Student Athlete Turned Beauty Queen: Bae Taphagan 2015 Confessions

March 2015 was a month I never expected to exist in a way it did. I grew up getting the attention of an enormous crowd when either Im playing volleyball with my team or speaking alone. I was either an athlete or a student leader. A beauty queen? "Such worthless reveries," that was me before March 2015.

I considered it a big joke seeing myself on a big stage ramping the tsunami walk of Shamcey Supsup or the Venus' walk. I used to mimic their catwalk in front of my friends in a funny way that everybody would really laugh at. But look what happened, it seemed that the joke was on me.

Either a joke or a dream, it really happened.

March 30, 2015 I was crowned as Santa Josefa's Bae Taphagan 2015. If you want to know more about Santa Josefa and its Taphagan Festival, you can read my previous blog entry.

I never admitted my self in such competition with the assumption of winning it. What do I have? Nothing.

There were 10 of us. 8 of them are all expereienced and really into this beauty pageant thing while the 2 of us had our first ever beauty pageant.

I was inspired rather than coerced to commit myself into such. It was my tito. He was the barangay captain and he chose me to choose this event. Then eventually it was everbody's choice. But me.

At first i kept on laughing on the idea of me wearing this crown plus the horrendous stilettos. It is just so hilarious that I cant help but laugh.

However, when I found all the other girls was working their assess off during the photoshoot and the rehearsals, i told myself, "I cant afford losing." If this would be my greatest social suicide, I want to do it my way. I was so in the zone with my game face on, I started to take the high heels seriously. I watched youtube videos and pulling all my strings together for this kind of game.

Then poof, it became coco crunch.  I never won any minor awards like Miss Flawess, Best in Swimwear, Best in Long Gown and all, but I was more than ready for that. I never aimed for those minor awards. I was after giving my family and all the people who've put their trust on me what they deserved. And so I them gave my everything.

Apparently, God was just so good that he provided me the adequate confidence I need. It was neither my beauty nor my brain. It was all grace-driven.

I won. I was crowned Bae Taphagan 2015. I never know how I did it, I just know what I currently have and utilized it as efficient and as effective as possible.

For all the girls down there who dreams to become the next Bae Taphagan, dont stop dreaming and believing. It will be all yours if you just make yourself ready and available for such responsibilities.

And for all the girls who are on the same age as mine, dont give too much attention to beauty because beauty is fleeting. Value knowledge. Pursue education. Know who you really are and be confident in everything that you do.

"For the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but the greatest enemy of knowledge is the illusion of knowledge." -Stephen  Hawking

Taphagan Festival

Santa Josefa, a 3rd class municipality of the province of Agusan del Sur, Philippines celebrates its Taphagan Festival every year particularly at end of March.

Santa Josefa, an ecotourism municipality that incorporates the promotion of their tourism with the preservation and promotion of its discrete culture, and with a noticeable endorsement to practice agricultural-business among the people of Santa Josefa.

Considering that Santa Josefa is a vast land for planting crops like corn, rice, coconut and many more, the people of Santa Josefa are encouraged to think out of the box- to generate new kinds of innovations that would cater more source of income and to hopefully result in an increase in employment.

Majority of the people in the said municipality are farmers, that is why Taphagan represents them as one people with one culture. Long ago, the indigenous people of Santa Josefa practiced Taphag rituals to demonstrate how grateful they are for the abundance they've received. Taphag rituals are anciently led by Babaylans, a religious leader. 

This year, 2015, it is the 19th Taphagan Festival and at the same time the 50th Araw ng Santa Josefa (50th year of Santa Josefa's existence), making it more historical, more special and more challenging for the people of Santa Josefa to advance in all its aspects particularly in its economy and literacy. Santa Josefa may be well-advanced in terms of its age, but still there are more room for improvements.

