Wanna know the quick version? "I gave up finding purpose and meaning with life so I created them"

First I wanna tell you that im a bad writer but ill
try my best.

My name is Francis Im a cynic, passionate and stupidly positive
person altogether.         I dont understand myself sometimes. 

Im 23 now turning 24 on the last day of february.            No its not leap year
I really dont know what category im in with the society so i hope
this story can help you understand me.

Ever had the thirst for purpose?

The thrill that you get when youre so close to answering something really important.

Its like finding and opening a box of full treasure.

My story is a series of opening life treasures and their meaning for me.

So if you disagree about my opinion.. .

...Ill throw my boxes at you.             I like making jokes even though im bad at them.

First box is MONEY

2009 Its the year when my father lost his job because of recession and as the eldest son

i need to find a job and step up to help with our finances. This is the time i was hooked

on the idea of network marketing.               Im 17 at that time.

This idea presented was so shiny it blinded me and my family. Yes we had put my fathers savings

on this idea thinking it'll help us in the long run. Like all horror stories about scam we had to learn

it the hard way. Especially me coz i was the one who invited my family to join.

Ever felt so responsible about something went terribly wrong? 

I was branded as the "scam". Thats what i think about what other people are thinking about me including relatives and friends.

I was trying to cope up reasoning myself out of despair and trying to learn about what kind of people

would scam others for money.

When i opened the box here's what i learned:

• It controls other people.
• Some made it the center of their lives.
• It has been a struggle from the start (Rat Race)

 - I may post my poem about money and more about this if steemians are interested.

So for a 17 yrs old this was my first life treasure.

How did i cope up?

Second box is FRIENDS

I know its a lot of drama so ill try to specify only the important stuff.

I am a teenager who made a giant mistake, struggling for belongingness and i dont know who i am.

You can probably imagine how it went so ill just go straight to it.

Drugs

Party

Sex

Money

Now im the "scam" and also the eldest son who makes life harder for his family.

Opening the box of FRIENDS heres what i learned:

One doesnt have to be wrong, to belong (forgot where i saw this qoute)

Now we are onto my next box if youre still reading.....

..... Youre awesome!

Third box is the alluring LOVE

Okay here we go, this is one of the hardest box to open with and yet the easiest one to find.

I stopped college and im fixing myself up by working - This has opened my eyes more on the box of money but i wont make this post longer and its not connected to the story.

Love came by in the image of a nursing student. Im reading a nursing book that i picked to burn sometime
in the library. Yeah its not the best book to pick but i have a comic magazine with me and its the biggest book to hide it with.

I approached her with the lamest excuse to tell me whats the meaning of sternutate (sneezing). Why did i approached her? well thats a funny story but thats not the point.

We became lovers after two weeks of chatting and texting. She was the best thing i had at that time and everything just makes so much more interesting.

But as you can guess first love doesnt last...

...atleast not for me.

Saw her cheating.

I tried to mend it by forgiving her....

....but she did it again with another man.

At that time I thought to myself i wont love again             Anyone else said the same thing? 

But it happened again and again and again with different women with different reasons why we broke up.

So the third box LOVE heres what i learned:

• Never compare love
• Everyone has different kind of love
• Communicate properly
• Attraction wont last

- i have a poem about this and if steemians are interested in what my humble key to the box of love is id be glad to create a post and share it.

I dont know what to do at this moment. I completely gave up about lifes purpose and its meaning. I will go with the pack and live life as it was laid out by others hence my black and white picture coz to me the world turned colorless that time. I would go to work and just do it on auto-pilot, same with everyday life. 

I gave up finding meaning.....

..... so why not create them? If I cant find meaning, ill create one and show it to the people whose probably going through the same search.

If youre still reading it gets a bit better on this part and I cant thank you enough for spending the time to read the story of my life!

First treasure created ACTORS

I went back to school to finish my degree when one of my friends presented an idea of creating a theatre group for fun and also just to make more friends. He had trainings and knowledge about acting and theatre, i have none.. But I helped him create this coz i want other people to have a sense of belongingness and not find it other way like i did.

We had posted a tarpaulin on our school and handed flyers for the audition on the same day of the audition! Yes we were stupidly positive.

We have gathered 10 people....

...... and then the magic begins.

We called it Dramatic Arts Unit and now its called HAU Repertory

Everyone tried to be better each day then one day its time to let people know of what we can do.

It was a big of success that it made the school recognize us and promised to give the actors scholarships if they can pull off a theatre play about how the school was founded.

We worked hard for it....

.... and we conquered! 

National newspapers featured the school for the first time in a long time because of us.

Whats the funny part? We had little to no knowledge if were doing it right! And all we only knew is that acting is for the audience not us.

BUT when the school gave them the scholarships they had 1 condition....

.....It is to replace the founders with a real director for theatre.

This broke my heart but its the best thing for them. Every now and then i visit them and ask how are they doing. 

Without theatre i felt that im back to the black and white world again....

....and so i decided to create another treasure.

Second treasure POETRY

Not a writer and a not poet but I founded Paper Soul, young poetry group located at the heart of Pampanga. We quickly gained attention by local and national media coz weve created a new way to express poetry pieces.

We call it MOB POETRY. The idea is simple tackle 1 complicated idea like Religion, Love, Family and have each writer focus on one perspective. 

eg. Religion- there is agnostic, believer, atheist and etc. The key in writing this way is argument, we give each poet a limited time to pursuade the audience.

By the end of each MOB POETRY, 1 poet will summarize and give out the best conclusion. 

Weve been performing through different events we also create our own but poetry in a third world country is really hard financially.

This is our Anniversary Event last November

At the moment Im currently looking for ways to support my group and find a way to keep giving meaningful poetry to our audience. As I was looking for job online, I saw @jerrybanfield on youtube and he's explaining steem in incredible way to understand the system.

I went to the site but its a complete alien knowledge to me. My scam alert mind is screaming at this moment.

Then I saw @surpassinggoogle and his support to @steemph and all that is new to the platform! This made me wanna try and give time to it.

For 2 days i cant sleep properly!

The more I learn about steem the more i get excited about it!

Looking for life's treasure have been a disaster for me and creating treasures myself have been so hard to maintain financially so seeing something like steem

 puts me back to my first opening box experience...... 

..... but this time its something good and real! 

Im crying as I write this ending to my post...

I WANNA THANK YOU ALL FOR THIS OPPURTUNITY!

IM EXCITED TO SHARE THIS TO THE WORLD!

I HAVE FOUND A GREAT TREASURE IN MY LIFE! <3 

- A fan and steemian for life! -

Francis Leonyl Palo