Hey IBAers!

Wooh, what a semester it has been! Remember the start of June six months ago – with school days slowly creeping in and hopeless you clutching at the dwindling moments of vacation (as I presume you are doing now as well)? But still school comes at full blast, with the official start of classes and reunions from much-missed teachers, classmates, orgmates and friends. Going back to school meant not only going back to classrooms but to tambayans as well, as each org setup their respective booths du-ring RNR week. As you confirmed your membership and received your bag of sweets, you were also quite intrigued about the new bunch of people starting on the quest to become full-fledged IBAers themselves, as you did roughly about two to three years ago now.

Soon enough, you got to formally meet the ap-plicants and kick-start their IBA journey through LCOS. You witnessed and took part in their flight, as our ap-plicants-now-new-members completed their require-ments, from the tambay hours and buddy bon- dings to final interviews and portfolio submissions, all to prove their commitment and love for the organization.

Of course, as true-blooded IBAers living our mot-to of ‘With Others, For Others’, you would have involved yourself in the various socially relevant events we held last semester: helping build homes and hope through the IBA-hagi – GK TriBuild in Batasan, saving the Earth one tree at a time through the IBAhagi -Sibol tree planting activity in Bulacan, inspiring the beacon of the nation in YouthLead 2013, and lastly, experiencing the exciting and fulfilling life of the social entrepreneur in the Social AdVENTURE.

As time sped fast, you were down to the last few days of the semester and into the draining hell week/s, struggling to hold on and wishing everything away. Fol-lowing a crazy week of sleepless nights, caffeine-induced waking hours and intensive brain activity bordering on an

overload, another chapter closes in the love-hate relationship that is your col-lege life. After which you find yourself enjoying 8++ hours of recuperating sleep, lounging about the house, mara-thon playing all the TV series, movies and anime you can get your hands to, or for the posh ones out there, exploring various places in or out of the country.

And yet, masochist that you are, you find yourself looking back and mis-sing the rush of school days, the grue-ling exams and cases that pushed you beyond what you thought was your limit, the org events that helped you grow and were your reprieve from the barrage of school work and of course, the company of dear colleagues, friends and family who have made the experi-ence more complicated at times, but worthwhile and special most times…

It is our job and pleasure in the INK team to chronicle and share this roller coaster ride adventure that is yours and your fellow IBAer’s thoughts and stories. Reminisce through the pages as we look back at the semester passed and look forward to a whole new adventure with the coming one. It is our sincerest wish that you create more memories to treasure, of course, with your IBA family behind your back.

Lots of IBA love from the INK Team and yours truly. See you around, IBAer!

This semester marked the beginning of one of a kind business project for the entire university. Last September 21, UP Interschool Busi-ness Association (UP IBA) and UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries (UP ISSI) in cooperation with the University Student Council (USC), In-stitute for Social Enterprise and Development (ISED)-EntrepsBuildPH, AIESEC Miriam College and 180 Degrees Consulting Philippines proudly presented UP IBA’s newest trademark event, The Social AdVENTURE 2013: Experiencing the Exciting Life of a Social Entrepreneur which was held in the afternoon, from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the plaza of UP ISSI. Centering on the organization’s thrust of ‘social responsibility through business excellence’ and the event’s theme for this year, ‘Turning Inspira-tion into Action,’ The Social AdVENTURE is a great university conference that aims to educate individuals, especially college students, on the su-perb value of social entrepreneurship which focuses on the magnificent type of innovation that takes in hand social needs and problems, and where the generation of positive social change in the community is highly significant. Over a hundred college students of different year levels participa-ted in the talks and activities of the social enterprise summit. Most of them came from the university and some hailed from UP Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga (UPDEPP), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), University of the East (UE) and Manila Business College (MBC). The program began with a flag ceremony, trailed by the opening remarks from Mr. Dan Justin Rasgo, the president of UP IBA. Before the series of talks, a short icebreaker was provided to hype up the audience. Subsequently, the incredible lineup of three remarkable speakers from the social enterprise sector started to conquer the entire event. The first one was Ms. Noreen Marian Bautista who is the co-founder of the EcoI-ngenuity Inc., the home of Jacinto and Lirio, a brand that showcases the Filipino innovation of plant leather, like the water hyacinth into fashio-nable and functional statement bags and accessories. Currently, she is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director for Social Entrepreneur-ship and Research & Development (R&D) of Jacinto and Lirio. Ms. Bau-tista imparted a substantial introduction to social entrepreneurship and shared lots of information about the status of activities of her own social enterprise. The next speaker was Mr. Karl Vendell Satinitigan, present Director of the Gawad Kalinga’s social enterprise arm, Center for Social Innovation (GK CSI). At a young age of 24, he has co-founded various social enterprises, and programs which support them, in the country. Mr. Satinitigan discussed the key details of the practice of developing a typical social enterprise and

The Social AdVENTURE 2013 successfully launched

by Bryan Cuerdo

arranged a very fun and interesting activity for the participants to illus-trate the importance of design thinking, ideation and prototyping in the whole process. During the particular activity, the students formed groups of four or five. Then, they formulated their insights which revolved around responding to the inquiry, “How might we design the ideal IKOT jeep-ney experience?” The groups eventually reframed this design challenge based on the information gathered from the members. Afterward, the members of each group were given the chance to share their new de-sign challenge and some insights to the other teams. At the end, ap-preciating its ingenious ideas, the winning team received gift certifi-cates and discount coupons from the event’s sponsors, namely, Pao Pao, Eat!, and Cha Dao Tea Place. Before ending his talk, Mr. Satiniti-gan presented a short video from Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aqui-no IV, 2011 Asian Social Entrepreneur of the Year with Mr. Mark Ruiz. The senator then relayed his personal messages to all the participants and organizers, promoting social enterprises in the country and em-powering youth to partake in this very impressive business advocacy. Successively, the third speaker was Ms. Jeannie Javelosa, co-founder and Director of ECHOstore Sustainable Lifestyle which is a concept store that has the advocacy to nurture and sustain the self, the community, and the planet. She is also the president of the ECHOsi Foundation, who runs the nationwide development programs for ECHOstore. Moreover, her career path includes being an award-winning visual artist-designer and book author-critic (Manila Critics Award), culture expert, museum curator, and a strategic branding-marketing communicator. Furthermore, she is a member of the World Entrepreneur Forum. Essentially, she got across her experiences as a social entrepreneur and exhibited how she made a difference to the society, given the potential of this kind of business to provide a positive social impact. Later on, Ms. Javelosa endowed the au-dience with information about the operations and activities of ECHOstore. After the talk made by each resource speaker, the audi-ence was given the opportunity to raise questions and opinions. Generally, the attendees indeed found the speakers and topics quite interesting, thereby making the interaction full of enthusiasm. At the last part of the conference, Prof. Nestor Rañeses, Di-rector of UP ISSI spoke out his outright support to The Social Ad-VENTURE and country’s social enterprises. Though the university concentrates on technopreneurship (technological approach to entre-preneurship), unleashing the potential of these enterprises is such a great thing. In fact, the institute has accomplished several social en-terprise projects through the years, including the one it handles in the Payatas area in Quezon City. Aside from promoting the general value of

entrepreneurship and projects of UP ISSI, Prof. Ra-ñeses endorsed the courses offered by the insti-tute. It was then followed by the closing remarks, made by UP IBA’s R&D Manager, Mr. Allen Bryan Cuerdo. Through the help of the R&D department, he created this meaningful and worthwhile event. Altogether, The Social AdVENTURE experi-ence is certainly a wonderful one, making everyone imbibe the fact that the concept of business is not merely making profits but creating positive social change. Undeniably, the entire launch of the event turned out well, embarking on the development of the culture of social innovation not only in the uni-versity but also in the whole Philippine community.

