FTS Minor Reflection

Overview

 The Field Trip and Seminar subject is composed of two parts, the Major FTS and the Minor FTS. It has been 4 months and 11 days since we had our Major Field Trip and Seminar outside here in Mindanao. 5 days of visiting companies and listening to their seminars was very tiring, yet beneficial to us. However, despite of it, we cannot forget how full our stomach was everyday due to constant buffet eating. It was heaven for us, though. In fact, it was an awesome experience not only for me, but to all of us who enrolled on that subject. We were unable to conduct out Minor FTS due to several reasons such as time constraints, paper works, etc. The Minor FTS was to be conducted supposedly back in October, but as mentioned earlier, we failed to conduct it. And as a result, we were all marked as INC on the FTS subject. They planned about how the Minor FTS will flow or go. They proposed that instead of visiting a company somewhere here in Mindanao, we’ll rent the Social Hall and conduct a seminar. We’ve waited for days, until days became months. Actually, I didn’t mind waiting for the Minor FTS to happen. I don’t know if there are others who are annoyed and being impatient while waiting for it to happen. But, after 4 months of waiting, it was finally announced that our Minor FTS will about to be conducted on the 23rd day in this month of January. I was so glad to hear it, and I am sure that I am not the only one who was happy that time. Our Minor FTS was seminar about Graphic Design and Web Development. It was merged with our pitching activity on our Techno1 subject and a hackathon contest. So the program goes like this; In the morning, the Minor FTS will be held and in the afternoon, the pitching and hackathon will take place. We had guest speakers, and they are Mr. Ralph Gideon and Ms. Shannen Yu Spar. Mr. Ralph Gideon was the speaker for the Graphic Design topic and Ms. Shannen Yu Spar for the Web Development topic.

 Graphic Design

Everyone settled as soon as the ecumenical prayer and the national anthem and the opening remark led by Sir Pabilona ended. The emcee, Ray Neal, introduced us the very first speaker. It was Mr. Ralph Gideon. Mr. Gideon walked in front of us and grabbed the mic and started to introduce himself. According to him, he was an IT graduate at the University of Southeastern Philippines. Meeting people who graduated from the same college as I am gives me inspiration, cause you know, it is really hard in the Institute of Computing and there isn’t a single day that you wouldn’t think of giving up. After he graduated, he got a job, although I forgot what it was. He later quit his job due to its low salary rate. That’s very reasonable though. As far as I can remember, he then took up the course of Fine Arts at the University of Mindanao. Now, before Mr. Gideon shared a word about graphic designing or anything about art, I know that I will definitely lend an ear and focus to whatever he’ll say because we are on the same page. I love art, and I love multimedia editing. He showed us his drawings in his slide presentation. He then talked about art, its basic elements such as lines, dots, shapes and etc. which to be honest, I already knew them way before. But, still I listened to him. The things that he talked about and shared to us are things that we knew in common. He showed us a lot of examples of graphic art. He showed us a Steampunk-themed icons where he mentioned that it is the trend nowadays. He’s right. If you go and search for customized icons or themes, you can see and notice that there are series of it which the icons, or themes are in uniform. If you’re confused, basically what I’m trying to say is that things right now are themed. He then asked us a question which got my interest and got our minds working. The question was; “Are all artists designers?” vice versa. Everyone inside the social hall began chattering. A lot answered “Yes”, a lot of them answered “No”. How about me? Well, my answer was “No”, but with reservation. For me, not ALL artists are designers, nor ALL designers are artists. But, I stand that there are people that are both artists and designers. They are ambiguous. In fact, I know many of them. I have friends who are both of it. Mr. Gideon then answered that question by saying “No”. In his defense, Artists have a wide range of creativity and can go out and explore more of creativity without limits, breaking outside the box. While a Designer has limits. Designers, for him are tied and constrained by the commands given to them by their employer. He’s got a point, but for me, it is not a concrete basis, or the only basis to determine/call someone an artist or a designer. When you’re an artist, you’re thinking of creating a masterpiece. You’re thinking how does its structure goes, how does or will it appeal the view/people. How will the colors compliment to each other. And by doing that, you’re already thinking of/creating its design. You designed it, thus you are technically a designer. And when you’re a designer. You think of its design, its structure, its color, its underlying message, etc. Put them together and you’ve created an art. A masterpiece. Your output is a masterpiece of art. But, we are all entitled to our own opinion. There is no right, and there is no wrong. What Mr. Gideon said and shared to us, I respect and welcome it with all my heart and wits. It was indeed fun having Mr. Gideon to tackle about graphic design. It was refreshing to listen to him.

