Meet the Author: Bianca Bernardino

An interesting event today occurred—a meeting with an author of a viral Wattpad story that got turned into a popular Filipino movie.

When my class and I got the opportunity to meet a young author of a popular fiction novel, “She’s Dating the Gangster,” we made good use of the time to ask her well-made questions on both book and film.

Straight from her introduction, Bianca Bernardino stated her experiences when she first wrote the story back when she was just 19, writing for a year and a half and still hesitating to publish it. She also talked about how she had to create an account and publish her story because others were publishing her story without her consent. She experienced a complete turnover in her life when she got a call from Summit Publishing telling her how her story was the fittest Romance-Comedy for the celebrity acting couple, Kathrine Bernardo and Daniel Padilla. This had definitely changed her life as more fortuitous opportunities came her way—such as the meeting of both of these actors. She also mentioned just how ‘kulit‘ Kathrine was during the shooting.

During the question-and-answer, I learned that most of her decisions while making the story were very similar to how anyone would write a novel, like how she picked her character Kenji’s name by exploring Myspace, and not anything deep with too much information. I learned that her concept of love is very strong, telling us that “saying ‘I love you’ to someone you just met is very… weird, diba (“right”)?” Letting us know that—that was why she made her character in the novel, Kenji, say “I can’t breathe” in place of I love you.

Exploring more on her story, I learned that her reason for picking Southville as a setting was mostly because it was ‘like the perfect place’ for her characters’ situation, and she knew everything about Southville and how it looks. The changing of the name of Southville in the novel to Southwell in the movie was—as she had mentioned—all with her consent and approval, even the editing of the whole novel and the included changes made for the movie. Bianca mentioned that the whole ‘story-telling perspective change’ was because the movie had to appeal to a wider audience of the older generation, like mothers, and the teenagers and millennials altogether. By telling the story through flashbacks of Kenji and Athena and displaying Kenneth and Keyla, the movie would be able to give a sense of connection to both audiences.

We ended our meet up with Bianca Bernardino with lots of silly questions and pictures with warm, beaming smiles. I now know from her that anyone who is in the pursuit of success and works hard enough is able to receive the same fortunate opportunities and is able to become as successful and as fulfilled a person as they wish to become.

Media Can Be Deceiving

“Media products may or may not be healthy and truthful depending on the way they are created. Therefore, consumers must be aware of the media products they entertain.”

This quote says that the things we see in media are not always good, truthful, and just. This is true because, depending on who makes the media, the information found within it could be incorrect, biased, incomplete or plain, or contradictory and controversial. Like how a page supporting Trump may state only bad things about Hillary Clinton, and a page supporting Clinton may state only the good things about Hillary. Some people may come across media products that go under this list of ‘unhealthy’ media, and they may believe them, which is a serious matter as we want the information we attain from utilizing media to be true, accurate, and just, with the added features of self-expression.

As a media and information literate student and individual, I believe in connecting everyone around the world in a smaller community where everyone is allowed their right to speak aloud, and anyone is able to hear them, however, the information that we give each other must be honest, true, non-biased or prejudiced, and non-intentionally injurious. By being media and information literate, I understand and am able to evaluate and distinguish between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ media products, and I am able to identify the faulties and allow correction.

Media and Information Literacy for the Benefit of Everyone

“Media and information literacy is important to the rapid growth of media and ICTs. It sees media and information literacy as vital to the empowerment of people, ICTs in education, and equitable access to information and knowledge.” -UNESCO

 

To be media and information literate is to understand how to use media and information properly on the web and to understand how it works and how to evaluate different types of it. Because the world is rapidly growing and continuously evolving and developing, anyone of this century should be able to utilize and understand the media and information we see and incorporate into our daily lives on the web. Media and information is vital to the empowerment of people because it allows us to speak up without fear, hesitation, or dfoubt about our thoughts, feelings, and opinions because it is our right. It is valuable to information and communications technology because media and information have always been a part of ICTs, and it would not even be half as effective without them. Media and information is used everywhere and is seen all around us in everyday of our lives as seen on televisions, radio, on the web in numerous different websites, in our homes, schools, and offices, and is also used to educate and well-inform everyone all over the world.