Personally speaking, Santa Josefa, is such a young and an unheard municipality. For the past years it has remained just the way it is if not, progressed but not efficiently. This is not to belittle my own hometown but to raise awareness that the weight of making a municipality advance and improve in all areas is neither on the sole shoulders of the government, nor on a single group of people that are regarded as "influential" or "powerful", but on every individual. 

For without an individual, there would be no community. For with the absence of a dream of an individual, there would be no dream for a municipality to achieve.

Phonies

I don’t know what I am supposed to tell you here but all I know is that I am supposed to tell you practically anything about something because after reading some book it should affect you in a way that it makes you feel you wanna say or write anything about something.

It’s not literally a book review you should be writing because half the time making these things you will later find out that it isn’t the book you are reviewing, it is your life- your freaking recent life.

Not telling you a bit of the book would be really quite unfair for you might think I’m just making this up- reading some book. But no, it’s this book entitled The Catcher in the Rye with Holden in it, Holden Caulfield. He hates phonies- or the ones you think who are fake, professional fakers in the zone.

You might take two categories of phonies. First, the kind of phonies that think they are being real because they think they shouldn’t be faking their identities because they think that is the very precise thing to do especially when you are at the stage of building up some kind of projected identity. But that’s the real problem with it, you project it that’s why it is more prone to you faking it because you should project it in a way people might probably accept it and worse, in a way people might adore it.

Second, the kind of phonies that are really making it as a means for survival, they think that they can’t survive any psychological, emotional, or sometimes spiritual kind of crisis without faking it. They are the ones who can’t accept their real self and that’s why they try to be someone else and later on they go on telling themselves “this is who I am”-a phony.

Either way, I really pity all those phonies. They’re all the same, stuck in their own nightmares disguised as daydreams. But maybe, they shouldn’t be pitied at all; rather, they should be given the right amount of attention because all they need is just a bit or bravery, courage, and solace. Because being who you really are, it’s like you are a dove getting close to a bunch of ruthless snakes.

ATENEO: Let us strive not to become another cliché, for once.

I was greatly distressed by the evident reactions of the Ateneans (from Davao) regarding the latest USEP’s entry about “Bakit Top 5 Ang Arrneyo” (You can check my previous post regarding this). I have to reiterate that my intentions and hopes were clear. As what I have said on my previous post that let us expose what is to expose and let us generate a culture, a kind of culture that won’t reside on just seeing other’s flaws and tolerating “chismis”.

I also need to apologize about my misconceptions about USEP’s official school newspaper. I think they use to publish one or more school papers, with that I am certainly uncertain. But one of my comrades from USEP (University of the Southeastern Philippines) confirmed that she never read that certain column at their campus therefore it is clear that that column was just coming from a minority from USEP.

I want to tell everyone how greatly distressed I am upon seeing the vehement reactions from my fellow Ateneans. They tweet, quote tweet, share, repost, or comment as if they were extremely criticized personally.

Another thing that has been disturbing me also, is it even possible that some Ateneans are just reacting overrated to let people see how proud they are to be called an Atenean? If that’s the case, I pity their young minds for being proud in a way that you can never be really proud of.

I must admit that The Ateneo Way is not that easy to attain for all the currently enrolled students in Ateneo de Davao University. It does not mean that one who wears a uniform and an ID or has a diploma from a particular university can genuinely represent the whole university itself.

The truth that it takes more than a DNA to become a family is as analogous as to it takes more than an ID or a uniform to represent a certain school.

Real identity has to be apparent even without the exertion of making it evident. What does it really mean to be cura personalis? Or do we even understand what is Magis?

It is really accurate to say that what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Yes, Ateneans, we may be superior in terms of financials but if we reside with that kind of thinking we are just as good as animals. We repudiate our capacities as rational beings. It’s not always about who’s rich and who’s not.

And if some are insecure about us, spewing destructive flawed accusations about us, let them deal with their own maladies. And let us not debase ourselves within their levels. 

Stated in Proverbs also that if a wise man wastes his time answering to a fool, he’s just making the fool look wise instead. Don’t bother giving answers to someone who just wanted air!