Web Development 

Shortly after Mr. Gideon was done sharing about graphic design, the next speaker was introduced immediately. It was Ms. Shannen Yu Spar, a front-end web developer. She walked in front of us and grabbed the mic. She stood there looking so glamorous, pretty, beautiful, and all of the complimenting words you can insert here. To simplify it, she’s so pretty. And to think, she’s a web developer which makes her so kickass. It’s very rare nowadays to meet a pretty lady who’s got brains. Anyway, she talked about web developing. She showed us samples and shared the basic knowledge of web developing. She also shared to us that she was not a web developer before. Before she was a complete web designer, but then web developing tasks were passed on to her. She studied and learned web developing on the process. She asked us what a front-end developer is. A lot of us murmured and chattered that a front-end web developer is the one who’s got to do the UIs and the designs. Unfortunately, the answer was not exactly the way we thought of. According to Ms. Spar, a front-end web developer would implement the designer’s UI by coding it, and creates the structure of the webpage. As much as I wanted to write down more of what I learned from Ms. Spar, but I forgot a lot of the things she shared to us.

FTS Meeting 4

On this meeting, we we’re told that we will be having an Intrapersonal Skill Seminar. The purpose of it was to enhance, improve, harness and mold our bond with our fellow Field Trip and Seminar Classmates. We were also shown the possible itinerary and the cost of the trip.

FTS Meeting 3

It was the moment that we had been waiting for. The announcement of what FTS model won. It turned out that the Model A had won. Many of us were happy and excited because it would their(some of them) first time to board on a plane.

FTS Meeting 2

The second meeting was all about choosing the venues and companies we will visit. There are lots of companies on the list, but the officers told us to choose seven “7” companies only. We are grouped so that we can come up with different set of answers. The answers were mixed, but the officers took those venues/companies that the groups had in common. The officers also showed us the “tentative” expenses of the trip.

FTS Meeting 1

It was in the month of February when we held our first meeting of our Field Trip and Seminar. If my mind is not playing tricks on me right now, the meeting was held at the Institute of Computing Laboratory 2 wherein all of the Institute of Computing’s students who are qualified to join the Field Trip and Seminar was present. Ms. Yu, the former FTS president explained to us what are the upcoming events and what we should expect. She also shared how their Field and Seminar went. And we are also introduced to the different Models of the Field Trip and Seminar.

FTS MAJOR REFLECTION

Seminar Overview

                Five days being away from home, I thought I it too much for me to handle, but it seems not. Our Field trip and Seminar or also known as “FTS” was the greatest thing that ever happened in my college life so far. We already know about this subject before we actually had it. We are told by our seniors about this subject. They told us how fun and exciting this subject can get. We are fascinated by their stories, and that made us very excited about this. But one thing that bothered me was the price that I’m gonna pay for enrolling this subject. This subject costs 21 thousand pesos. Well, that is only if we would pick the Model A. Me, and some of my friends decided to choose Model C, so that we can pay less, but we lost over the number of student who voted Model A. Before we got into action, we were tasked to do two reflections. First, a reflection about which FTS Model we prefer, and second, what we are expecting on our first/second flight. We are successful to comply it, and it took a month before we can finally have our FTS. We also had a lot of meetings for updates on our FTS, and we even had a seminar with our parents regarding our FTS.

                It was September 7, 2015 when we are finally at the Davao International Airport, waiting for our flight. Hours after that, we arrived at the Ninoy Aquino Internation Airport 4, and after that we went into our respected buses and started our journey. Within the span of 5 days, we went into different places, companies and we learned a lot. It was an honor for me to step on the buildings of ginormous companies. Five days’ worth of travelling was not bad, because we had the best tour guide, kuya Karlo/Carlo. He was so energetic and entertaining. He fed us with lots and lots of knowledge and trivia.

