#admu14

[betinaishungry]

Summer 2015

I only had 3 weeks of summer this year, compared to the rest of Ateneo who has 2 to 4 months of summer. You could say that this was the most eventful one yet (if you've been keeping track of my activity on Instagram, lol), seeing as I've been in and out of the house more than usual. 

After spending a week recovering from what was the most tiring semester of my life, I found it in me to sign up for a gym membership. It took me a good 4 days to muster up the strength to decide to go out of the house everyday -- and truthfully, my first session there had me knocked out for a good 40 minutes after 15 minutes of running. I'm getting better though. Haha. I've also been exploring Maginhawa a lot more, which I hope to turn into a thing to blog about; and I'm hoping to relaunch my store in a few weeks to stock up on some travel money. 

Put simply, 2015 has been busy - and by the looks of it, the following months will be just as eventful. Hoping to find the will power to remain consistent in the things I'm committing to!

[betinaishungry]

Learning process

This is the worst semester of my life. I have never felt so vulnerable.

What’s crazy is that I have grown so much this semester. I really felt myself come to better understanding of my strengths, weaknesses, and my interests as well. I’ve gotten recommendations from some of my professors, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed all the courses I took. I guess what makes this sem such a sem of enlightenment is how honest I was with myself the past couple of months. Sure, I admit that I’ve been stressing to keep up with the standards of my peers, family, and well, everyone -- but quite frankly, the harder I tried to keep up, the more I let them down. I guess it was because it came to a point where I became so fixated in making them proud, that I forgot to put value into what I was learning. 

I constantly had to remind myself to be honest in my work. And I can say that the best outputs I’ve had so far embody this. But the thing is, being honest took a lot of my time, ha -- it made me spend 10 times more of my time on a single project. It made me want to wait for the last minute so I could just pass the best I could make with the time that was left, and often made me risk submitting late for a better output. It also made me start on things early so I could work on them more intently -- but to a point where I neglected the things I should have focused more on. So as hard as I’ve worked my butt off this sem, I’ve crazily neglected some essentials -- which really took its toll on me.

But the best (and worst) thing about it is that it’s over. I can’t do anything to change it. Everything and everyone that made this semester what it is really made its mark on my character. I don’t think I’ve ever broken down this much just because of my academics - but I really need to foster this fighting spirit of mine that it doesn’t become too disheartened, and that I never have to go through this much pain ever again. Ugh. I guess there really are some things you have to learn the hard way. Thanks for the tough love, life. More than being part of the learning process, all these hardships are part of the growing process. And I really have to learn to live with that.

[betinaishungry]

Getting There

Albeit my recent screw-ups, I'm glad that I've been able to deliver. I like how my professors actually take notice of me this sem, and how my outputs are getting pretty decent marks. Plus, I got accepted to the program I've been dying to qualify for since freshman year!!!!! It's a shame that I'm only starting to take my grades seriously now that I'm already 1/2 done with college... but lemme just make the most of what I have left.

I've been really loving this semester (even though my health has been at its worst); and I'm desperately hoping that I don't get to complacent with my outputs that I end up screwing myself over again.

If only my math19 grades were like this :'(

[betinaishungry]

Org game strong

I'm down to what seems to be my last two org projects for this school year, and I can't help but sigh in relief that I was able to make it out alive.

As you may know, I'm part of (technically) four organizations: (1) Heights Ateneo, (2) Collegiate Society of Advertising, (3) the ADSA Student Deputies, and (4) the Loyola Schools Placement Office. I'm active in all of them. I really can't say whether it's an asset to be this involved with your orgs, but all these experiences helped me a whole lot in terms of creating schedules, delegating tasks, and of course, efficient and effective event planning. I think for a Management major such as myself, it's important for me to be immersed in the nitty-gritty of all these processes. During the school year, I was able to befriend all the people in the offices. They actually joke around with me every time I visit (and I think it's inevitable seeing as they see me on oftentimes a weekly basis), and they really look out for me and the projects I handle.

It's currently elections time in all my orgs, and is it selfish of me to want to be part of their Central/Editorial Board/Executive Committee/Council? At present, I'm running for Heights as (Associate) Production Manager. We just recently had an event entitled Articulate, an art therapy booth that invites people to destress and express. 

I was also interested in running for CoSA as an Associate Vice President for Project Tracking or similar positions, but I had to consider that I also want to be part of ADSA's Council and the Placement Office's Executive Committee. On top of all that, I also want to be part of the Junior Term Abroad program next year. So I didn't really push through with CoSA (I'm happy that the seniors were looking forward to me running, though huhu) I hope they still invite me to their evals and stuff though.

 What also just happened today was that I got a nomination letter from ADSA's Council. I'm grateful that I got nominated even though I wasn't as visible as I would've liked, compared to my other orgs. But the problem still persists: how will I cope with these responsibilities if I get accepted for JTA?

Ugh, I really hate putting my hopes and dreams out in the open, as I feel they're more likely to get crushed that way (because being honest makes you vulnerable), but I pray that things will unfold as they should, and that I'll be able to embrace and cope with everything that's about to happen.

[betinaishungry]

Project Sistema 2015

Last year, I made a promise to myself to be open to growing. This meant trying new things, being able to say yes to every opportunity that came, and most importantly, allowing myself to be vulnerable. I'm glad that I was able to stick to this theme - even though it wore me out a couple of times and got me into pretty crazy situations.

This year, I hope for it to be somewhat the same: another year of growing and venturing into new things - but hopefully, in a smarter and more committed kind of way. I'd like to think that I'm a Management major for this reason: TO MANAGE MY LIFE BETTER. HAHA. Hence, I'll be making a lot of timetables, self-projects, and goals to achieve by the end of the year. So far, I've started creating to-do lists that I actually accomplish, and have been striving to commit myself more to my interests by (1) running for a position in one (but possibly 2) of my orgs, (2) trying to market myself better via making an effort to look presentable, and (3) attending conferences and talks that are relevant to living a better life and making smarter decisions.

I may be posting a lot less; and maybe whenever I do, they'll revolve more around management concepts and how they can be applied to my life but I guess you can count this as a step to finally being able to sort my priorities. #GOSELF

[betinaishungry]

QUARUN!TINE (Part 1)

We finally started with our majors this year, and one of the subjects we had to take was Com11 under Atty. Elgene Feliciano. For the course, we had to conceptualize and execute a fundraising event for The Philippine Red Cross. We were 10 in the group, and what we came up with was a zombie run within the Loyola Schools campus, similar to Outbreak Manila.

When coming up with a promotional strategy, we decided to come up with a fake health organization that gave updates regarding the virus, and then shift to Quaruntine once the "situation got out of hand". 

The post reach got pretty far during the first few teasers. It was pretty frustrating though that people took the posts seriously. But hey, there's no such thing as negative publicity.

Luckily, some people were critical enough to doubt its legitimacy.

Thankfully, people got the message once our third teaser was released. 

To earn more money, we also invested in selling shirts aside from selling tickets for the event.

My friend Annika, even helped us with the teasers and ticket designs. She was also a volunteer! Ugh, the support we got from all our friends and family was definitely the best part of this project. 

QuaRUN!tine had a lot of setbacks when it came to partnerships and volunteers -- there were a million hindrances and obstacles, actually -- but in the end, it was such a fulfilling experience. Plus, the crowd was beautiful!

[betinaishungry]

20th Ateneo Heights Writers Workshop

One of the projects I got to be part of this semester was AHWW. The 20th Ateneo Heights Writers Workshop was held last August 23 to 25, 2014 at Riverview Resort in Calamba, Laguna. It is a three-day annual project of Heights Ateneo that is open to all undergraduate students of the Ateneo de Manila University.

I had to cut NSTP and juggle log work and papers for this, but in the end, it was all worth it. Even though I wasn't a fellow, I swear all the panelists' input on their submissions were very insightful. Also showed me how I should stick to writing for fun. 1/2 joke. 

Can't wait for next year's! Will definitely do this again.