Success doesn't choose a gender

Lately I've been watching TED Talks in my free time and many of the top videos that I've been watching has something to do with feminism. Now, for those of you who don't know, feminism is "a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, cultural, and social rights for women", as stated by our good friend Wikipedia. 

"When a woman flaps her [butterfly] wings, she creates, she nurtures, she transforms."

Many of these talks create good solid points but I don't know much about feminism or activism to dwell on it for too long. I personally have my doubts but the people behind those talks were more than respectable enough for me to take their ideas into account. One of them was Miss Jenny Elmaco, a woman with a mission, whose talk I listened to live during the TEDx University of San Carlos event. She was also responsible for my being there. 

Jenny Lind Elmaco

Her talk overall presented facts that, if women were given the chance to affect the modern society, to have them empowered and uplifted, many positive changes could be made not only in infrastructure but also an impact in the country's overall economy.

As a young lady in my late teens, I always find it hard to understand why the women, close to my age or sometimes even twice my age, constantly complain about the lack of opportunities and/or their lack of action to attain said opportunities. Not only women but men as well. We are on the same playing field, the same situation with the same resources but why do some ascend and why do some stay stagnant? What is so different in the human psyche that prevents most of us from seeing what we already have and making use of them? I listened to miss Jenny's talk and kept comparing it to the actions of women and men I have had the blessing to know and talk to. I believe the theory of women not "rising" due to the fact that they are not empowered to be true. But I disagree that that drive needs to be summoned by an external force. Nothing can stop anyone from being who they want to be and what they want to achieve as long as their heart is set on it.

Featuring Dalareich and many more remarkable women

The timeline in my life that I am presenting to prove a point is during my college years, specifically in my sophomore and junior years. Being a student in Bohol doesn't really present you with many opportunities, especially if you are in the field of technology. So I took it upon myself to join organizations and attend events that will enrich my knowledge and will hopefully give me an edge as I graduate. 

My case is, of the two years I spent attending these events and inviting my classmates to attend with me, sometimes even offering to provide them free lodging or fare, only one has constantly attended with me and he is a guy. Being raised with eight male best friends, the fact doesn't bother me as much and I considered it normal. 

As I listened to miss Jenny's talk, I thought that it would have made more sense if I had a female friend jumping for joy as I invited her to these events. There was no risk of kidnapping or danger since either one of my parents would chaperon us during out-of-town events, I was female so no risk of sexual harassment or anything of the sort when we were alone, most of their parents already know me either personally or indirectly and they get to improve their skillset and make connections. A lot of the times, their parents do agree with me and it is just them that do not want to go. And I keep asking myself why? With the opportunity and resource readily available for you to take them, why are you not making the most out of it?

To get a solid answer to that question, I guess, is for me to experience life more. I do have one thing to say though: The women I do have the privilege of meeting are pretty kick-ass. And they are flapping their majestic eagle wings of greatness everyday.

TEDx University of San Carlos 2014

It being my first time inside my university's sister school and possibly my younger sister's future college got me excited. The property was bigger than I expected, the USC Talamban campus, and it was a surprise that the shuttle had to cross a few hills to get to the TEDx Venue.

Outside the CAFA Theatre with the very pretty mural

The event was a USC student-only event so I considered myself very lucky to have been able to attend at all. Dalareich, a good friend from Bohol, in all her famousness and glory, got an invite from one of the speakers at the event to be one of her guests. Unfortunately, she had an important meeting to attend to so she declined the offer. Me, being the nosy no-shame friend, jumped at the opportunity when she mentioned me in their conversation. _{(Thank you, Dal, I love you haha)}

Dalareich is a ☆

The registration table outside the CAFA theatre was very lively with free donuts and sodas for the student attendees of the TEDx event. I was honestly very nervous about going there, the only communication between me and ma'am Jenny being the Facebook comments so the possibility of my attendance being counted for sure was very slim. But luckily, Ms. Jenny was as nice as I imagined her to be and prepared an envelope with my name and another guest's containing our tickets. One of the nice organizers, Shedwin, handed me the envelope and entrance to the event was hassle-free.

My TEDxUSanCarlos ID and Guest Ticket

Entrance to the theatre vie the "Guest Lane"

The "Student Lane" was next to us since the Guests and Students were made to form separate lines. I assumed we would get to enter the event first since we were "Guests" and therefore "Special" but we were instead made to enter last after the long line of students. That's what we get for being freeloaders.

The TEDxUSanCarlos stage

The organizers did very well on this, the stage looked awesome, after two years of watching TED videos, I practically fangirled seeing the 3D TED statue-thing in the backdrop and not to mention the media coverage with livestreams and actual HD video cameras like what. _{(The concept of the Butterfly effect was genius, too. Red more about it in their website)}

Gordon Allan Joseph

Overall, the event was an amazing first TED event for me and I'm sure everyone in the room learned a little bit about everything that afternoon. I'd attend one again _{(or organize one myself)} in a heartbeat so hats off to the University of San Carlos people who made this all happen!

