The Autobiography of Krishna Adlawan

My name is Krishna May B. Adlawan, and I was born by Rosemarie Adlawan on June 12, 2004 in Calamba, Laguna Philippines. While the other policemen gathered for an assembly to commemorate the Independence Day, she was hurriedly taken by my father and grandmother to a Maternity Clinic to labor me. My father named me ‘Krishna’ like that god of India, whilst my mother was opposed to the idea of uniqueness, she proposed to name me ‘May’ instead because she wanted to “keep it simple”.

Unfortunately, my father died before I could even speak and because of that, my grandmother, Teresita Bataller, helped my mother raise me and my sister, Trisha Marie, while my mother has to continue her work. Though, we never felt the lack of ‘father figure’ in the household since we had my uncle and grandfather to take care of us to fill in the role of our father.

We used to live in different houses upon growing up. First place was the house where my mother, father and sister used to live until I came. We had this arowana fish in the tank and I use to look at its white scales with a touch of black pigment, and I remember feeding it with lizards I caught. So unfortunate as it might sound but I could only remember vague memories in that house but as far as my memory goes, the house was small but enough for us three. Second, was my grandparents’ house in Canlubang, wherein we stayed for the years we attended nursery to preschool. Then we relocated in the subdivision nearby the Calamba Plaza when my sister and I entered elementary but went back to our grandparents’ house every end of the week for 5 years and back to permanently living to our grandparents’ house since it is nearby to our school, too.

I was an early school-goer since when my sister was in the age to start attending school, I was dismayed to have my only playmate at the time to be away from me for hours. And thus, I became curious and although I was still a year early to attend school, I insisted and asked for my grandmother to let me join in nursery my sister have been to.

After I was qualified to finish preschool, we moved to the second house in a subdivision as I mentioned earlier. I was shy and timid at the first years of elementary in Liceo De Calamba, but I somehow got into being a part of the school's Drum and Lyre. I signed up as a Majorette where we paraded every school event, it was fun since I could skip class every time there is practice, but the training was rough. It relieved away my timid personality and improved my social interaction with other people over the years. Since we were young and our bones are soft, we had to bend our thumb for easy management to dealing the difficult performance we will be facing over the time. It was all a matter of flexibility and faking one’s smile under the blazing sun and worn-out arms, but I enjoyed dancing and the experience. Because of learning this, it felt as if I have a skill for martial arts, as I would like to assume. It was to trick people, too. Moreso, the bad guys.

I am more on the creative side and was not really such an intellectual person, unlike my sister. I have only gotten from rank 15 to 3 and 2 over some extracurricular activities I kept joining and it somehow high-rocketed my grades. I also participated in a spelling bee competition held by our school when I was in third grade, it is such a new feeling to me that I got distracted and did not get the victor. Unfortunate but nevertheless sad, it was rather an exquisite feeling.

In my 9 th grade in Sta. Cecilia Catholic School, foundation Inc, which is an all-girls school where I attended high school from 7 th to 10th , I was then qualified to participate in spelling bee competition in Perpetual help in the year of 2018, together with my best friend Zoey Mabuti-Macafe, who also qualified in participating, and another 9th grader who won the spelling bee contest. It was so crowded that it filled the hallway with participants only. The next school year, I also happen to participate in the same competition but this time, it is done by group.

In this high school, I was honed, to be honest and practice my leadership skill through joining SLTC, which stands for Student Leadership Training Council and became closer to God by being a LitCom member of our school at every mass event. I joined clubs that contributed to enhancing my other skills in different fields, partway because it enhances to support my grades and to prepare myself to ‘real’-life challenges that will soon befall on me.

One of those clubs was the English club, where we are tasked to document about school events and promote the school. In this club, I happen to be chosen by the teacher to join the journalism workshop held in Perpetual Help wherein I won recognition for writing sports news. Not only that, but socializing with other people became more fun and to have JEP policy (Just English please) within the club was fun since we know that no one will judge our grammars or such. I gained confidence in speaking English through this club and helped to improve my writing skill too.

Through my highschool years in Sta. Cecilia Catholic School Foundation Inc, I have been influenced to be interested in music and so formed a four-members band with my two bestfriends and my sister. I was a drummer and my sister was our guitarist at the time she hadn't graduated, we had to convince other to join our band when she left, and eventually formed a great band known in our school. I learnt to play different instruments which I am proud of, although I am not considered to play it 'greatly' but I was proud because I can play percussions as well as stringed instruments.

In the year of 2020 in March, misfortunes came as well as the global plague, thankfully we finished our thesis presentation by the time it arrived. In the long time of quarantine waiting for my Senior High School to begin, I wanted to earn money whilst at home, and a door opens for this opportunity, I was reached by a representative of Webnovel through recognition of my work in Wattpad and asked me to write on their platform to monetize my work in which I worked as a freelance author by December of the year. I transferred to Mary Help of Christians College with the new way of learning through technology interaction, it was hard to adjust but I somehow got to be one of with honors student in the first semester although I am perplexed how it happened since I did not expect myself to be one of with honors this new school however, I am also thankful for that surprise. It is tough getting to second semester due to pressure and more things to study and the urge to procrastinate but I am trying to manage somehow. Another surprise came dawdling towards me when the midterms are about to start. My adviser had refer me to participate in Youth Activation Summit business pitch competition held by UPLB or University of Philippines Los Baños to join and I although I knew it would hinder my study for midterms, I couldn't let this opportunity pass