The Best Birthday Gift Ever

I just turned thirty and unlike the past years, I didn't celebrate this year. However, I still received a couple of gifts - a pair of Nike Air, a black Penshoppe shirt and a short poem from a student. The last was the one I liked the best. Let me share it with you. Teacher Rhosel by Paola Eunice Basinillo Teacher Rhosel teaches us in Grade Four She makes us want to learn some more The way she teaches is different but exciting It makes English look so very inviting. She's a great teacher, one of the best And she's good in coaching for the Sportsfest Hard lessons become so easy And she doesn't say anything cheesy. She's very cool and nice too. And she can do stuff that I never knew She says funny jokes and has lots of stories to tell. And her voice? Loud and clear as a bell. That poem makes THREE-ZERO worthwhile. I'm glad that I have inspired someone. I guess this poem just tells me that I really am called to be a teacher. Awesome! I hope I become an inspiration to more students and that they would love English the way that I do too.

Overcoming Aging

Wouldn't it be just weird if you were born looking like an 80-year old, and as you grow, your physical features become young? That is the curious case of Benjamin Button. I happened to see the trailer of this film and found the story very intriguing indeed. Imagine that? Instead of going through the normal and painful process of aging, you simply overcome it and age inversely. That kept me thinking. F. Scott Fitzgerald must be a very brilliant writer to have ever imagined such curious case. I just turned three-zero (30) a few days ago, and wondered how it would be like to not age. I am lucky because I don't exactly look my age. Some people who don't really know me would comment that I look like a college student. One friend asked me if I could share the fountain of youth that I've been hiding. People want to know my secret, but I don't have any. It's genes I guess. I hope that when I'm 40, I would look ten years younger. Today, there are a lot of anti-oxidants and supplements that supposedly helps defy skin aging. Some people even go to dermatologists to have botox shots. Other well-off people would even consider plastic surgery just to look young. Everybody wants to be immortal somehow and many seem afraid to physically deteriorate. But aging is really inevitable. The only thing we could do is to learn how to age gracefully. It really doesn't matter how old you look. What matters is that with age, comes wisdom. It really would be pathetic to have aged but have accomplished and learned nothing; to have grown old but have loved and cared for no one; and to have matured but have gone spiritually nowhere. Life is short. I sometimes contemplate about how my life would end. Yes, having to think of death is indeed morbid, but with this in mind, I live my life like it's always my last day. But I also live life to the fullest in Christ because of a promise. A promise, that one day, beyond this physical realm, I will live with no fear of death itself, because I have already overcome. Age has a limit that renders us powerless because it signifies that there is an end. However, the day will come, when I don't need to worry about aging, or even aging inversely as with the case of Benjamin Button. Because on the day that I overcome, aging has no power over me anymore.