Thursday, December 24, 2009

My Miracle From God (Board Passer)


        After graduating Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, I went straight to post graduate to continue Medicine. And while I was in my 1st year proper, I was planning to take my Pharmacy board exam. At first I wasn’t sure if I can do both, taking the board exam while being busy in med school. I was worried at first that I might fail the board exam. And then I thought that it’s okay if I fail because I was taking up medicine anyway, I can’t use my Pharmacy license even if I pass it. But still, I decided to continue because I realized that if I pass the Pharmacy licensure examination, it would give great pride to my whole family and that’s the best gift I could give to them from all their hard work for me…

        So I filed for the application in the Pharmacist licensure examination at the Professional Regulation Commission. It was all set. Then I told my mom that I need to enroll to a review center so she gave me 15,000 PhP. But the problem is, I’m in Medicine, I need to decide where to concentrate and I ended up not enrolling in the review center, instead I told myself that I will do self review. And I was given 3 months to do it.

        Now, another conflict joined my situation, it was the golden 50th anniversary of my Grandparents and this situation is very rare and only comes once. And this two people are very important in my life, so I need to somehow help in preparing for the significant occasion in our family. So I ended up not reviewing at all, two and a half months have been wasted for reviewing time. I even sang in the occasion. After the celebration, there was 20 days left before the Pharmacy board examination. And I was very busy in my med school because there’s a lot of topics to catch up. So I told myself that for the remaining 20 days, I will try to review at least one hour per day, but still I didn’t end up strictly following the goal that I’ve set. So I told myself that it’s okay if I fail because I didn’t study at all, I was preoccupied with other things and I’m in medicine anyway. But the truth is I’m very nervous because it is embarrassing to my Pharmacy family if I fail.

        So before the board exam started, I told myself not to be nervous because I’m taking up medicine anyway, so whatever happens, I should accept it coz’ I am the one who made my future. So while taking the boards, I wasn’t nervous because I psyched myself from it, and the great thing is I wasn’t mentally blocked, eventhough, I didn’t enroll in the review center and I didn’t end up doing self review, I remembered everything that my Pharmacy instructors taught me. So I felt good and confident with the 2 day examination.

        After the board exam, I have to wait 3 days for the results and it will be shown first in the internet at twelve in the morning under Philippine Daily Inquirer website. So with that 3 day duration, I was extremely nervous because I don’t want to give shame to my family as well as to my pharmacy instructors. It was the third day at twelve in the morning, I was scanning the website for the results and I keep coming back because it hasn’t been posted yet… and after many anxious minutes of waiting, finally, the results came out. I checked my name immediately, and with so much anxiety, I didn’t see my name because I skipped it. So I felt more afraid and agitated, so I rescan the page and finally I saw my name. After that… You can imagine what happened… I was jumping and shouting for so much joy that my neighbors woke up… then I called my grandfather and mother first to share the miraculous news. And my family was so proud of me that they didn’t sleep so that they could rush to the newspaper store in the first minute that it opens… I’ve never felt the feeling that someone is so proud of me in my whole life because this was the first accomplishment I have ever done and I can’t stop smiling the whole night.

        It was really a great miracle from our Almighty… GOD was the UNPERCENTED reason why I passed… I didn’t do anything at all, it was all him, I just surrendered everything to him. He never left me, he guided me not to be nervous so that I would remember everything… Nothing is impossible with God and this is my testimony…

Website Page:

January 2007 Pharmacist Licensure Exam Results

- The Prodigal Learner

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

My Life’s Passion



        I started to learn that I love singing when I was 5 years old… I remembered that I was always singing while taking a bath, even until now I’m still doing it… It’s my first love… I remembered before that I love to sing videoke songs from the cable, I’m even calling the company to request what songs they will play and I will always choose Bon Jovi songs… It’s so nice to recall from your past…

        As I grew older, I learned to battle the negative criticisms in my life… Instead of me accepting the discouragements, I looked at it as an encouragement to enhance and work harder to show my faithful relationship to my first love which is music…

