I feel bad about what happened in Japan.

I can’t put into words the emotion that I am feeling.

In my own little way, I guess it’s the right time to give back.

Let’s help Japan.

Friendship is important to me. I consider a few trusted people as my circle of friend. Jason is one of them. Our friendship has evolved from being too focused on my vulnerable lovelife to discussing financial/investment matters. How well do I know him? Maybe not that much yet as we have a lifetime to discover more about each other’s similarities and differences. The items below are the things about Jason that matters to me.

1. He is a Scorpion like me. I have a hard time remembering birthdays and it’s easier for me to recall a person’s zodiac sign. Jason is a Scorpion like me: passionate, loyal and temperamental. His passion to make good at his profession is something that isn’t obvious to those who doesn’t know him well. Yes, the guy looks easy-go-lucky. His loyalty to those that mattered to him is commendable. I have yet to hear him badmouth a friend or a mentor. Just like me, his moods are unpredictable especially during his younger years. (Thank God I’m past that stage now!)

2. He is one of my BBF (Boy Best Friend). I got the term BBF after watching Richard Gutierrez’s “My Valentine Girls.” I feel comfortable and safe sharing my life stories with him. I think we really got very close during my vulnerable period. He practically saved me from losing my sanity by just being there to “listen.” He was the first person outside of my family to know about me entering into a new relationship, getting engaged, getting married and having a new baby. He’s the only person outside of my family to know about the ups and downs of my career.
3. There was a time when my ex was jealous of him. Don’t ask who among my exes but this ex of mine came to the point of asking me if there was ever a time that I felt I was or at least, I was close to falling in love with my BBF. “Maybe yes maybe no” was my answer. That was an unsafe yet honest answer, I know, and that added up to my ex’s speculation that his gut feelings were valid but for the sake of transparency and truthfulness, “Maybe yes maybe no” was the right answer.
The MAYBE YES: Love is measured in many different ways and I love Jason for being him.
The MAYBE NO: I loved my ex when we were still together and that love distracted me from falling in love with other men. On the other hand, I have always been fond of Jason’s relationship with the love of his life and that prevented me from establishing a deeper, more than platonic relationship with him.

4. He is his worst critic. He sees himself as stagnant and average for whatever
reasons. What I see in him is a person who’s trying to achieve most out of life.

5. He is a bookworm. He loves information to the point of info overload.
6. It may not show but he is a loving kuya to his siblings.

Teachers are our second parents, we stay with them most of our waking time as young children. Teachers can make or break a student. Teaching is a noble profession and one must consider it as a vocation in order to be an effective teacher. No, I am not saying that teachers must be sweet. In fact, most of the teachers who are on the sweet side are being taken for granted by their students. No, I don’t want a teacher who terrorizes his/her students. I want the following characteristics in a teacher.

1. He must be intelligent
– I am not saying that he must be Einstein- like. A teacher must be diligent in order to be intelligent. He must study his lessons in advance so that he can answer his students’ questions. If he is an English teacher, then he must be very good in speaking and writing the language. If he is a Math teacher, he must be good in problem solving and computations. Until now, whenever I remember Ms. Yolly Pruna, my grade 4 teacher, I regard her as an intellectual. She’s good in both English and Math. When it comes to Physics, nobody can beat Mrs. Mila Tagorio.

2. He must be patient.
– Not all students are equal in intelligence and comprehension. A teacher must know this. In reality, teachers prefer those who are smart and bright. There’s this silent discrimination on the slow learners. Some teachers resort to verbal and physical abuse when a student cannot catch up with the lessons. I know of a teacher who knocks hard on her students’ head whenever they could not understand the lessons.

3. He must watch his words.
-Words hurt more than spanks. “Tanga, bobo, pangit!”—these words hurt a student’s pride. But aside from these words, a teacher must refrain from making judgmental remarks.

4. He must put in his head that being a cleaner is not a student’s core responsibility.
– Most, if not all, public schools assign their students to do the cleaning. Students clean the classroom and school ground in the morning and in the afternoon. Ms. Flor de Jesus was my teacher in grade 2. She was Mrs. Gloria Castillo’s substitute. My cleaning schedule was twice a week but because she admired me for being hardworking, I voluntarily cleaned everyday! Hahaha! She was the opposite of one teacher who reprimanded me for just standing instead of going to the school ground to clean. I told her that my classmate asked for my help to open the classroom windows that was why I was standing. The window was too big for a 5th grader and I needed to support the other end of the capiz window for her to open it.

5. He must be prudent.
-With a number of sexual harassment, sexual molestation and even rape charged against a teacher, parents must get to know the personality of their children’s teachers.

6. He must be fair.
– Not every student is pretty, cute, intelligent and rich. Teachers must know that and they must not be the ones implicating those differences in their studenst.
“X is my favorite because they own this business.”
“Throw these flowers (santan given by student A) to give room to B’s flowers (Holland roses).