Essay for ATENEO

We all started as dust on the ground - lifeless, worthless, and meaningless; but everything changed with just one flick of the Creator’s finger, and He made us into wonderful pieces of art; He gave us life. This life is filled with lots of experiences that may either make us whole, or shatter us into pieces. Experiences give color to our lives. Without these ups and downs, triumphs and defeats, life will be monochromatic. In my life, I can say that there were lots of good and bad experiences that happened to me, but only a few of them made a huge impact to me and to my life. One of these experiences happened when I was in Grade 5. My father is an OFW. Whenever he goes home here in the Philippines, he’ll only spend a week for his vacation and will spend the rest of his stay working as a taxi driver. We do not own the taxi, that’s why my father’s profit for the day is just enough for the car’s boundary. Everything went well because despite of this financial crisis, we knew that my father has a work abroad waiting for him, but unfortunately, there wasn’t. He decided to resign from his job because the establishment doesn’t give his salary on time. They don’t want us to know their problem, but the anxious look in my parents’ eyes was difficult to hide by their fake smiles. I told them that we must know what’s happening, so mother told me since she believed that I am mature enough to handle the problem. I accepted the truth that we have some adjustments to make, and I’m willing to help them in every way I can. My mother promised that we won’t stop schooling though, but I feel that we must. We must stop schooling because our money wasn’t enough for the stuffs we had to buy for school, but my mother insisted. “Don’t follow our footsteps, make your own trail,” she always says to us. My parents were both undergraduates, that’s why their main priority is our education; they don’t want us to suffer a life like them. After a few weeks, my father still