"I didn't realize what damage heat can do To flesh so bare So I poured you out all over me Until I was undone And shaking But after the fire has gone All that's left is ash and wilted skin So now I know Better" -The Things You Left Behind (Poetry, Prose, and Short Essays)

Growing up in the Philippines can be described in a curious mixture of two contrasting words: Boring and Extraordinary. As most humans do, I tried to find sense in my existence, that ultimate question that people sought for an answer their whole lives: Why on earth am I here for?” Childhood. State or time if being a child

Have you ever wondered what it was like to be in high school? Have you ever wondered what someone else's experience in high school is like? As in real events with real people? This book is not fictional. It is my personal diary about my everyday experiences in high school starting from the first day of freshman year all the way until graduation. Join me on my own adventure. It doesn't contain magic, dragons, or wizards, but it's real and different. Enjoy!

** Winner of The Watty's 2014: Collector's Dream Award ** ** This is a true story. Now FULLY edited ** I was diagnosed with Cancer a week before my 16th Birthday. I had Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and had to undergo Chemotherapy and a Stem Cell transplant, back in 2003. My whole life changed. I wrote this book when I was 17, when all my treatment was over, to catalogue everything I had learned and experienced. I had no information about Cancer during my treatment; it was all aimed at adults and I was a teenager who didn't understand most of what happened. So I wrote this book. I was a teenager when I wrote, when I had Cancer and I wanted this to be an information, honest account of what it was really like to have Cancer and go through the treatment....from a teenager's perspective. It's sometimes funny, sometimes sad, always honest. There may be parts that you squint at, because you're embarrassed to read them...well, I was embarrassed writing them. But that's the whole point of honesty. To get it out in the open. To be real. And that's what this is.

REAL LIFE STORY: I was a stereotypical high achiever in an Ivy League school who got suspended for plagiarism; April was a sweet girl who worked in a high-end prostitution ring. We were both in our early twenties when we became friends. A perfect timing, because my heart was full and swollen, so was hers. With the help of vodka, we began spilling our secrets one by one. Our hidden wounds, our dirty laundry, our youthful ambitions—everything. QUESTIONS EXPLORED: Why am I unhappy? What is the meaning of friendship? What makes someone sexy? What is the purpose of life? Why is love so confusing? Is it wrong to be selfish? What drives you? How insecure is too insecure? Why do I feel jealous? What triggers a quarter-life crisis? Why are some girls so crazy? Why are most guys dumb? What is philanthropy? What do we owe to homeless people? What should we do about loneliness? Injustice? Depression? What if I really, badly want to be beautiful? What am I most ashamed of? What do people I dislike have in common? Who is God? Why do we pray? What do I know for sure? Why tithe? Why love again?

A moderns teen's guide to what NOT to do... and how to survive it if you do.