Met these two amazing people at #TEDxUSanCarlos from @SparkPhils. Wish you were there @dalareich! They send their ♥ pic.twitter.com/aIY9pmy0sP
— Ashley Uy (@mashleyuy) August 20, 2014

Reviews of some talks and my opinions:

The Truth in a world of Lies

Little things you can do to live a more Sustainable Life

Success doesn't choose a gender

The Truth in a world of Lies

Many of us strive to be unique these days. From coloring our hair, to getting a tattoo that didn't work out so well or even wearing that same black hoodie you wore yesterdays just because it's your "signature shirt" _{(like you're some anime character pfft)}. And it's pretty damn hard. No wonder everyone in the creative industry in this century kill themselves off. Everything you can think of today, has already been done. And to add insult to injury, it's been done better!

Chad Manzo at TEDx University of San Carlos

Chad Manzo, art director of SCARS and speaker at the recent TEDx University of San Carlos at the Talamban Campus, shares that due to our desperation to be so badly unique, we lose sight of the essence and solid point of our identity. We choose this bent sense of "uniqueness" over true content. "Screenagers", he refers to our generation, are mallabe to the false propaganda around them. Just how shallow have we become? Being entertained my corny jokes and having personalities be forced to do something "unique" that doesn't really make sense but "the people love it" so they go on ahead and do it anyway, I mean, what's the point in that? What are you getting out of these desperate attempts of uniqueness? These "viral videos" and "trending posts" don't always hold the right idea. Have you ever thought of their deeper back stories? Like this video taken at Robinson's about guards not letting a disabled man go in the mall. Sure, it looks bad on camera but wait 'till you read the rest of that article. Was the situation really as bad as we make it out to be?

I've noticed that we no longer look for the deeper meaning of things due to the lack of valuable content either the media or just the society around us expose us to. Have you even tried to pop that bubble?

"What is the truth in a world full of lies?" 

I honestly didn't find Mr. Manzo's talk that empowering but I loved the idea that he presented to us and the challenge he posed to our generation of "Screenagers". Be unique to Innovate. Innovate because you want Growth and Realness, not to seek attention nor for some sort of validation but to be able to leave a Legacy. The kind of legacy that will "find the truth and passion to grow and to have the chance to advance humanity".

Little things you can do to live a more Sustainable Life

The Archival Eco-House, owned by Counselor Nestor Archival who spoke at a TEDx event at the University of San Carlos, Talmban Campus, Cebu, is a two-story installation built to uphold the counselor's advocacy to protecting the environment. Energy consumed by the building is sourced from renewable energy generated within the property.

Counselor Nestor Archival at TEDx University of San Carlos

He started off shaky as he begun his talk at the event, mostly because of his nervousness, not that I blame him, But gradually, he gained more confidence and had this contagious passion as he talked about his project and how he encourages everyone, in their own little way, to be responsible about caring for the environment. Sir Archival explains that if the power the house consumes is greater than the energy it can provide, he takes from the grid, but usually, he gives back to the grid as his installation's generated energy is more than enough to sustain their day-to-day operations. He has an in-door garden and a pig pen whose waste are re-used in the establishment. For example, black water, water from the septic tank, is processed and filtered organically through his system _{(with the help of the bandera espanola plant)} and is given back as the source for his plants in his garden and gray water, water drained after you take a bath or do the laundry, is again processed to be used as water for flushing in the toilets.

All of this sounds awesome, by the way and kudos to sir Archival for pulling this off! I'd love it if sometime someday, sometime _{(possibly tomorrow)} that all the houses in everywhere were like this. But facing reality, to have all the irrigation and filtering systems installed would probably cost us more than an arm and leg. Being a cheap-ass "be green" wannabe, here are a few things that I'm personally doing around the house to live sustainably:

1) Grow vegetables - I know, it sounds tiring _{(and it is)}, totally not sexy and I am definitely still a noob at this but tasting the sweet fruit of your hard mostly sweaty and back-aching labour makes it all worth it. Plus, you're helping the environment and your community! I grow a few onions, lemonsito, malunggay and alugbati which I just leave hanging at the gate for my neighbors to take for free.

2) Instead of using artificial fertilizer, create a compost pit - After eating a scrumptious, satisfying meal, I dump all the bad leftovers, fruit peelings, poultry or fish bones into a tupperware and leave it in the freezer until its time for me to garden _{(which I do once a week)}. I thaw that gross mixture and dig a hole in the soil outside to bury them. A few weeks later, I use that soil for my plants. It helps a lot since the ground here is pretty rocky.

3) Use two teaspoons of baking soda and legit lemon juice as a drain cleaner - To get rid of the gunk in the kitchen and bathroom drains, I throw in that mixture to get rid of any excess organic stiff sticking inside the pipes. I let it set for five minutes and rinse with warm water. It works! Honest!

4) A mixture of water and white vinegar makes a great cleaning solution - From glass, to microwaves and even chocolate stains on my tile floor! I dump an even amount of both into a spray bottle and use that as a cleaner.

I know I'm not as fancy as the Archival Eco-House and I know I'll never be _{(until a few years, hopefully)} but a little is better than nothing and after hearing his talk, I though I'd share a few of these that I'm actually doing in to hopefully encourage, especially the younger generation, to think about the bigger picture when you go about your business everyday. The "turn off lights when not used", "flush maximum of twice after toilet use" and "sort your bio and non-bio" all go along with what I'm doing so there is action behind these words people! I just hope someday more people will realize that we only have one planet _{(that we have access to)} that can serve as our home and we owe it to them to take care of it as best as we can. We've got no where else to go, after all _{(for now)}.