11. Being a Filipino

Some Filipinos say that the Filipinos are worth dying for, and some people say that it is better to die a hero than live long enough to see yourself turn into a villain. You don’t have to die to become a hero, being a hero is doing good things from baby steps, from doing the dishes at home, throwing the garbage, or doing your chores, even cleaning your bedroom. It all lines up, that you should always listen to your parents, Filipinos are like that, they love their parents and they do chores, like what their parents asked them to do because it has a lesson to it, like clean the streets whenever it is flooded, people are always helping each other out, in other terms “bayanihan”, and from cleaning the streets we should also learn to protect our landmarks, we have to protect the rivers, the oceans surrounding our country. We should not dump our garbage in the rivers and under the bridges, but most Filipinos do.

 A good Filipino has to know our history, the Filipino history is very wide, everything all around the world is connected to the Philippines, from the americans Spanish, Japanese people, they all came to the Philippines and change our culture, for that our culture is very rich because of the mindsets they put into us, like hospitability, and other values. What other people think of Filipinos is actually very low, they eat most of our food for experiments, or for videos on youtube where they eat gross food, like balut or dinuguan. I think you should not focus on bad things and look at the whole board, you should look at all the characteristics of Filipinos, because everyone has good ones. Have dota 2 for example, foreigners really hate playing with Filipinos, they even have a special name for pinoys, and it is “pee noise”, just because most of us are hot headed, quiters, and trash talkers; people should not have any stereotypes for Filipinos because not everyone is the same. I do say myself that I have a lot of bad stereotypical Filipino traits, like crab mentality, manyana habit, and hot headed(pikon in Filipino); like teasing other people makes you laugh, but when they tease you back, you would get offended and mad.

 Filipinos should be proud of that because we have a lot of other good traits, and they should not get mad for the flaws they have, because with imperfection comes beauty, beauty as in Filipino talents, like Vanessa Hudgens, Manny Pacquiao, and Bruno Mars; not only in the united states, but also the local Filipino stars are very talented, and known worldwide, like Lea Salongga, Sarah Geronimo, and even Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza, whom trends worldwide almost everyday with their love team aldub. Not only  Filipino stars are known worldwide, but also a Filipino show which has the longest airing time for a reality T.V. show named “eat bulaga” is being broadcasted in Indonesia; we Filipinos should be proud of that because not all countries have shows being broadcasted in another country.

Physical features of Filipinos should not be underestimated because Filipinos are naturally beautiful, most countries are just sour because we keep making it to the top of beauty contests, like Megan Young and other Filipino supermodels. I am proud to be Filipinos, I want to see this country rise up from the ashes again like what happened during the 70’s where the Philippines is rich, where 1 dollar=2 pesos. I am proud to be a Filipino, and I have what it takes to be a Filipino, because in my blood runs the blood of Filipinos, from my ancestors, to my grandparents, to my parents and onto me, I am a Filipino by blood, mind, heart, and spirit. I have what it takes to be a Filipino!