It's been more than a year since then Vice President for Programs and now JCI Cebu-Mactan Channel (Philippines) 2008 President Jolex Yu Lim and I sat down to discuss the possibility of handling the Corporate Social Responsibility programs of the company he was then connected with.  We brainstormed for roughly an hour over ice-cold brewskies of San Mig Light.  The company was an IT-inclined company who wanted to help the community to which they belonged to in Mactan Island.  What they had in mind was to especially help the school children of various public schools that peppered Lapu-Lapu City.

As I reflected on what could best help kids to arm them further for the future that they will always be facing, I recollected my childhood and thought of things that I believed would have further helped me as I grew.  It immediately struck me.  My immense love for reading was only developed when I was already in college.  As a child, I almost considered books as boring and simply a waste of time for me.  I'd rather play around the house that to bury my nose in a book.  The only books that I was 'forced' to open were my school books which I was obligated to study.  These are one of my silent regrets in my childhood.  It never occurred to me that opening a book would open up to so many adventures and excitement.  Nowadays, any trip, any place, any lull in doing things would never be complete without my trusty companion, a book.  I have developed an appetite of a voracious reader.  Sometimes you'd even find me buying books that would overlap – not having finished reading one book, I'd buy another.