Articles written by Completers

This thread is about articles written completers. To those are interested in contributing articles, please post your articles on the Communication Committee Section of this forum. We will be forwarding it to the Vision Communication Team of KPI for compilation.

Thank you very much!

Beyond the Clouds
by Danielle Eloisa Pinzon
Reading Program Completer

Take the wild wind, traveler, for only the wind can carry you to a place of dreams and hope.

The wind is fickle, going where it wills, like a maiden’s hair brushing one’s cheek. It bewitches men and holds them captive.

But the wind is also freedom soaring through the skies, for the wind is its own master. The wind also carries the fragrance of flowers, of seas and of other scents. It travels throughout worlds few mortals have ever seen, save when time would allow them.


Only the wind travels to Cloud Kingdom, a different world from that of mortals. It cannot be reached by the most advanced aircraft technology the mortal world has to offer. It is invisible to the satellites that watch from above. The Cloud Kingdom could never really be specifically located because, from its name, the kingdom was made of cloud islands so they drifted where the wind blew.

The people of Cloud Kingdom call themselves Avars. Mortals who catch a glimpse of Avars often mistake them for angels who serve God Almighty. Nobody, not even the Avars, can see God’s angels or even God himself. But they can feel Him and His Angels better than anyone, for they are beings born in the sky.

The Avars and mortals are alike in some ways. They have the ability to feel emotion and socialize with other Avars. They laugh, sing and dance. But they do not have troubles like mortals do, which are often petty and short-lived. The Avars are beings who inspire, guide, and watch over mortals.

Some Avars guide the sun in its daily routine around the world, while some keep the moon and stars at bay. Some call and sing forth rains to wash away the dry and parched land below. The bravest of the Avars descend upon the earth and study mortals’ way of life to understand them better.

And just how do the Avars do all these things? Why, they use their wonderful and glorious wings of course! Avar literally means “winged ones” and an Avar’s wings are his pride and joy. Though Avars don’t have a definite physical representation, their wings are corporeal . They never disappear no matter what shape they take. Along with the wind, an Avar is able to fly where he wills, using his lovely wings to get him to his destinations.

But how exactly does an Avar get his wings? Here the wind slows, traveler, for it wills you to listen to this tale.

An Avar is born out of the clearest raindrop from the merging of the freshest dew of a newly bloomed flower and the purest cloud. Once Avars are born, they could not die a physical death. They seek to watch over nature and its course. An Avar’s wings grow out when the wind sees that the Avar is able to control himself when he rides the wind. Otherwise, a young Avar could lose his way and destroy his wings.

All Avars have now been given their wings. There is one however who didn’t have her wings yet. Her name is Arleta. Everyone had wings already and soared where they pleased. But because of her inability to fly, Arleta remained in one of the Youth’s places, where little Avars are housed before they are ready to take their wings.

Arleta lost hope day after day when her wings didn’t come. How she wished to be like the birds, stretching their pinions, soaring to the horizon. How she wished she could feel the wings steer and fly her to destinations of her own choosing! How she wished she could FLY! “I am Arleta, wingless Avar.” she told herself every morning.

When her 353rd year passed and everyone else had gotten their wings, Arleta decided to travel to earth, for she heard mortals there do not have wings and used two parts of their body called “feet” instead to travel. She deeply wanted to escape from self-induced prison and, leave the place she tried to call home but didn’t belong. She thought that by doing some of the bravest acts like other Avars did, the wind would decide that she was worthy of wings and fly above the rest.

So using the float crystal embedded inside the necklace that allowed wingless Avars to travel, Arleta descended towards the mortal world.

Invisible to all mortals unless she willed to be seen, Arleta marveled at the people of earth. All of them had physical appearances unlike her kind. How very different they all were! All of them were wingless. How could they find their joy? Arleta noticed that as she traveled amongst the mortals, few of them looked up at the sky. All of them were rushing to and fro, intent on their own business.

“How busy these mortals are,” Arleta thought, forgetting her sorrows and despair because of her pure fascination for these beings.

She found herself floating towards a park. She had never actually seen trees before, or grass for that matter. Up in Cloud Kingdom, there were no trees, save for the fragrance the wind brought ever so often.

Sitting below a large oak tree was a young female mortal. She looked like any kind of mortal, with long black hair and hazel eyes. But Arleta realized as she studied this mortal that she was different from the rest, for this mortal had no feet and could not move on her own.

Arleta wondered if the young girl felt like her, unable to fly, unable to do things others of her kind can do, unable to belong.

“Are you not sad, mortal? For you do not have the things others do?” Arleta asked, though she knew she would not be heard.

To her surprise, the mortal girl looked towards her as if she had heard!

“No I am not,” replied the girl. “Why would I be sad?”
“Because you don’t have what they have,” Arleta couldn’t help replying. “Because you are different from them.”

“I am different from them. Who isn’t? I may not be able to walk to places like them but I see things they ignore or disregard. They are walking so fast that they cannot see.”

