Dianne Vanessa M. Alejo
Year III-4

My name is Dianne Vanessa Manrique Alejo, known to my family and friends as Dianne. I was born on 1989, 11th of August in Makati Medical Center. I am the eldest of a brood of 4 girls. My father is an engineer in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and my mother is a homemaker and a part-time businesswoman. My family and I lived in an apartment in Pasig City for 7 years, until we transferred to our current home here in Taytay. Before entering Assumption Antipolo as a 2nd grade student, I have been studying in Colegio de Sta. Rosa in Makati City—which is also an exclusive Catholic school for girls.
Living here in Taytay has been tough for quite some time. I had many friends in our past home, and being a child, it was hard to let go of my friends. Fortunately enough for me, I made a lot of friends months before we moved here, making this experience slightly easier.
During my preschool years, as my mom recounted, I was not the typical shy girl—but an outgoing kid. And because of my sociable personality, I always win the Most Friendly Award and became a favorite representative of the class for school presentations. I have also joined numerous school programs and contests in school. I had many extra-curricular activities during the weekend like Piano and Voice Lessons in Yamaha and Ballet classes with my teacher Sofia de Ayala. When I moved here in Taytay, gymnastics occupied most of my weekends for a year.
I was also a “straight-A” student when I was in Colegio de Sta. Rosa despite of my various weekend activities. Graduating from preschool, I was in the list of the “top students” in the batch. Not only was I talented, as my mom’s friends say, but also a bright student.
Taytay is quite far from the city, causing some of my weekend activities to end because of too much traveling time for me and my mom. I became focused in my studies then. My favorite subject is Math so I was particularly good at it. But my grades did not retain when I was in the latter part of grade school; I became an average student, minus the subject difficulties.
I became less engaged with extra-curricular activities in school because I was not really sure of what my interests were. I joined many clubs in my grade school years to hone my “talents” and serve God, such as Gymnastics Club, Kids for Christ, Art Club, Culinary Arts and YMAA (Youth Ministry of Assumption Antipolo). Through these clubs I have joined, I have learned to do many things that I thought was not capable of doing. I gained patience and self-confidence through these organizations and was able to gain friends as well.
Graduating from grade school, virtues I have acquired through the years remained in me when I entered another milestone—high school life. Together with my clique of friends, and moral support from my family, I “conquered” the best, but hard, phase in my life. During my freshman year, I was quite hesitant in high school. We were the youngest batch and inferiority was the main theme of the story. I guess the fear lessened because of my friends and family’s help.
High school was also the time when I encountered many problems, both in my family and my friends. My family had a major crisis causing to financial troubles and problems between my parents. Together with these, my barkada was also facing problems of our own. It was a turning point in my life since it made me a better and stronger person. I learned to face these problems instead of keeping it inside me. Through these, also, I found my “hidden” talent of writing which became the outlet of my feelings.
Academically, I could say I am above average. To be frank, I am not a diligent student—I am lazy, so my full potentials are not achieved during the first half of high school. But during my junior year, I could say that I have been performing well enough, especially in my Chemistry class, which I never thought I’d pass. My grades in the report card were not lower than 85, and I could say that this is a great achievement.
My family is very religious. We always spend Sunday mornings to hear mass. We also observe various religious practices such as Stations of the Cross, praying the rosary and joining in religious processions for saints. My parents have taught me to pray as early as I was a year old. My mom was the one to teach me to pray the rosary too. Hence, I joined the Kids for Christ when I was a kid, and now I am a teen-ager, I am part of Youth for Christ. I could say I have been active in this organization. Through these organization and conferences, my fate in God increased and I could say that because of YFC, I have better relationships with everyone—my family, my friends and God.
As a kid, I have dreamt to be a lawyer who would defend the innocent people. I also wanted to be the 2nd woman president in 5th grade because I wanted to do something good for my country. Entering high school, I concocted various careers I wanted to take; interior designing, restaurant owner and tour guide to name a few. But I realized that careers are things you cannot just meddle with: it’s a life time decision wherein you should take good consideration. And comparing myself to a mother elephant, I wanted to be a good provider for my family-to-be. I still want to be a lawyer someday and work hard for my family. Like a mother elephant, I want to take good care of my family and as of now, that is what I want to be.