UP IBA hosted the tree planting activity themed IBA-hagi: Sibol, Growing for Sus-tainable Development held last September 29 at Ipo Water-shed, Norzagaray, Bulacan. With over 40 volun-teers from UP IBA, UP Green League, UP Beta Sigma La-dies Corps and UP Beta Sig-ma Fraternity, the event was sponsored by Maynilad Water Services, Inc. who provided the bus, food and accommo-dation. As early as 7 AM, the volunteers flocked together as one force to plant a total of 7,000 seedlings. Maynilad representative, Richard Garcia, first oriented the volunteers as they arrived in the watershed headquarter. Volunteers were divided into groups of four and were accompanied by a Du-magat native team leader who assisted them in the trek. All of them wore safety vests and rode on “bancas” to reach the actual reforestation site. The tree planting took almost two hours. When the volunteers got back to the headquarter, their shoes were stuck with mud but were otherwise filled with fulfillment in making a difference for the society. To finally conclude the event, the head of each orga-nization gave their clo-sing re-marks. Lunch was also served for the volunteers.

UP IBA Hosts Tree Planting at Ipo Watershed

by: Jessica Lozada & Gillian Almeda

by: Erwin Ching

Youthlead is a yearly leadership seminar of UP Interbusiness School Association (UP IBA) for high school students all over Metro Manila. It aims to develop the youth to become the future leaders of our nation. It is usually held in University of the Philippines Diliman Cam-pus but this now, it was brought closer to the high school students. UP IBA held its Youth-lead 2013 in Ramon Magsaysay Highschool last July 27, 2013. With this year’s theme, In-stilling Social Responsibility on Today’s Young Leaders, the event targets to expose the young generation to the concept of responsibility.

The program proper began with an opening remarks from Dan Rasgo followed by the introduction of speakers. The speakers who were invited this year are Ms. Anna Venturina, former UP University Student Council Councilor (USC), Ms. Alexandra Castro, incumbent USC Chairperson, Mr. Benedict Nisperos, former UP Law Student Government (LSG) President and Mr. Atom Araullo, TV Host and Journalist. Each one of the speakers were given a topic to discuss that is vital on becoming a respon-sible and good leader. Ms. Venturina discussed on how the leaders operate ethically, Ms. Cas-tro talked about the diversity of a leader, Mr. Nisperos tackled the sustainability side and Mr. Araullo points out the global perspective of being a leader. The talks were followed by team building activities for the students to ap-ply what they have learned in the seminar and help them integrate it in real life experiences.

The event was ended by Mr. Almoite, Sup-reme Student Government Adviser of Ramon Magsaysay High School. He started with the fa-mous saying of Dr. Jose Rizal, “Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan”, explaining the importance of honing the youth. He thanked the UP IBA and the students of Ramon Magsaysay High School for making the event successful and planning to hold a bigger and brighter Youthlead next year.

Everyone’s a Winnerby: Dan Rasgo

Each year, there is one inter-org contest among VSB-based organizations that everyone is excited about because it is not only a showcase of one’s talents and skills, but also a testimony of friend-ship and teamwork among various organizations. Last August 30, OrgPres 2013: Sex and the City was held at Amoranto Theater. With an overall theme of “Battle of the Sexes,” it was truly a night of full of exciting surprises and great shows from the participants. The most awaited event was joined by four competi-tive parties: JPIA, JMA, Team Fadcore (JFA & AdCore) and CEIBAM (CE, IBA & ABAM) which were assigned respectively the following famous characters, celebrities and cities: (1) Spice Girls versus F4 in Tokyo, (2) Mean Girls versus One Direction in Paris, (3) Sailor Moon versus Ghost Fighter in London and (4) Barbie versus Iron Man in New Delhi. After seeing each performance, it is interesting to note how each group had prepared for its outstanding production numbers. All participating groups successfully delivered and executed its well-thought-out story and fantastic background designs. Although every competing party had portrayed extraordinarily well and in a most entertaining and unique way the general theme, none between the sexes was shown as superior to the other. Truly, this kind of event is where the students’ artistic and creative sides come into play. After all the wonderful productions from the participa-ting organizations, almost every one received special awards and recognition, from Best Supporting Actors and Actress to Best in Production Design. But the announcement of overall ranking of

performances is what everyone was looking forward to. Surprisingly, CEIBAM was hailed as the Overall Cham-pion in this year’s OrgPres, followed accordingly by Team Fadcore, JPIA and JMA.

Remarkably, after win-ning this, IBA is now a 2-con-secutive-time champion of OrgPres; last year’s partner of IBA is JPIA. Definitely, IBA, to sustain organization aware-ness and improve its com-petitiveness, will continue to take part in this eventful endeavour for the years to come. Actually, the most ful-filling and best part of the contest is not actually the an-nouncement of winners but it is the very moment after gi-ving your all-out performance at the stage because it is where you realized that all your hardships in practices and prodworks have really paid off, plus the learning ex-periences that you gained. Surely, this event will continue to excite the mem-bers of VSB community because it is not only the organization pride and brag-ging rights that each partici-pant gets from this, but also the incomparable feeling of achievement after each per-formance and friendship built among organizations which are priceless.

The wind rustled the leaves of the over-arching trees and the lush grass at the back of Quezon Hall. It was a beautiful albeit hot afternoon with a cloudless sky and the sun high overhead. Admittedly, I was a bit re-luctant to go, with the usual school work tug-ging at my sleeve and pulling me back, but I was in for a pleasant surprise as the Mems and Apps Teambuilding afternoon turned out to be a really enjoyable bonding experience for me and my fellow IBAers as well. As it hap-pens, the fun games and company were just what I needed to turn around an otherwise sluggish ordinary day and get me prepped up and re-energized for the week ahead. After a brief episode of scouring for and finally settling on a relatively ant-free area to set down our belongings, all those present were divided into four teams of around 4-5 members each. The TBA star-ted with a very novel game of sack race (in which I really did a good job at, by the way HAHAHA) and was later on won by Je-nard and Co.’s team at a really close fight. Following this was a game that in-volved smudging flour all over our faces, loo-king for the Nips candies hidden in flour. The remaining Nips chocolates were then used in a chopstick-picking contest where the teams raced against each other to transfer the small colorful sweets from one plate to another. This task, mind you, is a lot harder than it sounds although Ron was particularly good at it. Next was a relay game of eating mys-tery foods, where each team member was assigned a number corresponding to a food challenge. These challenges went from eating a large portion of watermelon, squeezing out and drinking calamansi juice without closing one’s eyes, whistling after a mouthful of pol-voron and finally eating turon at the fastest time.

Finally, to cap off the day was a game of Running Man where all players were re-grouped into two teams. The first group was tasked to look for hidden IBA logos with the names of the second group at the back, near the Carillon tower. A member of the first group finding a logo and texting it to the game master meant elimination for the other team’s member whose name is written on the back of the logo. However, the challenge was for the first group’s members to find the logos without being caught, and thus eliminated from the game, by the second group’s members. (Get that? Haha! Yes, it’s quite a complica-ted game if you’re not familiar with the rules.)

Overall, the TBA ended with no team emerging as the winner, or rather, at the risk of sounding cliché, with everyone as winners. All teams were tied at one point each, win-ning one of the first four games and every-one giving up on the game of Running Man, with only one out of the many hidden IBA lo-gos found by Lorraine. Kudos to game mas-ter Kim for expert logo-hiding skills (haha!) and to Ma-anne for heading everything!

Truly, IBA’s team building activity was a few hours of reprieve, well-spent in a fun carefree day running about with fel-low IBAers in competitive yet fun-filled games. Hope to see you there next time!

This article contains trivia facts about the cur-rent Secretary General of UP IBA. Behind her demure gestures lies a very loud Denise Santos. She’s very vocal when she’s with her friends especially when it comes to expressing her desire to eat her favorite Sio-mai chili sauce - yes, Iskoma’s chili sauce appears to be Denise’s favorite food. Aside from that, she may look like the typical school-house and vice-versa girl but indeed, you’re correct, she really is sometimes. But most of the time, she’ll drag her friends to all troubles just to, again, eat her favorite siomai sauce. Because of this, she usually goes home at around 6:30pm But

But despite being a sio-mai chili sauce addict, UP IBA’s secretary ge-neral does not neglect her tasks for it and is in-deed very good at what she’s doing. In fact, she applies her learning even when she’s with her friends. She orga-nizes itineraries and out-of-town get-aways. So don’t forget to thank her when you see a birthday pubmat at the IBA group because she’s sacrifi-cing a chance to eat siomai chili sauce when-ever she makes one.

