Shainne Hostalero

Since I started out Happy Shift two years ago - put on hold, then restart again April of this year, it was and still is a struggle. You need to research, develop, promote, do customer service, and always uplift the brand. Being a business major myself, many of my friends think that it will be easier since I have a background. Perhaps, at some point, but never entirely. I always believe that hardwork will pay off and working smart is indeed the key. Also, I firmly believe that I couldn't do it with the people around me who give their support even in just simply like my brand's page, Facebook posts, or Instagram uploads. I also like to believe that there's always good in everybody and that people are also willing to help you and not ask for anything in return, except for you to appreciate them. I'm not close to success but I'm glad how things have started and gone its course. I couldn't say that I haven't experienced any tremors yet, but I'm proud to s...

There were really days, huh? I've been so tired for the last two years - mentally, physically, and emotionally. You know, I'd like to believe that I have lengthened my patience, perhaps through time, through experience, and through downfalls, but sometimes I just lose it. How about you? Maybe I'm asking for validation if someone in here feels the same, too. I think the emotional tiredness is one of the hardest to recover with. If you are physically or mentally tired, you may have to sleep on it then it gets better. But, when you are emotionally exhausted, it doesn't really follow. You'll get this many blunders in life that you wanna yell at everyone who is actually annoying, doesn't have manners or discipline. But, you want to take the high road and be a bigger person because it is actually appropriate at the moment. However, things may get off at hand sometimes. Have you ever forced yourself to love somebody because it's the best thing to do? I think ...

Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goosen Part of my 2018 resolutions and goals is to back to reading, especially the ones that have been stuck in my shelves for quite a long time now. I don't spend much my money buying clothes, shoes, makeup, and the like; instead, like a real adult, I spend it paying grad school tuition fees (huhuhu hahaha), insurance, business supplies, raw materials, and BOOKS. The first book I've read this 2018 was Crazy Rich Asians  by Kevin Kwan which I still have to share with you here. But, to be honest, it is already August (September) and it is just a few days ago that I've finished reading another, Men Without Women by my favorite author, Haruki Murakami. The book is also a shadow of what we all have felt inside of us, maybe once or twice. Gaining new stories, having a partner, losing one, getting our hearts broken, and moving on from there. We all have been there. Like the usual Murakami creation, it is full of many realiz...

Since How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) is already uploaded on Netflix (complete 9 seasons!), I've decided to give it a go and re-watched it again. It took me way back to my college days when I first completed all episodes and talked about it with my barkada . It was a whole lot of nostalgia and the feels .  Photo from web I've spent almost two weeks re-watching it and dread the remaining ninth season because somehow, I don't want it to end. Hahaha! It felt like my life has been over and out again, and episode per episode has been nothing but sort-of communicating to me that "look at yo' life, gurl," and at the same time, "you're in a good place now."  My college barkada's everyday spiel is how episodes went, how funny they were, and our in-depth thoughts on Ted's dilemma. We are somehow deciphering who we are in the TV series or looking out for our own Marshmallow and Lilypad.  Maybe, why I'm saying this is because HIMYM has...

I was tagged by numerous photos on social media by a friend. The images were mainly the memories we had in a workplace, where, I must say, contributed to who I am today - as a person, as a marketer, a writer, an educator, a friend, and a human being. I can't help but reminisce the past; the time of how we started - all the friendships we built from the ground to up, as well as the rifts and the differences we decided to mature enough to set aside. It was happy, it was sad, it was dramatic, it was fun. It led different emotions and realizations, that up until now if we had the chance, we will go back to it. But maybe life made us not to go back. Perhaps there is a reason why we cannot change what we did, why we cannot go back to what we have missed, and why we cannot touch what we weren't able to reach. I was single for quite long and fooled enough to know that there was love everywhere in every form. I had and still have friends who consider me as part of their family; an...

Photo from: jcomp/Freepik The common point of complaint regarding the communication between public agencies serving children and the media has always been the fear, mistrust, and subsequent misinformation. On one side, you have a child welfare system burdened with the nearly impossible task of mitigating the worst effects of societal dysfunction: child abuse, neglect, and child death. On the other side, you have a cast of overwhelmingly well-intentioned journalists, working under a strict deadline, who are met with a foster care system practically and - in more than half of the states - legally cloaked in obscurity. The system's culture of confidentiality invariably erodes the news media's confidence in it, resulting in a more sensationalist coverage that the foster care professionals are scared about. It is a case, which has showcased us the current warped public perception of a broken foster care system. The logical result is that myriad opportunities to engender civi...

Photo from:  mindandi / Freepik "I was feeling a little anxious and worried, scared," said Heather, 13, while sitting inside the courtroom. Her wide-shaped expressive eyes were looking down at the floor at first, turning her eyesight to everybody in the courtroom - she must be observing. The incident happened that night when her father threatened her life. As a teen, this should not be the kind of thing Heather must be experiencing. "I was feeling really shy and it was hard enough for me to make friends on a normal day. " She feels discomfort during her stay in the courtroom. "When I was waiting to be called up, first I was thinking, like I said, how I was really uncomfortable there. As a really awkward 13-year old, I was feeling really shy, and it was hard enough for me to make friends on a normal day. That lonely day, I was feeling really anxious and overwhelmed, and there are all these kids running around doing whatever. I felt like that was my fir...