A Confrontation with Fear

Earlier today, I woke up to the sound of a ringing alarm and then dragged my groggy self out of bed to prep for a 7:30 class.

When I was about to turn the hot shower on, out from nowhere, a GINORMOUS COCKROACH suddenly smacked up against the bathroom door!

I just stood there, literally trembling with fear, before it.

Then I came up with a sharp realization that I was locked alone in the bathroom with that disgusting creature. Claustrophobia grew upon me at once.

As the thing was constantly moving around, I kept my eye on it as I slowly wrapped myself with a towel in case it would hurl itself towards me.

I then patiently waited for it to crawl towards the ceiling. And when it did, Bravado led me to close our distance.

I hastily unlocked the door and stepped out from the shower! HOORAY!

After I got out, I let one of our housemaids put an end to that nasty critter's life, I finally claimed victory albeit still shaking from a horrific experience.

Fear is a response whenever we feel threatened. In some moments of our lives, our fears surface when we least or most expect them to happen.

If ever we get ourselves into a fearful situation, the first step is to be patient. Slowly build up your courage and prepare yourself for the second step.

The second step is to face it. There will be times that nobody will be able to save you from your fear but yourself so deal with it. Learn to take charge.

I may never recover from my phobia but at least I was able to conquer it at some point.

Common Filipino Mistakes: Religion VS Ethnicity

I was sitting attentively in my Political Science class in the summer of 2007 as my classmates were giving a short introduction about who they were.
And the MOST memorable introduction for me came from this petite girl who was seated at back of the room...

She said, "I am Half-Christian... Half-Muslim."

I froze in my seat for like 2 seconds and thought:
"Seriously? Never thought that's even possible...
Makes me wonder if there are Half-Christian-Half-Atheists out there too. LOL."

Living in a place with diverse cultures and where there is this ALMOST silent discrimination between Christians and Muslims, people tend to confuse religion with ethnicity.

I shall demonstrate that with the following formula which is embedded in the minds of the local people:

Muslims = Maranao People
Maranao People = Muslims
Not Maranao People = Christians

However, those formula found above happen to be erroneous because...

1. NOT ALL Muslims are Maranaos. In general, Tausugs, Maguindanaos, Samals and Yakans are other ethnic groups that submit to the religion of Islam.

2. NOT ALL Maranaos are Muslims. Some have converted to Christianity or to some other religion.

3. NOT everybody who does not follow the religion of Islam are Christians. Do not forget there are agnostics, atheists, animists, Buddhists, pagans and so on.

So, if you are still one of the many who failed to notice this simple error, I hope that this has given you a little light.