When I started FiliFest, I had no intention of making it what it is today. But it seems as time passes (and I'm sure some of you share the same sentiment), we see more the potential of how much FiliFest can grow and consequently the more we want to do for FiliFest.
This year, we proved FiliFest can be more than just an annual festival. Well, frankly we didn’t have much choice because of the (ongoing) circumstances.
An important lesson one learns in life is that you can’t control everything, and if you can’t change the situation, the best thing you can do is to adapt. COVID meant skipping a couple of months of our plan - this was our way of adapting.
I remember, this time last year, not even batting an eye at COVID-19. We were hopeful that June would still happen, and I think it’s safe to say, no one saw it coming that this pandemic would lead to 3 national lockdowns.
For many of us, this pandemic heightened our anxiety, loneliness and sadness. Even just getting out of bed and staying awake during the day are difficult tasks to do.
I am personally grateful to FiliFest for helping me maintain a level of motivation in Term 1. At FiliFest, you work with your team, so I really tried to not let my fellow Committee members down by adhering to deadlines to keep FiliFest moving. This meant I needed to finish my coursework and not be behind on lectures if I wanted to do FiliFest work. As many students will admit, university is draining and it’s especially worse during these times, so perhaps I looked to FiliFest as my escape from the university maths - sometimes it’s not good to constantly think of the same thing!
Looking back in just the last 6 months… sometimes you forget just how much you’ve achieved.
In July we opened our doors for more people to join FiliFest through Community.
We celebrated Buwan Ng Wika (Language Month) through a Baybayin taster course taught by Mr John Leyson, and debuted our official podcast Tambayan in August.
We enjoyed meeting fellow students through our week-long September #FresherswithFiliFest event, and it was a pleasure to get in touch with some beauty brands in the Philippines.
October for us was quite experimental with our Alamat ASMR series and a Masskara Murder Mystery Party.
And how exciting was our November OPM Competition with TFC, and not to mention our partnership with Inabela?
Which brings us now to December with the release of a video highlighting Filipino businesses during lockdown and closing off our FiliFest Shop for the year (thank you again Jason for the design).
Need I repeat, all in the space of 6 months.
Times like this I think to myself, “wow our Committee is great”. I hope our Committee members know how grateful I am of all of them. This is a pressing time, but their commitment and all the work they’ve put into FiliFest is very much appreciated. From our culture posts and video content, to our podcast team, monthly events and the blog posts. Our Committee has worked very hard this year doing more for our Community Members and Partners. I’m not great at being vocal about my gratitude, but I hope that by the end of this FiliFest year, you’ll feel proud, accomplished and satisfied with your time being a part of our Committee. I try to push all of you as much as I can and I’m working to be better at motivating the team. I’m not great at this yet, and sometimes my intentions are misunderstood, so I’m very thankful of your patience, professionalism and perseverance. I hope you know how very much valued you all are in FiliFest.
Lastly, a big thank you to our FiliFest Community and everyone who has been supporting us till now, whether it’s through watching our videos or participating in our events or purchasing our merch or even just enjoying our content… Without all of you FiliFest would not be what it is today. Thank you.
Christmas technically ends today, which means the end of our holidays too. I look forward to the new year with all of you.
Happy 2021!
Check out our Christmas post below: