Article | Accents and Why They Shouldn't Be Use to Discriminate!

 By Eurielle

Written on January 28, 2022

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I think one of the reasons why I fell in love with Public Health was my professors in that they were so much against racism and discrimination because their work opened their eyes to what health disparities could do to certain groups of people, especially those of people of color. 

One of the first health science classes I took when I changed major was Problem Solving for Health Sciences. It was the most basic class I could take in my roadmap, but it was the only one I have A- on (in the meantime. Hopefully). My professor for that class was Asian-American, and she faced discrimination while doing her work. She once told us a story wherein she went to a convention of some sorts if I remembered correctly, and another person kept telling her that she "had an accent" in an offensive, stating-the-obvious kind of way. Well, my professor sounded very annoyed/irritated when she was talking about the scenario, so I assumed it was said in a discriminatory way. She took it as a racist remark. 

It occurred to me that it happened to me as well a long time ago. I just didn't make a connection because at that time, and even when she was telling us the story, I thought that the other people were only making observations and they were telling me. However, I did remember feeling offended back then.

It happened in high school around freshman year. I was probably only more than a year in the United States after I migrated from the Philippines. I remembered several classmates of mine, I could call them acquaintances or peers by this time since I had them in several classes, kept on telling me I had a strong accent. It made me feel small like I didn't belong. At that time, I couldn't make a comeback. I kept on denying that I do have an accent. "No, no, I don't have one." I was a child. 14 years old? I didn't even know how to defend myself, let alone be proud of my accent and my English. 

Filipino children were very lucky to learn English in school from a young age. We learned and retained it even if the usage, especially those who live back in the province, weren't used as much. There were even Filipino people who didn't have a formal education of the English language but understood and spoke the language in a relatively well and understandable manner. So what if they had a "weird" (to the foreigners; or locals, in my case) accent? At least they could communicate with foreigners, and communication was always the key to a good conversation. 

So going back to my story, I wish my 14-year-old self could've answered back "You do, too" in a chill manner because that was the truth. The United States of America was such a huge country that every region had its own accent when speaking English. Some people who were born and raised in this country didn't realize how our accents were different from one coast to another and used it as leverage to become prejudiced people who discriminate against others. Maybe everyone should learn to get up and see the world (literally). 

I guessed I like for those who read my articles to take this piece and use it as a tool of learning. Since then, I've only met cool and amazing people. I didn't even become close with these people later on - I guessed that's another lesson. Let go of those who made you feel bad about yourself.  

 

Cinquain Poem | Sea

 By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Article | Off Jumpol's Birthday Cake? + More

 By Eurielle

Written on January 22, 2022

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So yesterday, Friday, the 21st, my dad bought a cake. Apparently, my mom asked him to buy a cake for their facility. I guess someone's celebrating their birthday at her work. Well, my dad, a diabetic, bought another cake for us because he felt like it.

Cinquain Poem | Sunglasses

 By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Article | Fires Where I'm From

 By Eurielle

Written on January 19, 2022

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A palm tree on fire

On January 12th, there was a palm tree on fire behind a neighboring house's backyard. Thankfully, the fire truck was fast and efficient when it comes to watering it away. However, there were times, especially where I was from and during summer, in particular, that fires were harder to put out. 

A fire could start because of a manmade mistake or because it was blazing hot in the summer. Either way, it was a dangerous scenario that could affect the environment and the people living in the area. In addition, fires also produced bad air which was quite dangerous when a person inhaled it.

There were times I would wake up and see a saturated sky - the atmosphere was glum and gloomy. It was very depressing. It was also very concerning. 

However, not only plants on fire were the concern, especially in our area. Sometimes, there would be reckless drivers out there. If I remembered correctly, it was more than a month ago, there was another fire behind our house along the main road. The air smelt like burned tires and there was a huge black smoke climbing the sky. Then, a couple of years ago, a whole building was on fire. Once again, it was along the main road. It was such an old building as well, part of the city's history. I think it was an abandoned building, like most in this dying city, but it was still part of it. However, only scorched walls were left, and the city completely brought it down. The location remained empty until this day. 

I was bewildered for taking a picture so perfect - dark and gloomy background, and a red-orange fiery fire atop a tall palm tree. The black smoke polluted the air. It reminded me that there were too many precious things around us, but only when it was in the destruction that we learn to appreciate them. And no, this was not in the late afternoon or whatever, but life, it seemed, looked as gloomy as this these days. 

Cinquain Poem | Flip Flops

 By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Article | First Attempt to Press Flowers

 By Eurielle

Written on January 19, 2022

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Back in December, my sister had her commence walk/graduation. Although she graduated in 2020, because of the pandemic, she could only walk last year. Before going to the university, we dropped by the nearest on-the-way Stater Bros to buy gifts for our fellow friends and classmate. My parents decided to get her a bouquet of flowers, too. 

