AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Personal Essay – a written story of someone’s life pertaining to one

particular event.
PRE-READING

 WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT MANIFESTATIONS OF POVERTY IN TODAY’S SOCIETY?

 ONE POPULAR ASSUMPTION ABOUT POVERTY IS THAT IT SHOULD NOT GET IN
THE WAY OF REALIZING ONE’S GOALS LIFE. DO YOU AGREE? WHY OR WHY NOT?
CULTURAL-HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

 Poverty is loosely defined as the difficulty or inability to satisfy basic needs.

 GLOBALISSUES.ORG, 4 billion OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION
 HUNGER
 MALNUTRITION
 LACK OF EDUCATION
 LACK OF SHELTER
 AND UNEMPLOYMENT
 CHILDREN
 IN THE PHILIPPINES, MORE THAN HALF OF FILIPINO FAMILIES (51%) CONSIDERED
THEMSELVES POOR AS OF THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2015.
VOCABULARY BUILDING

 Based on the context, figure out what each underlined word or phrase means. You may scan
the text below for additional clues.
1. I did not know much about music and movies that my high school classmates liked, but I did
not want to be out of place, so I painstakingly tried to learn them.
2. A. carefully B. carelessly c. indecisive
3. My mother had a serious ailment, and since we relied only a small store for our expenses, her
condition threatened to drain our financial resources further.
4. A. replenish B. strain c. help
5. In college, I would go to my school in Intramuros with just a few pesos; inevitably, I sometime
rode the jeepney or the bus without paying the fare.
6. A. unavoidable B. avoidable C. rampant
7. Because we were short on finances, finishing school, as expected, was an uphill battle.
8. A. difficult B. easy C. simple
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

 1. why did the narrator say that it was painful to part ways with his
elementary school classmates?
 2. How different was his high school experience from the on he had in
elementary school?
 3. What challenges did the narrator face in high school and college?
 How did he cope?
 4. What do you think does the writer by the last paragraph? How did the
career he chose restore his sense of self-worth?
TRY TO RECALL EPISODES FROM YOUR
CHILDHOOD AND TEENAGE LIFE THAT ARE
WORTH SHARING.
DATE PLACE EVENT
JUNE 1987 QUEZON CITY BIRTH
1984 BAYANAN ELEM. SCH. FIRST YEAR IN SCHOOL,
WAS PLACED IN SECOND-
TO-THE-LAST SECTION