Last March 28, my year as President of JCI Daraga had finally ended. Months of meetings, projects, stress, highlights, lowlights and memories culminated in the official Turn-Over and Induction Ceremonies held in Casablanca Hotel. Preparations for an induction takes months especially since this was to be a joint celebration with JCI Legazpi and Legazpi Dawani. For me, as outgoing president, this meant preparing an audio visual presentation of the year that was, tokens of appreciation for noteworthy members or partners and most particularly my VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. I was stumped-- how can you condense 12 months of flurried frenzied activity in a 5 minute speech? In all honesty it took me a while to find my unifying thought-- what was I going to say? Who was I going to thank? What would I want my presidency to be remembered as? I never expected that the journey of writing my speech would be a very emotional one. After two hours of steady writing I finally finished it -- oddly enough I couldn't go through reading it without tearing up somehow. It is no secret that JCI Daraga was a shambled mess when I inherited it-- factions, politics, misunderstanding and disorganization were some of the biggest problems I faced internally. Coupled with this, Yolanda struck the Philippines only after 2 months after I assumed the position. How could I possible mobilize my organization to become a leading chapter of positive change in the nation when we were broken to begin with? But power on we did mainly because I had a highly qualified, motivated and rearing-to-go-set of officers who were as willing --if not MORE so-- to prove their mettle. We hit the ground running, come November of 2014 we had already rolled 2 of our biggest projects that year: Regional Oplan Kaagapay Drive (for Yolanda Victims) and Project Liwanag (a humanitarian mission that distributed 100 lamps to families with no electrical access and won the JCI PHILIPPINES TEMIONG AWARD for BEST CIVIC INVOLVEMENT PROGRAM). This was just a forecast of what the rest of our year was going to be-- after these two projects we spearheaded numerous more aimed at developing our communities and ourselves. My year of fulfilling the national mission of "Changing the Future Today" has become one of the greatest experiences of my life. Being president of an organization -- specifically of JCI Daraga -- tested, molded and strengthened me. I will not lie, there were times when I really wanted to give up. But I have always been competitive and I wanted to prove that we could overcome our brokenness. And that we did! Every year JCI holds Area and National Conferences. During these events best projects and practices are bid against each other to win in different categories. JCI Daraga brought home it's most number of Dangal Awards (the Southern Luzon Area Award) to date: eight. And subsequently brought home 4 recognitions during the national Temiong Awards Night. I couldn't have asked for a more blessed culmination of my chapter's hard work and determination. Winning those awards didn't just give us recognition from our peers but proved ourselves stronger than what we initial thought. Watching the AVP during the induction ceremonies I found myself tearing up behind the podium. It was as if I was brought back to those moments and made to remember all the hard work, sweat and steely determination we poured out just to make sure we did our projects right. In the end the process wasn't just transformative for our beneficiaries but for us as well. I couldn't have been more proud of my organization and was reminded of the saying "(Jesus) never said it would be easy, (He) said it would be worth it".
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It is induction season which means all is a buzz preparing for our biggest and most important formal affair. For weeks now i have been practicing our dance number. Which is why there isnt much time left for my other passions--blogging and calligraphy. But luckily i caught a break when Mart asked me to make the logo for his presidential award. THIS IS MY FIRST LARGE SCALE PRODUCED CALLIGRAPHY WORK TO DATE. he asked me to make the BOOM BASS STICK logo that will grace all his awards for Saturday. And without further ado here it is. I am Isabel and I am an addict--- an INFINITY DRESS addict. The concept of an infinity dress has been around for a long time but fashion-wise has not been heralded as the next best thing. And I for one wonder why? This dress -- also called a convertible dress-- is one piece made out of stretch material that you can wind around your body in numerous configurations that it is never looks the same twice! I first came upon it during a wedding when a friend wore it thought "what a fantastic idea!". This was years ago and I didn't realize the usefulness of it until I was staring at my wardrobe looking for something formal to wear -- one that I had not worn more than 5x. There must be something about Shawarma that has gotten my husband bananas. He loves the stuff, especially the garlic sauce!! Here in the Philippines, we've modified the dish to include our favorite food staple--RICE. Shawarma Rice has become a favorite snack for us here and I will continue to lament the lack of good joints that offer it here in Legazpi Albay. (Especially when the hun is craving!) Luckily I stumbled upon an article written by a childhood classmate, Gela Velasco, that details how you can DIY the dish in the comforts of your own home. Allow me to share this delectable nugget of information with you guys. Pinoy Shawarma RiceYield: 6 servings | Prep: 20 mins | Cooking: 30 mins Ingredients for the Shawarma Rice
Ever since I saw watercolor pegs on Pinterest I was hooked. Don't get me wrong, prior to this sudden fascination I have never dabbled in painting of any kind and was always intimidated by it. (Colored pencils was more of my thing because if you made a mistake you could just erase it-- watercolor/painting seemed more final to me. ) Luckily watercolor has been forgiving of my amateur hands. I have always liked the watered down look of it almost like it just stained the paper by accident instead of deliberately being placed there. During my local haunts of cheap-o bookstores and school supply stores I chanced upon blank flash cards that teachers use as a class aid. I didnt think much of it that time until I realized that I keep cutting my watercolor paper to size for cards and stuff. Then it hit me-- why not just use the bank flash cards as my card base?? The next question would be-- will the cards be able to take the water content? I took them for a test run this afternoon with my prang watercolor set. Despite being the cheaper one of my 2 sets (the other one being Koi Sakura), the PRANG bleeds more giving that water-stained look that I love. I am happy to report that these blank flash cards can take the paint pretty well. There are some crumpling because of water content but you can just flatten the card between two heavy books when to straighten once the paint has dried. Take note, though, that the card has two sides -- a shiny and a matte -- and I find that the paint is more absorbed in the matte finish. I'll try next time on the shiny finish to see what I get. Side note: I did a little calligraphy on one card with my cocoiro pen and it slid effortlessly on the paper. You just have to wait for the ink to dry before moving to your next word -- more patience on my part since im LEFT handed. HAHA |
Who is sab_adventures?I have always wanted to write. This will now be a creative outlet-- home to all my arts and crafts. So feel free to browse around my everyday adventures. Interests
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November 2016
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