                This trip was made possible by my mother’s hard work and those who sponsored me. If it weren’t for them, I would be able to attend this seminar. I was so grateful by their help, and I already thanked them. But, words are not enough. So, I’m trying my nest to graduate and repay them, especially my mother.

                 

Day 1

               

                Today, I went on the Department of Science and Technology located at Bicutan, Taguig. It was the first company that we ever visited right after we had our breakfast. Not to mention that it was our first time to visit there. During the trip on the road to DOST, our tour guide, Kuya Karlo/Carlo told us that DOST is under the government, thus shouldn’t have an over the top expectations of its facilities. When we arrived at the location, what Kuya Karlo/Carlo told us about DOST was right. It was like a huge compound with lots of buildings, and most of the buildings “looks” abandoned. I don’t what’s the real deal about so, I’m just saying that it “looks” like abandoned.  We went inside the conference room, and we are welcomed by the people there. They taught us about the Project Noah, and I was so impressed about it. They showed us their map that would map out the areas that will be affected in case of a flood situation.

                After that, we had our lunch at Kenny Roger’s at Katipunan, Quezon City. We filled our stomachs so we can be ready for the next company.

                The next company that we visited was the Social Security System or also known as SSS, located at East Avenue, Quezon City where the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s printing and minting branch can be also located. We sat there at the SSS’s conference hall and listen to the speakers. They told us about SSS, and the way how it works.

               

                We were so exhausted at that time that wanted to head straight to Kabayan Hotel, and rest. But, there’s still one thing we have to do. Malling. We went to Trinoma, and did our malling there. I did not buy any gifts since it was very to do so. So, I just bought a bottle of water and some snacks.

                After our malling, we headed to a restaurant named Tramway. But before that, we passed by the famous Big Brother house. Unfortunately, we were not able to go out and take a picture of up close because we are out of time. We arrived at Tramway and had our dinner there. We ate a lot so much due to the fact that we are starving after a day of travelling.

                The best thing happened right after we had our dinner. It was because we were finally able to take a rest at the Kabayan Hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, we were held for a moment for the room assignments. After that, we happily went to our respected rooms and took a rest.

               

What I learned?

               

                I learned a lot of stuff about Project NOAH. About how they started this to increase the peoples’ awareness about the possibilities of an upcoming calamity and to prevent future damage. I also learned that the creator/inventor of Project NOAH made his parents as inspiration. It is because that the creator’s parents are living in a rural area, and is prone to flood. I haven’t learned much from SSS, because I was too exhausted and I was so drowsy that I cannot even focus on listening. But, they haven’t really gave us something that is new to us.  

What I liked?

                Aside from the food(just kidding), what I liked that day was the seminar with the DOST speakers regarding about Project NOAH. As what I have said, I was impressed by Project NOAH. It promotes awareness about the possible calamities to come and to prevent large scale damage. I also liked our malling at the Trinoma mall. It was my first time to stroll there. I was amazed by the mall’s eco-friendly design.

What I didn’t like?

                There are few things that I did not like during the first day. First, I weird and stranged when we went to DOST. Just like what I said, the buildings looked like they were abandoned for a long time. It’s like everything there was left by time itself. The compound was like a ghost town. Then, another thing that I didn’t like was the seminar at SSS. Yes, I was drowsy and I had a hard time focusing, but I still listened. What they taught and told to us that day was nothing new to us. There are things that we already knew, those can be easily found on the internet.

Day 2

               

                Today, I went on IBM Philippines located at the AyalaTechno-Hub and Accenture Inc. located at Libis, Quezon City. We went first to visit the famous Luneta Park and took pictures of it before we head our way to IBM Philippines. Supposedly, our seminar would start at 10:30am, but when we got there, we waited for an hour because the speaker was late. We slept while we were, and Sir Gamboa took a stolen shot of us sleeping. After moments of waiting, we finally got into IBM’s building and started our seminar. Then after that, we headed to Accenture Inc. We had our lunch on the bus. It was such a real struggle for us to eat while the bus was moving.