The girl looked above, at the leafy roof of the oak tree then to the sky above.

“I feel the wind, brushing ever so softly. I see the sun, touch the grass, and smell the flowers. Though at times I may feel that I am missing things like running or dancing, that feeling never really stays that long.”

“Why?”

“Because I have learned to accept what God has given me. I will only belong if I choose to feel that way.”

The girl looked at Arleta. “What is it that you want with yourself?”

“I want to fly.” Arleta replied. “I want to feel free and soar beyond the clouds I call my home. I want to belong and not be different.”

Arleta told the little girl all the hurt she kept up inside of not being to able to fly. She told her of the celebrations the Avars had, of flying races and dances in the sky. She told her that she would always be a viewer and never a participant, doomed to pine for the wings she desperately wanted.

“Maybe you wouldn’t want it if you had wings.’ the girl said emphatically.

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps the reason why the wind has not granted you wings is you fail to fully understand what it really means.” The girl continued as if Arleta hadn’t interrupted. “Or maybe you won’t like flying.”

Arleta felt like laughing. Who was this mortal girl anyway, to think she wouldn’t like flying? Flying seemed like the most glorious feeling to her, the most glorious representation of being free. And it was the only way she could belong. Everywhere around her, the only thing Avars talked most often about was flying and everything to do with it.

“Do you think I would ever get my wings?” Arleta asked, because she needed someone to comfort her.

“Only if you really want it and not because others or the society demand it from you. If you really want to fly for yourself, then you will get it in the end. God does things like that.”

She sounded so sure, Arleta had no problem believing her words. She looked at the girl again and wondered what would have happened if she had feet.

“What would you do if you had feet?” Arleta asked, surprised by her own question. The little girl looked thoughtful.

“I would still sit here and watch the world pass by. There are less people who watch it anyway.”

Arleta wondered at the girl’s words even as she ascended Cloud Kingdom. Did she really want wings because she wanted to fly for herself? Everyday, looking out the window she would always dream of flying, to JOIN others in flying, to be marveled at by young Avars, to be able to talk about flying with others, to be able to BELONG.

Arleta felt like crying. She just wanted to be free. Was that so hard to ask? She just wanted to feel free, and not be bothered with a guilty conscience. She just wanted wings!

That night, she had a restless sleep. In her dreams, she tricked the wind into giving her wings and she succeeded. Aware of her mischief, the wind decided to give her a lesson. Just as Arleta was about to fly off to the horizon, she suddenly felt powerless to move her wings. She came crashing down towards the earth, falling into a dark pit.

She felt a thud. She could not see anything. Arleta had never been in total darkness before, even at night Avars kept the moon and the stars shining brightly. Arleta tried to look up or anywhere just to look for light but she still couldn’t see anything.

Fear began to grip her, fear of never being able to go back to the way it was. Now, she was overcome with guilt. She knew she would have given anything to turn back time and undo her trickery.

How long she sat there, she could never tell. The wind does not travel here traveler, so Arleta was alone. And finally, in the span of darkness, she began to pray.

She prayed to God, not to save her from darkness but to pray for all those who were not satisfied for who they were and what they had. She prayed that the Lord bless the little girl in the park, for her wisdom and her faith. She continued praying, even as the darkness seemed to crush her and she could not even see or feel her hands.

Arleta felt a strong force pulling her off the darkness and got up abruptly from her sleep. She realized that it had been a dream. Arleta sat up and looked at her blurred surroundings. She felt her own tears streaming down her cloudy bed. She had cried in her sleep. That never happened before. She had also prayed.

“What has happened to me?” Arleta wondered.

Arleta looked outside, just as the morning shift Avars were leading the sun for the beginning of its journey. The fluffy clouds were not white but bathed in an almost dull gold, looking like metal poufs.

She looked at the Avars leading the sun and realized that they had stopped to wave at her. None of the Avars waved at her before, not even the friends she once had, not since they had gotten their wings. That thought made her consider…

She looked behind her, an action she had not done since she was 200 years old. To her utter amazement, she saw that white feathered wing have started to grow on her back. She frantically looked over the other shoulder, and there was the other! She cried tears of joy. She now had wings!

She began to stretch them and was surprised at how naturally they fluttered as she left the window. When she stretched her wings as far as they could go, she noticed that they were not pure white at all, but a thousand brilliant colors, bouncing off each feather as the rays of the sun hit them.

The other Avars invited her to go with them, finally acknowledging that she belonged to them but she declined. Instead she made her way to descend Earth once more.

Arleta looked for the little girl she met for what seemed like a long time ago. As she landed beside her, sitting underneath a tree in a flurry of wings, the little girl smiled at her.

“It seems I was wrong,” The little girl told her. “You do like flying.”

Arleta looked at the girl and smiled. “Thank you” was all she said. She gently laid a hand on the child’s forehead to bid her goodbye. The little girl closed her eyes and to Arleta, she seemed content and happy.

