described as a happy go lucky because despite the hardships they encounter in their everyday life, they can still laugh and enjoy their lives and can still survive the burdens caused by poverty. In this story, the rich family and the poor family had conflict with each other.  The rich man in this story is very selfish and is picky when it comes to socializing with others. There is a saying happy people will live longer not like the rich family in this story they became weak and sad. For me this story has a deeper meaning, not because you’re in a higher level, means you can do things through money even though it’s not anymore correct. Carlos Bulusan made this story to somehow explain and describe the discrimination not just in our country but it also happens worldwide.

May Day Eve

Nick Joaquin

​Life is filled with regrets. We always realize things when the most important  person or thing in our life is gone. We realize everything in the last part or  sometimes when it’s too late.  For Badoy and Agueda Montiya, they both lived  and loved with hate, resentment, regret. As the story continues, they both realized  that they brought up the negativity and the worst in them. They failed to realize that  fate is dictated by the people involved. Love is cannot be forced, it is only given or  received. Badoy and Agueda fell into the trap of the May Day Eve, wherein they saw it as fate, only to end up failing by the circumstances of their relationship.

Geyluv

By: Honorio Bartolome de Dios

​The flow of the story is not as usual as the other love story, this is very different when it comes to gender. It may not be normal for others but still they are still the same and they have the right. Because love knows no gender and also others like age, skin color, nationality, etc. love is love once you felt it. This story is about two friends. Benjie a Homosexual, and Mike.Mike fell in love with Benjie and getting jealous of the former girlfriend of Mike. In this story it tells that not because a person is not straight it must not be respected. Here, Benjie fell in love with mike but still, mike became his friend and they become intimately close. 

Footnote to Youth

By: Jose Garcia Villa

This story can make so many youth realize the things that are actually happening nowadays. In this story the young man wanted to marry early because he was only thinking about the love he feels to his partner not knowing that marrying is a big step in life and has a big change when it comes in living. Marrying is not that simple, it has many things to be considered. We must be physically, emotionally and psychologically ready for this chapter in life. We must always think about the other things to be considered because sometimes if love is only the reference when marrying, marriage doesn’t really work well. Especially when marrying early.  We must listen to our parents because the’ve been already there and they know everything about marriage. Footnote to Youth is the title because it is telling the readers specifically the youth to pay attention to the story and reflect.         

Magnificence

Estrella D. Alfon

“Ang gawaing mali ngmatanda, sa mata ng bata ay tama”

In this story, the things that an old person does will be always right and correct. They must stand as a good example for them to idolize and somehow follow. With the story, it shows a very negative example and took advantage of the innocent mind of a child. Parents must be attentive even though they are very busy with work, still must pay attention with the things around their children and what they are doing because you’ll never know what danger comes to your child.

“Because of you I will never be the same”

Through the experience that the daughter encountered it may never be gone to her mind. It ruined her childhood and she will carry it through her life and she may not be the same child just like before that experience. Her innocent mind was captivated and destroyed. Children that don’t understand everything in his or her surroundings must be guided and protected and we must not take advantage of it. 

How my brother Leon brought home a wife

By: Manuel E. Arguilla

Bringing home a woman that grew up in a city may be difficult because of so many things to adjust. Because of the beauty of the surroundings of your partner’s home town, a person may fall more in love with his or her love one. 

Mother’s Break

Merlina Bobis

A mothers love, sacrifice and struggle is difficult understand. Nobody can relate to how a mother gives specialty to her child, unless you yourself experience to be one. In this story it indicates how the mother experiences her heart broken because of losing a child. We must appreciate everything our mother gives us and give back the love she continuously gives us. 

Song of the tear-gassed man

Cirilio F. Bautista

People who are not in favor to the government, the people who wants to fight for their freedom, and the students who wanted to claim their rights in this Country may lead to a rally. As tear gas is used to a war, it is irritating to the eyes. And this song is more like a sarcastic one, enjoying the pain while its free and just be gazing nonchalantly in the nothingness before him.

8 Stories (Reflection) By: Ali Noel Tonga

Footnote to Youth

This story is a great one for Filipino teenagers to read. In this story, you will learn on the consequences on being impatient and making decisions that are not well planned. I can relate to Dodong on his attitude because sometimes I quarrel with my parents on silly things and not understanding on each other. Sometimes I also think that I am always right and a grown up that I see my parents on the same level even though I am still young. The story also taught that love can wait and not rushing to marriage. The family on this story are suffering on a cycle that is getting married too early and does not have enough knowledge on family planning and not having proper jobs. So I will be going to avoid the mistakes of Dodong and be patient on love because it is always worth the wait.

My Father Goes to Court

I find this story laughable. There are some people that are like the rich man. One of them is me because sometimes like the rich man and his kids I blame others with my misfortunes even though they have not done anything wrong to me. I always jump to conclusions that the people around me are the cause of my failures without investigating evidences. The lesson that I learned about this story is find the cause of my problems and make solutions and not pointing at other people because it will just alienate me to other people and will just going to have a bad reputation.

How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife

This story can relate to couples that lives in a different lifestyle. Most people are afraid of meeting the parents of their love ones because if they differ in each other’s lifestyle, they may not get along. They may always quarrel every time because of decisions they may not agree. Also, they may have a hard time adjusting to each other’s environment. Maria inspires me because she likes Leon and she is easily adjusting to her lover’s environment. She always tries to get along with their culture and will sang along with Leon. She is also not scared of animals as she is befriending the family’s bull, Labang.

Magnificence

There are important lessons that can learned from this story. Sometimes I brag if I have a high score in a test or someone gives me beautiful things like the boy and the girl in the story. I always ask something more things that I don’t need like the children. I also learned from this story that I should not trust someone easily that I don’t know even if they give me nice things because it will save me from danger. It also taught me that I always listen to my parents because they love me and will always protect me danger.

May Day Eve

This story reflects me that women should be on the same level as men. Women should be respected as they are the ones that can also do things like men too. They can also decide what they should do in their own life and they have the ability to accomplish their dreams. I also learned in this story that revenge does nothing good in life and will just make life miserable. Learning to forgive and forget will make life good and gives a nice feeling to oneself. This story taught me that love is very important as this is what make life going.

Mother’s Break

In this poem, the moral is we should always respect our mothers. They are the ones that take care of us while we are growing up. They are the ones that will support us what we want to do in our life. They help us build a good personality and taught us the good values in our life. As for our future wives, we should always respect them as they are the one that give birth to our children. They will be the ones that cooks delicious foods and should always help them as possible. We should always love them.

Geyluv

In this story, I reflect that gays should always be respected as they also human beings, not second class citizens. After all, love is very powerful. It is impossible to stop someone that loves another human being regardless of sex, age and people with disabilities. Gays should have the rights to marry the one they love as they are also a part of our community. They help us build our nation into a better place where there will be no discrimination so people can live nicely and have freedom to do anything. We should support them as they also support us.

Song of the Tear-gassed Man

This are for the people that suffers for fighting for their rights to the government. They experience the tear gas which can hurt the people with asthma. Government doesn’t always listen to rallies for fighting for what they believe in. I believe that the government should always listen to the people that they are serving as it is their purpose to fulfill their needs. Governments should always try to cooperate with the people that are rallying and not hurt them so that the people will be please and be satisfied and fulfill their needs. As a good cooperation can always lead to good result.