               

                When we arrived there, we waited for moments just like we did earlier at IBM. So, we watched TV shows and took a nap until we were able to go inside. Accenture Inc.’s building is amazing. Their seminar hall has a pantry. Everything in that building looks awesome. After that, we went to Great Eastern Hotel to have our dinner and went to Kabayan Hotel after, but we experienced a 3-hour traffic on our way home. It was horrible.

               

What I learned?

                When we were at the IBM Phils. I learned a lot of things about Cloud Storage and its 3 different versions. I also learned more about IBM’s new technology Bluemix. I already knew it before we had our FTS, but my knowledge of it incremented. The speaker even showed us how easy to make a program now with Bluemix, and he showed us his inventions using Bluemix and it was pretty awesome. Then in Accenture Inc., I learned the purpose of their company, and I learned that Accenture Inc. is not only about BPOs.

What I liked?

                The thing that I liked this day was when the speaker showed us how to create a program that would allow the e-mail recipient to automatically reply the sender by just using nothing but Bluemix. No compilers were installed, everything was done on the browser.

               

What I didn’t like?

                It was the seminar or Accenture Inc. that I did not like. It was fine, but it was kind of “meh…”. What we did there was listen on what Accenture Inc. is and their origin. We even played a game there and we watched the application developed by two of their employees which is underwhelming for me.

Day 3

               

                Today, I went on the Philippine Youth Congress Information Technology or also known as the Y4IT event that was being held on the SMX Convention Center at SM Mall Of Asia. MOA is such a huge place and it is so cool. After that, we went to Tutuban to have or shopping.

               

What I learned?

                To be honest, I haven’t learned a lot this day, because I slept on some topics. But, I managed to learn more about Windows 10’s HoloLens. I already knew about this, but the seminar added informations about this. Then I learned that the internet here in the Philippines is guarded by a so-called “Gate-Keeper” that would monitor the browsing activity of the user and would interfere if necessary.

What I liked?

                What I liked about that day was the HoloLens topic and internet topic (capping, privacy, etc.). First of all, I liked the HoloLens topic even if I already knew it because it was something that I can relate. Then the internet part grabbed my interest. It gave me an additional knowledge about how the internet is manipulated here in the Philippines. I also learned that there is a plan to have WI-Fi connection in all bus stops here in the Philippines.

                The greatest thing that I like was the

What I didn’t like?

                The thing that did not like was the Y4IT event took so long to finish. A lot of us slept during the event and died out of boredom. But there was nothing in major that I did not like.

Day 4

               

                Today, I went on the MMDA Traffic Engineering Office located at EDSA, Makati. When we went there, I did not expect that their building is a narrow upward building. I was expecting that their building is huge. We are hoping that Mr. Tolentino was there, but he was not. We were in this room on the 3^rd floor where there was this huge glass that overlooks the monitoring panels where you can see a huge monitor showing multiple live CCTV footages.

               

                Then we went to Tagaytay to have our sightseeing at the People’s Park in the sky. It was like a dream when I saw the Taal Volcano when we were having our lunch at Max’s. Going the People’s Park in the sky was a real struggle. It is really exhausting because it was an uphill walk, tho you can ride a jeepney. But it is worth the struggle when you reach the top. The view is too majestic for our eyes. After that, we went to the place where we were all excited to visit, Enchanted Kingdom. We were given a “ride-all-you-can” ticket and we tried all the rides there, even the extreme ones. It was the most epic experience in my life so far.      

What I learned?

                Well, I haven’t learned a lot in MMDA. They only showed us their huge monitor, and what I learned form that is that there are 4 phases of CCTVs shown on the monitor. Those phases are just referring to the age of CCTVs. In short in phase one you have those old CCTVs which if I remembered it correctly, those were the CCTVs from 2008. Then in phase four, you have those latest high-quality CCTVs.

                When we were heading our way to the People’s Park in the sky, Kuya Karlo told us the history of it. It was supposedly a property of our former first lady Imelda Marcos, and she wanted to build a mansion there. But when the People Power Revolution happened, and the Marcos’ were defeated, everything they owned were ceased from them, including the ones that we’re referring as the People’s Park in the sky.

What I liked?

