THE FEATURE
VOL. 3 December 7, 2019 ₱ 30.00
“ My Wonderful Dessert “
Dessert is the most wonderful
part of a meal. I have never met
anyone, from any part of the
world, who did not like dessert
best. The best dessert is ice
cream because it tastes delicious,
is liked by almost everyone, and it
can link us to happy childhood
memories.
First, ice cream tastes better than
any other food. What food can
rival its creamy smoothness, or
the delicious feeling of this soft,
cold dessert as it slips down your
throat? I don’t know of any other
food that feels as good and clean
in your mouth or of any food that
comes in so many mouth-
watering flavours. At Llao-Llao, happy mix of chocolate, vanilla and many good flavours. Ice
for example, you can buy a yogurt strawberry syrup. Even fussy, hard-to- cream is delicious. I’m
ice cream and choose from over 20 please are sure to be tempted by this hungry! Are you?
1|P
fresh a g efor toppings!
fruits
to please everyone, and it
can link us to happy
childhood memories.
Third, many of us have
happy childhood memories
linked to ice cream. In my
family, it was used as a
reward when my sisters and
I were especially good, and it
was the best part of the
birthday meal. It was even
used as a comfort when
some small thing had gone
wrong. One day, for
example, I thought I would
just check to see if our flat
iron is still hot after a five
minute use, our flat iron was
as hot as my parents had
always warned me it was. It
In fact, today you can even get ice
didn’t look hot. I reached up
cream with protein in it, as the soy
ice creams have. Ice cream is really and touched it. Ouch!
good. Who knows? Ice cream may Needless to say, they were
soon be a complete meal on its own! right. It was burning hot! To
make me feel better, out
Second, while it might not yet be a came the ice cream. For
complete meal on its own, it can be good things and bad, ice
served after almost every meal for cream was, and still is, the
everyone likes it. It can be a best choice.
common thread between strangers.
Whether you have important out-of- Ice cream is a wonderfully
town guests, or are just entertaining
tasty dessert food that has
family and friends, ice cream is the
universal appeal and takes
perfect after-meal treat. Vanilla ice
us back to happy times. It is
cream is at home at any important
dinner. Family and friends, on the the perfect ready-made
dessert and is available in so
other hand, are sure to like kisses, a
universal dessert! Ice cream is certain
 THE FEATURE
VOL. 3 December 7, 2019 ₱ 30.00
“Being Able-Disabled “
Margaret L. is like any other
teenage girl today: she talks on
the phone, deals with the stress
of schoolwork, and has a
boyfriend. Unlike many of her
peers, however, Margaret takes
medication as part of her
morning routine; and the time
she spends in the school
bathroom is not devoted to fixing
her hair.
Margaret has spina bifida, or
known as split spine, a condition
in which one or more of her
vertebrae did not form properly,
leaving her spinal cord—the most
vital component of the central
nervous system—unprotected.
She has had eight operations and
wears braces on her legs to keep
them in the proper positions.
2|Page
Throughout all of these ordeals, she
has retained her outgoing
personality and positive view of life.
The 14-year-old attends high school
and is not in any special classes. She
is allowed extra time to get to class
when she needs it. She says, “I get it
[teased] a lot, but I do have a small
group of friends who are great about
everything.”
Margaret has had the support of her
parents as well: “I think that,
growing up with a disability, the best
thing that I have had is supportive
parents; without them I don’t know
where I would be. They both have
always said that I could do
something if I really wanted to.”
After school on most days, Margaret
works at Persons With Disability
(PWD) Program, an organization that
helps the disabled, alongside her
mother, Cindy. On other days she
plays wheelchair basketball and
tennis, even though she is not
wheelchair-bound herself. Her
evenings are spent at PWD
Program and doing schoolwork,
such as the recent project on a
genetic medical condition for
which she selected spina bifida or
split spine as her topic.
Margaret met her first serious
boyfriend, Juan, when they
played against each other during
a wheelchair basketball
tournament. “We were complete
enemies on the court,” she says.
They met again at a Disability
Towards Inclusivity event of DTI.
Later she realized the special
connection they shared, both
having a disability.
Margaret feels that, far from
having limited her, her disability
has allowed her to do things she
might not have been able to do
otherwise. She says that she
would not have been involved in
sports at all if it was not for
wheelchair sports, and she would
not have some of her current
friendships or her boyfriend.
Rock climbing, cycling, and
downhill racing (a kind of cycling)
are some of the other activities
she is able to participate in.
Margaret also volunteers in an
inclusion program at a Davao
center, helping other kids with
disabilities.
The prognosis, or outlook, for
most people with spina bifida is
excellent, and Margaret is
thinking about the future. “I want
to be a doctor of some kind,” she
says, “though I’m not sure what
kind yet.”
3|Page