I, for one, am media and information literate and self-sustainable with my knowledge and education even since I was just a little girl. I remember when I was six, my mother set up for me a desktop computer and connected to it a USB stick (that was the WiFi), and she told me that, whenever she’s out at work and not there to help me with my homework, I could just use the computer, enter the Google website, and just search for anything. With this, I used media and information literacy to its highest advantage, being able to gain any knowledge or information by just operating and searching through the databases of Google in a computer. (And it was fun playing computer games with it as well!)

Because of media and information literacy, I was able to attain this much knowledge by myself, without the help of people, with just the open resources any of us can find on the internet. Now, by just utilizing the internet and being literate, I was able to study many languages and courses in numerous subjects that have well helped me gain in my own benefit and potential for myself. I also believe that anyone could learn anything and everything they want by just being well-educated and informed on media and information literacy.

To Those Who Feel Like Quitting…

“If you ever get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” -Words to get you through the day

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In life, things will not always go right as we want it to be. The paths you take may seem hard, and it may be sitting the heaviest of weights atop your shoulders. Some people might experience the aggravation of long-term debt that sadly passes on to their descending generations to continue the pain. Even trying to see the positive side of things may be hard to do. Surely, it will be difficult to overcome. However, whether it be day or night, rain or shine, one must not choose to give up.

Life is really strange and unpredictable. Like a roller coaster, it has many loops, rises, twists, and dives to offer. We learn more and more about it every second we ride it. It can be very fun and thrilling, but it can horrify many as well. It could incite fear and a sense of danger. At some point, one might realise this as the continuous bouts of failures in his life. One might even consider giving up the challenge, not knowing that the chances of his next trial might come out successful. It will be difficult, and it will take its time, but success will come. We just have to keep on trying to get there despite the measures given to us.

It is true that there are many strugglers who gave up and lost their battle for success. Then, there are those who gave up, sadly, realising only too late just how close they were to success. Those who gave up too soon never got to dig up that last mine of diamonds. Painstaking though it may be, success does come with persistence.

Failure is inevitable, and only failing greatly can make you succeed greatly. Success is the reward given to you after many failures. Even though we would surely fail a hundred times more, do not doubt the chances of succeeding. Doubt ruins the idea of your chances of ever succeeding; failure does not. Failing once more only increases your chances of success. And, despite how long and how distant the rainbow seems to be, we would never really know just how close we are to our pots of gold. Although it may seem nearly impossible at times, success will follow failure. Just like how The Black Death, the most devastating pandemic in human history, was followed by The Renaissance, “rebirth,” and one of the most interesting and rewarding ages. Realise that quitting will not make us successful and stopping will not advance us, so why should you quit?

 

 

 

 

 

// This is a paraphrased version of the poem “Don’t Quit” as mentioned below.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill
When the funds are low but the debts are high
And you want to smile but have to sigh
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit

Life is queer with it’s twists and turns
As everyone of us sometimes learns
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won if he’d stick it out
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow
You might succeed with another blow

Often the struggler has given up
When he might captured the victor’s cup
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down
How close he was to the golden crown

Success is a failure turned inside out
The silver tint of clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are
It may be near when it seems afar
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit

-Unknown //

vow: learning more effective ways to express emotions

    in life, we are given many gifts from god that no one else can give: our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our minds, our limbs, and the ability to feel and express emotions. since birth, we have been growing and learning new things about the world we exist within and what exists within the world. i believe that everything around us affects how we grow: the people around us, the environment, and the way our parents raise us. we all learn to adapt to our certain habitats since not everyone grows up in the same place with the same values that others have.

    my mother told me that when i was very young, and as i was her first child ever, she worked hard to teach me and care for me so that i may grow up intelligent and strong. she said that it was difficult to understand what i wanted since all i could do was cry and mumble stuff, so she had her mother come help her take good care of me.

as i was growing up, i was able to speak english and arabic, i was able to reason with my siblings, and i was able to tell my mum whether i was hungry, sad, angry, disgusted, etc. if i were sad, she’d hug me and tell me she loves me – and it’s the warmest feeling yet. if i were angry, she’d ask me what was wrong and try and help me resolve my problems. however, reaching my adolescent years, i became more and more disconnected from my mother as i started to think more on what i wanted to do in the future instead of thinking of just being with her, there and then.

“she was a grumpy child,” my mother would say. i tended not to smile at all, cross my arms, and complain about things that bother me. the only thing that could lift my spirits or get me hyped was the old-school cartoon network shows or reading fairy tales. i learned so much from just watching, reading, and observing the emotions and reactions of the characters in the shows and stories–that i grew to speak and act more and more like them. my actions started becoming a manifestation of my emotions as i started to hit puberty.

i know it’s hard to understand youth and their feelings since we are very complex and tend not to explain the main point and instead, say, evade it by explaining a something sort of like a riddle and expecting others to understand what we mean by it. we are misunderstood because we don’t really know how to express ourselves well. information can be shared in any form, and we must all be educated on how to express ourselves using the languages we have learned ever since our births. therefore, it is a must for all of us, as a society, to help each other in trying to understand each other, not scolding what you cannot understand, by means of educating us the better ways of expressing ourselves. there is such a thing as “miscommunication,” and because of this, we might interpret things differently from what others interpret.

to avoid miscommunication, we must educate ourselves on how to explain things thoroughly and learn to listen and accept each others’ own perspectives or interpretations, for they might also give you a glimpse of how they think, which could improve your relationship. you can teach yourself to become a good listener which could also make others listen to you completely as well. sometimes, people tend to passively listen to you because you haven’t shown them the attention they need to feel appreciated. in most miscommunication situations, it becomes an argument or a problem. i may learn to express myself better by using clear words and relating them to other situations that may give a clearer thought to those who are listening, i may also listen to them to understand how they think, and correct them gently for what they may have mistaken due to miscommunication.

vow: growing in tolerance for frustrations, conflicts, and pressure

 

understanding that it is hard to solve problems in consideration to how frustrating or pressuring it may be, i learn how to control myself and tolerate these conflicts.

i know life isn’t easy. there are ups and downs and full-on twists and turns, and that is understandingly ridiculous, but it is so – for us to learn and to overcome them. for, if we do not learn to push past our feelings on the surface, we would never grow out of it or be able to better ourselves. some people still have strong fears that they have kept to themselves since their childhood. some people obliterated their fears with the extreme. at some point in your life, you will experience being frustrated, under serious pressure, and/or in a conflict of any manner or situation. what we should learn to do is how to grow our composure and cope with these problems so that we may be able to smooth out the very rough and high bumps that life puts on our roads.

an example of me being stressed out to the point where all i could do was either cry, scream, or procrastinate and avoid it—would be me in current high school. whether it’s the term’s exams week, or another busy, hair-splitting week, the constant push and push for me to give in all my efforts could be seriously stressing. my hair begins to fall out, i break out, i get the weirdest, pounding headaches, i feel dizzy most of the time, i get little to no sleep at all, and, to add to that, i feel so depressed to the point where i lose all my self-confidence and my will to do anything.

i literally just cannot do most things i should be able to do when i’m depressed. it’s like the switch for the ‘capability to do normal or important things or anything at all’ is off, 0, and my productivity levels over the whole week is so low that i end up crying then desperately asking my friends to help me and help cheer me up as well. it’s embarrassing, but it’s the truth to it—how my anxiety and depression act up when i’m stressed or under pressure. i have to put myself in a personal space bubble and try to think of nothing to calm myself down. when that is not possible and i end up thinking about how stupid and embarrassing it is that i cannot do something, i end up breathing too quickly, too shortly, and i begin to cry and panic.

it is hard having to deal with your problems all by yourself, especially if they get so big and you end up having to tell others personal things just to carry it off your chest a little. that’s okay. no one says you had to live your whole life all by yourself. you need others who can support you and carry the weight with you, people who can motivate you and be there for you. no man is an island. i learned to accept that we can’t always have it our way in life, and that we must also realise that stress allows us to realise when we must tone ourselves down and what we can do to improve our way of doing things so that we may not become stressed or confused, so that we may become more tolerable.

testing one’s limits and going beyond comfort zones

 

i believe that one should always go past their boundaries if they really want to achieve something – because you really have to put yourself out there if you want to get something worthy in return. it’s like this: you expose yourself to the vast opportunities the world offers all around you, and you give and show them your grandest efforts and prove the world that you are capable of doing many things, and in return the world will show its gratitude by giving you worldly rewards. you shouldn’t be afraid of going out into the world, even though, yes, it can be quite nerve-wracking. and, you shouldn’t hesitate, you should go all out. it doesn’t matter what you believe you can or cannot do, or even what others believe you can and cannot do because everyone has the potential to do many a great thing. we just have to really push ourselves, be spontaneous and free ourselves from our own limitations.

