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A moment suspended in time

Photo: Pinterest

               “Photographs are believed more than words; thus they can be used persuasively to show people who have never taken the trouble to look what is there.” quoted by Eliot Porter. He was an American photographer best known for his color photographs of nature. Porter began to photograph birds and landscapes with a Kodak box camera as a child at his family's summer home in Maine.

                Photography is an amazing way to document every moment of our lives so we will have that memory forever. You can look back on the photograph and remember what was special during the time frame it was taken. Photography allows you to show others the unique perspective that is hidden inside your head.

                Ever since I stepped foot in high school. I would always take a picture of random things. Photography has always been one of my favorite hobbies. When I take pictures, it’s like seeing things in a new perspective literally and figuratively. My high school years circled around taking photos of my friends, and appreciating the beauty of our school. 

                However, despite my penchant for taking pictures of different things, my friends, or perhaps scenes that are bewitching to my eyesight. I always dislike the idea of taking a photo of myself, or when my friends wants to include me whenever they would take a group photo. Maybe because I appreciate every moment of my life, or I don’t want to miss every smile or every expression of their faces every time they would pose to the camera. 

               I really love those moments in High School, where my friends would approach me to take a picture of them. Despite of not having a DSLR camera, I still enjoy taking photos using my phone’s camera. I can always find something in a photograph that I missed while I took the picture. Sometimes it is someone in the background making a funny face which provides me with plenty of laughs. Other times it is the smiling faces which remind me about what that moment meant to them.

Photo by me

             Sometimes my friends get annoyed with me because I often take pictures of them while they are laughing. They will ask me to delete the photo I took because their faces are not pleasant in the photo. But they don’t see it from my perspective as someone who’s taking the photo of them. They don’t realize that they have a beaming smile that should be treasured.

              Sadly, this was the last happy memories I had since the pandemic happened. I took this photo from my friend’s camera that I borrowed when we were resting from our hip-hop practice. Fortunately, I was able to take photo because having snapshots of the memories keeps them vivid in my minds.  

[yashights]

A Filipino singer, song writer and producer: John Paulo Nase

Photo by: SB19 official

            John Paulo Nase better known by his stage name Pablo, he is a Filipino singer, songwriter, and producer. He is the leader of the Filipino boy band SB19 managed under ShowBT Philippines Corp. He was born on September 14, 1994 in Imus, Cavite.  He entered college at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and while on his senior year, he worked as a call center representative. He graduated with Bachelor of Arts in English degree. 

            He has passion for performing on his early years but was afraid on sharing it to others except to his closest friends. Pablo's main inspiration is G-dragon due to it being an all-rounder as a singer, dancer, rapper, and producer with a high sense in fashion. 

             Pablo auditioned in ShowBT Philippines Corp in the year of 2016. after meeting their Korean trainer, singer and musical actress Adie Hong at a Korean musical that she acted in. While being subtle in expressing his skills in performing because he doesn't want to show it to other people, but he still pursued his passion in performing. 

            He is the first member of SB19 to audition in the talent agency. After passing the auditions, he started training for two years and became part of NARRA trainee group. Due to the pressure in the training program, he need to resign for his work as a data analyst to focus on the training. 

            On October 26, 2018, Pablo debuted with fellow members Josh, Stell, Pablo, and Ken with "Tilaluha" which was written by himself. Being a leader, Pablo always focused on the idea of "Always choose to be kind”  These four exact words is the lesson that Pablo always reminds his beloved fans, A’TIN. It is heartwarming to see him reminding his fans how to be humble. 

           Pablo’s personality is define by his braveness and intelligence. He’s behind of those creative lyrics of their song. The song ‘What’ which he wrote by himself. With the lyrics filled with inspiration. The song is all about people who criticized and tried to dissuade SB19 along their path to stardom. But now they’re able to celebrate that having in fact gone through a number of setbacks, as such individuals have predicted, they have still made it nonetheless.

           Pablo being a passionate man to what he’s goal in life brought him to where he is right now. Pablo being a multi-talented, from writing their group songs, a great dancer with an amazing vocals. Surely, he got so far from where he started. With his latest song which is “Determinado” a collaboration with Josue won an award in Djooky Music Awards (DMA) Spring Edition 2021.

[yashights]

Doubt. Hate. These are the things they received when they were just starting. But P-POP groups continue to break the barrier of PH music to the world.

Photo by: SB19

       People all over the world are crazy about KPOP. Except for it is really upbeat and fun—many people attribute it partly to Sandara Park of 2NE1’s popularity. Her fame intensified the Hallyu/Korean wave in the Philippines. Groups such as Super Junior, BIGBANG, EXO are extremely famous and continued to the third-generation groups up to the present. BTS, EXO, TWICE, BLACKPINK, among others, are a craze nowadays.

       As these Korean groups are garnering millions of followers and views on social media and music platforms, one Filipino group practice video went viral overnight in 2019, gaining over a million views and shared in multiple social networking sites. With their amazing choreography and vocals, they easily caught the attention of individuals on different online platforms. The group is called SB19.

