Shainne Hostalero

Taken at Tagaytay, Philippines during a windy day. I watched some kite-flying, too. How wonderful it is to be a kid. I’m not good at acknowledging my feelings. I usually nip it in the bud or let it stay within me in a span of hmmm… 20 seconds to a minute. It is because I always believe that there is more to life than what we feel at the moment – and I know it was right. I know I was right. At some point. But what I did not realize... it's case-to-case basis and I apparently generalized it. For the longest time, I always suppressed some of the emotions I needed to feel because most of them were far negative for the day – stress, annoyance/irritation, sadness and the like. I felt like I was strong enough to conceal and not to feel. I felt like I have control. And oh, it is true that I have control; we have control – so I stood by it. Indeed, we are in control of our emotions and how our minds go round about things and events. But like in some situations, there’s also a need for...

Photo from web Straw, along with other plastic materials, can be very harmful to the environment. Most of us never think twice or even re-consider using these kinds of disposable plastic straws. True enough that using straws gives us convenience and some might wonder why we need to re-think using these. Here’s some of the reason why: Straws are made up of POLYPROPYLENE – it is a petroleum bi-product; which is the same material used in automotive, textiles, and other plastic materials. Straws are among the TOP 10 Marine Debris Items 44% of all SEA BIRD species and 22% of CETACEANS have ingested plastic – straws included Plastic constitutes 90% of ALL trash floating in the world’s oceans In the last 25 years, 6,263,319 straws and stirrers were picked up during annual beach clean-up events Using straw can be of a convenience, no doubt. But in cases, we can still drink our beverages even...

Dagitab (2014) "Sparks" Written by: Giancarlo Abrahan Towards the end of the film, I couldn't not help but ponder: Mag-isa. Ganito makakarating sa pinanggagalingan. Hindi naman sa paglingon. May puntong babasagin mo ang sarili at wawasakin ang lahat ng nagtatahi sayo hanggang mag-isa ka na lang.  Kapag handa ka ng mag-isa. Saka mo makikita ang kailangan makita. Laging ganito. Nasa pinakamagandang panahon ka ng buhay mo. Wala kang muwang. 'Di mo alam na naroon ka na sapagkat naghihintay ka ng katiyakan sa loob mo na meron pang dadating.  Naghihintay ka ng naghihintay hanggang magugulat ka, lumipas na ang panahon niyo. Lahat ng hinintay mo ay dumating na pala.