''The Unbreakable Me"

When I was still a child my parents instilled me the value of education. "Since you are not born with silver spoons in your mouth you need to study hard in order to achieve your dreams someday" said my mother. "Always remember that poverty is not the hindrance to success" she added. Today is my first day of class as freshmen in a public high school. I'm nervous and shy to the fact that some of our classmates came from other schools. But there are some faces inside the room who are my classmates during elementary and of course I have my best friend Gene. We are both in the star section and we graduated in elementary with honors received. "Good morning class I am your adviser as well as Filipino teacher" said Mrs. Tess. "Good morning Mrs. Tess" as we greeted her in unison. "So, inorder to familiarize your name as well as to know you all we must have our activity. Each of you must introduce yourself and choose a flower that describes your personality. I will give you 5 minutes to prepare" said by the teacher. We are very silent and listened to the teacher as she gave her instructions to us. I'm used to this scenario everytime the school year begin but secondary level is different from elementary. The activity after 5 minutes started and we are still quite, some just bow down their heads and others listen to our classmates. "Hello everyone! I am Michaela Cruz and I think I'll be a sunflower because I want to see life as bright as the sun. Just like the flower that I've chosen it blooms beautiful and face directly in the sunlight". "Good morning I am Gabriel Asuncion, I choose an orchid because I want to bloom everyday and I just hope that my classmates will see the beauty in me". I was sitting in the second row and I felt so nervous because almost of my classmates are good. "Hi I'm Reid Rizalde, I think I'm crotons because the leaves has many colors and I know that life has many happy moments as well as trials but we must be strong to face it''. "Good morning everyone. I am Trina Charize de Leon, I choose the flower-rose because it blooms gradually and the color is red which represent that I must be brave in facing life's challenges as I'm growing to grow as an individual. It's thorns will represent the trials and heartaches that I must going to conquer later on but I believe that I can face it in order to reach my dreams someday. The activity ended well and it was fun because we started to know our classmates. Some of them came from other mainland and island schools. After that, the teacher oriented as regarding with the subject and also gave her expectations to us. The bell rang as sign for the second period to begin. As well as during the third period and the last subject in the morning. The teacher gave orientations and we gave our expectations and impressions to the subject. In the afternoon, our teacher in Values Education Ms. Rica made our sitting arrangement, she paired the girls with boys so that the boys will not be noisy during our class. I was paired with Mark at the front row our classmates teased us because we look "cute" according to them. I'm shy and not aware that my tears are falling. I started to cry because I'm not used to sit with other boys as my seatmate. My seatmate just so quiet and bowed his head ,he's a little bit shy too. The scenario still repeating in one day. We cleaned our area of responsibility in the afternoon. I went home tired and had a remarkable day. Crying lady in the first day of school. Days passed by and I enjoyed my highschool days. I maintained my study habits and got high grades at the end of the quarter. I know that competition with our classmates is visible because we are in the star section. It was February 14, 2007 when Mark my seatmate gave me a valentine's card. He was too shy and I saw his cheeks turned red and ask first the help of my classmate in giving the card. "Trina" as my classmate Rod called me when I get inside the classroom. "What?" I replied. "Mark has something to give you but he's too shy" he's smile looks like he's going to tease me. I ignored what Rod had told me but he kept in following me and said "Just take it he just made it for you" and I saw that Mark hand in the card. I take the card and read the letter " Happy Valentines Day Trina. I hope that we become friends. God bless" I'm nervous while reading the letter and I know that it's my first time to received a card from a guy classmate. Then our classmates just teased us and I got panic so thrown the card at the trash can. And I saw disappointment in Mark's eyes. I pretended to ignore his presence even though we are seatmate but I felt so guilty for what I did. Will I apologize to him?