Beyond classrooms and other lessons

This photo together with my SocSci batch mates was taken right after we presented our thesis proposals.
After that, we became 'remnants', and the rest, as they say, is history.

Earlier this day, I was evacuating old college files from sets of DVDs to my laptop computer when I unearthed not-so-old photos during my SocSci years in CLSU. I do not intend to reminisce about those turbulent years (LOL) of my life, but as I click through the rest of the album, I can not help but smile, and then laugh, at how those times came in a blur yet made an indelible impact as to who I am now. As I always like to say, CLSU have been my turning point, in every major detail of my life. And my years as social science student were really defining and life changing.
But one fact remain that made me laughing throughout my brief review of personal history; one word that described my college life: REMNANTS. It was actually a sort of notorious title given to students who stay in the university beyond their expected time of graduation. Not that they want to gain more knowledge, but I hoped so, really.

An extended college career? It was never in my dreams, not a part of my plans to get extended in college. Especially when the fact that people would make a real stigma out of that misfortune had brought me no comfort. When I graduated in high school at the top of my batch, all I wanted was to NOT let myself fail the expectations of people around me. I was too terrified of being not able to fulfill those expectations of me…expectations that seemed to be burdensome for me yet I was more than willing to adopt for myself. That’s why I was really so desperate to graduate on time. I even once considered not being able to graduate on time as a curse, that’s why all I ever wanted was to finish on time and on the right track, to get out of college with a wonderful exit, and then find a decent work and be happy in life.

 Yet that was before, when I do not yet consider myself to be made for something better than just the dreams of graduating on time, or of having a wonderful and colorful exit in college, or a grand entrance to the real world of profession and career.

That was before when my world was just made of other people’s expectations for me, when my security was just built on my dependence with other people and not from within. That was before when I simply went to classes to study lessons and get good grades. That was before when all I needed to do was to bury myself with just books and lessons and assignments and projects. That was before when I simply contented myself with the dorm-classroom-library-dorm routine and satisfied myself with just the lessons the professor taught me from the whiteboard that was rarely used, or in a black board that was in the first place not even really the color of black.

Things have greatly changed when I woke up one day and feeling tired of the usual routine that honestly did not give me any sense of fulfillment, or a sense of purpose. That was when I wanted to find a way to be somewhere else, or else I stink in the same place with nothing to give when the right time comes.

It took me a hard time figuring out what I really like doing, and I realize I've been denying myself of a lot of reasons to improve by keeping to myself my passion for something I was supposed to be putting into practice. And since my course, and later the CLSU Collegian (the university publication which I joined and eventually led) changed so much in me, all I could do was to find that something, that place somewhere, where I would be able to learn things beyond the scope of the four corners of the classroom.

And these are just few of what I found out:

a. Learn from life itself. I realized that nothing beats the lessons learned from the school of hard-knocks. You have to keep your mind open to the realities--even the harsh ones--of life and muster every courage you can to be undaunted by them. Life is unpredictable, that is a fact. But life is also a series of choices we make daily, so it definitely will not hurt if we make only the good ones. If we can't avoid the bad ones though, at least we try to bounce back and be willing to change for the better. Fair enough?

b. Be with people. Being a hard-core social science nurtured individual, my greatest capital should be a heart for people and the community. Irregardless of my introversion which thankfully my course and my experiences with it have liquidated, I must show up; I must commune with the people I am taught to love and serve. Being a social science person means I must embrace the community as my laboratory and growth zone; a soil upon which the seeds of learning that I gained from my education can be sown and will someday grown and bear fruit.

c. Loyalty to country. Yeah, come on! It seems that today nobody is talking about loyalty and love for country anymore. It seems that we have become a generation of people willing to leave country in exchange for another life somewhere, in a place we call 'greener pasture', wherever that is. If there's one thing I am grateful and proud about my chosen discipline, it is the lessons of valuing national history, culture, and identity. In my personal journey with the 'science of the social', I have found out that heroism can be as real to us as they appear on books and movies. Heroism and sacrifice are real, because the people I know who made these ideals true to their meaning have existed. And they left a legacy on which I am intent to emulate, or aspire for.

They say that the greatest lessons are not so much learned from the classrooms as they can be learned outside it. And as a student, I have subscribed to that idea. When I became a teacher myself, I couldn't agree more. It was the lessons of life--an application of what I gained from the classroom--that had the greatest impact every time I land a point.

It was the lessons from beyond the classrooms that makes greatness possible.

It has always been that way.

Rizal, Nationalism, and the Filipino Youth

(I was browsing my files earlier when I chanced upon this old, student essay I wrote as an entry to the National Rizal Youth Leadership Institute (NRYLI) congress organized by the Knights of Rizal in December 2009. This was shortlisted as one of the finalist but failed to make it to the top 5. Haha. Just want to post it here as a memorial to my crusading days as student leader and journalist. Pardon the errors and childish rants. Especially the childish rants :)

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I came to learn that no matter how diverse we are, no matter how we are separated by islands and waters, no matter how different culture and religion defined our perspectives, that people are just the same and are one, and that we are all Filipinos under a common flag, under a common country.

