The Five People You Meet in Heaven

I've read Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" when I was still in college. I liked the book. However, when I watched the film adaptation, I realized that I've forgotten most of the parts. Watching the film felt like I was rereading the book.

The story follows the life of Eddie, a war veteran who worked as a maintenance man in an amusement park. The story started strangely, with Eddie dying. Albom explained this by saying, "It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are beginnings. We just don't know it at the time..."

Eddie was trying to save a little girl about to get crushed by a part of a broken amusement ride. On earth, Eddie was grumpy, a manifestation of his unsatisfactory life. He felt trapped in the amusement park where his father also worked his whole life. When Eddie was younger, he badly wanted to leave the place. But as fate would have it, the constant nightmares of war never departed him, plus his broken leg, another war remnant, hindered him.

Gone Off Track

The week is almost over. I've never been this eager for the weekend to come. It's been a terrible week for me. It was tiring - physically, mentally and emotionally draining.

Midterm Lifesavers

As promised in my last post, here's a list of useful tools which helped me a lot during my first midterm exams in Law School.

1. Energy Drink

During midterms week, I felt like it was a mortal sin to sleep. There are numerous provisions to memorize and a big pile of cases to read. I have every urge to avoid sleep and instead allot the time for studying. It's just normal to sacrifice several hours of sleeping because no one can actually survive law school without depriving oneself of sleep once in a while. And in this endeavor, I found a friend on Sting Energy Drink. It kept me awake until 8 in the morning and my mind was very receptive. Lime flavor really worked for me. It's my lifesaver! Plus, unlike coffee, it didn't make my stomach hurt in the morning. Just be careful though because energy drinks like Sting also contain caffeine and too much caffeine may cause side effects. It must be consumed moderately.

First Midterm Exams

My first ever midterm exams in law school was concluded yesterday. I just thought that I should remember the date that's why I'm writing this post. I'm not sure about the results but I'm really hoping that they'll bring good news to me. If not, I'll surely feel disappointed and probably tear my heart out here. I want to give you a detailed information about my exams and how I feel about them but I don't want to bore you to death. And I think relieving the experience would be stressful and frustrating.

Lesson Learned from A Loofah

Do you use a scrub sponge or a loofah when you take a bath? I do.

Loofahs (according to their manufacturers, advertisers, distributors and retailers) would make your bathing experience better than those people who don’t use them. It removes dirt and dead skin cells more efficiently compared to mere rubbing of your skin with your hands. However, scrubbing is painful. Despite the pain that the friction between the bath sponge and my skin causes, I still use a loofah because it makes me feel cleaner and my skin feels softer as I step out of the shower.

So what’s my point?

Well, while I was taking a bath the other day. It suddenly occurred to me that there are people who serve as our loofahs in life. They hurt us but because of them or because of what they do, we become cleaner, somehow better persons afterwards.

Iligan Through The Eyes of An Outsider

I love to travel. Traveling, for me, is not only an opportunity to see the beauty of the world but it is also an avenue for learning invaluable lessons. Each place offers lessons unique to it aside from the magnificent tourist destinations and mouthwatering delicacies.

I’ve only been to Mindanao twice. First was when my family and I spent the Holy Week at South Cotabato and Davao in 2011, and second was when I went to Dapitan to profoundly understand Jose Rizal. Philippine media is very centralized on Luzon particularly on Metro Manila that I tend to forget that there are other parts of the Philippines worthy of notice too. I am not really familiar with Iligan, to be honest. To me, it is just another city of the Philippines whose geographical location I had to memorize for a map exam during my freshman year in college. I don’t really hear it often until typhoon Sendong swept Northern Mindanao and brought devastation upon Iligan and Cagayan de Oro. The media, ever-ready to report what’s hot, continually gave updates about the condition of said cities. It was then that I started to take notice of Iligan. Ironically, it was during Iligan’s worst disaster that I discovered its beauty and learned to appreciate not only the city but its people as well.

The following reasons compel me to visit Iligan City someday:

My Love of Law

My dream of becoming a lawyer was born when I was in fifth grade. I originally wanted to be a teacher. It felt like I was born with that ambition. Maybe all children first dreamed to be a teacher since our teachers are our first hero outside home. I used to always draw a blackboard and a stick version of me on papers. Then, I had this teacher in fifth grade who taught us about the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Chuck, Blair and Law School

“In the face of true love, you don't just give up even if the object of your affection is begging you to.”

This is one of the most memorable and striking lines of Chuck Bass (Although, I believe that all his lines leave lingering impact). Whoever said that Gossip Girl is only about love, scandal, sex and aggressiveness doesn't know what he was saying.

Lesson Learned from Minesweeper

Life is like playing minesweeper.

Sometimes you are faced with situations where you don’t know what to do. It appears intimidating and you fear to commit a mistake for the result may be fatal.

Lesson Learned from Drowning

Photo Credit: Sandervanderveen on flickr.com

Life is like going for a swim. It's enjoyable and refreshing. But there are times that the water becomes too much for us to handle. Sometimes, the pool turns out to be deeper than we imagined. Upon realizing this, panic easily follows.

It's easier to just give in...to let the water pull us in effortlessly. Struggling for oxygen could be tiring. Exerting force against the water could be exhausting. It would take a determined mind to fight the inviting current of the pool…to resist being drowned.

Follow Your Destiny, Wherever It Leads You

A close friend who always takes time to share motivational messages sent this to me this morning. I think it is something worthy to share and spread. 

Before you read the poem, CLEAR your head, close your eyes, take a deep breath, relax your mind and body. Forget all your worries. Think about your dream, ambition... The ultimate desire that keeps you moving in life and which is also the source of your stress. But don't focus on the stress, concentrate your thoughts on how badly you want to attain your ambition. And read on...