                I liked the part where the MMDA showed us their huge monitor. You can see everything what’s happening. Also, I liked the part where the showed us a CCTV footage where an MMDA officer was caught extorting money from a man. They said that they were just showing a previous batch of students how their new CCTV works, and they filmed it coincidentally.

               

                And of course, I liked the part where we had our sightseeing in Tagaytay. The feeling was awesome. The views are majestic. It is like have escaped from the harsh reality. Especially when seeing the Taal Volcano, it felt like a dream come true. Then, the highlight of the day, the Enchanted Kingdom experience. It was the thing that I liked the most that day. It was a once in a lifetime experience that is why I liked it a lot.

What I didn’t like?

                There are nothing in major that I did not like this day. It was all amazing even if the seminar in MMDA was a little bit of boring.

Day 5

               

                Today, I went on the University of the Philippines Department of Computer Science , UP, Quezon City. And, we went on Resorts World Manila for our final malling before we go home.

               

What I learned?

                I learned that their campus is so huge and wide. It’s like 5 times bigger than our university. I was also amazed by their student’s thesis project, it was like they are out of my league. Their projects are way beyond my level. We had a tour around their campus and I learned what are the purpose of each room we went. If there’s one thing that I learned from them, then that is they are way smarter than me. It seems that I cannot compete with their IQ.

What I liked?

                I liked everything that day. The thought of you standing on the grounds of one of the most well-known universities was overwhelming. I liked the thought of strolling in their huge campus. And also, I liked how they welcomed us. And last but not the least, I am going to tell you that the thing that I liked the most that day was when we were strolling Resorts World Manila. The mall is so luxurious, you can smell the expensive stuffs in the air. It was a once in a lifetime experience to walk on its grounds.

What I didn’t like?

                The thing that I did not like was, I was hoping that we could enter some of their facilities in UP, but we were not allowed because the facilities were occupied at that time. That’s all.

Paper 3 (Team Building)

                Since the day of our Field Trip Seminar is drawing near, we are required to attend a seminar that would help develop our intrapersonal skills. We already knew about the seminar because we were told about it when we had our Field Trip and Seminar meeting. I mean we already knew about the seminar way too long ago. If my memory serves we well, we were told about it when we had our first meeting on our Field Trip and Seminar subject. Our president, Rhon Luiz Guarino told us the activities we will be doing before, during and after the Field Trip and Seminar, and one of them is having a seminar about developing intrapersonal skill. So, if you are wondering what an intrapersonal skill is, well, according to an answer on the website; materialminds.com, Intrapersonal Skill(s) is/are the foundations of a successful career. This is emotional intelligence, the ability to know, understand and manage your own emotions. So, yeah. We are about to attend on a seminar that will hone those skill(s). In the latest meeting we had in the Field Trip and Seminar subject, our president announced the date of our intrapersonal skill seminar, and he also announced that it will be a two-day event. The first day will be the day for the first batch, and the second day will be for the second the second batch (Well, it is pretty obvious). Then, he finally announced who are those student who will belong to the first batch and the second batch. Our president named the students for the first batch. I was, or should I say “we were” (referring to me and my barkada) hoping that we will be a part of the first batch, since it will be on a Monday, July 20, 2015. We wanted to be a part of the first batch because we do not have a class on Tuesday, so we thought about it that Tuesday will be our rest day. Free from various kind of school works as usual. But, unfortunately, none of our names were mentioned on the first batch, not even one. So, it was pretty obvious that we will be on the second batch. It sucks, but the best thing about it is that we are still together. So, it was 4 days before our seminar. I thought of what are the things that we are going to do on that day. I imagined that it will be a seminar where the speaker will talk and talk and talk, and I am not going to lie, it will be boring as hell. Since I really do not like seminars, except for those seminars that I am interested of. I also imagined that there will be an activity where our leadership skills will be tested. I had hopes that the seminar will “somehow” be fun.

