Choosing right

In a few months from now, students will begin to march as they will perform their graduation rites. The end of four long years in high school will finally greet us. Finally, we can breathe well and look forward to what will happen in the next chapter of our lives.

The question being raised now is: Seniors, have you decided yet what course you will take up in college?

By now, you must have fixed your mind already on a particular course. The one that you like best and prefer the most. You should be careful in picking a course

so that, at the end of the day, you will have no regret.

However, although people advise students to take up a course which they really like rather than what their parents like, there are still some who just tend to go with the flow of the trend. Most students prefer to take up in demand courses even though they are not interested about them. Often, this is the reason why students fail.

One good example of highly in demand courses is Nursing. Today, most students prefer to take up this course not because they are interested about the medical field but because of its promising benefits. In fact, students take up this course mainly because of the opportunity of working abroad and earning dollars.
As of this school year, there will be 20, 000 nursing students who will graduate from about 350 schools around the Philippines. With this figure, it is evident that more and more students want to take up nursing and more and more of them want to work abroad and give their families a better life.

With a failure rate of 60 %, say 8000 examinees will pass the board exam. Half of this number will most likely go to foreign countries to earn higher salaries than the ones being offered here in our country. While other countries overflow with nurses, our own nation runs out of them. Worst is the best nurses are the ones who leave our country. What is being left to us are less-skilled ones.

During the last ten years, it has been recorded that the Philippines deployed about 90,000 nurses abroad. This shows that we are deploying more than we are producing.

Higher pay, greener pasture, more opportunities -- we are blinded by these always. Are we that susceptible to the disease that is currently plaguing our country? Many nursing students get failing grades and just decide to shift course. Look at that, a waste of money! And that's because they did not choose right. Why not follow our hearts' desire instead of pushing ourselves to desire the undesirable?

Barack Obama

Want to know more about US president-elect Barack Obama? Visit his website at http://www.change.gov

Tracing the roots

Do you want to know where our calendar months originated? Well, read this!

JANUARY
-named sfter Jairus, the god of doors and gates who has two faces, which can look forward and backward.

FEBRUARY
-came from the word Februlia, a period of renewal or purification, which is often observed starting February 15th.

MARCH
-named after Mars, the god of war.

APRIL
-the origin of the name April is still being debated. It is originally thought to came from the word aperire which is Latin for "to open". This is an allusion to how the month of April ushers in the spring season when trees and flowers "open". Another etymology points to Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty. April is considered to be her month.

MAY
-comes from Maria, Greek goddess of plant growth and fertility. Her Roman counterpart Bona Dea is honored every May through a festival.

JUNE
-named after the goddess Juno, who rules marriage, home and women's affairs.

JULY
-named after Julius Caesar who was born in this month.

AUGUST
-named after Augustus Caesar--Julius Caesar's successor--who rose to power in this month.

SEPTEMBER
-named by using the prefix septem, which is Latin for seven. Originally, there were only ten months in the calendar with the period January to February, considered as month less. September is the 7th month in that first calendar.

OCTOBER
-came from the Latin word octo, which means eight. It was originally the 8th month in a ten-month calendar.

NOVEMBER
-came from novem, Latin for nine.

DECEMBER
-came from decem which means ten.

Now, were you able to get ideas about where our calendar months originated? Well, as we all know, everything in this world has its roots.

Bad manners (part 2)

11. Not saying "I'm sorry."

12. Late or too early for an appointment.

13. Making offensive remaeks about some one's looks, clothes, weight, etc.

14. Always speaking of I, me,my, and mine!

15. Talking about gross things while somebody is eating.

16. Playing mp3 loudly.