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1. What are the ways by which you can show kindness?
One can show kindness in various ways, from performing simple chores to doing good deeds. I can show kindness by doing household chores, such as sweeping the floor, mopping, cleaning surfaces, washing the dishes, or organizing rooms. By doing chores, one can minimize the workload of those around them, resulting in a less haggard mood and a better environment for all. By doing good deeds, such as initiating as a leader in group activities and works, I can also decrease the load of others and simultaneously achieve the goals based on my standards. Aside from these, kindness can be practiced by being a person who is courteous, humane, rational, impartial, and respectful with others, which encompasses the totality of the principle of kindness.

2. How did you feel when you did an act of kindness?
Succeeding, after performing a kind act, my heart and self feel good. This feeling reverberates and initiates a feeling of doing more kind acts, resulting in a chain of good deeds; until, acted upon by a force.

3. Is it rewarding to do so random acts of kindness? What are its effects on others? To you?
Yes, it is rewarding to do kind acts since it gives off a positive feeling straight to the heart. Doing these acts upon others results in the shift of their mood, uplifting their souls and minds. Accompanying this, the effect of doing kind acts manifests in the same way to oneself.

4. What insights did you gain while doing acts of kindness?
While doing kind acts, I get to realize that acting without expecting reciprocation is surprisingly good. Helping others without any underlying motive or goal refines us as human beings. It purifies the soul and creates reinforcements on our humanitarian essence. Overall, doing kind acts in the world makes a significant difference; sparking change unto others and oneself and developing one's character for the better.

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1. What have you observed when you were trying to communicate with your family or friends?
Generally, communicating with other individuals is fairly difficult for me since I am not that good at conveying and expressing my thoughts in a clear and organized manner. What I have had observed when I am trying to communicate with my family is that I tend to keep the thoughts and ideas inside my head. It is hard to speak up about things because it is often where conflicts arise. Nowadays, I almost always keep my mouth shut whenever I can because I distance myself from more stress and conflict. However, with my friends, I tend to communicate more about the thoughts that I have in my mind since they are open-minded, understanding, and they also experience the same things that I am going through at the moment. Communication with them is more effective since there is minimal to no judgment; they consider the multiple angles of the situation and are sensitive to what others are feeling.

2. What did you feel while communicating with your family or friends?
There are several differences in the things that I feel whenever I communicate with family or friends. While communicating with my family, I tend to feel more awkward and uneasy since they seldomly empathize or understand my situation. With them, I feel like there are certain boundaries that are present whenever we communicate. Along with that, I find it difficult to maintain conversations with them due to differences in age, interests, beliefs, ideologies, etc. On the other hand, communicating with friends gives me a feeling of freedom since they are more understanding and empathic. Also, with the almost similar interests we have, talking to them makes me feel good since we get to communicate and exchange the ideas that we actually like.

3. What do you think are the factors that hinder your communication with your family or friends and ways by which you can build connection with them?
Now that we are currently in a global pandemic, physical communication with friends and other kin is restricted. With this, communication can be done with the utilization of social media; however, beyond that and looking at the past before the pandemic, there are several factors that restrict and hinder my communication with friends and family. First, social media and entertainment platforms often take our time from experiencing life with family and friends. Second, studying and school hinder most of our contact with the family but not with friends. With these hindrances or barriers to communication, it is encouraged that one must temporarily set aside activities (e.g., social media, studies), take time to experience, and spend time with the people who matter the most. Take time to cherish the moments and create memories that one would look back to in the future since our time in this world is limited.

4. What are the lessons that you learned in communicating positively with your family or friends?
Positive communication is essential in maintaining relationships with one another. I learned that in order for one to communicate positively, both parties must understand the underlying situation or issue at hand such that they could reach an agreement that would be suitable for both sides. I also learned that positive communication with friends and family is a must such that relationships would be happier and last longer. To conclude, communicating effectively is vital in reinforcing our connections with others.

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1. Who are the persons you are thankful for? Why are you thankful for them?
First, I am thankful and grateful for my family for providing for our needs. Second, I am thankful to my friends for keeping in touch and for having someone to talk to during the pandemic. I am also thankful to the people around me, most especially school, for educating me and helping me comprehend the world from a refined perspective. Lastly, I am thankful for myself since I continuously strive for the better to establish a more desirable future.

2. What are the things that are meaningful for you? Why?
Education is the most meaningful thing to me since, with this, I learn more about our world and myself. Along with education comes family since they are the ones who exert great effort to send me to school.

3. What are your realizations about the lesson?
I realized that taking a pause and writing your sincerest thoughts minimize a little bit of the stress that I am feeling inside. I also realized that, even if there are negative things happening around, there are still many things to be thankful for.

