l(a leaf falls)oneliness

That is a weird title for a very beautiful poem. I have already known that the poet, e. e. cummings is really an out-of-this-world poet, I mean most of the weirdest poems that the world has produced were from his hands. His pattern was very puzzling and intriguing. Where in the whole wide universe will you ever find a title of a poem like the ones in the title of this post. But the way the poem was delivered was really spectacular. The romance was enlivened like it will never live again. The words were flowery than the garden of the most flower-lover of the world. The meaning of the poem was well conveyed. I can really say that e. e. cummings is really a very talented poet, as what is presented to me in his poem l(a leaf falls)oneliness. But what is puzzling is that why did he associate a falling leaf with the idea he presented in the poem? And why did he arrange the letters like that? I think the arrangements of the letters suggests the movement of a falling leaf.

l(a
le
af
fa

ll

s)
one
l
iness

But does a leaf fall in a straight line? Notice that in the second, third, and fourth line the height of the letters goes on alternately. 'l' is taller than 'a' and it was put firstly than 'a'; then on the second line a smaller letter came first than a much taller 'f' and it went on alternately in the next line. I think it suggests a flipping of a falling leaf. And I also think that the poet wrote this while watching a falling leaf itself, so that he was inspired.

research study

On our Research I subject, we were asked to think of a topic that would be proposed as a study for Research II. Of course it should be a scientific topic. I proposed all about Bioremediation. It is a method of treating oil spill using certain bacteria. Two types of bacteria are chosen to be studied. These bacteria eats the oil that stays at the surface of the water, causing the decrease of the oil density in the water. The performance of the two bacteria in treating oil spill will be compared afterwards, a conclusion will be drawn, and a recommendation will be made. That was my research proposal. I defended it before a line of panelists, but it was not accepted as a study for Research II.
The whole batch was divided into several groups, each given a research topic to perform, and defend. I belonged to Ms. Yee's group. And it was her proposal that was given to us. In short, she was our leader. The topic was about the comparison of two types of animal manure, including their mixtures, as a fertilizer in the growth of okra plants. The other members of the group were Mr. Mendoza, and Ms. Cabalida. The two types of animal manures were from the horse's and from the cow's. Their performance will also be compared to the performance of loam soil alone, which means no treatment of fertilizer.
The research started as early as May, because we all know that this was going to be a long experiment. Unfortunately, I was not informed of the early preparations. Since the classes still had not yet opened, and Ms. Yee and Ms. Cabalida found no means of communicating me, I missed the first part of the experiment. It was only on the first day of the school year that I had known that they had already started the experiment.
We continued the experiment as early as the first day, and for the forst time we did the experiment together. We toiled daily in cultivating the plants, protecting them from unwanted foreigners, measuring any gain in weight and fruit bearings, and watering them. We went through thick and thin, that there was even a time that we went under the showering clouds just to do the measurements. We did these things until October.
After the defense, we felt the utmost happiness that we completed finally the research study and made it a success.

KYSD

What is KYSD? It is an annual school activity of the University of the Philippines High School done on the later part of the school year. The acronym means: Know Your School Day. The objective of the activity is to give the students the chance to feel the joy, the pressure, and the thrill of being either a subject teacher, a clerk, or even a principal. I do not know how and when the idea of this activity all started, but I found this one very significant and enjoyable that a school year must not miss to have. That is what KYSD is all about-- an activity of utmost importance and fun.
When I was on my first year in this school, I did not expect that an activity like this KYSD existed. It was because there was no such activity like this that I had encountered when I was still in my elementary days. I got no idea about what this activity was all about. I needed an extensive explanation. At length I found myself fully understood the concept and aim of this KYSD. Being a shy type of a student, I had already imagined myself in front of my classmates while teaching them some lessons on my own words. I was shy to even dare myself on trying. It was as if I found it unbearable, especially that it was still my first year in that school and that I still have not known my classmates very well. What would they think of me? My imagination ran through the negative. Therefore, I decided not to apply for any position at all.
Now in this year I had already known my classmates very, very well. Do you think that I can now bear to stand in front of them and teach them the way our real teacher teach us? I can, but I decided not to. I was shy to even dare myself in trying. I left the application to the others and I found that there are many people that really wanted to try and take the challenge. Almost all the subjects that were taught there was an applicant-- in Math, in Physics, in English, etc.
I decided to be just a student. What I felt when I was taught by my classmate? I felt great. I found them very good in teaching. Their styles, though slightly different from our real teachers, were also effective. I learned a lot from them and I felt I made a wrong decision of not to try applying for a position. I felt it was a regretful decision. But there is no more next KYSD for me. This is my last year in High School.
Therefore, I recommend to whom this may concern,the students from the lower years, that you must try participating in this yearly activity.

