Some plans seem impossible when they are spoken aloud, appearing more like dreams than reality. This chapter covers the journey from a government scholarship in Marinduque to a classroom in Manila, through the trials of a deceptive marriage and the birth of my children, to the starting of Cinderella School and a sudden departure to Japan.
A kind dentist neighbor helped me apply for the "Study Now Pay Later" government program, which everyone called the SNPL scholarship. This scholarship allowed poor but deserving students to attend college, with the condition that we maintain high academic marks. I chose to specialize in Mathematics, which had been my favorite subject since childhood. I rented a small room from Aling Fely, a strict woman who ran a small shop directly across the college gates. To win Aling Fely's favor, I cleaned the house and carried water for the kitchen and bathroom without being asked. In return, Aling Fely shared her meals with me. In college, I studied intensely, reading my textbooks and preparing for lectures daily. I developed a friendly but close academic rivalry with a classmate who was renting a room nearby. While she was slim and sociable, I was short and focused on my studies. I won academic competitions, led student clubs, and served as the Student Government president. I also worked part-time at the school, manually washing graduation gowns and packing togas to earn extra money. My academic diligence resulted in graduating as Magna Cum Laude, an honor that had not been received since the college was founded.
I wanted to share this milestone with my father, Cesar, and asked him to walk with me on stage during the graduation ceremony. As always, my father refused, explaining that he had no decent clothes or shoes to wear. He suggested my mother, Siloh, go instead, but I insisted. My father borrowed trousers and a shirt from his cousin and came to the ceremony. Because I had received the highest honors, my father and I were the last pair to enter the hall. As we walked together, my father, in his borrowed clothes, placed the graduation medal around my neck with his rough, wide hands. Many professors wept watching us. I was the proudest child on earth at that moment, knowing my father's hard labor had made my success possible.
After graduation, my uncle Jovie agreed to take me to Manila, where I enrolled in a Master's degree at a public university. To support myself, I worked the night shift in dextrose production at a pharmaceutical factory, studying during the day and working at night. Soon after, my aunt Mildred helped me apply for teaching positions in Quezon City. I scored the highest among all the Math applicants on the entrance test and was assigned to teach Mathematics at Quezon City Science High School. Although my career began successfully, my family in Marinduque faced severe struggles. My aunt Esther died unexpectedly after accidentally drinking animal medicine. My younger brother Ramir dropped out of school because he could not study while my mother continued to gamble our father's earnings. Then, our family house in Marinduque was completely destroyed by fire after my younger brothers left a cooking fire burning near stored coconut husks. I sent my salary home to help, but our financial debts continued to increase.
During my early years in the city, I dated several suitors. My college boyfriend, Kim, had promised to visit me on my birthday but failed to call or show up, which ended our long relationship. I dated a young man named JB, but we parted after he pressured me to cross my personal boundaries. Later, at my second teaching job at Juan Sumulong High School, the assistant principal, Mr. Vice, grew offended when I refused his invitation to go out for drinks. Mr. Vice sent a handsome teacher named Benny to court me in an attempt to cause trouble. I accepted Benny as my boyfriend, but our relationship ended when Benny confessed that he had accidentally gotten a co-teacher pregnant. I urged Benny to marry the woman and care for his child.
Benny's student's parents worked at a recruitment agency and had given Benny a pamphlet about jobs abroad. Because my family needed money to rebuild our house, I visited the agency in Mabini, Manila. I decided against domestic work, but across the street, another agency was recruiting workers to pick apples in America. During the interview process, I met Marlon, the liaison officer and the nephew of the agency owner. Marlon began to call me regularly and eventually proposed marriage. Marlon claimed that his family was wealthy, owning a large farm and valuable properties in the province. Marlon promised that if I married him, he would help pay my family's debts, presenting this as a safer path than traveling abroad alone. I did not love Marlon, but I accepted the proposal for the sake of my family. In late October, Marlon took me to his hometown in Pangasinan. During a heavy typhoon, we shared a room, and Marlon aggressively pressured me into intimacy. Soon after, Marlon admitted he had lied about his family's wealth. Feeling trapped, I paid for the civil wedding myself, and we returned to Manila to live in my uncle Jovie's house.
Marlon refused to keep a job, and I had to take salary loans to cover our expenses. We moved to a small rental house near a shoe factory. I gave birth prematurely to my daughter, Unice, who was so tiny she had to be placed in an incubator. When I returned to tutoring to pay the bills, Marlon neglected the baby's feeding schedule. When I voiced my anger, Marlon threatened me with a kitchen knife. Later, I gave birth to my son, Michael Emmanuel, by Caesarean section. I had to sign the medical waiver myself because Marlon went to work and left me alone at the hospital. Shortly after we returned home, Marlon left for an indefinite vacation to his hometown, leaving my mother to care for us. Marlon then traveled to Taiwan to work, but the money Marlon sent was barely enough to cover the telephone bills, and my debts continued to grow.
To increase my income, I taught at the private school in the morning, the public school in the afternoon, and tutored at night. I also completed my Master's thesis defense, borrowing money from a colleague to pay the fees. My mother traveled from the province to attend my graduate school ceremony, marching proudly beside me. The following year, I enrolled in a doctoral program. Marlon returned from Taiwan after his contract was terminated for hitting a coworker. Soon after, I decided to start a private kindergarten. I had only five pesos in my wallet when I announced the plan, but a colleague's brother allowed me to lease a small house in a crowded subdivision, and a local supplier provided construction materials on credit. My father, brothers, and brothers-in-law traveled from the province to help construct the school, which I named Cinderella School. The school was successful, but Marlon continued to vice and took tuition payments directly from the parents, leaving us in financial distress.
At the graduate school library, a teacher couple told me about the Monbusho Scholarship to study in Japan. My first application was unsuccessful because I failed the interview, but my principal encouraged me to try again. That year, I won the Outstanding Public School Teacher award in Mathematics. When the former principal returned to our school, she signed my second recommendation letter. I prepared intensely for the interview, sharing my story as the child of a coconut farmer and expressing my hope to write an inspirational book. I was accepted for the scholarship at Akita University, which was famous for a shrine dedicated to the Lady of Akita.
Before my departure, I settled our local bills, leaving my children with Marlon and the school under his sister's care. I reached the airport with only five hundred pesos. I tried to give the money to my father, but my father insisted I keep it. Marlon tried to take the money, but my father stopped him. Inside the airport, I exchanged the five hundred pesos for a one-thousand-yen bill. On the plane, I wept and prayed, remembering a sign I had received days earlier: a kind-faced man in a white linen cloth who had walked past me in the church. I also recalled discovering that Marlon had been having an affair in Hong Kong, having fathered a child there. I felt relieved to escape Marlon. The plane landed at Narita International Airport on October 1, 1998, and the scholars were given thirty thousand yen. We traveled by bullet train to Sendai, where the staff welcomed me and handed me the key to Room A-105 at the Tohoku University International Residence. It was the start of a new beginning in my life.
The journey from a five-peso coin to a national scholarship in Japan is a testament to the power of relentless effort and faith. Standing on the graduation stage with her father in his borrowed clothes, and later building a school from nothing in a crowded subdivision, she proved that material lack is not a barrier to excellence. Escaping a deceptive marriage and boarding a plane to Narita with only a one-thousand-yen bill was a leap into the unknown, but it was the necessary step to reclaim her life and begin a path toward a global destination.