REFLECTION PAPER OF BRINA MAXINO

In Partial Fulfilment for the

Requirements ECE 42&45
“Home School Relationship and
Management of Child Development”

By:

Claribel T. Jalagat

October 2019
“I have Down syndrome but that is not a problem. I love my life and I love
my future.”….. Brina Kei M. Maxino

In 1996, the Maxino family blessed with a lovely child name Brina with a genetic condition
of Down syndrome, at first the family were very hesitant and in denial about the result. But,
later they accept the truth about the condition of their child Brina. Brina, was just so bless and
lucky to have parents like hers, because her family did all the necessary things to at least
alleviate her condition. The important factor I learn from the Maxinos’ family was the
philosophy and the thought they kept within their lives—“Happiness is a choice”, usually our
initial reactions to any desperate moments in our lives whether if it is short term and or long
term problem is being hysterical, paranoid and even others becomes suicidal. My realization by
mere listening about the speaker was that you can actually dictate your heart, mind, body and
soul to be happy. How or where we can get happiness? Is it through fame, honour, or wealth?
Not quite! Right? Because true happiness comes within ourselves and it just goes out naturally
in our actions, thoughts, feelings, and most importantly in our soul. Happiness is the comfort
we seek within, if we opt to even amidst of misery and frustration, just like what happened to
Brina she chose to be happy and she chose to listen the things that makes her happy. A child
with Down syndrome condition is as pitiful as nothing to eat, or any problem that would
conclude that life is a big mess. If we just open our eyes and try to see into the eyes of Brina,
then probably the world is a better place to be. What you feel comes from what you believe, if
we opt to be happy and listen nothing but the positive words of all the people that really love
and cares for you then it wouldn’t be impossible that we can be like Brina a stellar of change
and the voice of those who have the same condition as her. Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks
within himself, so he is.”

As to myself before, I been into many battles in my life there were times that I’m about to
give up and rest assured myself to someone I just barely knew rather than to get up and to be
happy. It was so unrealistic it comes to me the thought that life is a matter of choice when in
fact, my decisions I made in the past was to make me happy, indeed! However, those decisions
I made was for my selfishness and the worst thing I shared it with the wrong person.
Philippians’ 2:4 “Don’t look out only for your own interest, but take interest in others, too.”
There are choices in your life that really make you happy and feel like a queen, but be just
careful because it might giving you an illusion of happiness. The true happiness comes in the
right time and those who live by faith that all things are for the glory of God. The time I knew
God, was the time I was able to regain my self-worth, the strength to believe that nothing is
impossible with God and to be able to have a happy life with the real person that who really
cares for me despites of everything that I went through. In the present time in my life, I felt so
thankful and I chose to be happy. Like the father of Brina, he chose to be happy and for that
he’s enjoying a happy life with Brina and the rest of the family. Our decisions, has a big factor in
our dispositions if we chose to be happy and listen the things that make us happy we would
attract positive things, we may not become like Brina, with a stellar list of accomplishments and
was selected as a Global Youth Ambassador for Special Olympics, representing the Asia Pacific
Region during the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games and the 2015 World Games.
Most importantly, we can have our own version of happiness, regardless if it is big or small
because happiness comes in different shape, size and or amount.