        So I believe that like in learning… singing is a nonstop progression in life… there’s a never ending enhancing and developing of your God given talents… So while I’m still breathing, I’ll still continue living my life by singing and giving music to it…

- Soul Writer







Monday, December 21, 2009

A Traveller’s Final Paradise (The Great Escape To The Last Frontier)


















        Where else in the world can you find the perfect place to have a vacation to? The magnificent place where you can find true peace and relaxation? The absolute place where nature will take good care of you and show you the beauty of it’s real treasures? Well, I found it here… In the Philippines…

        I have been to the most admirable countries in the world and I can surely say that this is one of the best places in our God given planet where you can discover and own excellence through your eyes… It is one of the most perfect place, if not, the only perfect place where you can witness both a majestic scene with the cheapest budget you’ll ever have…

        And this place they call the last frontier? Is Palawan… I have been to the three major locations of Palawan… First, Puerto Princesa… Second, El Nido… And Last but not the least, Coron… Each place offers a unique way for you to appreciate them differently…

        In Puerto Princesa where you can find Honda bay, Crocodile Farm and the World famous Underground river, as well as great restaurants like Badjao seafood restaurant, Bilao at palayok and the famous Kalui restaurant where I saw the popular Mayor Hagedorn. Here at Puerto Princesa, on an island of Honda bay called Pandan Island is where I first ate my most inexpensive crab ever, 2 Kilos of crabs for only Sixty Philippine Pesos… Yes! You’ve read it right, 60 PhP!!! At Puerto Princesa, I stayed at this low-priced, beautiful, quiet, very clean hotel called Deloro, where the services are great…

        In El Nido, You can see the famous Miniloc Island’s small and big lagoons… And other beaches with white creamy flour like sand and this is the only place where you can own both an island and a beach by yourself because few people go here… I travelled from Puerto Princesa to El Nido by bus for 9 long hours… Again, Yes! 9 Beautiful hours… And with that bus trip, there’s a 2 kilometer walk in the mud because the bus can’t pass through. While walking in the mud, the View was extraordinary, it was breathtaking!!! When I arrived at El Nido, I saw a beautiful small quiet town surrounded by gigantic dead rock mountains and it was unexceptionable at it’s loveliness… I stayed at another budget but very clean and beautiful hotel called Marina…

        In Coron, You can see here the famous Kayangan cove and Barracuda lake… This place is full of wonderful lagoons… And the popular Restaurants here are La Sirenetta, Kawayanan Grill and Bistro by Bruno, a 250 PhP Pizza with the size of a tray… While planning for My Island hopping to these lagoons, I decided to buy Crabs and Prawns in the market and I paid for it to be cooked there and I ate this while enjoying my amazing adventure… Inside Kayangan lake, while I was swimming, I was amazed because the water is not salty, then I knew that all of the water inside the lagoon came from the rain… The salt water can’t enter inside the lagoon. There is also more that Coron can offer besides it’s incredible beaches, there is also an impressive natural Hot Spring surrounded by astonishing mangroves and the astounding Mount Tapyas with 724 steps to reach it’s top… It was all WORTH IT!!! I stayed at a new reasonably priced hotel called Mt. Tapyas Hotel with an elegant restaurant at it’s rooftop which commands a remarkable view of the Coron Bay…

        I’m Jealous of the people living in Palawan… Why? Because they are one of the most Happiest and contented people I’ve ever seen in this world… I never saw them greed for anything… It’s like they have everything… It’s like they’re richer than the Forbes 100 richest people of the world… Why? As I observed them, I realize that they never greed for anything because they never experienced these things, the latest trends in fashion, the newest gadgets in technology… Coz’ I believe that once you experience this material things, you greed for more, you never get contented because it builds envy within us and we become more possessive and chaotic. That to be popular, We need to have the latest in everything. It is only in Palawan that I saw someone paying a bag of rice just to get a ride in the bus. And I can say that they have the PEACEFUL life that we, the one’s residing from the urban cities envy…

        Now, I know why Palawan is called “The Last Frontier”. You won’t realize it until you’ve experienced it. With it’s untouched, undisturbed and unruffled beauty, it still amazes me that we are still given a chance to experience the miraculous attraction of God’s natural scenery despite the destructive behavior of mankind… So I will leave my last words to you and these are “Let us love God’s only treasure to us”.

