Geeeez… I still have the jitters of workload all piled up on our counseling cubicles. For one, accreditation is nigh. Then we have the annual Teachers’ Evaluation. December, we have Enrolment Promotions. All these at the side dish for our main menu – 100% counseling of students with follow-up and thorough completion of their Guidance Record Forms. Oh well, let me add a written report for every counseling session aside from the anecdotal documentation of some cases.

Then of course, I have this MA in SpEd to attend to, minor in Math which I claim to be my waterloo, but unfortunately, I have to live by and with it for the rest of I don’t know until when so that I am able to increase my marketability for my great American dream. Not that I am anti-Filipino, but because I love the Philippines I want to have my homecoming soon after I have earned enough fortune for me to build a school for kids with special needs – for my Filipino family. You know… great dreams!!!

But I must admit, last Saturday, I was in total mess. I wanted to run to the Graduate College Dean and hand her my class card and shout directly at her face, “Hey, I’m quitting!!!” or maybe, “Girl, I’m dropping-out!!!” or simply put it, “I think I’m dead meat!!!”

You know the feeling of being in a room where everybody knows everybody and everyone knows what they are talking about while you look so terribly dumb in a corner by yourself where all the jargons you are hearing for the first time are simply put on your face yelling at you, “Get the hell out of here, you alien!!!”

Hey, that is what I felt in that little room in my Math class. Graph Theory. Hell! This was my first time ever to know there is some theory about graphs. I encountered a number of graphs in my Statistics class, but never discussed Eulerian G and D or Hamitorian G and D (whatever these mean?).

And for a little application on our first meeting, we had a seatwork which ended up to be our assignment and ended to be my burden that ended up as my topic in this blog. To share my little problem (that is!!!), here’s a sample of the Problem Set I brought home to answer:

1. Floramel has invited Noemi, Lucila, Jodi and Patricia to her apartment for lunch. She has prepared four sandwiches for them in advance, namely ham, bacon, tuna and chicken salad. Noemi likes tuna and chicken salad, and Lucila prefers ham and chicken salad. Furthermore, Jodi likes bacon and tuna salad, while Patricia enjoys ham and bacon. Can all four have a sandwich they like?

2. Draw the graph G with vertex set {u, v, w, x, y, z} and edge set {uw, wz, vw, wx, wy, wz, xz, yz}. What are the order and size of G?

3. A Chemist wishes to ship the chemicals A, B, C, D, E, F and X using as few containers as possible. Certain chemicals cannot be shipped in the same container since they will react with each other. In particular, any two of the chemicals A, B, C and X react with each other. Furthermore, A and B both react with F and D. Describe a graph that models these relation between the chemicals. Use this graph to find the minimum number of containers needed to ship the chemicals.

4. Janet plans to invite her friends Alex, Bert, Cindy and Dave to dinner. Alex, Bert and Dave all know Cindy. Construct the acquaintance graph of this group of people (which includes Janet) and use it to determine whether the people can be seated around a table so that every two neighbors are acquainted. What is the order and size of this acquaintance graph?

5. Construct a graph of order 5 whose vertices have degrees 1, 2, 2, 3, 4. What is the size of this graph?

6. a. Construct a n r-regular graph of order 8 for each, 0 < r < 8.
b. Determine the complement of each graph constructed in (a).



Now, ain’t that cool stuff!!?!!

I have started some haiku stuff. Not sure though if I am doing the right thing. If in case you know something about what a real haiku is, feel free to comment on my posts.

Kindly visit my new site too. It is located at http://marjo-lifeinamirror.blogspot.com and http://marjo-lifeinstanzas.blogspot.com

Hope to see you all there.

To the women out there, visit my new site and be one with us in our journey through the miracle, wonder and grace of being a Woman.

Hugs and Kisses from me!!!

pebbles

thrown into the water

water ripples

water engulfs

life

teardrops

water cascading

minute

concludes an entire story

The Woman says, “Life makes an excellent mirror.”

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.

A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan.

While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies. This was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and then begin my two-day journey back to the field hospital.