the look

The haunting look of an eye-- the soul peeps through its window. The eye seems to hold the greatest power that a human body can possess. One look and everything may change. The eyes can exert a huge amount of force to a someone's heart and mind. It is said that if you are unsure of a man's true feelings, look through his eyes. Yes, because the eyes is the only window through your soul. In there you can see how emotions, and feelings and sentiments revolve around a person's body. In a depressed or sad body, there in his eyes you would see chaos, and in a body plunged in deep felicity, his eye would be an eternal garden to the beholder. That is how mysterious and wonderful the organ of seeing is. Without it, the world will quiver, will shatter, will speed into the bottomless space, and if it has a mouth and could speak, it would say: “ So long with you, eyeless people!”
The poem by Teasdale defines a simple point: that the eye has more power to give than any other part of the body. The lips when they implant a kiss has power to give but there is no mystery. Apparently a kiss was given because of some positive reasons. No negative ones. So the mind of the one who received the kiss will not haunted through day and through night. A kiss is not robed in mystery. But the eye-- the piercing, quick bouncing of light on an eye-- is encompassed wholly by all sorts of mystery. Any reasons can be possibly taken into consideration when the look of an eye is given to a someone. These reasons can be taken regardless whether it is positive or negative. A sudden, quick glance can mean many things. And if the mystery endures, it can haunt the receiver night and day, night and day, night and day.
The mysterious eyes, the look it can give: it remains one of the existing mysterious things of the world. Though science has given its part of the explanation of how the eye works, the emotions that is driven with the light that has bounced on the eyes remains a thing of wonder and of question. Countless of people had wronged how others glance at them.
These little windows can widen, reduce their size, sharpen themselves, glimmer, or pour out some drops of tears just to let others see how the atmosphere goes on inside the soul of the owner, on a single haunting look.

love: act of will and not of the heart

Love is an act of both the will and the heart. Without the two, love will not exist, it will not be felt. Have you ever been so in love? If you do and you say that love is an act only of the will, did not your heart also beat? The actions of both the will and the heart brings love into existence. The heart of a loving person alone will not bring a happy love, meaning there is no will, and at the same time the will of a loving person alone will not bring in a joyful love if there is no action from the heart. Like mathematical functions, love is the function of both the will and the heart. There is no love if there will be no action of the will or the action of the heart. If ever you had been so in love, then you will find out that it is your will that you let your heart palpitate, and it is the palpitation of the heart that let your will decide. Think about this when you fall in love. Let your heart and your will act at the same time and you will have the love that all couple seeks for. The happiness of a love lies on the actions a lover takes. Give your heart to someone while at the same time letting the hands and mind of your will do their job. With these a couple will be assured of a lifelong romance. Love with your heart and with your will.

cyberfair

For the last few months two of my classmates and I had been conducting an extensive research about three of the religious sites found in Cebu. These three are Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño, Magellan’s Cross, and Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. The research was for the school’s entry to the cyberfair: a web-making contest joined by numerous schools from numerous countries in the world. Last year our school submitted an entry to the same contest and that entry won an award. Now we, the fourth year students of the school, were divided into several groups each having assigned topics to be researched. Then I and two classmates were assigned to the said religious sites. We had an extensive research. We wrote a letter addressing the rector of the Basilica Church and was not heeded to take pictures of the church. So we went to the museum and bought postcards and brought brochures about the museum. We wrote many articles about the church, had them edited many times before we finally submitted them as final. We also wrote articles about the Magellan's Cross, telling the past history of the site and some facts about it. The Magellan's Cross had a very colorful history. This cross was given by the Portuguese explorer, the first person to circumnavigate the Earth, Ferdinand Magellan. We were free to take pictures of the site, so we took many pictures and submit them with the articles. We also wrote articles about the old Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral. The church was apparently aged, the cracks on its walls will prove this. Nevertheless, it stayed as one of the most religious sites in the province of Cebu. Many people come here to worship. We took pictures of the church and submit them with the articles. Those were the things we did for our cyberfair project. We surpassed the obstacles that confronted us-- the pressure, the money,etc. I can say that January and February had been busy months for us.

how I want to be remembered after I leave high school

One thing blossoms in my mind so readily that I turned quiet and solemn for a long span pondering over this thing. What if someone would whisper my name years after I would leave this memorable chapter of my life? What would the imagination of the speaker be while going on through my memory? Of course I would really want it to lie on the positiveness. I want to be remembered as a good, hgalf-serious and half-comical boy when the time comes that I would go on turning on the next page of the book of my life. Like a leaf, after falling down and after lying flat on the cold, earthy ground, I would want anyone to say: how nice that little leaf falls down! I would want anyone to remember me as who I really am: a boy that once led a life interacting with people from all walks of life, a boy who once dreamt of standing in the center for honor, but failed many times and stood up in perseverance. When I first came here to begin a journey for myself, I brought with me stones in my pocket. I did not know what those stones were for, I just brought them. The journey was a long way off. From this journey I met different people whom I befriended with a mighty affinity. As we moved on, I did not realized taht as was spending my time with these friends, the stones from my pocket were dropping gradually. These stones were, I found out, the memories that I had to leave on the road of my journey. Now I want those who would find those stones see them as colored beads--comely and brilliant. I want anyone to handle my memory as if it was the most brittle and the most fragile memory that they had handled. That is how I want to be remembered after I leave high school.

