Memoirs of an Undergrad

Hey, all! I am currently on my term break, and I am using this time to learn how to code in C#, and also how to write "Universal Windows" apps so I can distribute them to the Windows Store some day. Despite that, I will never forget my promise to Miss Eliz (the head of the English Resource Center at Asia Pacific College) that I would publish my speech on my blog some day. This is the extremely revised version of my original piece, titled Am I a Filipino? Like I said in a previous post , this is the final version of my speech, meaning that THERE WILL BE NO MORE REVISIONS . Sure, I can still revise this and whatnot, but the thing is that there will be no use to revising it any further. So, yeah, here's the final version of my speech that got me to the finals of the Inter-Class Public Speaking Competition. One last thing: I am not yet done finalizing my blog, I still have not posted a lot of content for Memoir Mode and I have not yet posted my story about my trip t...

Do I have what it takes to be a Filipino? The one question that lingered in my mind. The only question that I wanted to ask myself whenever I played a Korean pop song on my phone, whenever I embraced the culture of another instead of my own. “I have what it takes to be a Filipino.” Nine words, every day I practiced on how to declare those nine words with passion and with confidence. But, I realized that the more I practiced, the more I doubted myself. At the end of the day, I wondered if I have what it takes to be a Filipino or not. Until, one day, my question answered itself. “What does it take to be a Filipino? What do I have to do in order to consider myself a true Filipino?” I asked myself. “Do I have to pay taxes, do community service, or donate to Philippine charities?” I kept thinking of ways on how to have what it takes to be a Filipino until my uncle overheard what I was saying. He approached me and said, “Nephew, you need to embody the Filipino spirit in order to have wh...