(Disclaimer: This was written in 2007 while I was still a student of CLSU. I exhumed it from my old journal thinking that it would pay tribute to this very special day for Teachers (me included). So, please pardon the grammatical errors. This was 5 years ago and from a different world. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK :))*******
I was simply dozing off the remaining hours of my boring day when suddenly I was fantasizing about my future, or things like what-will-be’s instead of clinging to what-might-have-been’s.
In a moment of honest desperation to get a feeble grip on reality that was my life, I was suddenly and unexpectedly sorting out plans for my professional career and on the things that I will do at least after I get away with a college diploma—things that I never usually do.
Well, perhaps reality already sunk in into my already numb mind. It’s a good thing that at least, despite the careless and carefree me who is just about to become the next king-of-nothing-to-do, I still know (barely) what reality is from fiction—although at times I may get to interchange one from the other, really.
Alright, I was thinking about giving myself a career in the academe—schools and teaching, those stuffs. Well, that was not a bit of a surprise for me that came out of nowhere because I had already planned that even before. I wrote about that one time and even published the article on our school paper of which I lead, not that I don’t regret publishing it. Now, there were more or less two thousand CLSU students who know that despite I chose a field in Social Sciences, I may not give proper justice to it because I may end up probably in teaching anyway.
Not that a student who graduate with AB Social Sciences degree cannot teach, or doesn’t have a right to teach. Besides, I always thought, and will always think, that my degree is really flexible. With my degree, I could choose from a wide range of work and could enter many career paths and be able to walk through them confidently and end up a sure success. Well, they might say that my field is a no-earning course and that it can’t give me much penny to count, and sure they could be right. But what about earning compared to the vast learning you could acquire. And I daresay that while my field may offer little earning, it could offer countless learning that could equal even the most lucrative paying job.
That was what my field is. That was what I chose. There was no regret in that.
And for sure, I could never regret being in the academe and be a teacher. In fact, I already saw myself as an educator, never really the office-type kind, but the one who is responsible for shaping up lives and nurturing dreams and encouraging better ideals...to teach students the value of learning, and education, to provide a learning environment that could pass through the four walls of the classroom…
Yeah, that is how I see myself. It may have been delayed to see through that different side of things but surely I could not think of any other way to spend my time with. I believe that is a perfect way to inspire lives, to influence young people who could influence other people in the future when their time comes…and if I would succeed in that, it would be a constant cycle that would be passed on from time to time, and yes, what better way to have success in this life when you realize that you made an impact on someone else’s even if they don’t have a chance to acknowledge you behind it.
I could tell it because there are people who have made an impact on my life as well. People who are simple and ordinary yet they stand in the highest platform that could impact and even change communities and even the world.
I always owe to these people my appreciation because in one great way or another, they have made me to be what I am now. That is what I call influence. They may not have influenced me to become the best, but they have succeeded in changing a lot of my perspectives. That would always count.
"LEGENDS"
Two of the names which could easily surface when I think of “great” people were two of my former teachers in CLSU—and I daresay, the two of the best teachers in CLSU.
They are Professor Ben G. Domingo Jr., much known by the students as “Tatay Ben”; and Sir Michael Carlo Abella, or better known as Sir Ponti.
Theirs will be the name I would always attach the word “teacher”, in the most precise definition of the word. I picked them out of the ordinary because they possess such an extraordinary perspective when it comes to educating students.
Sir Ben (I was not used to call him Tatay Ben because we were not that actually close like his students in Dev.Com) , was once my teacher in Public Speaking and Argumentation and Debate. He's from the Department of English and Humanities, and teaches almost every English subject.
The best thing about Sir Ben is that he never easily gives up on his students. You can call a student mediocre, but Sir Ben sees the potential behind that mediocrity. He always encouraged us in class to be better than what we are, and challenged us to exceed our limitations and to "think out of the box".
I learned from him that nothing can stop you if you are willing to firmly stand on your principles and on what you believe in. He considers courage and daring to be the key to making yourself the best person you could ever become.
There were so many things I learned from his lectures, which not only focused on the lessons on textbooks, but also on necessary lessons about life. He oftentimes point to his experiences in life as his greatest lessons, and true to him, experience is the best teacher.
Because of him, I came to regret once that I did not pursue Development Communication so that he could be my teacher for many subjects and not just one.
But with what I learned from him, I came to love my course and see it in a more profound way.
Meanwhile, like Prof Ben, Sir Ponti was one of the teachers I dreamed of having in class. As a teacher, he was oftentimes seen as a funny, and one possessing a jolly personality that was easily loved by people. He also has a free spirit that is very contagious if one would really read between his lips.
Sir Ponti was my teacher during the previous semester for our last Philosophy subject in our curriculum, which is Philosophy of Man. My perception of his ‘greatness’ as a teacher was actually just established by the stories of his former students, most especially from the SokSay community. I had the notion that these stories were just myths and exaggerations. Not until he became my teacher last semester that I realized he was more than the mythical figure I heard, more than what legends have told in their stories.
To my opinion, he was some sort of an exciting adventure during lecture hours, in which, as you go along with his life stories you would discover for yourselves hidden treasures that was knowledge and learning.
He was a good story teller, yet what he says are not mere stories but knowledge itself. Not only knowledge about the lessons, but, like what Sir Ben reveals, knowledge about the world beyond the four walls of the classroom.
Like Prof Ben, he encourages students to be involved in things that could make them more productive and useful to the society. Sir Ponti is an advocate of extra-curricular learning: learning things outside the classroom, learning lessons under the sun. These things taught me that the best lessons of life one could learn are the lessons obtained by being with people in different walks of life. Sometimes, these lessons appear to be unrewarding at first glance, yet as you give them a place in your heart, they could be magical.
One of the best things Sir Ponti said, and one that I will remember, goes like this: “Just work hard and do your best…never mind what the world says at you. Do what makes you happy…and eventually, time will come that the world will see how greatness is made and achieved…”
With that, I am reminded that greatness was never given at birth, not for only a few individuals. More often than not, greatness is to be achieved, and most of the time, it is achieved through the respect and appreciation from the people whose lives you have touched….and changed.
And I say that Sir Ben and Sir Ponti, in more than a way or another, have touched, inspired, and changed my perspectives, and challenged me to become bigger and better than I am.
That made them to be greater than what they could ever imagine. They are larger than life. They are living legends. ©