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1. What do you observe when you face a circumstance that you need to make a decision?

I often become stressed due to the pressure that comes with weighing in the consequences, benefits, and opportunities lost in making a decision. For example, in the present, I still do not know what premedical course I should take in college since I am focused on getting into an accelerated medicine program. I do not know whether I should take a course where I pursue my passion or a course where there are more career opportunities just in case I would not go to medical school. These sets of choices make me feel stressed and pressured since these will dictate how my future is going to be. To conclude, I easily become stressed in thinking about my future but, one thing is certain, life is full of decisions that would either make or break you so make decisions where you think you will find yourself having the least regrets in the long-run.

2. What do you feel about your ability to make decisions?

I feel like my decision-making ability needs to improve a lot since I often dwell too long on making a simple choice. This applies when I answer exams since I often observe that I allot too much time on an item even though it is only equivalent to a point. This might be a consequence of me being extremely grade conscious, which can be both good and bad. However, I also feel that I gradually improve in making choices in life since I become more knowledgeable each day on the advantages and disadvantages of the decisions that I have made in the past.

3. What are your thoughts about the process/recipe for making a decision?

In making a decision, I consider the alternatives and rely heavily on proven and factual information. When deciding, I often go through this chronology: opinion or information gathering, research or fact verification, weighing of the points presented, and lastly, taking action regarding the decision. Data or opinion gathering facilitates the compilation of relevant pieces of evidence that would help in the weighing of evidence later. Within the allocation of pertinent resources, the prior opinions that are consolidated earlier can be verified. Preceding the final step in my recipe for making a decision is the time where I would contemplate the facts that I have in mind. The last step is taking action; that is, finally choosing the choice based on evidence.

4. What are your insights in connection to this lesson?

Decision-making is a very tedious process requiring a certain duration of time depending on the choices that you have to make. Being hasty in making a choice, not employing a systematic process or taking into account other factors involved in the situation, may most likely make the situation worse. On the other hand, employing a rational way of dealing with the circumstances at hand would lessen the likelihood of regrets, mistakes, and consequences.

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1. Observation
My strength is probably having a mindset that always thinks or considers the future because thinking about the future makes you able to reflect on what you are doing in the present. Another strength that I think I have is that I always maintain high standards in terms of academics because, with this pressure that I impose upon myself, I get to obtain relatively high grades. My weaknesses are that I get stressed and irritated easily.  My primary fear is failure. Failure in academics, failure in reaching my dreams, failure in making my life better, and failure in the future. Also, death.

2. Feelings
When I assessed myself in knowing my strengths, weaknesses, and fears, I felt that something needs to be changed - my mindset. Although this change in mindset is extremely hard, I need to consider several factors in order to weigh in the consequences of having the current mindset that I have now.

3. Thinking
Negative thoughts are normal; it can be reframed but not most of the time. It is very hard to reframe your negative thoughts because not everyone is the same. Not everyone can just turn their negative thoughts into a more positive one because not everyone has the same situations in life. These negative thoughts that I have in mind will stay there; however, I would always try not to let them control my thoughts and actions.

4. Learning
I learned that individuals are equipped with different abilities; however, society normalized judging individuals based from only a few ones such as the ability to excel in academics. This normalization resulted in individuals not being able to realize and maximize their full potential. One should know that each and every person is unique and have their own sets of skills and talents. Pulling each other down would just result in negative thoughts and negative effects to everyone's relationships. We must halt the perpetuation of this normalization of judging each other based on only one ability or intelligence because there are multiple intelligences and abilities that are seen other than the typical ones.

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Homeroom Activity 1 | Sailing on the Waves with a Positive Mindset

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Homeroom Activity 1 | Sailing on the Waves with a Positive Mindset

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1. First is the thought of uncertainty that the future holds - the uncertainty of whether I can keep up with this fast-paced world or not, second is the thought of not being able to keep up in academics like everyone else, third is the thought of not having your efforts reciprocated by the results (in terms of academics), and finally, the thought of me being a failure in the future.

2. It can become true or become a fact if you succumb to your thoughts and let it control you.

3. A negative thought is an opinion because it is a limitation that you set upon yourself without considering your rational thoughts and capabilities.

4. Being uncertain about the future is a normal part of life - it is either you become excited or you become doubtful and pessimistic about what is to come. Everyone is struggling in academics, especially in these times; with that being said, it is better to be aware that you are not alone.

5. After assessing and channeling my negative thoughts into positive ones, I feel the same since forcing myself to become positive has no effect on the deep and negative thoughts that I have in my mind.

6. To hopefully maintain a positive outlook in life, I would try to assess the negative thoughts that I have and ask myself if they are rational or if they only hinder my actions. By assessing myself, I can reflect on my actions more and eventually become a better person.