- Happy Loner Traveller

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Who Am I?


        In my 25 years of life, I still have that same exact question in my mind. Who am I? From my 25 years of getting to know who I am, do I already know myself? Can I entrust myself to me? Am I already confident in defending my own self?

        Well, as I aged, I am learning to understand my own heart and mind. I am progressively getting to know who I am as a person and a human being, as time passes by.

        Now, I can say that I have already understood and found myself. We have to undergo trials and difficult experiences for us to know our limitations and boundaries. It is in our hardships that we bring out our real personhood. For the past 25 years, I can say that I’m that kind of person who is loving, respectful, principled, with dignity, a talent who loves art, God fearing, romantic, adventurous, a discoverer of real life, who loves to share what he has to those people in severe need, simple yet living the life… Why loving? I never took revenge on someone who abused, disrespected and did not treat me well as a human being but rather I forgave them but I never forgot what they did to me. I’ll just be cautious to those people who did not treat me well. Why respectful? Basing on my family’s history, they raised and trained me to give equal respect to all people. There are no rich and poor, no celebrities, no divisions but rather all of us are created and born with the same freedom to live. Why principled and with dignity? I always follow the rules but sometimes you have to bend it when the rules are already abusing your right to live. Not all the things that the rule says are right, we are born as conscience beings and we can use that to guide us from doing what is right or wrong. Why a talent who loves art? Basically I love movies and music so much that I love to act, sing, dance, write romantic short stories, create short documentaries, make heartfelt poems and compose lovely songs. I have dreams of becoming an artist because I have passion for what I do. Why God fearing? My family has their own belief, they are born again protestants and I was raised according to their belief. But that didn’t stop me from exploring the truth that I believed. For me, religion is not that important to me, it’s just a guide. The most important thing for me is my relationship and faith in God and sharing to my brothers and sisters in God what truth I have learned. Why romantic? I’m a person who believes so much in true great love and in faithfulness with the partner of your life. Why adventurous and a discoverer of real life? Well, I’m a traveller, I love to explore and appreciate places that God created for us to take good care of it. These wonderful scenic views are the true testimony that God loves us so much. Why loving to share is important to me? We must be thankful that we are blessed by God, so in our few ways, we must share what we have to those people in need, it’s always a feeling of fulfillment whenever you see someone who smiled despite of their situation because you made their simple dreams happen. And lastly but the most important thing for me, Why simple? Being simple is being humble in our own origins. Eventhough, we are already successful and accomplished in our own ways, let us not forget to always know where we came from and our feet should always be on the ground because the people in your past have somehow contributed to what you are right now. Without them, you will never reach your dreams or even the goals you have created in your life.

- Soul Writer

Rediscovering My Sexuality





        We all started to discover our sexuality at our primary age by the kinds of toys we play, the cartoons we watch and the playmates that we find. And we never stop rediscovering our sexuality as we age. We rediscover it on our secondary ages like having crushes, finding for a peer group and trying to look for our idols that best relates us. For me, as every day passes by, I discover more and more of my sexuality. I love being a heterosexual guy who’s having crushes with ladies. I am a pure straight guy, not that I discriminate homosexuals. I have gay friends and I’m comfortable to be with them because I’m satisfied with my sexuality. When I was a kid I always love to play gun toys and play hard boy stuff like making traps and playing like you’re in a war game. And I’m that kind of guy that has crushes with girls but is faithful to only one lady in my lifetime.

        As I grew older, I was surrounded mainly by females in my environment like in my family, in my 10 1st cousins from my mother’s side, 8 are girls and only 3 are boys including me. And in my preparatory, elementary and highschool years, there are 10 males and 30 girls. As well as my pre-med in pharmacy, all of my classmates are girls. Even now in medicine, we are dominated by girls. But that didn’t confuse me from my sexuality. I love girls and I have the advantage because I could relate to them and I could understand them easily. I’m not ashamed to be in touch with my feelings, I’m not shy to express what I feel as long as I know I am right because I’m contented and satisfied with who I am and my own sexuality.

