Hello everyone! I am yet to travel back memory lane again in this post, so I hope you sit back and enjoy. hihi~ Kidding aside, this entry is in response to ''Teens on Steem'' contest. Well, I'm no longer a teen, but they created a separate contest for none teens. You may check it out HERE.
It's really amazing to see effort from lovely teens like @mashiliyanage, @chamudiliyanage and @justaboutart... These three young ladies are doing their best to promote Steemit to teenagers like them. Discovering and supporting quality posts by teenagers here on Steemit! So, if you're a teen (or a teen at heart), check these three out and support ''Teens on Steem''.
Now, let's start with our time travel.
My teenage years started when I was in second year high school. In the Philippines during my time, we had to stay 6 years in elementary and four years in high school before we can move on to college. However, these days students have to stay in elementary for six years, high school for 2 years and another 2 years in senior high school before enrolling at college or university.
The pictures above was when I was in high school in the countryside. As you can see, I was too dark-skinned. I used to walk to and from school that time and I used to get exposed under the blazing heat of the sun. However, my time in the countryside was really amazing. I got to appreciate nature with my friends and spent time mostly by the beach or the mountainside. However, I only stayed there for around 2 years and a half due mostly to my father's job. So, I left my friends there and transferred to another high school in the middle of third year here in the city.
I really thought it would be difficult for me to adjust because I was from the countryside and it was already in the middle of the school year when I transferred. However, I thought wrong. I found these 4 girls which became my high school besties. It has been more than ten years since then, but my bond with these girls remained the same. I found it much easier to adjust with the new environment through their support. I graduated high school and started my University life at the age of 16.
I took up Nursing in one of the best Nursing schools here in Cebu and in the Philippines. I met new friends and spent my University years mostly at school as well as hospital and community duties. I also met my bestie @akielle in University. We were classmates during our first year, but we weren't close that time. However, we had a common friend who left after first year for the US. Due to the absence of this common friend, we found ourselves hanging out together even though we belonged to a different section in our second year.
Hospital and community duties were tough that sleeping for only 4-5 hours a day became normal. Despite that, I enjoyed it a lot. I especially enjoyed having duties in the operating room and assisting during minor and major surgeries. It made me think how amazing life is!
Anyway, let me tell you a funny story during our community duty. I and my group were assigned in some mountainous area in Cebu and were tasked to look for pregnant women and small kids in the area we were assigned at. One time, we decided to go on top of the mountain because we heard from other residents that there were some kids and pregnant women there. We spent some time on top of the mountain when it started raining quite hard.
It was a bit dangerous to walk on the path we walked earlier because of the heavy rain, so the residents there told us an alternative way to go down the mountain. Guess what?? that way was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. We walked through woods, through vast grasslands without a single house in site, a river and another "forest-like" place before we finally saw the road. And if we walked through that road going back to the Health Center, it'd take us an hour or so.
Our clinical instructors were really worried about us because we were supposed to meet up back in the health center at 10 in the morning, but we arrived there at 12 noon. Obviously, we were asked to make an Incident Report for it. lol~~ It was an adventure, though if something bad happened to us that time, it would have been an awful one.
As I have said earlier, my University days were indeed tough. So every after exam, I and one of my close friends and sometimes with bestie, we eat one whole pizza to relieve stress. hahaha xD
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to graduate in this University. When I was 18 years old, a horrible thing happened to me. I was diagnosed with "Cholelithiasis and Cholecystitis". My case that time was severe that the doctor advised me to undergo an operation immediately. Due to the gravity of my condition, the operation and recovery time took twice the usual time to complete.
I had to rest for 2 semesters making me fall back one year from my batchmates and it so happened that the curriculum changed that time, so if I go back to that University, I'd have to start again. I didn't want that, so I decided to transfer to another University which still entertains students from the old curriculum. Luckily, I found one and spent the rest of my University days there. I graduated at the age of 21, instead of 20.
At the age of 18 and 19, particularly during my break from school after the operation, I suffered from depression. That feeling of being outcasted from your peers. Seeing them at school while you're at home recovering from something you didn't want to happen. It was awful! I felt sad and left out... I felt empty. The Internet was my haven that time. If not asleep, I was on my PC... and that time, I drowned myself in Japanese music. I have said this before, but a Japanese saved me from that feeling. That short span of my depressive state became a memory and I started living optimistically again.
Well, aside from my school life, I spent time mostly with my cousins from my father's side. In my teenage years, I found myself going back to my father's hometown more often. I get to spend a lot of fun times with my cousins there. Well, it's not always fun and happy times. At the age of 17, I and my family mourned for the death of my grandpa. I was really close to him, so him leaving hurt a lot. After grandpa's death, going back to my father's hometown was never the same again.
Now that I'm in my late 20s, I have a more positive outlook in life. I mean, I have been through to a lot at a young age. So whatever problem may come these days, I always face it head on. Being able to undergo a lot in my early years of life, I feel like whatever barrier that arise in front of me, I'll definitely get through it! Everything that happened to me in the past made the person that I am now.
Life isn't simple. It's more complicated than you think it is. However, just go with the flow and live life to the fullest leaving no regrets. I hope my teenage story somehow help teens of this generation to value life and do their best in whatever they do.
それではまた～
Love lots, @tegoshei