Before I have even seen the dawn of the Earth, I was fearfully and wonderfully crafted by the very One who’ve created all things that existed. It was in the joyous season of 1992 when I finally seen the Earth and breathed its air. That’s where my parents got my name Emanuel, meaning “God with us” for in that season, all of the Earth celebrates the coming of the Messiah. I grew up a simple boy, in a humbling community near the city cemetery. Economically, our family lived in poverty but as a youngster my thoughts were about playing and dreaming. I never felt it because that was normal for me, my younger brother Erwin and with the other people sorrounding me. I was then occupied with hanging out with the naughty and the rebels. I turned out to be little by little more self-serving, day after day after day. But mother was the one who neutralized it all, she again and again taught our young minds of the values of honesty and responsibility. That’s when I learned to help mother and father earn. Very early morning before going to school, I got up with mother to clean jeepneys for a few pesos that would get us through the day. I’d go to school bringing a portion of my wages and get on with my school life. On weekends, I helped sell some corn in the streets. Sometimes even scavenge trashcans to get some items to sell. That was when I felt that our life was way different from the rest of my classmates. It taught me to dream and persevere. In my adolescence, high school life became something new for me. To be able to conform with the rest of my peers, I have tried to boast of things that I possess or I acquire. I used that to cover up the reality of my situation. That’s when I learned to feed my other self called “ego” and wasted hard-earned money playing computer games and coping up with the lifestyle of my well-to-do friends. It made a liar out of me, telling my parents that I have projects and needed more money to spend serving my habits and gaming vices. That’s when I felt down and wasted, though I worked harder at daybreak daily cleaning jeepneys and FX cars just to feed my desire to fit with the rest. The summer of 2007 became my life’s turning point. A man invited the entire class to join Dynamic Teen Company and promised that life for us would be a lot different. Though I hesitated at first, I felt the nudge that my life needed a fix. I spent the entire summer with them, volunteering to make a difference in our community, teens like myself were being trained to become leaders and we were developed in character and personality. That summer ,I also encountered my needs spiritually, I surrendered my life to God and traded it for new. I saw other children living more miserably than how I lived. It was a spiritual awakening that brought out the “Emanuel” in me- “God is really with me” now! Junior year came by in school and classmates noticed changes in me. It was a struggle at first to live what’s right, to go against the flow, to make a difference in class and in campus. My fellow Dynamic teens supported me all the way. We worked together to live our cause and shine our lights. Alas, an award giving body noticed our teamwork and hailed our team as Bayaning Pilipino 2007. Television exposures, Senate and provincial government courtesy calls were vested on us. That made me think that I have made the right choice to live my life worthy of my calling. As far as I will live, I pray that my life will be a testimony of change and a proof that God is alive and saves. For in life, I have learned that the greatest handicap is fear, the hardest thing to do is to begin and the most useless asset is pride