Showbiz Update:
Gabby Concepcion, a matinee idol in the '80s and one of the Regal babies (yeah, I have to give a background to those who were born in the 1990s, ha ha!), now more popularly known as KC's dad, is back in the country. Shared the flight with him SFO-MLA PR 105 that arrived this morning at 3:35 am.
Charlene Gonzalez is also back from Las Vegas.
Cost-Cutting Schemes of Airlines:
An airline has stopped offering food in its domestic flights. If you are hungry, you may buy food at Php50 (sandwiches, coffee) and Php100 (soda).
Another airline would not serve you food unless you are hungry. But how would the crew know?
To my surprise, the steward asked me straight "Ma'am gutom ka?" I could not help but burst into laughter and eventually asked to be served snack. I am not sure though if he asked the other passengers the same questions as I was too dizzy (hungry?) to pay attention. After snack time, the same steward asked me "Ma'am busog ka na?" Naloka ako!!!
To find out more about varrahyoga, please click here. Happy surfing!
"All the masters say that whatever path we take—detours, dead-ends, and all—it is always the right path as long as we bring awareness to every step. The only pilgrimage, it turns out, is the pilgrimage to self…." (Journey of the Moment by Mariel N. Francisco, Mabuhay, January 2008)
My friend Joy showed me this article on our flight to Bangkok last January 21st. Little did I know that its message would be my theme throughout our five-day trip. Although street food, yoga, long walks, Thai massage, and window-shopping highlighted our holiday, I came home with the thought “Chona, what has happened to you in the last several years?” Whoa! And where did it come from?
God at times appears in the most unexpected places. Like dead-ends. And fast lanes.
   
Got this link ( http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyournameshiddenmeaningquiz/) from Jane's blog (janeuym.multiply.com) and looked up at the meaning of my name. Here is what it says: What Asuncion Means You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way.And because you're so lucky, you don't really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life. You're sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. I don't quite agree with the crushing of the weak part...okay, let's qualify, maybe those weak in upholding their values. =D But I like what it says about my being a total package! Ha ha ha! :-) And guess what. I looked up the meaning of my petname and it means almost the same as my real name...less the total package part. I thought the site generates the same outcome for all names so I tried other names, but no, it does not. Try it out just for fun. =)
I got this text message from a friend as a new year’s greeting. I am posting it to remind me, and perhaps inspire all other readers, to take a “leap” (no matter how you interpret this term) this leap year. Happy New Year everyone!
May your year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness.
I hope you read some fine books
And kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful.
And don’t forget to make some art –
Write or draw or build or sing (or dance!)
Or live as only you can.
And I hope, somewhere this year,
You surprise yourself!
-- Neil Gaiman
The year 2007 has been a pretty challenging one for me both at work and in the domestic front. Losing two close relatives (both of whom I have known since childhood), dealing with serious medical concerns, responding to emergency situations born out of lack of planning (of somebody else, not me) or habitual lack of coordination (in other words, cleaning up somebody’s mess!), suffering spiritual oppression at work while at the same time trying to maintain my standard of output, engaging in a couple of activities which I thought would be fun but turned out to be stressors for me….half the time I was merely running on adrenalin. I was like driving a car that was running out of fuel—I was stepping hard on the accelerator thinking I could get to the nearest gas station faster, without realizing that doing so just made my chances of refueling a lot slimmer.
I survived the year with the help of many people, but special thanks goes to the following:
To Rommel and Cynthia—my partners in crime, er, mission—for your unquestioning support and cooperation and for putting up with my temper. I can always pay people to work for me but there is no guarantee that they actually will. I’ll be lucky if they do; but it’s like winning in a lottery if they do their jobs because they want to (even without pay at times!). Thank you two for making me a millionaire! Looking forward to working with you in the many years to come.
To the Corpuzes—Tita Olga, Tito Moy, Rose, Jojo, and Jinky—and the Gonzalezes—Tita Meng, Gay and Allen, and Akeem—for making Davao my second home. Words are not enough to thank you all for seeing me through my trying days.
