After being rejected by TEDxDiliman last year I have risen from the ashes of their "this is not a rejection but..." and have been finally accepted and legitmately attended a TEDx event! Which is ironically an event of another school which is TEDxADMU. At least we're sort of neighbors, so I guess that counts as we're supposed to be friendly and all that? :))

Anyway, their question for TEDxADMU was "In 5 sentences or less, how do you grow the nation?" And my answer was: 

As a sociologist I have learned many theorists that tried to explain societies and gave solutions to the many problems of different nations but I know for myself that theory is never enough. Applying these theories into practice can be hard but as a sociologist and researcher I have to ensure that every research I will do will be for the betterment of the nation. Just like Ernest Stringer (2007) said, researches should be “democratic, equitable, liberating, life-enhancing and explicitly political.” In short, given the chance to see the society's problems I don't just stop and stare but rather make a move and change the society by giving the people their voices in researches and enriching the methods rather than just treating them as mere numbers in the tables and graphs. 

Then last January 3...

I GOT AN EMAIL FROM TEDxADMU SAYING THAT I GOT IN! :))) And so last Saturday Trixia and I went to Ateneo to attend the TEDxADMU :>

 Their theme was IgNATION which means Igniting the Nation. Cool right? :) There were four speakers. The event has hosted by Boy Abunda and Lia Cruz. The first speaker was Eddie Calasanz who is a Philo professor from Ateneo. According to him, "We should dream big, start small." and that all of these things take time and eventually we'll get there. "Start small things in the context of a grand vision." And my favorite from his speeach is a quote from St. John of the Cross: “In the evening of our lives, we will be judged on love alone."

Pepe Diokno also gave a talk about the current situation of the Philippine Cinema and how we can help in promoting Filipino movies. To be honest, I don't really watch a lot of Pinoy movies in cinema except for Cinemalaya movies shown here in UP. But for the others I would rather watch them for free by downloading it from the net. Pepe Diokno said that there are a lot of bad Pinoy films but then again there are also good movies, we just have to give them a chance. According to him, "Movies are projections of who we are and who we want to be...That's why we have a twisted culture, because we don't know our identity." 

The next speaker was Christopher Lao, the UP Law Student who was bullied because of trying to drive in a flooded road about 2 years ago. After receiving tons and tons of insults and even death wishes, he felt that ending his life was the best option but then he turned everything upside down. He isolated himself from everyone and went out of the country to escape and find meaning. During his trip he had an epiphany, he realized that, "Happiness is a choice. It is mine and mine to lose. Cliché right?  But it's at a crisis or a tipping point where we realize the values behind cliché sayings." Indeed, happiness is a choice.

What is amazing about the next speaker is that he's a foreigner that doesn't have any Filipino blood in him but he makes this simple machines for solar power to help our country. I mean this guy is making the life of Filipinos more better and more eco-friendly and he's a total outsider to begin with and here we are, residents of the Philippine who have been living here since forever and we haven't managed to take care of our own place. It's just amazing how he's so passionate about trying to make our lives better, actually to makes the lives of total strangers for him better. Moreover, he bought a new pair of pants for the talk. Haha

The last speaker was Sabsi Ongkiko who is a alumna of ADMU and was supposed to take up Medicine but gave it all up just to teach children. She's just so passionate about teaching and it's really obvious how much she likes what she's doing even though a lot of people think that she's just wasting her time teaching. At the start of her talk she first addressed a message to her students and I felt that I am one of them. She said, "Wag mong sabihin na hindi mo kaya yan. Hindi iyan galing sayo. Alam ko kaya mo yan. Tingnan mo ang mga mata ko at makikita mo na may tiwala akong kakayanin mo to. Alam ko galit ka sa pamilya mo o sa mundo pero alam kong malayo ang mararating mo." And she said a lot of other things that got me thinking. She gave the word teaching a whole new meaning. 

The TEDxADMU also showed 3 videos from the TED 2012 discussing about introverts, identity and my favorite, the project of Candy Chang about the "Before I die, I want to..." blackboards. I first learned about this blackboards from Tumblr and I wanted to build my own but then their kit is so expensive plus the shipping and all. Anyway, the TEDxADMU made their own version and I wrote this:

I posted this on Instagram and Twitter and @TEDxADMU retweeted me! Haha