                It was July 20, 2015 when the first batch had their seminar. Their seminar will start at eight, but early than that, we have our Programming 3 subject under Mr. Pabilona. I thought that how my classmate will be able to attend the seminar’s first hours if we have a class. But then, it turned out that we do not have a class that day and we just required to take the quiz which is a timed quiz for about 5 minutes. So, after that, my classmates that are part of the first batch proceeded to the Social Hall. It was still early, it was like 7:15am. Me and my barkada sat on the gazebo and had a little talk. When it was past 8am, we decided to go to the social hall and take a look at the first batch. We would like to know what in the world they were doing. But, when we arrived at the social hall, none of them were prepared, nor ready. I mean, when we went inside the social hall, there only a few students, the mics, speakers, etc. are being prepared. So, we were kind of disappointed cause we haven’t got a clue about what they are going to do. So, the day of our turn came. Unlike the first batch, we did not have our seminar at the Social Hall. We had our seminar on the University of Southeastern Philippines’ hostel, or we call it as the USEP Dormitory. We already knew that our seminar there, and it made very excited as hell because it was going to be my first time to get inside that establishment after four years of being here in USEP.  

                We went inside the university hostel/university dorm, and I was so amazed how awesome it was to be there. Inside, on the second floor was a conference room. Maybe it was built for some meetings or activities such as open cells and seminars. When we went inside the conference room, we were too early. There were only a few student at that time, our president was not even there yet. And the same thing as what we have saw on the social hall, they were still preparing the equipment. So, we sat on the chairs and waited for the others. Then a lady came in and asked us if we’re ready, or complete. And, as far as can I, it is pretty obvious that we were not yet ready nor complete. The lady told us that it was expected that there will be a number of forty students on that day. So, around 8:30 in the morning, our numbers increased, it seems like we are almost reaching the number of forty, so we started the seminar.

                We sat on the chairs that were arranged in a “U” shape. Well, yes we know that it was arranged in that way so we can see each other. So, the speaker / facilitator which I forgot what her name is, greeted us a good morning and congratulated us for our upcoming Field Trip, and she mentioned about the previous batch. We felt so light having a little chit chat before we got in to the main thing. Our facilitator/speaker asked us if what was our purpose why we attended the seminar. Many of us answered in chorus. I cannot even hear a proper sentence. The room was like a total enclosure where the echoes and murmurs of my fellow students bounced in every direction. Well, things got a little “funnier” when our speaker/facilitator slowly roamed and finally approached me to answer the question. I was caught off guard since I cannot give a definite answer to question. What I had in my mind is that, we were required to attend that seminar because it was a requirement for Field Trip. So, I answered her question with my mind still stunned saying “..because we are required to“. Everyone at the room laughed and even our facilitator / speaker was kind of shocked about my response. I was like: “Why are they laughing? Is there something funny from what I have said?”. After a couple of seconds, I finally got a hold of myself and I realized why the hell they were laughing and why our speaker / facilitator was shocked. Well, it was they thought that I was being sarcastic at that time. They thought that I was trying to be funny. But, actually I was not. I was not being sarcastic at that time nor trying to be funny. I just answered her question with complete innocence on my response, because that was the answer I knew why we are required to attend the seminar. And I must say this again. I had no intentions of making fun at that time. I was telling what I thought the answer really was.

After that we proceeded to the next activity (if I remember it correctly). The activity had us group ourselves into 8 members. We were calling out our “friends’ / barkada’s” name to join, but then our facilitator told us the it would be easier to form the group if the members are just the students who are sitting next to each other. I mean, if you are confused about what I am saying, I will explain it. Example, I am the first student on the first chair, then my group mates will be those seven students sitting next to me. So, after we had our group settled, we formed into circle and we were given a manila paper, a pentel pen / marker. We are tasked to do a sharing with the group. We are tasked to share our own answers on these questions; “What do you expect from this seminar?” and “What can you contribute to the others?”, and after that we would weigh in the answers and write it on the manila paper. After that, our facilitator / speaker showed us an images of smileys with facial expressions implying their emotions / feelings on the projector screen. The purpose of that is for us to pick one of the smileys that would describe our group. Everyone in the group participated in the activity and we got the activity done at ease. After that, every group had a representative to explain what was written on the manila paper. The next activity was we were grouped by having our selves count from 1 to (I forgot what number). I was number 4, so I went and sat where the students who are also number 4. We were given a paper individually with a drawing of a tree and there are lots of people on the tree doing various things. We were tasked to encircle the person that describes ourselves. I encircled the person who was some kind of chilling on the tree. Seemingly not giving a care of what was happening around, as if he is at peace. I chose that because it symbolizes how chill and compose I am even if the things are rough on me. As if like I do not care at all, or in short just going with the flow. Well, that is what you can see base on the drawing, but I added that, even if I am like that, deep inside me, I am still worried and trying to figure out things. And what made it wonderful is that, majority of the members of our group chose the same person and had the same or almost the same reason as mine. After that, we took a break that lasted for 30 minutes. We were given one bread and one C2 mini. And what made the break fun was the ice breaker in the form of Skeleton Dance. Our facilitator showed a video of a group of cartoon skeletons dancing to the rhythm of a catchy children’s music. We were required to stand up and mimic the skeleton dance. It was so fun that I did not even dance because I was so shy to dance. What I did was standing up and laugh at them looking silly.

