One thing that I will forever stand for is that people are dynamic. We are never the same person we were before, and we can never be the same person we are now in the future. 

Yet, at the same time, human beings tend to hate the idea of change. The same story applies to our perception and idea of a certain someone, once we have our initial idea of a certain person, it is hard to change your idea of them.

My name is Seira Louis M. Garcera. To my mom, I am “Lou”, little Lou who is always so excited to try new things. To my friends, I am “Alog”, short for tagalog, a nickname given by the people of my island from the province, to the people coming from Manila—the capital. To the people who don’t know me, they say “Seira”, not knowing my brother is also “Seira” so I never go by that name. Here in UWC, I am Louis, from the Philippines. 
I am a person made up of stories I leave each time you slowly observe and take notice of me.

My mother would always say, “Lou is a talented creative boy! He is passionate about the arts, painting with vibrant colors similar to his positive demeanor. He loves to sing, one he takes after me, singing and belting to classic filipino music whether at a party with a mic, or in the shower with a shampoo bottle, he is a friendly and hardworking student always trying to meet other people!” Ever since I was a kid, she always thought highly of me. I wish I could always be the son she always expects me to be, but I am not always perfect. At least, I know someone will always be at my side, no matter how the world turns.

However, my friends would say something along the lines, “Alog? He is the loudest and most annoying person you will ever meet! He is always so full of energy sometimes it really is draining. At least he is funny to have around, there is no gloomy day with Alog. Sometimes he could be too much, but that is why we keep him.” Sometimes it hurts me to think people get annoyed with me sometimes, but honestly it is true. I am as loud as a siren, I don’t really think about it most of the time. It’s just, I always try to keep the energy going, life shouldn’t always be such a bad day, at least for me.

Here, in UWC, there are so many different things people could describe me as. “You have such a crazy sleeping schedule.” My roommates would say early in the morning. “You need to study more.” My teachers would say during class. “Mentiroso!” My latin community here would say as we laugh in the corridors. “You would like this right? it ‘s sweet” Someone would say after I told them we put condensed milk in spaghetti. So many different things you would hear from the people all over the globe would say about you. That is the beauty of this school, not only do we bring ourselves, we bring perspectives, culture, life experiences from every corner of the world.

To me, I am just a guy. A guy who makes mistakes, which I reflect on to shape the person I actually want to be. A guy with many achievements, learning more about myself and things I would fight for. A guy built by people, it is them who I keep fighting for.

All of these things I am not, I could be, sometimes I am, more times aren’t; At times I wish I was born like this, but can’t be, try to become it, but don’t always succeed.  All of these little things are what makes us, what makes me. That is my story.