ATENEO: Let us strive not to become another cliché, for once.

A Reaction to USEP's "Bakit Top 5 Ang Arrneyo"

I am aware of the Campus Press Act, that once it is published on the school's official newspaper, there is no law violated due to the freedom given by this act. But I am not sure if the said freedom is absolute and if it can be even possible to say something, whether it might be good or bad, about external parties like a different school, campus, or university.

But considering the legalities involved, this reaction post won't go overboard but it's main purpose is to expose or to elaborate the gray areas involved.

This was published by the University of Southeastern Philippines' official newspaper regarding the latest news about Ateneo de Davao University's reign towards being a part of the Top 300 Schools in Asia and making it the top 5th school in the Philippines.

I saw this from my classmate's phone. We were on the cafeteria that morning when I was alarmed by my classmate's endeavor. He was reading something and I thought it was one of the notes he had in class that I might probably be missing.

Upon reading this, what disturbed me the most isn't the content itself but by the mere fact that it was published by 'their' school's official newspaper.

Honestly speaking, 'this' university IS one of the schools that I really look up to when it comes to academic standards. Yes it IS, and I'm still hoping that it will still be. And that's my purpose of posting this, not to reply or answer back, basically because nobody really cares if you really care at all on what really matters between 'our' schools, if there really is, but to expose what is to expose.

And not only for 'you' but for everybody including 'us'! What I'm saying is that if we are striving for academic excellence or creating an atmosphere conducive for a healthy competition, let's try to show it by generating a culture. A culture that won't reside on seeing others' flaws nor tolerating 'chismis'.

Yes, majority of 'us' (but not all, i tell you), are CONYO. But what is it to 'us' when people speak the way they speak? They are neither stepping on anybody's life nor practicing delinquency. Let them be who they really are. In fact, the 'CONYO Grammar' used in here does not even seem legit- according to bonafide CONYO Peeps. If AdDU (Ateneo de Davao University), a school from Mindanao or particularly from Davao can how can you not? Use it as a benchmark instead and not a chance to practice 'LIBAK NG ACHUP...'

And for us, Blue Knights, let's take this as a stepping stone to prove that we are more than what they think of. Tama nang puro papogi at paganda, punong puno na tayo jan, di ba kayo nagsasawa? Kung 5th pa lang yun, gawin nating mag 4th or 3rd!

And indeed the old adage goes to relive its truth, 'Dogs really bark at strangers' but lets not dwell on who are dogs and who aren't, Let's just try to know more of ourselves on the inside and project that self on the outside. Don't be a dog, and don't even be a stranger to your own identity!

Where to Begin

Thoughts came flooding over me when I was walking myself home from the school and also from the gym.

Did you also experience having these idle moments and then something pops up on your heads and you have no idea where did it came from. But eventually, you will be even more amazed when you found its spontaneity and consistency chasing you.

Maybe historians are called as they are not because they are merely narrating something from the past but they just found the urge to write things down without even prejudging what is historical and what isn't.

Then maybe, just maybe, we can be our own little historians through our own little ways in our own little lives.

Prejudging events in our lives is more of a subconscious part of our consciousness. We are not aware that we are constantly stereotyping the circumstances that we are in, what matters and what doesn't. And so we miss the most out of it. We miss the chance of being better because we resisted the opportunity to become one by filtering the circumstances that might undertake us.

Yes, taken the fact that we cannot control external factors in our lives like who comes in and who comes out of our lives or when are we happy and when are we sad, but we are still responsible for our way of perceiving these external factors. For short, life differs on our perspectives.

A bad day might happen to you, but who defines "bad" in your every day? Facing every single day is constant and unchangeable while defining what kind of day would it be varies.

I hope that in starting something new in our own different lives, we'll all begin on our selves and not to expect for others to do it. If we live by this belief, I think we can be better people as we choose to begin again. Because if something expected is given that is a paid obligation, but if we live without any expectations from others and then everything is given will become a blessing.