I think that
what
many people see through me is my civilized nature, but what they
don’t know is that I am
just an ordinary person who came from an ordinary place and now doing
extraordinary things in life!
Here
are some useless facts
about my personal life:
Background ... I
was legally
born in Cubao, Quezon City but I was born biologically in Nagotgot,
Manito,
Albay. I’m sure nobody knows that place. To give you a hint
where it is, from
Cubao you ride a bus for 13 hours going south till you reach the end of
Luzon
island, ride a jeepney for 2 hours going to the town, and ride 2 hours
again
going to the barangay and lastly, walk 2 kilometers to reach my birth
place. My
mother and father are all farmers when I grew up and I really missed my
childhood environment wherein I was really born in a beautiful barrio
in Bicol
(but even though I’m a Bicolano, I don’t like
chili). My childhood place is a
place ruled by nature - fresh air, virgin forests, beautiful
landscapes, and
abundant farming. I studied in a rural elementary school which I used
to walk 2
kilometers from home to school everyday. Years passed by, my life
changed, 1986
revolution has affected the people and me even at a young age. I just
believed
that it's only education and perseverance that I can change my life.
But even
though I was living in a far-from-civilization mountainous place, I was
gifted
with a very loving mother who taught me to read and write even before I
went to
school. I was also very lucky to have read American hard-bound science
and math
textbooks while my classmates read the local textbooks. I can even
remember
that whenever I read books, it’s as if I’m the only
person in the world because
all our neighbors can hear me reading so loud.
Family ... I’m
still single and I guess
forever will be. My mother and father and my two brothers already have
their
own families and they live in Bicol. My only sister also have her own
family and
now lives in Laguna, and now my youngest brother lives with me whom I
am sending
to college for his course on graphic arts and printing technology.
Honestly
speaking, I am close to my mother and not to my father because I really
hated
him a lot especially when I was still studying for being so
irresponsible. But
one thing I liked about my father is his patience and he never had
beaten me or
even shouted at me when he gets angry. Or did he even get angry with
me? I
don’t have it in my memories.
Places I've
lived ... I think that
in this team, I’m the
only person who lived in a mountain! Imagine living in a mountain where
you can
only hear owls at night and no near houses! Pretty scary, but
that’s the kind
of place where my family lived when I was still a kid. Wondering why we
live in
the mountain? Because, we used to do “kaingin” to
plant root crops. If you see
the landscapes in movie “Lord of the Rings”,
that’s the kind of place where I
have lived in Bicol --- rivers, forests, carabaos, farms…
this is where I first
see this world.
The most
trouble I got into in school ... When I was in elementary, my
classmates used
to tease me and insult me because I behave like a girl. So, what I did
is I
grabbed that girl who teases me and embraced her just to show that I am
also a
boy who likes a girl. And what happened to the girl? Nothing, it
didn’t help me
actually.
The worst
influencing factors in my childhood ... When I
was still so young, two of my older sisters and one brother died
because of
strange illnesses which we couldn’t send to a hospital
because it’s very far
and we can’t afford. Whenever I see that old picture of me in
the cemetery staring
at my dead sister in a coffin and seeing that face which looks as if I
really
know what’s happening, it really makes my heart sink. I
haven’t seen my eldest
sister because she died already before I was born. My brother who died
with
tumor was actually my younger brother and we used to play before he
died, it
was another worst memory for me because I did not only lose a brother
but a
friend too. Environmentally, my childhood surroundings and the people
are not
that good and they even tease me always coz I’m behaving so
differently (which
I think you know what I mean).
My academic
achievements…..
1991
- Graduated elementary
(1st Honorable)
1995 - Graduated high school (Valedictorian)
With the family's staggering income, its
only prayer and faith that powered me to hope that I can still continue
my
studies. Out of the two examinees from Manito, I passed the DOST-SEI
scholarship, granting me a 5 year engineering scholarship in Manila.
2000 - Graduated Cum Laude (BS ECE) at TUP-Manila through a 5-year
engineering scholarship
from the Department of Science and Technology – Science
Education Institute.
2001 – Passed the ECE board exam and got PRC license # 23,765
Jobs I've had ... Right after I
graduated in college,
I no longer have a monthly stipend from my scholarship so I applied in
a
college owned by AMA Education system for a teaching job. I immediately
got a
full-time teaching job one funny thing about this is that when the
school
director interviewed me and asked me why I want to teach, I said
teaching is a
good job while reviewing for the board exam! And they seem to think
that I will
just be using the school facilities for the review. After a year, I
transferred
to DOST-ASTI in UP Diliman as a Science Research Specialist where most
of my
unforgettable experiences have happened. And it’s also where
I learned the skills
which helped me get into the corporate Accenture!
Most traumatic
experience as a child ... As I have said, I used to
live in the
mountain and we have a farm which is about 5 kilometers away from home
and in order
to us to get there, we used to ride in a carabao. There was one time
when my
brother and I were going in the farm and I fell off the carabao and my
head is
bleeding so much. And so what my brother did is to get a root of an
abaca and
used the juice of that to cure my bleeding skull!
Most ignorance
experience as a
child… When I
was in grade two, we had a Boy Scouts tour in the Cagsawa Ruins at the
base of
the beautiful Mayon Volcano in Legazpi City. When I got home, I told my
mother
about the nice things in our tour and I also told her that we had a
solo
picture with my teacher. In tagalong, I said “Ma,
nagpa-picture po kami ng
teacher ko ng solo!”
Some memorable
experiences ...
…. first time to celebrate birthday with officemates in
Puerto Galera which is
also my birthday and the gift that I received was that my cellphone get
soaked
in seawater because I’m not aware that I am swimming with my
cellphone in my
pocket!
.... first time
to present a
research paper in an international conference in Florida, USA. This
travel
experience to the US gave me a chance to realize how amazing this world
is.
When you’re at the plane, you can view roads like a circuitry
in a motherboard
and the cars like the data flowing just like Earth is like a big living
organism and people are just like small ants.
.... first time to go to Disney Land’s EPCOT Center in
Orlando and be able to
mingle with fellow Asian participants. This is where I see the wonder
of
science and technology!
.... first time to go to Thailand for company training and be able to
tour the
Royal Palace!
Real trivia...
... Did you know that I was actually planning to be a seminarian or a
priest if
ever I can’t go to college after my high school? But, through
God’s help,
perseverance, belief in the power of praying and science of dreaming, I
became
an engineer. I’m actually the first engineer in my
family’s generation but it
was my cousin and DOST who told me to study engineering. As an
engineer, I was
employed as teacher, IT researcher and now I am software engineer in
Accenture!
Truly, life is unpredictable!
Open-source
software I have written…
Research papers
and Books I have
written…
I have written
two local conference
research papers and three international research papers presented in
China,
USA, and Taiwan. Most of them involved network management, internet
mapping, traffic
measurement architectures and software development.
My hobbies and
interests….
I really like
computers and programming!
Right now, I am setting up a router and web server at home using DSL
connection
using my Unix machine! Aside from computers, I also love reading books
(encyclopedias and dictionaries) and play light sports such as
badminton.