AS THE WORLD strives for im-provement and development, businesses continue to strive to meet the ever-expanding needs of society. People’s growing demands can be said to be the driving force behind the core concepts of various enterprises. Under this context, en-trepreneurship can be understood as the innovation of fresh ideas and business processes, taking into consideration the chance of profit or loss. In response to a perceived opportunity, this often leads to the sprouting of new organizations that in turn stimulate the different pro-ductive sectors of the economy. Furthermore, through the years the concept of entrepreneurship has come to the fore in many countries across the world, highlighting the unrelenting global pursuit of busi-ness opportunities. In the Philippine setting, en-trepreneurs are considered a ma-jor pillar of the economy. An over-whelming majority of all business establishments (99%) and exporting companies (60%) in the country are composed of micro, small and me-dium enterprises (MSMEs). Accord-ing to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), there are 820,255 business enterprises operating in the country as of 2011.

Thereof, 99.6% (816,759) are MSMEs and the 0.4% (3,496) left are large enterprises. Moreover, of all MSMEs, 91% (743,250) are micro enterprises, 8.6% (70,222) are small enterprises, and 0.4% (3,287) are medium enterprises. Given the predominance of MSMEs, it is not surprising that they generated a total of 3,872,406 jobs in the same year versus 2,473,336 for large enterprises. In other words, MSMEs account for around 61 per-cent of the total jobs created by all business establishments during the said period. When it comes to the increase in general production value, the said enterprise sector provided 35.7 percent of the total with manufacturing supplying the biggest share of 6.87%. In terms of exports, MSMEs are responsible for 25 percent of the country’s total ex-ports revenue. While statistics show that en-terprises are mainly comprised and operated by people from older ge-nerations, today’s youth is also ma-king a mark in the entrepreneurial world. Several inspiring young Fili-pino entrepreneurs include RJ Da-vid and his wife (Creators of Sulit.com.ph), Richard Sanz (Presidentof Food Asia Corpo-ration), and Reese Fernandez (President

BusinessWorld Beyond. 2013. “The value of youth entrepreneurship.” Accessed September 5, 2013. http://bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Beyond&title=The-value-of-youth-entrepreneur-ship&id=76023

and Founding Partner of Rags2Riches). More and more young members of society are engaging in efforts to create their own businesses, indi-cating a growing appreciation for the value of entrepreneurship. This is important because entrepreneurship benefits not only the people directly involved in the enterprise, but also other members of society. Moreover, the involvement of the youth in entrepreneurship de-monstrates that the new generation can be effective catalysts of change and progress. In particular, college students appear to play an important role in the development of new enterprises. This can be attributed to their exposure to both theoretical and practical knowledge, fresh thinking, and idealism in pursuing their dreams, among others. The nation’s leading institutions of higher learning also promote the value of entrepreneurship in their own different ways. The University of the Philippines, for instance, supports technopreneurship or a techno-logical approach to entrepreneurship. The neighboring Ateneo de Manila University, meanwhile, promotes social entrepreneurship, which focuses on the innovation of products and services that deal with social needs and problems and where the creation of positive social change in the community is highly regarded. Despite the recognized role of entrepreneurship in the pursuit of economic and social development, however, young and aspiring Filipino entrepreneurs still confront many difficulties at present. Among the major problems are insufficient access to technology and lack of capital. This is in addition to inadequacy of knowledge and tools about marketing, logistics, and other elements of business. Furthermore, the presence of foreign companies and the domination of a few large domestic firms in key economic sectors represent sizeable barriers to entry in the local market. For these reasons, the Philippine government is exerting efforts to foster an entrepreneurial spirit in the country to drive to our growing economy. In this regard, the DTI crafted the MSME Development Plan for 2011 to 2016 to serve as a framework for the coordination of initiatives taken up and carried out by several stakeholders towards growth and de-velopment of the MSME sector in the country. The actual implementation of the plan is key and bears watching. From the existing evidence, it can be said that MSMEs partake in the procurement of wealth, employment and income generation in both the countryside and in cities. The sector also helps redistribute income and reduce inequality among the members of society. Furthermore,these enterprises deliver new ideas, ad-ditional skills, and prodigious innovations that encourage competition and efficien-cy towards national development. Lastly, it is worth noting how the young genera-tion has been proving its worth when it comes to the development of these en-terprises. While this demonstrates the youth’s capability to create successful business ventures and make their mark in society, imagine how much farther our young entrepreneurs could go if we start dismantling the obstacles in their way.

Ways to Live Forever*by: Ross de Guzman

Mankind has always been obsessed with the idea of being immortal, that is living forever. But despite all efforts made by our ancestors centuries and millennia ago, this battle is far from won. However, humankind has found a way to leave something that will last for eternity – that is, leaving a work of art. Think along the lines of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel murals, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, or Adele’s Someone Like You. Yeah, because of their obra maestro, mankind will always remember them, etched in their minds for eternity. Well, as for me, I am not actually an artiste, so the only things I can think to live forever are just silly ones including being bitten by a vampire, or being frozen through cryonics, or taking some crazy drugs to always be young. But we all know that’s not possible anytime in the near, even distant, future. So yeah, what to do to live forever? Well, now that I think about it, at least there are ways to actually live forever, or at least be remembered for your college antics.1. Join the most awesome org. It’s all about having that per-fect companions for a perfect journey through college. Just like being in IBA, you get to have a second home with the greatest friends you can ever meet in VSB. In there, you get to have memories that will forever be captured in hun-dreds of pictures and write-ups in INK.

2. Finding the right balance. You don’t have to be a geek and be remembered as the summa cum laude, nor be a total badass and be known for your crazy drinking habits at parties and adhocs. You can just be yourself and enjoy being in both worlds. You get to have friends for study groups and a Saturday night out.

3. Do a crazy creative shot. I’m not exactly talking about doing a Miley Cyrus Wrec-king Ball pose for the yearbook. Crazy doesn’t mean Lady Gaga crazy; it’s about finding the right amount of novelty and fun and art.4. Jump off a cliff. Or maybe just do something that you know you’d never have the guts to do. College is the time to do things out of the ordinary. So, yeah, time to take that leap of faith, either literally or not.

5. Do not regret anything. And lastly, you must never think that you did the wrong things. Being yourself and doing the things that you love or were once afraid of, well, that’s definitely nothing to be ashamed of. In the end, leaving a legacy is about standing up for what you did. A lot of things that were considered revolutio-nary were once tagged as heresy or anti-government (you know, like Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the solar system), but in the end, it all came through. People who believed in themselves managed to leave something behind for mankind to appreciate and admire. And even if you can’t actually discover the cure for cancer or the answer for world peace, at least you know that somehow, you did things that can make you live forever, like you never left college.

*not the movie you probably never heard of

As a student, there are times when we feel like our academic load and organizational work is taking over our lives and sometimes we just need a little time to spend on our self. It seems dreadful to do so if you’re an extrovert, but a little me-time does not hurt anyone. Here is a list of things to do great on your own. 1.) Watch a Movie Movies that make you feel good and just appreciate life, like The Pursuit of Happyness, or The Impossible. These kinds of movies makes you believe that anything is possible with perseverance and determination. Just be careful though, because after watching, you might feel like the paper you’re sup-posed to be writing is trivial compared to the problems faced by the characters. Movies that just makes you laugh out loud, like 21 Jump Street or Week-end at Bernie’s. Laughing makes people more creative, and you might just find your next inspiration. Any movie that your heart desires, what’s great about watching alone is that nobody would judge your reactions, like when you laugh out loud and suddenly spill your drink on you, or when you bawl like a baby and a huge snot is dripping from your nose.2.) Read a Book What’s great about reading a book is that you totally emerge yourself in another world and experience a whole new life, you get to experience dif-ferent feelings and wonder what you’ll do if you were in that situation. It’s also a big plus that your vocabulary will improve.

I would not try to recommend any book, as I am partial to some types of stories. On the other hand, I sug-gest that you log on to goodreads.com which contain a lot of information on almost every book out there. It also recommends books based on what you have read and liked in the past.3.) Cook/Bake You can cook your favorite meal for yourself or your family and friends. This would surely increase your patience and accuracy, and the sense of accomplishment you’ll feel after is something you would always remember. Cooking gives you time to think, just mind what your chopping.4.) Write Write what you know, what you did, what you want to do and spill your heart unto untouched pages of a notebook. It’s a good way to reflect, and after a few years you might just find gold in what you have written.

You have been working your ass off ever since you’ve stepped in the campus (in fact the enrolment days can already tell). Sometimes, you feel that you’ve strived so hard, while at other times you just felt like you laid a semester to a complete rest. In these passing circumstances, you start to realize that the petty little things you do in school, like deciding what color of highlighter to use for your readings, or even what food to eat in CASAA, will one day pass. The ‘real deal’ world has yet to come. While many people say that it is a cruel world out there, you still believe you’ll do pretty well.

But the real question is: How ready are you? Many are taken by surprise by the truth that it is that a different world out there. Surprisingly even, some people would rather be in school than at work. Why? There are so many reasons: Sudden role transition (student-> employee), inadjustment to the work setting, stress, etc. To be ready for the real world, you have to know yourself and where you belong. There are so many people confused and lost in track of their lives just because they didn’t have a clear vision of themselves and they didn’t have a clear goal in mind. So how do you at least for now, achieve that certainty, that building up of your identity in this world so that you won’t be taken away by the tide like everyone else? Though these 3 steps are easier said than done, you might want to consider putting direction in your life before it beats you to it:

by: Hana Olmillo

What do you want to do, and what are you passionate about? Do you like to write? To sing? To talk to people? To build a business empire? Whatever that is, listen to it, and study it carefully. Most of the time, our passions serve as our engines, our intrinsic push, and to be in-attentive to it would entail that you just threw something in-nate in you. And you wouldn’t want that passion put to waste

would you? Continue being good at it, and soon enough you’ll be the best of it. There was once this guy who used to be an elementary school janitor, but frankly admit-ted that after working everyday, he runs home and reaches for his gui-tar. Because of him, you can now sing songs like “I Won’t Give Up” and “I’m Yours”. The guy’s name is Jason Mraz.

Passion. Passion. Passion. It drives us relentlessly.

Know what you really want in life and PURSUE it.1

It’s always hard to be certain. And if you are the kind of person who can’t live with uncertainties and sudden changes, it’ll be harder. Fret not, because while you’re still breathing, there will always be a way (Haha!) If your time’s becoming messed up, try writing a schedule you can follow. If you suddenly feel bad without apparent reason, listen to music, or chat with a friend. If you’re a morning person and your 5-unit course is jammed in the afternoon, put variety in your efforts to be awake and interested in class. (You might consider investing on a coffee drink once in a while with diffe-rent flavors every week! Haha!) These things may be hard to do, but to strive on doing it is a skill of a lifetime. In almost everything we encounter in life, discipline will always be the key.

Sometimes too, you need to learn how to live a spontaneous life. You can’t battle with reality- that’s impossible. Let’s say you have 4 exams tomorrow. Rather than ranting and cursing about it, how about accepting such fact (regardless of how good or bad it sounds), and act on it?

Remember, only you can put yourself down.

2 Embrace changes and uncertainties. Learn to live spontaneously!

3 Lastly, enjoy life! You have a 10-page paper due tomor-row, you’ve been having pimples a lot lately, and your crush doesn’t seem to care a bit- end of the world? Not at all.

Look at your life in a different perspective. Set reasonable boundaries so that you won’t get hurt you’re your expectations are not met. Probably because you’re focusing on the ‘nega-tive’ that you’ve forgotten and overlooked what you have: you’ve been blessed with a bunch of funny friends you hang out with every day, and you’re lucky to have that in-demand professor of yours!

Enjoy life! It only comes once!