Upon arrival in the city, I observed two men fighting, one of whom had been seriously injured. I treated him for his injuries and at the same time witnessed to him of the Lord Jesus Christ. I then traveled two days, camping overnight, and arrived home without incident.

Two weeks later, I repeated my journey. Upon arriving in the city, I was approached by the young man I have treated. He told me that he had known I carried money and medicines. He said, "Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to move into your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by twenty-six armed guards."

At this, I laughed and said that I was certainly all alone out in that jungle campsite. The young man pressed the point, however, and said, "No Sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those guards that we were afraid and left you alone."

At this point in the sermon, one of the men in the congregation jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and ask if he could tell him the exact day that this happened.

The missionary told the congregation the date and the man who interrupted told him this story:

"On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here and I was preparing to go and play golf. I was about to putt when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Lord was so strong I called men in this church to meet with me here in the sanctuary to pray for you. Would all of those men who met me on that day stand up?"

The men who had met together that day stood up. The missionary wasn't concerned with who they were – he was too busy counting how many men he saw. There were twenty-six.

After reading the story from a compilation of cut-outs courtesy of Ma'am Alma, I literally had goosebumps and my head seemed to be so heavy with hair.

Ah! Angels! As a child, I have always believed in them. Not because my mother used to tell me a lot of stories about them but because I had several encounters with them, too. Usually in my dreams. Dejavu! Maybe. Maybe not. But one thing is for sure, I believe in angels and all other miracles, great and small in this bivouac men call life.

An article in National Geographic provided a penetrating picture of love in the extreme.

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree.

Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he struck it...

Find out what was there underneath its wings at http://marjo-lifeinamirror.blogspot.com and be that person to spread the news what greater love means.

Have a good day everyone!!!

Does the above table look so familiar?

You're quite right then.

The table above is the summary of my subjects and schedule for this semester. To those who might have followed my previous entries, I might as well feed the answer to your question: "Why Math? I thought you're going to take up Science?"

So I thought, too.

I have already decided… firmly (so I thought, too, again!) But after checking the battery of tests I have undergone myself in my Psychological Assessment class last semester, having interpreted it and pondered on it, accompanied by my brother's opinion, I have changed my mind… to the last minute.

How many minutes?

Well, just enough for me to knock and enter the room of the university's Associate Dean last Saturday.

My test result?

Well, let me support first my prose with my grades in college and graduate school. My College Algebra was 86, lower than my 87 grade in Biological Science; but my Statistics with Demography was 88 (I was even exempted in my final exam because our Prof promised that whoever can perfect the long test she gave will be exempted… and I perfected the test!), far higher than my Zoology lec and lab grade of 82 and my Physical Sciences of 72 (damn that Prof in Physics!); I had 89 in my Applied Mathematics while I had 78 in my Anatomy and Physiology lec and lab; I had 86 in my Inferential Statistics while I had 81 in my Inorganic Chemistry lec and lab; I had 82 and 85 in my Psychometrics I and 2 respectively and 86 in Taxation; I was able to have a grade of 1.25 in Psychological Testing, Statistics in Education and Methods of Research which is equivalent to 94-96; and of course, my thesis had a grade of 1.50 or 93, which I can proudly say that every painstaking detail of my Statistical treatment was scrutinized by no other person but me.

Do I sound bragging? Hope not! I am just proud of the fruits of my sacrifices.

As for the test result:

My Aptitude test told me I am better in Mathematics than in Science. My IQ Test told me I am good in Non-Verbal Analogy. My Interest test also asserted that I have an inclination to numbers.

Now tell me, was I wrong in my decision?

I have decided. I have six units this semester. I will take another nine this summer while having my Graduate Seminar in SPED. I will take another six in the first semester of school year 2008-2009 in addition with my Thesis 1 and Comprehensive Exam. Another six for the second semester with my Thesis 2. Hopefully in 2009, I shall graduate from another MA degree, this time in Special Education with a minor in Mathematics. And next school year, hopefully again, I will be able to seek a teaching job from a respected school like my present school. Degrees. Experience. Increasing my chances for the US.

But do I really like to go to the US?

Of course I do.  Actually, I want to travel around the world. Visit Paris and even Istanbul. But to work there as a teacher, well, I'm not quite sure.

