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Often times I look in the mirror and talk to myself just to let out of my emotions and when I stare at myself, I say mean things such as "Why do you have to be so dumb?" and things like that to emotionally hurt myself. Now, I just recently learned how to love myself because I surrounded myself with good people and cut ties with every toxicity in my life.  “True power lies in understanding yourself, accepting yourself, and having confidence in yourself." I don't think people realize how powerful they can be only if they learn how to accept and fully understand themselves because I learned it the hard way. When you know yourself and you know your truth, no one can ever manipulate you and crush you with destructive criticisms. This is the reason why I started to make art that promotes self love! accepting yourself is about respecting yourself.

1 in 5 people suffer from mental health problems worldwide, yet in the Philippines,  there are only 5 psychiatrists per 10,000,000 Filipinos. 25.71% of young people thought at least once that their life was not worth living and 14.2% considered taking their life and engaged in steps to push through with it. I am very much aware that talking about mental illness sometimes make people uncomfortable and would rather not talk about it or ridicule it and label it as "pag-iinarte lang" it's time to break the stigma because everyone matters. No matter what you are going through, no one has the right to invalidate your feelings just because they had it worse. Scream #iMatter because you matter. I can tell multiple stories on how I witnessed mental health not being taken seriously because talking to a psychiatrist is for "baliw lang" and for people who are suffering deeply but that's not the case. In reality, you are more than welcome to talk to a professional when you don't feel well emotionally and mentally or even if you just need someone to talk to.

Golden rule of life "Do not do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you." live by this rule and you shall be rewarded. It is no wonder why it is the Golden rule of life because people can easily be hypocrites. I admit that I am no perfect human being, I did make mistakes in the past because I neglected this rule and paid the price as well but that's life, right? you take responsibility of your actions.

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I was looking forward the most to see the library of CIIT because it was the first facility that I was able to see through the school's page. It is unfortunate that I haven't seen the school personally but hopefully everything will be back to normal and I will for sure visit library first. During the talk, Miss Demi started by introducing CIIT's online library that has over 5,000 collections of books and other resources related to Arts and Technology with a wide array of open access databases of scholarly journals and articles. I am completely in awe although I am not a book lover, I am very much interested in reading books that I can use to gain knowledge about art.

In the second part of the discussion where Mr. Bryan took over, he discussed how to spot fake news with us because of the danger that comes with it. How do we spot the fake news? we must first consider the source because there are numerous of online tabloids that produces a clickbait headline and does not care if it could hurt the people on the article as long as it gains attention. Learn how to check the date because there are issues that may resurface even though it happened years ago and it might cause confusion among the audience.

To wrap it up, the school library taught us to explore more and to not be afraid to ask for questions or inquire. We can read at home as a time and they will be there for us whenever we have concerns. It is also very convenient that Miss Demi and Mr. Bryan are approachable because when I was in Senior High School, I did not dare to borrow any book because I was terrified with our school's librarian.

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The objectives of CIIT's clinic are to be informed on the clinic guidelines during
online class, introduce programs and activities, and for us to be acquainted with the medical team. When quarantine started, I have to admit that I did not take the opportunity to be as healthy as I can be. Instead, I used all my free time to simply "enjoy" slacking off by eating until my heart's content, staying up all night browsing the internet and things like that. Little did I know, that I would soon pay for the price of temporary "happiness", I started feeling more stressed than I usually am and I lose out of breath just by doing simple tasks as well which is very alarming especially amidst the pandemic.

I did not expect CIIT to provide health care because of course we are at home and we have everything we need here therefore I deeply appreciate the thought and the concern of the school. We are also told that if ever we are not feeling well, we are welcome to send an e-mail or message to the school's clinic which is actually very helpful especially to students who are living independently. In terms of the programs and activities, promoting health awareness and prevention to combat COVID-19 and lifestyle diseases are timely and relevant thus I really want to participate just by simply making myself healthy.

How do we break the unhealthy habit? It is actually more simple than what most people would think especially if they got used to such an unhealthy lifestyle. Self-control is a must and the key in order to keep yourself from going back to phase one over and over again. We must also learn how to encourage ourselves and other people by saying positive affirmations and to just really try to throw away all the negative energy.

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When I had no idea how I will be able to survive college with CIIT, It was difficult for me to visualize how I will pass all my assessments but I am glad that as soon as the school year started, they introduced CANVAS to us. Now my number one concern of course was will it be student-friendly? I was terrified to this new portal because I got used to my previous school's portal but of course, CIIT explained thoroughly how to use canvas. It is indeed student-friendly in a way that I can easily see my missed and/or upcoming assignments and on top of that, I can also see my grades immediately.

It took me at least two (2) days to fully explore CANVAS but I cannot say that it is confusing, it's just that it  has a lot of features to explore so it took me awhile to get used to it. I applaud CIIT for providing such a convenient portal for us students because the least we need right now during this hard time is something complicated hence, I truly believe that this school prioritizes the well-being of students before their name. It is also easy to contact our professors because we can directly send them a message through the portal so the communication will  never the problem.

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We have discussed the 7 habits of Highly Effective People is our previous discussions and second on the list is "Begin with the end in mind" the concept behind this is using your conscience to envision and create a desired outcome which leads to increased and effective planning, thinking outside the box, and responsible decisions. I think managing your priorities starts with a vision of what you want to see happen meaning you are the only one who can set your future, every decision you will make will greatly affect your next steps in life. This prevents us from thinking of "Bahala na" which maybe be a set of two words but it is often the cause of the destruction of one's future.