       This group was trained under the Korean training system. ShowBT is a Korean company, but the boys trained in the Philippines. According to them, they were trained not to imitate KPOP, rather they had the intensive training that Korean idols get, but their music is solely Filipino and their purpose is to promote it to a wider audience. Filipinos are known to be great singers and are vocally superior.

       Since the blew-up of SB19, this paved the way for more different groups in the Philippines. These are ALAMAT, BGYO, BINI, etc. Just like KPOP, the groups here in the Philippines don’t just easily make their debut. They would also engage in intense training, such as vocal, synchronization of their group dancing. But not all Filipinos support them. Many are skeptical about them, even saying they are poor KPOP copycats despite the Tagalog lyrics. SB19 are aware of it, but they said they won’t stop until the Filipinos would know and like their music and promised to always give better performances better than yesterday.

         Despite the doubts, some other groups have emerged. BGYO was formed by ABS-CBN Star Hunt Academy alongside with BINI. They made their debut song ‘The Light’ which was released on January and they are the fifth Filipino artist to appear on the weekly Billboard Next Big Sound chart. BGYO fittingly stands for "Be The Change, Go Further, You And I, Originally Filipino" and aims to represent their mission to empower and motivate the youth worldwide. While ALAMAT currently holds the distinction of being the second P-pop group to make it on Billboard chart and the fastest-rising Pinoy act on the Billboard Next Big Sound chart, debuting at #2

         The whole idea of forming PPOP groups is to introduce more the music scene of the Philippines, and to penetrate internationally. With SB19 being the first Filipino and southeast Asian act to be nominated in Billboard Music Awards. They are indeed starting to penetrate their music internationally. A prophecy, it is only a matter of time we will see them perform in spectacular musical awards show such as the Grammys, MTV Music Awards, even winning an award. What will definitely be the most colossal outcome of SB19’s musical domination: hearing other nationalities singing in Filipino.

          SB19 definitely paved the way for P-POP. Hopefully the local talents and music will be known wider and farther around the globe. SB19 has gained a lot of foreign supporters, as manifested by foreign online content creators and vloggers reacting to their videos. They have impressed local and international spectators with their vocal powers, dancing skills and humble personalities. Local music has gained momentum and may it last long.

[yashights]

Before success, there are struggles in life.

Photo by: SB19 official website

       "Life is tough and full of challenges," but Josh proved that as long as you are determined and goal-driven, everything is possible. Josh Cullen Santos was only 15 years old when he began to face the hardships of life. His earliest childhood traumas, in which his nanny domestically assaulted his sister and him while their mother was away. It even got to the point that Josh and her sister didn’t only get beaten, but also got tortured with candle waxes, to the point that he still has noticeable scars to this day. Apart from domestic violence, they were forced to do the housework instead of the nanny.

       Since they only have his mother, he became a repeater because of their family’s financial difficulties. They were exiled from the apartment they were staying in, unsure of what would be the life outside. He was an elementary undergrad during that time. He didn't have anything. Josh left his family without any plans and anywhere to stay. 

        Fear, apprehension, no certainty of where predetermination would take him. He took a risk—he got a job from his friend and begged his friend to let him stay where his job is. His friend's parents didn't know about it. What is even sadder is that he does not ask for payment for his hard work, because, for him, it was enough that he had a place to stay. Every day he endures P30-50 pesos, which he earns enough for him to have something to eat for a day.

        Josh formally introduced himself and applied for the job to his family when he was staying at this job for a year already. Then that was the time when he was getting a regular salary. He managed to work and review at the same time to pass ALS. They were good to him. It is also heartwarming that they wanted to adopt him: to change his name as well. They wanted to enroll him in a seaman/marine-related course, but he turned down the offer since it was not the path that he wanted. He didn’t want to change his name nor his surname.

        He wanted to take psychology during those times. Besides, he reasoned that it is not his family. He didn't want to have a debt of gratitude with someone else to not cause any commotion in the future. It was the timeline that he was interested in performing already. The family who helped him wasn't happy about it. They told him that he was just daydreaming and Josh didn't have any chance to be famous nor successful by doing this path. He cried a lot during that time. Because no one believed him.

       Since then, he started doing his passion secretly. But the family that once treated him well before became weird to hatred after he turned down the offer of adopting and letting him study in college. He couldn't tell his family what he was experiencing during those times because he knew that they were having a hard time, too.

        Furthermore, all the people who took advantage of him when he was young, the hardship that he experienced, it all paid off—he became a member of the p-pop group called SB19. Josh Cullen has been an inspiration to his fans to continue the battles of life ahead and yet to come. Fighting silent battles is never easy, but as Josh said that learning self-care and prioritizing yourself will help you to overcome those. It may be hard at the start, but never, ever lose yourself during the process of your healing, and protecting your peace.

         “Fake it until you make it.” as what Josh said. This quote is always being mentioned in menpa, but as it implies, we can always reach our goals, as long as we are determined and persevere enough to achieve them. You might have not noticed your progress during the process, but remember, slow progress is progress, too. Practice, passion, and consistency are the answers to achieving your dreams and fulfilling your goals. Your choices may not always be right, but the important things are you learn from your mistakes, and no matter what happened, we should always strive to be the best version of ourselves. People might judge, and criticize us, but at the end of the day, no one can take away the fruit of hardships that we gained as we achieve our self-growth.