Arleta smiled, finally being able to smile after all those wingless years. She realized, as she flew up at the sky, her wings soaring her to greater heights, that the girl had been right. She had wanted her wings so much because of others. And because she thought she could be greater than any Avar once she did. The little girl had been right.

Arleta had gotten her wings in the end only because she finally believed that she could. She flew above and higher still, until she was face to face with the sun. I am Arleta. She told herself. And I am free.

With that thought, traveler, Arleta finally flew with the wind towards the horizon to places far beyond the clouds. ■


It was thanks to Kumon why I developed a love of reading the classics. I loved my first dose of Shakespeare because Kumon taught me to analyze every form of literature and love it as well… I even have a small collection of Shakespeare’s comedies because of Kumon! Kumon has taught me to be diligent and how to concentrate in anything I do. It has taught me to be patient and to strive hard. – Danielle Eloisa Pinzon, Reading Program Completer, Laoag City Center

Danielle Eloisa G. Pinzon completed the Reading Program in April 2006. Danielle first enrolled in the Math program to help her cope with Math in school. After two years of being enrolled in Math, she gained confidence in the subject and decided to take on the Reading program, too. She has been a very independent student, working with little to no assistance at all on her Reading worksheets. Danielle is an aspiring writer. She is currently a freshman college student pursuing Communication studies at the University of the Philippines - Baguio.

My Experience in the Kumon Completers’ Club Conference
by Patrick Matthew Partosa
Reading Program Completer


Last March 3, 2007, Kumon Math and Reading completers from all over the country made their way to the CSB International Conference Center and Hotel in Manila for the Philippine Kumon Completers’ Club Conference (KCC). The KCC Conference was participated by new and excited members, as well as some older, yet still eager to help completers. As the conference began, Mr. Lawrence Laureta, Instruction team leader of Kumon Philippines gave his opening remarks which set the tone for the rest of the fun and productive day.

After the opening remarks, everyone watched an inspirational video of the executive board’s activities as well as the launch of Singapore’s own Completers’ Club. The video also featured different insights and events as the members took it all in and got ready for a day of meeting new friends and helping others.

After the video, we all took part in interacting with completers we didn’t know in the slightest bit. Assigned to different tables with different staff of Kumon, we talked about ourselves and had a great time getting to know each other.

After making new friends, we had our first discussion for the day. Much like the first gathering of the club, we discussed what we could contribute to the community both as completers and as adherents to the Kumon vision. But this time, there was a subtle difference. Instead of the Kumon staff facilitating the event, the executive board members ran the program to the best of their ability.

Keeping the momentum going, the board members individually presented each committee’s actions and their plans for the upcoming months. As we listened to each member, we were told to sign up for the committee of our choice during lunch. Lunch was then served buffet-style as we lined up and ate lunch together chatting with new friends. After eating lunch, we received a present from the board members and the Kumon staff. We were all given Kumon jackets that we had lobbied for in the first conference and almost everyone unwrapped it immediately to sport the new, stylish Kumon jackets.

After a filling and tasty lunch, we grouped together based on the committee we signed up for. Once we were all together, we again introduced ourselves and got to know more new completers. We all buckled down to work and made a small Kumon village that would be fitted together with villages drawn by the other groups.

In doing what many felt was the most fun activity of the day(next to making new friends), the members of each committee worked together to draw what they envisioned was necessary in a village. From police stations to a Toru Kumon School, everybody drew their part and contributed in whatever way they could. Once finished, everyone presented their small villages to the rest of the conference and the entire Kumon KCC Village was proudly displayed.

As the conference was coming to an end, we had a discussion about what we could do as committees to help achieve the Kumon vision in our own little way. Proving that this was not a one-day thing, we planned numerous, concrete ways to help people, while also swapping e-mail addresses and cellphone numbers to keep in touch.

As we took our certificates of attendance and had our group pictures taken, we were sad to go. But at the same time, we were proud that we were achieving things others thought impossible. By working together to genuinely help others and having fun at the same time, we felt like we really can make a difference. If you don’t believe me, then come see for yourself in the next conference and experience the fun that I’m talking about.■


My experience in Kumon has taught me many things about Math and English, but it has also taught me about patience and hard work… I think the challenge in Kumon for me was keeping that energy everyday, and I think this is the challenge not only of Kumon, but of life as well. – Patrick Matthew Partosa, Reading Program Completer, Alabang Hills Center

Patrick Matthew “Patch” Partosa completed the Reading program twice! The first time he completed it was in March 2003. A year later, the Reading program added challenging levels L and K into the curriculum. Patch, a consistent Gold ASHR awardee then, had already decided to take on these two additional levels even before he completed level J in 2003. With his high ability in reading and comprehension, he completed the Reading program the second time around in May 2006. Today, Patch is well on his way to completing the Math program where he is also a consistent Gold ASHR awardee. Patch is a third year student at the Ateneo de Manila High School.