Hi! I’m Ninna S. Palmario. I’m 19 years old and I’m studying at the University of the Philippines, taking up Biology. I must say that my friends and I share a common favorite—-the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. They’re really great books! They’ve helped us take our mind off our problems for a while but at the same time, learn lessons that we can apply to our problems...thanks for coming up with books such as these! My friends and I have often talked about contributing stories and so here I am. It’s only now that I have the time to send you a copy of the stories I wrote (which by the way was inspired by reading your books (again and again)). Before I knew it, I had already written the following stories--the words just kept on coming! Anyway, I once again admit that I’m one of those CSS contributor wanna-bes---and so I’m really hoping that even one of the following stories will get published! That’s all I’ve got to say for now... I hope you’ll enjoy reading my stories!

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What I Learned

            I could stand alone…unlike you who usually had others in order to make sense in this world. I felt proud of this fact. Because of this, I took others for granted, thinking no one was of more importance than I. But suddenly, I felt lonely. I pondered on why this was so, when I was successful in life…or so I thought. I then realized that success would be nothing if there were no one to share it with. Life would be meaningless if others weren’t there to share one’s ups and downs. Until that time, I had never given a second thought in “us” or in “we”, simply because I didn’t like the fact that there was no constant reminder that I was needed to make their essence complete. How self-centered and foolish I had been! I will be truly miserable if I had not learned to accept the mistakes that I had made. I will never be lonely again…because there will be always you (and us and we, count in them, too!) to care about. That’s why no man is an “I”-land.