But I really want to earn enough money to build my own school for children with special needs. And the only way I can do that is to go to the US and teach there. I can't be a nurse! The more that I don't want to be a nurse!

But then again, as I am thinking over my plans, there is this part of me that doesn't like to get to the finish line.

There were two things that prevent us from achieving our dreams; believing them to be impossible or seeing those dreams made possible by some sudden turn of the wheel of fortune, when you least expected it. For at that moment, all our fears suddenly surface: the fear of setting off along a road heading who knows where, the fear of a life full of new challenges, the fear of losing forever everything that is familiar.

These were the thoughts of Chantal Prym when she was deciding whether to continue battling with her Evil and take the side of her Good by not running away with the gold bar.

And I think this too is my story and everyone else's.

At the back of my mind, I am not also fully convinced if I can really put up my own school. I am afraid to take responsibility. But I want to help. I want to initiate some changes in this side of my town which I love so dearly but seem to have been laid back by economic advancements and positive technology.

I am also afraid to take the plunge because I know I am leaving something I have loved and worked for in the last thirteen years. Testing and Counseling is what I am good at. Though I know teaching is not too far from my chosen profession, I still have hesitations whether or not I can be effective.

And yes, I am terrorized by the thought of setting foot in a foreign land where in the first few months, I don't have my family with me, that is, Ronald and Beatrice and Gabrielle.

I fear of setting off along a road heading who knows where, I fear of a life full of new challenges, I fear of losing forever everything that is familiar.

But I have changed my life with a flick of my pen last Saturday by choosing Mathematics over Science. I just hope my decision would suit me and would be kind to me. I just hope my decision would bring me to my dreams. I hope against all hopes that my decision can build a school for kids close to my heart.

"Ah! Sweet revenge!" 

That was my very first utterance after flicking through the last page in Coelho's novel The Devil and Miss Prym. 

As the lines go: 

She had only returned to say goodbye to Berta. She was wearing the same clothes she usually wore, so that nobody there would know that, in her short visit to the city, she had become a wealthy woman. The stranger had arranged everything, signing all the papers necessary for the transfer in ownership of the gold bars, so that they could be sold and the money deposited in Miss Prym's newly opened account… 

…"They're going to build a fountain in my honor," Berta announced. "It's the price for my silence."… 

…Chantal asked what the fountain would look like. Berta had decided that it should be a sun spouting water into the mouth of a frog. She was the sun and the priest was the frog... 

…"And now you are finally going to do as I suggested, my girl. One thing I can tell you with absolute certainty; life can seem either very long or very short, according to how you live it." 

Chantal smiled, gave her a kiss, and turned her back on Viscos for the last time. The old woman was right: there was no time to lose, though she hoped that her life would be very long indeed. 

Sweet revenge indeed. 

How Miss Prym was able to get such sum amount of money through eleven gold bars courtesy of the stranger is up for you to discover. 

This book by Coelho is another worth the read that you cannot even afford to stop and pee because each page reveals the truth about life – with this, the fight of good and evil within a person.  

Let me quote from page 39: 

"Good and Evil have the same face; it all depends on when they cross the path of each individual human being."  

The Devil and Miss Prym concludes the trilogy And on the Seventh Day. The first two books were: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (which was the first book of Coelho I was able to read) and Veronika Decides to Die (which I am currently reading). Each of the three books is concerned with a week in the life of ordinary people, all of who find themselves suddenly confronted by love – By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, death – Veronika decides to Die and power – The Devil and Miss Prym.  

Seven days. That is too long to change the course of life of any ordinary individual. We just wake up the following minute or even with a blink of an eye, everything in our life has changed. Even with the words we seem to be ordinarily saying can alter the life we so carefully worked on for years. Changes often come when we least expect it. And oftentimes, change is accompanied by challenges to test our courage and willingness to change according to Coelho; at such moment, there is no point pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready.  

And in Coelho's final note: 

"The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny." 

So true. There are moments where my Good and my Evil came hand in hand, both look so much alike. And I have to decide fast. Maybe, with just a flick of my pen.  

Tomorrow, I shall tell you how. 

How about you, do you have your own story of a week of grandiose change?