hiii bb check mga SUCs (state universities and colleges)! there's PUP and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila among others. sa second tanong mo omg alam mo nag gap year actually ako after shs which saved me from potentially taking a business degree (couldn't imagine that now that's krazy. me?? with a business degree??). tho syempre i wouldn't necessarily recommend that to everyone kasi alam mo naman perception ng mga adults and matigas lang ulo ko talaga na my parents conceded. pero during that time i worked a bunch of jobs and i fell back in love with communication (hence degree ko rn). so don't feel too bad about it kasi gulong gulo din ako when i was in your position.

four things siguro. one, if you have the time and resources, i say explore by taking internships or just look for opportunities where you can be mentored kasi it exposes you to possible career paths and the type of work you can do. nung 18 ako kinakapalan ko lang mukha ko by messaging mga organizations or key people and asking them to let me work for them and usually they agreed. grabe parang di ko na yun kaya ngayon WAHAHAHA second, find out if you can reconcile both. may friends ako who chose "practical" degrees pero found a way to align it with passions nila. like, may friend ako na took economics tho di niya naman talaga love pero passionate siya about environment and sustainability, so ang work niya right now is a sustainability analyst. third, research mo na baka naman may courses na aligned sa passion mo pero are "employment-friendly." medyo panget na example kasi private univ pero sa admu may information design, which is parang more communications-adjacent na multimedia design. check mo din fb pages ng mga colleges kasi minsan may posts sila about possible career paths and it gives you a clearer idea of what you can do with that degree. pero alam mo, if you have something you really want to do and you have the tenacity to go for it, i say go! madaming opportunities out there and i think when you're young medyo malabo pa how they can translate sa "real world." like when i took an applied anthropology elective last sem, dun ko nalaman na karamihan pala ng socio and anthro do market research work for various industries or craft policies sa government. so malawak talaga mga pwede gawin. four, if di talaga kaya to pursue yung passion degree mo (which is totally understandable), that's not the end of the world! join orgs in college. that exposes you sa community of people aligned sa passions mo and it lets you pursue it padin on the side. maybe through that you can figure out din how to reconcile your field and your passion. or maybe even give you the opportunities to pursue it full time. madaming frustrated creative writers and film directors sa degree program ko who found a way to showcase their passions through orgs. don't lose hope!!!! you'll figure it out 🫂 kayang kaya mo yan!!! and laging may paraan, trust me.

hii bb!! to be honest the uncertainty never really goes away. take it from someone who's graduating university this year and is still confused and terrified about everything! pero one thing though is you grow to have more confidence and strength to deal with uncertainty overtime. ang practical na advice na mabibigay ko is na you build your work ethic when you enter college and make genuine connections who you can turn to for advice and who may bridge opportunities din for you. i don't mean in a plastikan networking way ha. like for example ako, i found people who share my advocacies and they offered me the opportunity to start a children's rights org sa university namin. that time wala akong kaalam alam sa marketing (yun and legal affairs position inoffer sakin) pero i took the jump because i trusted the people i was building it with. think of it this way din, a lot of uncertainties sa buhay are also opportunities. and ang maganda sa college is you have a lot of those. build your skills, work hard, and also pay attention to the things na you're passionate about. they'll help in aligning kung anong direction pwede mong tahakin in the future with your degree. also madaming opportunities ang bs math trust me!!! lalo na ngayon na very data- and research-driven ang mga industries. mahirap lang i-explain sa pamilya wahaha also take internships kasi they give you an idea of yung type of work na pwede mong gawin sa bs math. that can help narrow yung uncertainty mo. pero yo enjoy mo muna grade 12!!! kayang kaya mo yan!!! kahit sinusumpa ko lowkey UP (1/2 chz) am rooting for you sa upcat!!! basta keep going lang and do your best!!! am rooting for you 💗

i don't think we should "celebrate" anything hahaha you guys fixate too much on how people perceive your reading habits. whether you read fast or slow or a million books simultaneously or barely at all, it doesn't actually matter and trust me when i say no one cares. i think we should be more concerned about the texts we engage with and the kinds of ideas that interest and challenge us. the question of pacing is irrelevant. goals and stats are also helpful, i liked seeing my stats sa storygraph dati when i was still using it because it let me recalibrate a lot of what i read i.e. maybe i should expand my genres. if you fixate on all these too much tho idk like yeah for sure just read in peace. but again, i think you're all fixating on the "act of reading" too much. at the end of the day, i think we're more interested in the things we learned through the text and the criticisms we can form through it. like....i could care less how long it took you to read something or how many books you read, instead, what did you think about it? how did it change or challenge or validate your perspectives?