The next activity we had was to draw our dining table and draw the family members in their respective position. We were given a bond paper and lots and lots of crayons. Everyone grabbed as many crayons they can and sat on the floor drawing. They looked like they became kinder again. A lot of them drew the table on top view, well I had a different idea. I grabbed crayons that are analogous to each other and as well as their complementary. I drew a 3d sphere. Yes, I drew a 3d drawing using crayons and symbolized it as our table. Too bad I was not able to finish drawing it because I was short of time. I only drew the family members as fast as I can. My drawing was supposed to be the family members are revolving around the sphere. My explanation is that I symbolized the table as a sphere because we revolve around it. The time for sharing about the drawing came. Only three people were chosen to explain their drawings. Among them was our classmate, Junalyn Bantilan. I admit, she was one of our classmates that we like to bully(Not the kind of bully that is so harsh, or too rude. Just more like a tease). But the emotion of the room changed when she shared her explanation, and also her image to us (the bullies). She cried because she does not have a family of her own (sort of). She is living with her uncle along with her uncle’s children, her cousins obviously. Her uncle adopted her and took care of her while she was growing up after her father abandoned them with her mother. One thing that amazed me was she mentioned that it is not her uncle by blood, or biological uncle. Her aunt (the husband of her uncle which took care of her) was the one who she has a biological relation, but her uncle did all the things and provided all the things that she needs. From there on, I felt pity for her. It is very unlikely of her to have such sad life while everyone that knows her think of her as a funny and worriless person. That time, I realized how strong of a person she is. After that we had another 30-minute break and ate the same food again. But this time, another ice breaker was commenced and we danced the Animal Dance.

We then proceeded to the last activity. I really forgot the purpose of that activity, but I remember that we were grouped into the original 8 members. Then we had our representatives to pick a paper from our facilitator’s hand. That paper would determine the thing that we should do. Our group got the “Skit” paper. Along with “Skit” paper are the “Singing”, “Rapping”, “Commercial” and “Dancing”. We thought about the concept of our skit. We chose to do a skit that depicts the life of a student that is being under a teacher who loves to discipline student. Showing his social life before he was under that teacher, and how he lose it. It was one of my embarrassing moment in my entire life because I portrayed a woman. So I did everything to act like one. People are laughing at me, seems like I cannot handle it. Some of the presentations from the other groups are also entertaining. But if you would ask me what group stood out the most. Then it was the group of Rondie Labra did an awesome thing. They got the “Rapping” paper. They came up with a really great rap music within less than an hour. Each of them has an individual rap, and their beat is so damn catchy.

We’ve got everything wrapped up after the last activity. But before we could leave, there was a last thing that we must do. After the prayer, we formed into a “U” shape while standing. We were given a piece of paper and a candle. We are required to complete the sentences. “I promise to….”, “I will start to….” and “I will keep on….”. This was the “My Commitment” activity. After we wrote what’s on our minds. The lights were shut and the candles were lit. The mic is passed by the current student after sharing his “My Commitment” to next student, so on and so forth. After that, we held hands and sang the “Lead Me Lord” song.

It was indeed a fun and great day. Such a big opposite to what I initially thought that it is going to be a boring seminar. But, fortunately I was wrong. The seminar was fun. I had a great moment with my classmates and those who are not my classmates.