To Sany and Joy—my shock absorbers!—for untiringly listening to my woes, angst, delusions, and what have you and for making me laugh when I badly need to.
To my teachers—Dr. Juan Kanapi, Dr. Eddie Concepcion, and Pio Baquiran—for (using Kahlil Gibran’s words) “not bidding me enter the house of your wisdom but rather leading me to the threshold of my own mind…(for) not giving your wisdom but rather your faith and your lovingness” (though you may not know it)…for listening to my body and spirit, at times much better than I do (Hay! That’s why I cannot hide things from you guys!), and guiding me with patience and kindness.
To Mary An, Jenny, and Cyndi—for “singing back to me the song in my heart whenever I forget it” (this is not an original but I do not remember anymore where I got it). I hope you won’t forget your own songs but if you do, I hope to return the favor (kahit out of tune, he he =).
I could have sent you personal messages but let this be my way of paying tribute to all of you. And if you do not get to read this note, I am certain that the universe will let you know one way or another.
Namaste.
...Or a mere product of illusion?
 
1. Sunrise after the darkest of nights
2. Friends who bring out the best in you
3. A love that makes you smile
4. Belief that anything is possible
5. Courage to finally do what you have been putting off
6. Time for yourself
7. Unbroken promises
8. Answered prayers
9. A heart that forgives
10. A Christmas feeling all year round
11. A soul that heals
12. Good life and health
13. Courage to pursue your dreams
14. Seasons of love…many more of them in the coming year!
And I wish the same for you.
Cheers!
Last December 12, I saw A Special Christmas, a concert organized for the benefit of the Jesuit Volunteers of the Philippines and Ang Arko ng Pilipinas Foundation. Mr. Jose Mari Chan’s number was quite a treat and so was Hangad’s (of course I am biased, my kinakapatid was there! ;-). Of all the Christmas songs sung that evening, one really hit me although I had heard it several times over. I am not sure whether it was my good friend Oggie Benipayo’s heartfelt rendition that made the song sound more meaningful that night or it was just my age showing.
Here's the lyrics of that song. Merry Christmas!
Do you remember me
I sat upon your knee.
I wrote to you
With childhood fantasies.
Well, I'm all grown up now
And still need help somehow.
I'm not a child
But my heart still can dream.
So here's my lifelong wish
My grown up Christmas list
Not for myself
But for a world in need.
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end
This is my grown up Christmas list.
As children we believed
The grandest sight to see
Was something lovely
Wrapped beneath our tree.
Well heaven only knows
That packages and bows
Can never heal
A hurting human soul.
What is this illusion called the innocence of youth
Maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth (there'd be).
“At kahit na anong gawin
‘di mo na mapilit at madaya
Aminin sa sarili mo
Na wala ka nang mabubuga Parang ’sang kandila na nagdadala ng ilaw at liwanag
Nauubos rin sa magdamag….” “Kung bakit ganito ang aking kapalaran
Di ba't ilang ulit (na ‘kong) nagpaalam
At bawat paalam ay puno ng iyakan
Nakapagtataka, nakapagtataka….
Napahid na ang mga luha,
damdamin at puso'y tigang
Wala nang maibubuga,
wala na 'kong maramdaman.” Or so the songs go. No, I am not broken-hearted, singing my pain away. I am writing this blog during office hours. I cannot push myself anymore into writing! Blog, yes, but not anything related to work! Maybe it’s the uneven distribution of work that wears me out…or the lack of system, or the lack of boundaries, or the dysfunctional behavior of some people around….But whatever it is, the bottomline is, it’s time for me to go. I’m done. It’s over. I am resigning (and I hope my boss gets to read this blog so he won’t ask me any more questions during my exit interview). My mom says she's been hearing this line from me for the past two years already. You know what, this lingering thought has something to do with the lingering pain on my right leg, believe it or not! Last week, I spoke with a friend-counselor, asking him what the pain on my right leg could mean. He said that, assuming that there really is nothing wrong with me physiologically, the right side of the body is related to work (as opposed to the left side, which is related to personal life—I told you, I am not heart-broken!). The leg, he added, has to do with being grounded on reality while the knee has to do with, using his term, “paninindigan.” He concluded “work, reality, paninindigan…I-connect mo na lang sila. Looks like you have a decision you are not confident about.” He hit the nail right on its head. Prior to this exchange, I knew already that my pain is psychological (I think I’ve mentioned this in my previous post). It occurs to me only recently that my pain is present only during certain time of the day (in the morning usually before going to work) and certain days of the week (no pain on weekends). It was absolutely gone when I was vacationing in Davao and when I was housed in a hotel for four days for a seminar. The same friend-counselor once said that when you start disliking the things you used to enjoy very much, you must have a problem. There goes another nail. Because now I dread traveling as much as I hate writing research papers—two things I used to call my passions and two things I now closely associate with work.
My friends are asking me what I plan to do come new year. I don’t know yet but I know I can always trust the Divine to show me the way. And this is how I feel right now (picture taken from http://a.imagini.net/friends/)!  
A person who has lost a friend,
A parent, a child, a beloved
To nature, accident, or crime,
To quarrel, or something more sublime….
Someone with different capacity
Who is either born with it
Enjoying life’s bliss
Or feeling what has been amiss….
A person whose only desire
Is to love the best way he can
Yet people only see
His imperfection, his frailty….
A person who gives his all
To a cause, ideology
Only to find out in the end
That it was but a travesty….
A person who has trusted
But is betrayed by his own
Has never overcome the pain
Yet decides to trust again….
Broken.
Beautiful.
Blessed.
A call from a pizza delivery crew:
Delivery crew: Ma’am saan po ba ang S. Mateo Street?
Moi: (Napaisip ako ng matagal kasi mahirap sagutin ang tanong niya. Sabihin ko mang katabi siya ng Sumulong Street, malamang ang follow-up question niya ay “Saan po ang Sumulong Street?” Sana may mapa sila, di ba?) Sa tabi ng parish church, malapit sa municipal hall, etc.
Delivery crew: Ma’am abangan niyo na lang po ako kasi baka po ako lumampas.
Duh?! And he expects me to stand at our gate and wait, and wave at him when I see him coming so he won’t miss our house?!
-----------------------------------------
At a coffee shop:
Crew: Good morning ma’am welcome to…(and she went on with her spiel, trying to start a small talk, which I am not good at).
Moi: Tall café mocha and croissant, please. To go.
Crew: (Giving me a blank stare) ah…frapuccino?
‘Day, ang layo naman ng tunog niyan sa frapuccino. Ni hindi nag rhyme!
-----------------------------------------
At the same coffee shop:
Crew: Good morning ma’am welcome to….
Moi: Tall café mocha please.
Crew: Ma’am sorry wala po.
Moi: Café latte na lang.
Crew: Ma’am sorry wala pa po kaming coffee.
Ay, sorry din akala ko coffee shop itong napasukan ko!
-----------------------------------------
At the same coffee shop:
Crew: Good morning ma’am welcome to….
Moi: Tall café mocha please. To go.
Crew: Ma’am wala po kaming paper cups ngayon e.
E di bigyan niyo akong mug!
-----------------------------------------
Crew: Good morning ma’am. For here or to go?
Moi: To go.
Crew: What’s your order?
Moi: (gave my order)
Crew: For here or to go?
Aha! You forgot your spiel!
--------------------------------------
At an airline office:
Moi: (to the guard at the entrance) Magpapa update lang ng miles.
Guard: Kuha po kayo ng number, may pila po tayo.
Moi: Dala ko yung requirements, di pa pwedeng drop box na lang?
Guard: Hindi po ma’am, pila po tayo.
So I waited for almost two hours. When my number was finally called, the airline staff said:
Airline staff (in a taray tone): Ma’am dapat hindi na kayo pumila. (Ikaw pa ang galit e kaninong oras ba ang nasayang?)
Moi: I asked the guard, ang sabi sa akin pumila daw ako.
Airline staff: Kaya nga ho dapat hindi na kayo pumila. (What a helpful remark! Sabihan niyo kaya ang mga guards niyo.)
Moi (to guard): Sabi di na daw ako dapat pumila e bakit mo ako pinapila?
Guard: Para ma’am may option kayo.
Inhale, exhale….
--------------------------------------
In a hotel:
Receptionist: Hindi pa po na settle ang payment terms niyo (which was courtesy of our host organization) so hindi pa po namin alam kung may free breakfast kayo o wala. Bayaran niyo na lang po muna.
Moi: A okay. Tapos kung meron, i-deduct niyo na lang sa total bill ko yung ibabayad ko today for breakfast.
Receptionist: Hindi po pwede ma’am. Dodoblehin na lang po namin ang breakfast niyo bukas.
Ha?! Mukha ba akong P.G.?
I can now laugh at these incidents. I am sure you have similar stories to tell. Why don’t you share them with us? It’s your turn to make us laugh =)
The gift of what? Have I turned masochistic? Nope, I have just adopted a new way of looking at pain.
I was suspended from yoga for a week because of the on-and-off pain on my right leg. During this time, I realized that my pain was more psychological than physiological. Exactly the same thing my acupuncturist Dr. Eddie told me months ago about my “reddish tongue”. This realization led to reflect and read again Philip Yancey’s Where Is God When It Hurts.
Yancey said that the typical American response to pain is to take an aspirin at the slightest ache and silence the pain. People dare not shut off the warning system without first listening to the warning. (34)
He cited the case of Bob Gross, an NBA player who wanted to play despite a badly injured ankle. Knowing that Gross was needed for the important game, the team doctor injected Marcaine, a strong painkiller, into three different places of his foot. Gross did start the game but after a few minutes, as he was battling for a rebound, a snap was heard that was loud enough to fill the whole arena. Although he felt no pain, a bone had broken in his ankle and ended Gross’s career. (34)
Yancey furthered that pain should be viewed as a communication network, a remarkable network of sensors that stand guard duty with the singular purpose of keeping us from injury. It cannot be switched off. It can rage out of control as in the case of a terminal cancer patient, that even though its warning has been heard, there is no more that can be done to treat the cause of the pain. But 99 percent of all the pains that people suffer are short-term pains: correctable situations that call for medication, rest, or a change in lifestyle. Pain demands the attention that is crucial to one’s recovery. It is a signal alerting one to attend to a matter that needs change. (34-35,56)
Change.
Sigh.
 | I'm 'It' | Nov 23, '07 6:54 AM
for everyone |
Got tagged by Jane so here we go! The rules go like this. * Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
* Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
* Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
* Let each person know that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. 1. I work best between 10 pm and 3 am (I would make an excellent call center agent!). 2. All of us siblings are named after the saint celebrating his/her feast day on our birthday. So we are Clemencia, Guillerma, and Asuncion (that's me). I won't do this to my kids, promise. 3. My endodontist hates me kasi lugi daw siya sa akin sa root canal procedure ko: my premolar has three roots instead of two. Same thing with my molars--I discovered this when my ortho had to pull a couple of my teeth and she was surprised to find out my teeth had extra roots! 4. Strangely, my mom had LBM the whole time she was conceiving me so she took nothing then but soda crackers and water (I don't want to know who her OB was). Para akong si Samson (his mom, too, had only water and unleavened bread when she was conceiving him, right? May Bible scholar ba dito?). 5. In school, I took extra, non-credit units in Corporate Finance (of all subjects!)...kasi cute yung teacher, ha ha! Who turned out to be the brother-in-law of my good friend, ha ha! na lalo. 6. I am flat-footed. I realized this only recently. Sayang! I could have been exempted from CAT in high school. 7. The first time I heard the songs in Tiklado (a collection of Kundiman songs) I found myself humming to their tunes. That made me think maybe I am indeed an old soul. Now I tag you: Rose Maro Joey Mien Igo Yen Lala
I find Alicia King’s article “Five Safety Tips for Yoga Class A Brief Guide for New Students - What to Expect During Yoga Class” very useful not only for beginners but also to not-so-new students like me.
I would like to highlight a few things:
• Unlike the treadmill, you should not have a bottle of water beside your yoga mat.
Reaction: Accident happens. In one of our sessions, a student brought water in transparent cup. Teacher Pio must have missed it so he tripped over the cup, spilling its contents. So as not to distract the class and avoid further mishaps, teacher ended up cleaning the mess while he continued giving us instructions for the asanas. Poor teacher, tough job.
• Dress in what will make you comfortable and most able to relax.
Reaction: Wearing garments that give our body enough support as we do all sorts of poses will do us more good than making ourselves attractive during yoga sessions. Teacher once gave our class some do's and dont's in yoga. Classic! I hope he delivers his "lecture" again.
• If you wear shorts, most yogis prefer to wear two pairs to avoid flashing anyone.
Reaction: Need I say more?
• You will want to be sure to remove all jewelry prior to class. It inhibits the flow of energy around the body. It can hurt or distract you, and could even be broken during practice.
Reaction: Just don’t wear or say or do anything that can distract the whole class for that matter. Be considerate.
Lampa. That’s how I have always described myself. I don’t know any kind of sports except perhaps patintero. I don’t know how to play even the more girly stuff such as the Chinese garter (no offense meant to this race...I wonder where this game got its name). And although a professional dancer once said that I had the feet of a ballet dancer (Literally! That’s because of the deep arches of my feet.), the one thing they do best is to walk. Of the eight intelligences, I am not really gifted with the physical/ motor / kinetics.
Last month, I underwent a medical procedure that required me to be put under spinal anesthesia. Shortly after the procedure, which lasted for almost two hours, I was back in my room, wide awake. My initial reaction was “Gutom ako! Give me food!” Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take anything until nine hours later. There was no pain. None at all. Well, except for the I.V. My doctor and the nurses kept checking on me if I felt any pain and I kept answering “Masakit yung I.V.!” Despite my assertion that I felt no pain, the nurse begged me to take mefanamic acid lest my doctor scold her for not carrying out her instructions. Poor nurse! So I just took the tablets and send the nurse away. The tablets later found their way to my purse. In no time, I was already in my walking clothes. I packed my things that night, ready to be discharged the following morning.
I paid the bills and processed the discharge papers myself, which took the hospital four long hours to release. Last stop was at the nurse station. The nurse said, “Ma’am, ikuha ko lang po ng wheelchair ang patient.” “A e, ako yung patient,” I said. I was not sure whether she was shocked or amused, but I left her laughing heartily.
That afternoon, I was already in the mall. I spent the next day on the beach. No pain really.
This experience made me realize how great my body is! I may be lampa but my body is doing very well. =)
sarva-dharmān parityajya
mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja
ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo
mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ
Abandon all varieties of religion
And just surrender unto Me.
I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction.
Do not fear.
(Bhagavad-Gita As It Is 18.66)
There is no Greek or Jew
Circumcised or uncircumcised
Barbarian or Scythian
Slave or free
But (God) is all and is in all.
…Put on love, which binds them all together
In perfect unity.
(Colossians 3:11,14)
For all his holiness, the Master seemed
vaguely opposed to religion.
This never ceased to puzzle the disciple, who
unlike the Master, equated religion
with spirituality.
“Religion as practiced today
deals in punishments and rewards. In other words,
it breeds fear and greed—the two things
most destructive of spirituality.”
Later he added ruefully, “It is like
tackling a flood with water;
or a burning barn with fire.”
(Anthony de Mello, S.J., One Minute Wisdom, p.166)
The rules are simple: list 20 things you want to say to 20 people but know you never will. Don't say who they are. (Not my original. Source: bigsis222.multiply.com) - I may not have reacted to most things you said but they were the profoundest lessons I had learned in life.
- Good karma natin ang isa’t isa!
- You cannot live in fear forever.
- I have never seen a man who is so madly in love with his wife as you are…even after decades of marriage. May your tribe increase!
- Long before the concept of EQ was conceived, you had demonstrated it.
- I wish I hadn’t given you a second chance—you didn’t deserve it.
- You disappointed me—you were the last person I thought would have a price tag. And how cheap!
- I respect your decisions…I hope they are driven by love, not fear.
- You will never know unless you ask—I tell you it’s worth the risk.
- You are a wonderful person. Love yourself.
- You inspire me to be the best that I can.
- Thank you for believing in me, even if at times I don’t.
- There are a few people who are able to touch my soul in a gentle yet powerful way. You are one of them.
- I wish you had waited a little longer.
- Although I often have the urge to throw you out of the window, you are a friend I’d like to keep for life.
- This is a workplace, not a charitable institution.
- For once, please stand up for what you believe in and stop pleasing everyone.
- I am not your boyfriend so stop making me your emotional crutch…but then again, you shouldn’t do that to your boyfriend either.
- I hope you are happy now, after all what you have done and given up just to get what you want. I am.
- You cannot overcome your fears by being a control freak—it just makes things worse and you just look….
Jon's recent post (Die Slowly) moved me to revisit Neruda's work. Here's my favorite translated by Stephen Mitchell.
I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
(Check out http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/pablo_neruda_2004_9.pdf for other Neruda's work.)
(On July 14, I was invited to attend a youth conference where the cases I wrote on the life of the late Secretary Alejandro Melchor (or SAM) were used in a series of discussions. Held at the Far Eastern University, the conference was participated in by students from all over the country. Here were my thoughts as I listened to them.)
I did not have the opportunity to meet SAM in person but reading about his life and hearing people from “both sides of the fence” speak highly of him made me ask: Is he for real? Where are the people like him now?
I have had a few but very engaging conversations with military people on various occasions. These men were either retired or about to retire when I met them. Our exchanges were marked by their recollection of how they fought battles in the name of national interest, how they served people in the countryside in ways beyond their call of duty, and how they stood their ground against corruption and the abuse of power. They were, in a lot of ways, in the mold of SAM, prompting me to ask them questions I would have wanted to ask the Secretary: where does one find more people like you now? They could not give me an answer.
Have their traits and values become passé? Hopefully, they have not. In fact, I believe that these traits and values, old-fashioned and chivalric as they may seem, are exactly what we need now to renew our armed forces and to bring their roles of protecting the nation and promoting justice back to the forefront of the military service. At one point I was tempted to ask the conference participants from the Philippine Military Academy the question, one that has remained unanswered all this time. Then I realized that only time could tell me the answer.
I come from a school that continues to be notorious for espousing revolution, rebellion, radicalism…or at least that was what we tried to live out during our times, for the sake of justice, human rights. Recently, though, some 15 years later, when I visited the campus a few times, I saw expensively clad people, calm and cool…bordering on apathetic walking along the very same corridors where my batch and I used to walk dressed like tibaks. Many of the young people in my alma mater, while aboard the ikot jeeps, now seem deaf to the pleas of other commuters who yell “Mama, bayad po, makikisuyo po.” They appear oblivious to the needs of others because they are so engrossed in the new technology called text messaging, or simply because they could not care less. A very simple incident, yes, but something I thought to be very telling of our present culture. “Nasaan na ang mga tibak? Ubos na ba ang lahi namin?” I began to ask myself, only to find the answer in this conference: no, the likes of me in my college days haven’t become extinct like the dugong. Nor are they at risk of growing extinct like the Philippine monkey eating eagle or the tarsier. Yes, there still are Filipino youths passionate about transforming our society and building our nation, although probably in a manner different from what I learned in college.
The participants in this conference came from different schools and diverse backgrounds but they had one thing in common: they all showed the capacity to “change the weather” (as Ria, the facilitator, put it), to challenge the status quo, to be change agents. Looking at these youths gave me hope—that there could be a lot of SAMs out there who just need a little break or probably just a little time to come out of their shells.
To these young leaders, I give a pat on the back for a job well done in the conference…and hopefully for a purpose well served and a life well lived in the future.
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