i think a fine example of going beyond my comfort zone would be the time i participated in a pageant for the first time in my life, and, being a shy, lame girl like me, i wasn’t too enthusiastic about participating. however, a push here and there from my friends helped me give it a shot. it was the mr. and ms. teen sgen of 2015 that i had participated in, and regardless of my ‘weirdness’ around people, everyone thought i was pretty friendly which actually changed my view on how they think of me because they gave me the ms. congeniality award. to add to that, being on stage in front of many at such an event brought my legs to shake like a dog, but i kept my head real high because the thrill was enthralling.

after every passing through the stage with different outfits and props held about, i felt comfortable with the whole pageant thing going on. however, by the end of the event, where questioning and answering was about to take place, i began to reach my peak levels of anxiety and got really flustered while answering the question given to me. that, in itself, was a tragic and embarrassing mistake for myself, however i was still down to top three which was more than i could have ever asked for. by the end of the pageant, i won 2^nd runner up and went home smiling as i imagined myself as a barbie doll in my sparkling purple gown and bedazzled ms. teen sgen tiara. my participation in the pageant was a successful and heart-warming experience that i will forever treasure and laugh about with friends and family knowing that i will never participate in any pageant ever again!

 

an example of me testing my limits would be me trying out for football. i did pass and got in with the team, but i still wasn’t very good at football. i could kick the ball and pass it normally my whole life until they told me that i should kick it and pass it a certain way, then – i couldn’t kick it to the goal properly at all, which made me nervous and angry. when my coach asked me to do five laps around the whole field for the first time, i was so scared because i knew i couldn’t do it without taking a few breaks in intervals and panting so much. i knew my stamina wasn’t up to fit standards, but after a few laps around the field, and my being tired as hell, legs burning, and sweating too much, i kept running and running. i ran faster than my teammates, and i ran without thinking—looking at the trees, the clouds, and the grass, and seeing how calmly they sway and move with the wind, peacefully. and by then i had made even six laps and tired myself more than i thought i could. and i brought my stamina up, i could breathe normally again, i could run better.

i could tell myself, “i did it.”

excellence or mediocrity

as a student, we go to school and get our rightful education. every day, we are given assignments such as worksheets and projects in order to practice what we have learned during the classes we take. however, sometimes the schoolwork puts too much stress on us, and we tend to procrastinate just to get ourselves back together again. it is rare for someone to step out of their comfort zone and aim for excellence because they think being mediocre is enough for them. they think it’s enough because the struggles are a few, so they could relax more. going for excellence means going through any struggle and attempting to achieve success in any possible way. we have to convince ourselves that being contented with being mediocre is not the right choice. we have to go over our limits to become who we want to be in the future.

a recipe for success

in order to make a delicious dish, we have to follow the right steps with the right ingredients. just like being successful. we have to follow the right steps with the right people. we should have the right mindset and learn from our mistakes and continuously work hard. we should project a vision where you can make impossible things possible. possible through determination, motivation, and perseverance. furthermore, being yourself attracts the right people. our minds are like magnets, we attract things. we dont need to be popular or have a lot of friends. we just need the ones who care about us and would surely stay with us for a long period of time. these kinds of friends help motivate you and walk with you up the staircases of success. they support you all throughout the journey, and they share with you their experiences and learnings. being successful may take a very long time but what matters is the journey because

being successful may take a very long time but what matters is the journey, not the destination. that is what makes success taste sweet and worth remembering for the rest of your life. embrace the experiences and overcome the obstacles. i believe in myself, i believe in you. we can do it!

vow: i promise to promote creativity by being resourceful

we can promote creativity by being resourceful because it could mean that — with what little materials we have, we can still create something extraordinary from it. like in art, for example, where even if we do not own all the best paints or expensive paintbrushes, we can still paint a magnificent picture with our warm fingers and stagnant paint. i think even with learning languages, like i myself do, i do not need professional courses, nor do i need to stress myself out learning a language because i provide myself ways to educate myself & communicate with those who learn languages, or those who are natives to a language.

we do not have to limit ourselves because of what we do not have. just by being creative, even a cheap paintbrush can paint a masterpiece.