- Soul Writer

A Traveller’s Nightmare (The Legend of Storm Halong)




        It was 3 weeks before the start of my classes, I miss the waves and fine sands of the beach and I haven’t gone to the beach this summer. My old true friends and I were always seeing each other, catching up to those moments we didn’t spend together. So a week before our travel, I decided to invite my friends to go to Bolinao, Pangasinan because I haven’t been there yet, although it’s just 2 hours away from us, My family never went there. So they agreed and I volunteered to cook and bring the food, as well as to pay the gas for our trip. An unexpected thing happen, PAGASA announced that there is a typhoon coming to northern Luzon and it’s really strong and Pangasinan is signal # 2, it was the night before our trip. My grandfather warned me that we should not go and postponed our vacation to the beach. But I said PAGASA always announces the wrong weather forecast because there tools were already obsolete that’s why it’s inaccurate. So my friends and I still insisted to go to Bolinao.

        We left on May 20, 2008 at 4 in the morning and we arrived at bolinao at 6 in the morning. The wind and rain was still weak. We went to the famous Puerto Del Sol Resort and just checked how beautiful the resort was. Although we can’t bring in food, so we have to find another resort as equally as beautiful and as popular as Puerto Del Sol, We found Treasures of Bolinao Resort where the movie Agent X44 was shot. This resort was at the edge of the Philippines overlooking South China Sea where you can see giant dead rocks and strong waves splashing into it. So we stayed and enjoyed there, We swam in the pool and in the creamy white sand beach despite the waves being big. We sang in the videoke. We ate a lot of food that I cooked.

        So it was 3 in the afternoon and we were preparing to leave because the wind was already getting strong, it was black out and we were soaking wet because of the strong rain. We didn’t know that the signal of Typhoon Halong was raised to #3 already. Our gas was already near empty because we forgot to go to the gas station because of too much excitement going to the beach. We were already at Alaminos, Pangasinan when suddenly there is a detour sign because a post fell down and destroyed the big Jollibee sign. So we were confused with the way and we ended up going to Burgos Poblacion which is a separate road going to Zambales. We got stranded in Burgos because we encountered a real live tornado, the wind was turning white and forming a circle on us, all of the trees around us are falling down, and the car was really literally shaking. I got so excited while my friends were already so afraid. For me, that kind of situation was really what you can call Adventure!!! So we stopped for a while because the driver can’t see anything. Then we saw this gasoline station so we went there to wait for the typhoon to calm down.

        There was this kind hearted family who owned the Petron gas station who welcomed us 4 strangers inside their home. Her name was SUSAN GUIANG, our “ANGEL AMIDST ADVERSITY”. There was flood inside their house so we helped them removed the water as an exchange for their gratitude. We stayed there for 3 hours until the wind slowed down. Then we attempted again to go home because it was already late, we should be home at this time, there was no signal in networks as well as landline phones, it’s what I call “TOTAL BLACKOUT”. Our families were already worrying about us. So as we were driving, trying to find a way home, we were passing to almost all fallen big trees and electric posts and we can’t find a way to clear the road because we don’t have any tools to use. Good thing, the local authority were the ones to help us empty the road.

        So we were back to Alaminos and this time we really made sure we went to the right way. So we were happy when we were already at Labrador, Pangasinan, the next town after Alaminos. As we were driving, we saw a lot of stopover vehicles and all of them were switched off. So we were wondering why??? So I volunteered to step out of the car and ask what is happening. The wind and rain was so strong that I got so wet. The local authority told me that a big post fell down at the middle of the street and it will take them the whole night to remove the post because they lack big tools to cut and lift it. So we still tried to wait it out, we ate the food that I cooked inside the car because there was no electricity, all restaurants and hotel were closed. Good thing I cooked a lot of food or we would really starve. After an hour the police told us to head back to Alaminos for our safety because there’s no chance that we could get home until the next day. So we felt sad and drove back.

