It was 1 week from the day I left the Philippines and LEAD ASEAN Youth Summit by the US Embassy. I am sitting right here in the middle of night with the deadline to write something about this summit. It was just simply so AMAZING (I usually tell people that this summit is the best of the best summits I have ever had). There were so many things I want to tell you, such as how wonderful the food in Philippines, how rock the nights in Philippines, how inspiring the activities and how crazy my friends are.

However, more than presentations, more than workshops, and (of course) more than food and cool guys (and girls), I bring home stories. More than influential agents, more than inspiring people, each person I met at the summit is a real story teller.

Story #1 – About a story teller from the disaster area in Philippines

I stepped to the session of Rappler with the topic about social media. Rappler made me "wow" with the interesting social news network idea that you can express your mood. They have the mood meter next to the news and you can see how many people happy/sad/amused/inspiring after reading news (Visit: www.rappler.com).

The last speaker from Rappler was Patricia Evangelista, a story teller.

She was the very strange girl from top-to-toe. "I look scary, I know", she said. Yet, she was so inspiring (and obsessed) in each word she said, each expression in her face and each movement on the stage. She is a story teller, and she told us the story about making stories.

Patricia had just come back from the typhoon damaged area in the Philippines, and she came back with stories. We watched 2 stories in the form of short films. The first one named "The men of village 88". Most of us were squeezed hardly with strong emotions and sadness from this film. The voice of ultimate suffering men, their eyes were full of deep loss. It was so obsessive. Too obsessive that I cannot describe any more about feelings the film giving us with my limited writing ability! The light was on and many eyes turned to red. The room was full of sobbing sound. I realized that I was crying.

The latter film is "The Barber of Guiuan". It was the opposite side of the post-disaster. After the typhoon, the barber of Guiuan reopened his business with just a chair under a destroyed house to serve people. "Even in the worst situation, men try to look good, just so they have some brightness for their days". And the barber of Guiuan came back not just as a person cutting hair but also a sharer, who heard the sadness and ease the suffering souls. What happened, happened. Beside the deep sadness, there is the hopeful beginning. The Philippines will stand up after the darkness. Stronger and braver!

"What makes a good story teller?", I asked Patricia. "Good listening", Patricia told me. "How can you escape from the obsession after telling an obsessive story?". "Honestly, I live with the obsession. The voice of men is in my head days and nights. But, I don't have to escape. I want to keep the obsession in my heart", she said.

Story #2 – About a College of Arts

I woke up late (later than others) on the first day of summit. It was the day of registration for field trip. Thus, I had no choice than the Cultures and Arts tour. Other tours are outside and sound great while Cultures and Arts tour is totally in house. So, I was a little bit disappointed.

At the end, my unexpected tour turned into an awesome experience. Sometimes you should try something you never try before, and take part in something sound "boring" could be a great experience. In this tour, we visited Ayala museum and then a college of Arts in the Philippines. We enjoyed the exhibitions, had lunch in the canteen and walked by the hall with student sitting on the floor, drawing on papers. In the dark corners, some students with lights and cameras were taking pictures.

The Arts is in the air.

We had chance to be Art students in a day as we went to the studio and had brushes and paint to draw T-shirts. When waiting the paint dry, the small cinema of college welcomed us with interesting graduation movies of students. The dean of digital filmmaking had a small speech before the movies: "Here, students come every day to draw, to write, to sing, to dance, to take photos. To make people laugh and... cry. We would like to create a place for our students do what they cannot do in other universities".

And, they are successful.

They will create influential artists in the future who will make Arts become as important as Economics, Politics or Media. They told me the story about the power of Arts. Arts as a powerful communicating tool that can touch people from different countries, speaking different languages and Arts as an education tool sending the most powerful messages about environment!

We can make a change in environmental issues as an entrepreneur, an activist, a scientist, a politician and of course as an artist!

Story #4, 5, 6, 7,... n – About us

On the days in the Philippines, I was very close with other Vietnamese participants. We walked on the street at midnight, drank Starbuck and sat together on the park next to the hotel until 3 am. We told each other our stories. Childhood stories, love stories but mostly stories about what we did, what we are doing and what we want to do in the future. Each of us has many things we want to do for the environment. All of us want to make a change. That is why I love my teammates in this summit. That is the reason I admire them.

Not only Vietnamese delegates, on the last day, we had the networking and sharing session with other young people from ASEAN countries. There are so many inspiring stories they told me. Each of delegates in this summit is a story, full of intelligent ideas, inspiring spirits and a dream of innovation.

I believed that all of us will continue writing new stories when we come back from the summit. Writing stories for each of us, or writing stories together.

Allow me to "copy + paste" the greatest quotation in the LEAD ASEAN Youth Summit to close my story today: "Don't go back to reality. Go back to change the reality".