Ultimately, after the ceremony and we were back home, they put the flowers in an existing vase in the living room. However, because the flowers have been out of water for more than 4-6 hours, 2-3 days after her ceremony, they were already bowing down.

Then I remembered thinking of making pressed flowers - it's one of those arts and crafts I wanted to try for so long. So, I checked out what I needed to do and went with book pressing. It was the most arduous one because I had to wait for a month before it fully dried up and thinned out.

Books I used to press flowers

Paper I used as to not stain the book

Sadly, or rather, unfortunately, I didn't have parchment paper or whatnot that absorbs moisture from the flowers very well. However, I read from an online blog about flower pressing that you can use magazine paper or newspaper paper. I used an advertisement paper from some magazine - I think it was Dr. Leonard's, if I remembered correctly - and this brown paper here. It did look like a parchment paper, but I doubt it was it. However, they'd do. 

It took about 2-3 weeks before the flowers look dried up and thin as paper, but I have a huge, one-piece flower that seemed to need addition week or two, so I gave them a whole extra 2 weeks.

Pressed flowers

Pressed flowers

These were the pressed flowers after pressing for about 3-4 weeks. The smaller ones were pretty much paper-thin, even the one with its stalk. My problem was the red, big flower. In the picture, it did look very thin and pressed, but in reality, it didn't feel like it.

Then, about 2-3 days ago, my sister and I set up the family photo gallery in the hallway. It took the whole afternoon - about 3-4 hours. I didn't really count. Ultimately, we have a few extra picture frames. So, today, I put these pressed flowers inside the picture frame. I had a hard time because I didn't really have those picture frames that were for pressed flowers only. I have a regular picture frame. I was also frustrated because the smaller ones would slide to the bottom once I lifted the frame. I had to put scotch tape at the back of each flower.

Pressed flowers framed

These flowers were special because they were from my sister's college graduation. I planned to give this to her during our birthday in February. 

Cinquain Poem | Umbrella

 By Eddlynn Jennifer Mangaoang

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Article | Art Class in High School Was A Moment

 By Eurielle

Written January 17, 2022

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One of the best moments of my high school life was the art class. It was an elective I had to take unless I chose to be in the performance art or other alternatives. Either way, I was not really an artsy type of a person, but I liked being creative; thus, my ever ongoing arts and crafts projects and totally newbie paintings. I think I'm decent at drawing, and if put more effort into it, I can be good at the harder parts of arts - like shadowing, perspectives, and so on.

One of the assignments I did was scratch art using an X-Acto knife. As I mentioned, I'm not really good with drawing or anything unless I'm following something. Thus, I printed out pictures online. Back then I was into Inuyasha. For the record, Inuyasha was once a childhood anime t.v. show I enjoyed. I particularly enjoyed the idea of time-traveling and half-demons. However, during this time, I wasn't particularly crazy about the anime. In truth, I was reading a bunch of Sesshoumaru x Kagome fan fiction stories on Fanfiction.net. So, I chose Shippo as a subject.

Shippo from Inuyasha
circa High School

I didn't even know or remember how I made it so "perfect." I think it's one of those one-time things wherein you did something so perfectly, you couldn't do it again even if you try. 

In addition to Inuyasha, I was into Naruto as well. Unlike Inuyasha, I watched episodes of Naruto Shippuden and some Naruto movies in addition to reading fan fiction stories. Naruto fan fiction stories and their authors were really hardcore. The authors would write hundred thousands of words and multi-chapters that goes on and on - and mind you, there were lots of them who were really good at writing. So, what's the simplest picture I could reference/copy when it comes to Naruto? The Konoha symbol.

Konoha Symbol
circa High School

You might call this a practice. It wasn't really that good. The problem with scratch art, especially using a sharp metal like an X-Acto knife, was scratching away the second layer behind the black upper layer. Sometimes, even though you didn't scratch away the second layer, still there would be some visible scratches on the surface. For example, unlike the white second layer with Shippo's, this one had a silver second layer. The material for the second layer, especially with this color, made light reflect on it along with the scratches. If this wasn't a Konoha symbol, which if you think about their hitai-ate (forehead protector) then the scratches would be appropriate, then the art wouldn't be that good because of those scratch reflections.

Although I wasn't that good with freestyle, I did one of a random girl - anime style, but poorer quality. 

A Random Girl
circa High School

As you can see, it's really just one of the simple people I could draw. Truthfully, art-wise, I really couldn't draw a whole body of a person. Portrait-wise, I could only draw this style and was never really a real person. It was sad, but I think did very well with the texture of clothes and hair but imagine a person with arch-like eyes. Shuddered. I still think it's really pretty though.

I think challenging oneself in things we think we'll enjoy is part of life. We can learn more about ourselves that way. Scratch art is something I want to do again in the future, and maybe there will be others like me who like making it or wants to try it as well.