I believe that is the most important of all that must be given due emphasis, so that through our collective efforts and mutual understanding of our differences, we can build a Filipino society wherein one can achieve life—as constitutional creeds put it—with the ‘full measure of happiness’.

And I think that’s what Philippine National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal wanted things to be done in this country on which he has offered his ideals, his dreams, and his life to.

However, we see now a country that is very far from what Rizal had envisioned. What we see now is a Filipino society that is slowly disintegrating from within, basking in the shadows of an overdue but still ever chronic western imperialism.

(Google image)

And indeed, imperialism.

While we are sitting comfortably, or fidgeting with the pleasures and vanities of this life, thinking that there’s no clear and present dangers that threaten our national sovereignty, our minds and consciences—whatever is left with them—is slowly  being invaded by ideas and philosophies not of our own but of alien origin, and worse, without us knowing it.

Imperialism, either by blunt or direct definition, does not only happen by mere presence of an imminent invasion to a country by another, but also by sheer invasion of the nation’s mind and spirit by another, which makes us end up nothing but the possessed, the colonized, the owned.

It’s hard to admit but it’s true that over time, as the new generation ushers an era of changing landscape politically, morally, spiritually, socially, and culturally, our cherished values as a people and as a nation is being compromised.

What happened to our identity was of course a result of our predilection to the way of life and cultures of the West, while on the other hand we ignorantly or even willingly forsake our own, just for the sake of being ‘in’. Just for the sake of being ‘class’.

What happened to our sense of heroism was of course a result of our fanatical devotion to the heroes introduced to us by Hollywood in the form of Superman, Spiderman, Batman, the CIA, the G-Force (yeah, the ‘super-guinea pigs’) blah, blah, blah, which makes us indifferent and wish that someday some superhero will also come to save our country. Or that perhaps someday some genetically manipulated, talking guinea pigs will be sane enough to wake us up from our deep slumber. Or self-induced apathy.

(Google image)

What happened to our sense of nationalism was of course a result of the ‘new generation’s’ obsession to whatever they think it is that makes them a nationalist: songs which they think are songs, but songs without lyrics, just noise; hairstyles which to them is an artful disarray that could make even Lady Gaga freak out; fashion which seem to be nationalistic but out of the context of being described as a decent dress.

Of course I am not questioning their sense of ‘fashion’ in a sense that I appear now to be the “Crowned King of ‘KJ’” here, but sometimes, a little prudence cannot hurt.

I wonder how Rizal would react if he sees his country in this sordid situation: mothers leaving their young children for some ‘gossip session’ in the neighborhood instead of looking after their children’s education; fathers who are more concerned on how their macho image look to their ‘kumapares’ than on how they look to their sons; sons and daughters who are more worried about their hairstyles and sense of fashion than what little education they could get into their heads; and politicians who are very eager to build their own lives at the expense of an ignorant people who still pretend that their government is doing its best to alleviate the situation.

When I close my eyes, this is what I see: never before in the history of our country that people—its so-called citizens, are more than willing to sacrifice national identity for the sake of good but foreign dreams that demand us to leave country and serve another, that requires us to abandon families and pursue a ‘greener life’ in an alien community which describes the Filipino—out of prudence and out of sensibility—as a ‘nation of servants’.

And maybe there is truth in that. Philippines is now a country who is more than willing to let her citizens go abroad—and sell her people for the price of dollars, dinars, and what-have-you’s.

Yet inasmuch as the Filipinos wanted to have the simplest but decent life in their own country, they are forced to sacrifice the very little things they have just to go abroad because; one, there seem to be no decent work here that pays a decent salary; two, the government seems incapable to sustain and provide for its people; three, there’s no hope of a good life here in this country, especially when you see that the very government which supposed to ensure your welfare cheats you and plunders what is left with the nation’s coffers.

Yet they said there is still hope, and I’m definitely sure of that. People, not least politicians and teachers and charismatic leaders so love to claim what Rizal said more than a century ago: the youth is the hope of the future; the youth is the hope of the Fatherland. It’s as if the youth is the one last chance of survival for a country that has been deprived of any hope to live. It’s as if the youth is the only deciding factor which has the power to dispel the darkness that shrouds the land. And I couldn't agree more, because I, myself am a believer of the power of the youth in changing the status quo. We have the power change things for the better.

But then again when I close my eyes and grope only in the silent darkness, away from the blaring mob shouting angrily against who-knows-what, this is what I see: an indifferent youth, an apathetic, unthinking Filipino youth. These are the clear and present dangers.

 It’s a hard truth to shallow, but it only begs for me, and hopefully for the youth, to question our indifference, our own apathy, so that we can give an honest answer to the question: what am I doing? What am I here for? Let us not just pass to be youth that only professes to believe in the principles of Dr. Rizal, invoking the ideals of the hero as if it is our own, and yet behaves in direct contradiction to these ideals. Let us not pass the chance to be the change we want to see in the world, as Gandhi said.

I believe that the nation is better served by a youth with the right moral and spiritual perspectives—a youth who put God and country above things, and above self.

(Google image)