        We parked outside Nepo mall and just waited for the sun to rise. I tried to sleep but I can’t because a lot of mosquitos are biting me and it’s very warm and I can’t breathe because the engine was turned off and we can’t open the window because it’s raining strong. For 6 hours we waited and waited.

        It was 7 in the morning, my friends David and Rachel went out to find a cheap hotel just for us to stay and sleep because you can’t drive when your tired. So while Cris and I were sleeping at the back of the car, we suddenly woke up because we crashed to the mini bus just 10 feet in front of us. They also stayed there for the night. So we were frightened and wondering why did it happened. Then we realized that the driver David forgot to pull the handbreak. So he paid 2,000 pesos and was really pissed off because his bumper was also destroyed. We were quiet because he was not in the mood and we went to the hotel that they found. We slept for 7 hours. So it’s already 2 pm, after eating at chowking, we already drove back home.

        As we were driving in Lingayen, something caught our attention, it was mountains of Bangus. We stopped and tried to buy because the price went down at 30 pesos per kilo. They had to sell all the fishes because there was no electricity and no ice or refrigerator to preserve it, it will be rotten the next day. So I bought 3 kilos of Big Bangus. As we were passing by each town, we saw how typhoon Halong destroyed every tree, house and post especially mango trees. We really felt sad because millions of properties were crushed by Halong. And then it came to my realization that this is all our fault.

        We created this Typhoon, we produced this chaos and it’s only just the beginning. Typhoons are getting stronger and stronger because of the imbalances that we construct, and this results to GLOBAL WARMING!!! For a traveller like me, this is what I’m looking for, the ADVENTURE, the THRILL, the CONQUER MY FEAR emotion but I know there is a much bigger picture and more gigantic purpose as to why God gave me this dreadful experience. That a simple ordinary guy like me would try to find a way to make a difference in saving our own little world so that our children’s future would be bright again…

- Happy Loner Taveller

21 Years Of Friendship (Since 1988)


          As we grow older, we meet new people in our lives. It’s either from school, work, travels or other activities that we engage into. We allow them to be a part of ourselves… We either influence them or the other way around… But there will always be that one special group of people in your life that you will always come back to no matter how many years have passed. And that special group have influenced you the way no one else has… And for Me? These are my Barkada’s, My True Great Friends…

        They have been my friends since preschool and until now, we still remain the best of friends… We have known each other the way no one else has… We have been together from all the ups and downs and helped each other go back to the top again… We have formed this unique bond that even if we don’t see each other, we know that our great friendship will always be there…

        I am very proud and lucky to be a part of this great Barkada… It’s the only place where I felt that you could just be yourself and they will love you just the way you are… No need for pretentions because they have already accepted the real you… And I am proud to say that these people have the biggest hearts and dreams and are willing to help anyone in need… I have seen that in them… and how lucky I am to be in the innermost parts of their lives…

        They have shared great contributions to what I am now… They are a big part of me… I wouldn’t be the Armie Yuson today without these extraordinary people in my life… I love them so much… And I miss you guys…


- Your Reliable Comrade

      

Happy Loner Traveller (A Simple Note About Me...)


           I'm Armie Lawrence Leyva Yuson and I call myself a "Happy Loner Traveller" Why? It's because whenever I go to other places, I usually go out alone and I never felt sad but rather I'm happy because I could discover things and understand more of myself, it's like I'm with Me, trying to get to know myself better and still discovering my own secrets and potentials in life... I'm learning to appreciate the gifts that God gave for our eyes to see and that is the beauty of his world... and feel how much God loves us... and I'm also a hopeless romantic still waiting for my Fairy Princess to come and become the breath of my simple yet unique life... I have my own perception of True Great Love, I even wrote a book about it... and for me religion is not important, I believe that it's just a guide but rather, your FAITH to GOD is what really is significant because in the end you still decide for your own destiny. I'm a futuristic person meaning I really work hard to have a nice future for my family one day... I'm just an ordinary person dreaming and trying to make the impossible extraordinary things that one can achieve in his lifetime... And still, I enjoy the beauty that life can offer in every second of my life...

- Soul Writer