I was born and raised in the Philippines. There are four of us, my older sister Kate, my mom Olive and my dad Rolly. Although we are not that big family, we seems to have a bigger family because most of my immediate relatives are close to us, and sometimes live with us. My grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins are staying in one house. My special role in the family is the mediator. I could say that because I love everyone in the family and every time there’s an issue or concern within the family, mostly all of them consult me and be the ears of their cases. For example, when my mom and dad have miscommunications or misunderstandings, I am their common ground, they open up when I am there and include me with their initial conversation and starts to explain what went wrong.

As a part of this new generation, our society has drastically changed. The combination of the old age and millennial generation, can be tough at times to keep up. The biggest role I can portray in our society is to set an example to people around me and to those people I can reach in different forms of communication. Little good deed can impact huge difference in our society. I tend to pose myself as fair and equal type of person that limit myself to commit mistakes to others because I believe in a saying “don’t do other things you don’t want others to do to you” or “We only harvest what we planted”.

When it comes to culture, the Philippines is very rich and diverse because it has been influenced with different ethnic and race from different countries. However, I could share one part of being a Filipino. One well known culture of being a Filipino is being family-oriented. In the Philippines, you will find a lot of people live in the same house. From grandparents to grandchildren even if the house is small. In addition, although children are already married, they are not required to move out of the house from their parents and they can stay in the same house to raise their families.

As for my education background and working background, I am a full time student at Montgomery College Rockville campus majoring Hospitality Management. My initial goal is to have an associate degree from Montgomery College so I could transfer to University of Maryland (UMUC) for my bachelor. Hoping that later I will find a decent job that suits my major. My parents are my role models because I grew up having them to support me in my every needs. They didn’t stop working so they can provide for both my sister and me. In addition, they don’t want us to have a struggling lives as they have had experienced in theirs.

When it comes to political aspect in my life, I am passive about it. It is not that I am not interested about politics, but more on experienced in the Philippines where politics is known to be a dismay to most Filipinos in the country. Politicians and government officials are too greedy and corrupt. Based on what I have learned through various forms of news updates, newspaper, television reports, online news articles and radio reports, politics in the Philippines are complicated due to the fact that the country is under developed. Corruption is a huge problem and it creates a relationship to other social problems such as education, poverty, employment, economy and many others. I am hoping that our new President will have the chance to run our country great again.

I was born a Roman Catholic. Majority of people in the Philippines are a Roman Catholic. In addition, my dad is an active leader in the Catholic Church. I was raised to believe in God, follow the Ten Commandments and pray to god every time I can. It gives me guidance to do the right acts to others. Therefore, I could say religion is good spiritual influence to my life.

Music plays a significant role in my life ever since I can remember. It is my way of expressing myself, and it reminds myself that I am not alone. Someone out there who created every lyrics of the song felt the same way as I feel in the moment I appreciated the song. Usually, the song that I can relate is the song I also memorized and sing it every time I feel the same emotion. There is no favorite genre that I prefer because I play a song based on my mo

The most unforgettable experienced that happen to my life is when I moved to the United States. This was the most painful experienced that I have felt in my life. It breaks my heart to leave the people I grew up with, but at the same time, it gives me a different view in life. A sense of direction and understanding what is life about. When I was in the Philippines, I am happy to get by every day without planning anything for my future. This was because it is part of our culture to stay with the parents as long as we want without worrying about finishing school and getting job right away, although my parents kept telling me to do so because what if they are gone and not because I need to. When I got here in the U.S., I’ve met new friends and new people that made me realized that it’s different here. I can be who I want to be and have my own personal identity. I was able to compare my life in the Philippines and my life over here. I was able to distinguish the difference and the possibility of the life I had if I stayed and the life I can have. I felt the sense of freedom to be the great version of my own self with enough effort to it, of course.