My uncle Victor once told me the story of how my parents met. My aunt Maya and my mom Iriene were officemates at a car marketing and service company called Europhil. While they were going home from work my dad Rene and my uncle saw my mom. It was love at first sight for my dad. My uncle, who saw my dad's reaction, told him that he should go court my mom. They dated for 3 years until they got married on July 27, 1991.
This was their wedding song:
To say that my father, Rene, is a smart person is an understatement. My father was a valedictorian in both grade school and high school while studying in University of Nueva Caceres, in Naga City. He won a national quiz bee in *insert subject here*, and graduated as cum laude studying Statistics in UP Diliman. Needless to say, I got my brains from my father. :)
My mother, Iriene, is a hardworking person. Born from a poor family, she was able to help my grandparents alleviate themselves from poverty by studying hard. She was the only child in the family (9 children in total) who was able to get a college education. A scholar from DOST, my mom finished BS Industrial Engineering in Mapua.
Mama has a lot of good qualities - smart, BEAUTIFUL, kind, hardworking, and religious. She is well-liked and I look up to her for that. She is very caring towards us. If it's my papa's brains that I've inherited, I got my good-looks from my Mom. :)
My sister Michelle is someone I look up to. Whenever I need advice, whether it be for classwork, life decisions, or lovelife, she always has an answer. My sister is both smart and pretty. She is adventurous and independent. She is the smartest out of the three of us.
Ate graduated from UP Diliman taking up BS Industrial Engineering (just like my mother). She now has a job in Citibank and enjoys going out of the country from time to time. I wish I'd have that opportunity too.
Eight years my junior, my brother, John Paolo, is the youngest in the family. As a child he was very cheerful and he was a constant source of joy for the family. My brother grew up to have a real talent in art. He has a unique hobby - Airsoft.
Although much younger than me, my brother has already matured a lot. He even beat me to having a girlfriend first. Hahaha. Anyway I wish him all the best in life. I know he will do well given all that I see in him now.
I was born on November 22, 1994. The second child of Jose Rene and Iriene Nagrampa, I was nicknamed 'Totoy' because I was the 'bunso' of the family. I remember being a very shy person when I was young. I liked to keep to myself and I spoke very little. Ever since I was a child I had the opportunity to go to many places. This is a privilege that I keep to this day. I consider myself a lucky person to be born from the family that I am in.
I started studying in Elizabeth Seton School when I was 4 years old. I don't remember much from my pre-school life asides from being bullied in my school bus because I acted queer, but the whole experience wasn't so bad aside from that.
As a child I had an affinity for computers, console games, and playing dodgeball. My aunt Maya always reprimanded me for being addicted with playing video games as it kept me from interacting with others. To a certain extent I think this is true as I grew quite anti-social. But if it wasn't for me playing video games I wouldn't probably have the reflexes to play good dodgeball at all. Hahaha.
As I grew older I started to develop an interest for nerdy things. I was curious with this specific video game called Starcraft, an RTS game involving building bases and attacking enemy territory. It was in this game's map editor that I actually started to learn how to code.
It was also at this point in my life that I got into the interest of playing Chess. I applied for our school's chess varsity when I was a sophomore. Looking back it was one of the best decisions I made in my life because it was there that I met my best friends.
I guess my curiousity for learning started from there, and I became studious - reaping the efforts of being so. In 2008 I graduated from grade school with honors. And four years later, I graduated first honorable mention with multiple awards from chess tournaments in high school - finishing my secondary education in Elizabeth Seton.
After graduating from High School I continued my education in UP Manila. I pursued my interest in programming by studying Computer Science. I was able to attain feats I thought was impossible for me to achieve (not in a million years).
On my first semester in UP, I got the highest GPA in my college. And on the next term, I won first prize for being the fastest runner in all FPF classes.
For much of my college life I thought I had all someone could ask for. I had good grades. I had friends. I was even beginning to have a lovelife. But in life nothing is certain.
On my 3rd year in school, my MU called it quits between us. As a way of coping from the breakup, I began gaming non-stop. I became addicted, depressed, and started cutting classes.
On the second sem of AY 2014-2015 I was advised by a psychiatrist to drop out of college on the diagnosis of Schizophrenia and Depression. It was a rough period in my life.
It took me one and a half years to muster the courage to face my friends again and go back to school. For a while things started to go back on track, but after a semester I became addicted to gaming again and had to drop out of school the second time.
After much thought and with much regret, I decided to finish my education elsewhere. To my mind there was a lot of shame in me dropping out again. I cannot bare to see my professors again - all the more my classmates, who were already teachers in some of the classes I had to take.
Like I said in the section before, I eventually decided to finish my education elsewhere - that place is here, in Southville. I am in a new stage in my life. This is a fresh start from my college days in UP. I will strive to do well - to graduate and make my parents proud.
I hope that this project would be a reminder for me in the years to come - not only as a record of who I was in the past, but who I should strive to be in the future.
For whatever happens next, I am hoping for the best.
To God be the glory!