the problem

Upon being delivered into this world through the wombs of our mothers, we are distinctly separated into two genders: the male and the female. The members of each class possess different characteristics from the other one, thus arises the problem of having a problem either with men or with women. We all know that there are differences on characters of men with women, which includes the emotions that the other gender feels more often than the other one. Women are sentimental almost all the time, unlike men who have strong heart. But this does not mean that women are weaker than men. Maybe in terms of physical strength, yes, but women are to have more endurance than men in surpassing different kinds of obstacles. They merely lose their hopes. Man is prone to lose his hope when he feels that there is no clear end to his way. That is one problem with men: their emotional strength. Once they lose their hopes, it is hard to think he will still pursue his life: either he will fork his way to another, or end his journey there. But what if if their hopes are still there and present and still relied on? There the men have their strength. They are doing almost anything not to lose their hopes. It is like they are doing the best that they can to nurture a seed and not to plant again when it dies. That is the problem with most women. Their doings are not in their best when the hope is still there. But until that hope goes away, they begin to do things beyond their best. It is like waiting for the fire to grow before preparing the water. That is the problem with women. They are not in theirselves unless the hope has not disappeared, but all spirits mingle with their hands at the time hope is gone. Another problem with women is they are too secretive about their lives. That is why most women are so mysterious and mostly only in their deathbed do they start to reveal the secrets of their lives. Men are different. It is their pleasure to say what their hearts and their minds want to tell. It is why many people find it comfortable to have friends with men because they are willing to reveal some secrets in their lives. Men are full of surprises. See, because of the differences of characteristics in men from women, there are different problems with one gender and the other.

under the acacia tree

When I get to see or encounter this kind of tree, my mind would immediately inoculate the moon, the stars, and the dark blanket of space into my eyes and show me two persons devoured by a scarce illumination overhead. I knew these two persons well--- a girl and a boy. I knew that the boy had been so earnestly in love with the girl for four whole years, and it was only in his fourth year that he earned the enough courage to say to the girl the love that he had been nurturing for that span of time. And so he wrote a letter and put all his hidden emotions into that letter including the hope taht he relied on about the return of the girl for his love. His plan was set on a night, and that was the night taht goes back in my mind everytime I cast a look at an acacia tree. On that night, the boy felt a great happiness, that I am sure he will cherish forever. They stayed under the acacia tree while merrily talking with each other. I can see the happiness painted on their faces as they were exchanging golden words. The boy was a very good friend of mine. And as I can see that he was possessed by an extreme happiness, I was happy too. Because at last, that friend of mine had talked with that girl about the love that had sprouted in his heart since he had first met her. That was how I meet an acacia tree before another night came and change the way I encounter that kind of tree. On that same tree where my friend and the girl he had been in love with for four years were talking, I saw another friend of mine talking with another girl he fell in love with short time after he knew her. This boy is also a very good friend of mine, and, as a friend, his happiness should also bring happiness to me. But in trying to answer the question why this second night under the same acacia tree changed the way how I encounter this tree, it is because I was also in love with the girl he was talking with on that night. Both of us were in love with one girl at the same time. As I was looking at them talking seriously under the acacia tree, I felt hatred pushing my heart down. I felt I could crush my teeth into pieces due to the ire that I was feeling on that night. And now, everytime I encounter an acacia tree, I would always recall two different nights--- two nights that made me happy and the other angry.

smile

The thing that I consider the most powerful thing in the whole world is a broad, earnest, sincere, joyous, perfectly set as a curve in the face smile. I consider this mightier than the weapon of Adolf Hitler, or the pen of Dr. Jose Rizal; although it will not slash and seize a life in the name of serenity, it can change the dark road that somebody trudges on to the light, where he can find the peace that he is blinded of once by the darkness and that the world is for a lifetime searching for. It is a very efficient eraser--an efficient eraser of sorrow and sadness once it is drawn and offered to anybody. Looking at someone smiling at you and feeling it within yourself is like banging your head against the wall and forget only the part of the past where you go on once with the lights turned off. You only recollect the part when and where you are happily drowned in felicity. A smile, even if it is just given in a snap,can wash away the dust clinging in your heart, and then it pumps the happiness you hid all throughout your system. It is anybody's secret of staying young, pleasant, and happy. A simple curving of your lips such that its parabolic form faces upward can do better things what other things think they can do. It can possibly ease and tame a furious beast. A smile is a simple communication of a person to an animal, suggesting to the latter that the former is happy with its company. If I would be a doctor someday and someone would consult me of his or her having a problem with her health, I would add up to the list of his or her medicines a sweet, pleasant grin hundred times worn per day. Yes, a smile, especially when in its sweetness it could dangle a million kilometers, is an effective medicine. It may not be in a form of tablet or capsule nor syrup, but its powercan almost revive the failing health of someone. Smile and you shall feel well. Doctors of the present time should recommend the drawing of smile in their patients because it is proven to be effective. The mighty power of smile is very great. It offers numerous uses to mankind. Its sweetness never fades, and the memory of smile will never be drawn on the sand where the water from the hungry sea would devour and wipe out.