Soft skills or the 4 C's which are Communication to express ideas and communicate properly, Critical thinking or better thinking and decision making, Collaboration to work with other people and culture, Creativity to figure out something not anticipated. Soft skills in my perspective, these four elements are essential for modern students to succeed in school and their future workplace. These will train our mind and prepare us because true experience begins with the real world and it is though out there You are competing with millions of people that is in the same field as yours so having the 4 c's will give anyone an advantage.

4 things to focus on is first "Being too emotional" we often rely on our emotions when dealing with things but I think no matter the situation, decisions should be logical and not emotional. Second, "Being too shy and modest" the real can be harsh sometimes we need to raise our heads up because we our in charge of ourselves. We should start gaining our confidence as early as now by simply learning how to ask people and not be nervous about it which brings me to the third point "Ask us about your career" Mr. Sherwin O told us that asking will take us places because if we don't ask now, there might be regrets in the future. CIIT will always be ready to attend to our questions especially if it's about our career. Last but not the least, "Demand for from yourself if you want the best in life." being contented in life seems nice but we must always remember that there are doors left for new beginnings and discoveries.

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Our student formation officer advised us to read our handbook thoroughly because it is our rights as a student. If I am to be honest, I did not read the handbooks of my previous schools simply because they just tell us to "Read it" and that's it. I was never encouraged because I know to myself that I will stay out of trouble as much as possible however, the student formation officer told us that our handbook is our guide to ensure that we learn from negative experiences and grow from the corrective action prescribed. It benefits not just the students but the faculty and staff as well and it is provided by CHED in its thrust to improve quality education.

"We are not studying for school but for life." CIIT's vision is "Leading the away towards a globally competitive Philippines." meaning CIIT is prepared to open gates for us students for many changes that will happen in the future because trends and technology are evolving with the mission of committing to improve Filipino lives by empowering the youth through industry-ready, values-driven and accessible education. CIIT prepares us to be critical thinkers, to have integrity, to be innovative, to work as a team and to be driven by passion.

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." we are oriented with the 4 levels of offenses not to scare us but rather to teach us to think of the consequences of our actions. Self discipline is important because it holds self control and self control is strength because if you don't control what you think, you don't control what you do.

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Be Proactive, Begin with the end in mind, Put first things first, Think win-win, Seek first to understand then to be understood, Synergize, and Sharpen the saw. These are the 7 habits of highly effective people. Now, this made me question myself, at the age of 19 how can I have those 7 habits? I often procrastinate, I don't have a stable mental health, I easily lose hope and I stress myself out. From the word itself, "HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE" which means, if you have all of the 7 habits, you will be more effective to people than average. People will respect and listen to you because you are effective.

What I do know now through a slow process of self-discovery, is that we are all looking for the ultimate fulfillment from life. Much of the time, we are not sure where to find this fulfillment and as a result, our human nature dictates we look for what we think will make us happy down the wrong avenues. My personal escapades in life took me down the highways of self-doubt ego, searching for my true self to satisfy myself which demanded a non-stop overthinking. I thought that by finding this, it would solve my emotional tangle and somehow regulate my need for anything else.

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Different essentials such as Collaboration and Team work, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Creativity and Imagination are considered as the 21st Century Skills. In my perspective it's called the the 21st Century Skills because through different centuries, we gained knowledge that has been piled up for us. We have learned so many things for the past centuries, we are technically the most advanced hence, we are great in flexibility and adaptability as well as Global and Cultural Awareness.

We have the ability to analyze different information to come up with new solutions that trains our critical thinking and it boosts our creativity as well to introduce new concepts to the industry. The 21st century skills due to the fact that we live in a fast-changing world, and producing more of the same knowledge and skills will not suffice to address the challenges of the future.

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Through this session, I learned to ask myself what is my purpose and reason on why I chose CIIT.  The answer is pretty simple, I looked for different schools and yes, some of them have bigger reputation but what about it? I knew I was in the right place as soon as the first orientation for Freshmen started. I am in awe of how student-centered CIIT is. He also talked about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and mentioned that my block is PROACTIVE because before he started the orientation, he listened to us first by observing how we engage in conversation, how we answer questions and how we construct our sentences.

At the end of the orientation, he gave us something to think about and that is to prepare our mind and body to set our goals. He tried his best to let us feel that CIIT will be there to guide us to achieve our goals.

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I am used to the portal of NEO-LMS from my previous school, it is not that complicated and it is user friendly but it can be confusing too sometimes. CIIT uses edusuite that at first, I have no idea how to use therefore I explored it myself but still I am left with many questions  but I am delighted when I heard that the registrar department is going to orient us. To me these three weeks of orientation is solely weeks of a lifestyle change.

Being prepared and oriented can mean a lot of different things to different people, similar to the differences in how people will react when everything around them changes drastically. I personally believe I have done a great job in adjusting. The semester is far from finished yet but the orientation has given me the building blocks to ensure that I can thrive here in the next few weeks. What I have taken out of the orientation so far has mainly been to be able to explore on my own and to not be afraid to ask because CIIT is willing to attend to my needs.

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Before having the orientation with the IT, I was really confused with how I will be able to access my accounts that CIIT provided me. It was relieving that Miss Jen invited the IT department to speak and clarified things, taught us what we need to know step by step and really walked us through. I guess in a sense I cannot describe what exactly it means to be oriented but I am really glad that CIIT is doing its best to provide the needs of each student but of course I have to explore more and prepare my mind throughout this semester because it is the most self-orienting experience I have experienced.

Adjusting to a new normal is a bit  unsettling, but after three weeks of having online classes, I have become oriented to orienting myself in this new normal. I became more familiar and comfortable with the new normal because I was really afraid that the school is going to treat us like grown-ups and let us learn things on our own but it was the complete opposite of what I experienced.