A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR THE BEST INTEREST OF ALL THE DILIGENT STUDENTS WHO SO DESIRE TO BE PRODUCTIVE

            This is a satire patterned after the work of Irish writer Jonathan Swift. Our professor asked us to give this genre a shot in our writing. I want to know if you think this is already effective.

            While procrastination ought to be abhorred as it is the nemesis of academic excellence or any kind of striving for that matter, it is rather quite easy and at times offensive for a student to be accused as a procrastinator especially when the fruits of his/her hard mental and physical labor fall short of expectations. This is likewise the case when the pitiful student seems to amuse his/her audience and some indifferent onlookers as s/he chases deadlines.

            Such cannot go on and while there are, indeed, a vast number of students who exist in the name of complacency, who consider academic loads as a burden and a great hindrance to their own important affairs such as pigging in bed, popping their pupils out in front of a television monitor, sucking up all that radiation from the computer screen and not to mention, drugging their eardrums with a heavy dose of dissonant sound waves, there are still those gifted with the blessed awareness of the value of time.

            For this kind of students, time is truly gold. It is sacred but it is what they usually do not have. I, for one, being classified as one of such students who understand the merits of time, deem it unjust that we are usually deprived of it though we are the ones in most need. We have deadlines and responsibilities. We have the weight of the world on our shoulders as we present ourselves under the limelight of an exhibition. I am rather disgusted at the sight of procrastinators lavishly and wastefully spending time like bottomless iced tea already paid for. They do not deserve such a privilege.

            As such and upon a meticulous and a critical scrutiny of the situation and for the sake of those unscrupulously deprived of valuable time to carry on with their endeavors productively, I hereby and intelligibly propose that sleep, that right hand of the absolute nemesis, be abolished.

            Any intellectual will surely find my proposal highly rational. Scientists, without doubt, will begin to work on this inception once they have read my proposal. Everywhere, energy capsules, cell rejuvenation methods and food supplements are sold to artificially induce the physiological effect created by the natural process of sleep. Once the perfect product or procedure has been developed to equal the benefits the body receives through the eight to ten hours required rest period, individuals, specifically the diligent students, since this is dedicated to them, will be grateful to know that they can already overcome their bodily limitations for optimal use of time.

            Through this they can already accomplish tremendous amounts of tasks and through this; they need not anymore envy the procrastinators who are inferior in their regard of time. Let us not forget the advantage it brings to those who believe very much in the capacity of these diligent students and who entrust to them much of the weight in order to free themselves of their own duties in order for these students to truthfully uphold the most sensible ideals and demands of the title of being diligent.

            If such attempt to abolish sleep be successful, it would also be a triumph of the entire human race and an assertion of our supremacy over the limitations with which we were created. It will also, literally and figuratively, invigorate the economy of any locality where this has been given priority through the buying and selling of the miracle drug or the miracle service or procedure. The diligent ones will also increase once the cause of such movement is made clear to them. Procrastinators, the lost ones, will also be converted.

            In the end, the fundamental principle which thrusts this proposal afloat the sea of doubt which can probably be generated by the cynics-pessimists by the way, have with them the element of delay which causes further waste of time, is that there should be justice for those who are in want and in need of time so that they will not suffer terribly from false judgments and persecutions and that they will not be seen in the same league with those who do not deserve to be left with so much of such a precious resource.

My Leadership Journey began with a CUP

 “Wherever you go, whatever you achieve, you must always remember this above all that I have taught you---you must let your cup overflow.”

       

         Since high school, I have always had the drive to achieve. It has been evident in my consistently good academic performance. I hailed from a middle class family adequately blessed with the necessary resources for subsistence but I believed that with my determination, I can, in the future, acquire for my family what we barely enjoyed. As any typical hardworking Filipino teen would aspire for, I also wanted to get rich. That was what motivated me to persevere in being competent. I hardly considered the admonishing words of my third year social studies teacher in high school. I needed to fill my cup first before thinking about it overflowing. Family first and that was that.

    

        Still, it was in that family and the consequential Catholic upbringing and environment that I learned about a beautiful yet demanding term---service. This, at first, I reluctantly accepted. Similar with any typical teenager, I had personal and esteem issues gravitated by the fact that my parents somehow encouraged extreme modesty because of our modest means of living. I was identified as an introvert, a further excuse for me to turn down any possible invitation to serve but then, I freed myself from the burden of guilt by concentrating on the offering of prayers and sacrifices as an indirect yet recognized means of extending help. It was a service to my God.

            That was all I can give and I did not want to be forced to do anything more. I wanted to be of help at a comfortable position and I saw no wrong with such. I carried that mentality until I stepped into college.

“Disturb us Oh Lord”---goes one of the indeed disturbing prayers we have in Ateneo de Naga. I despised Ateneo for importunately urging its students to move out of their comfortable zones. There have been a lot of instances when I was forced to do just that. It was not fair. I already knew my place in this whole business of letting your cup overflow yet there was magis, more, more, more was the persistent call of the school. I have been very critical of this advocacy. I doubted the purity of the intention of those who respond to such call in the institution including my own. I needed a deep grounding, a very good motivation for me to be driven to achieve in this field. The confines of my walls were being shaken vigorously.

Service to Others is Service to God-these were the silent shouts within me. I did not want to listen. I have another justifiable idea of my personal contribution. I am not a “people-person.” Rather, I am a woman of thoughts and words, aptly entitled to a quasi-monastic type of service.

            Having the tendency to be obdurate, two notable things made me bend: an utterly new insight from the bible and an unintentional look into the life of former Pres. Cory Aquino after she died. The Lord Jesus, God in Himself, not only came down for our salvation but for our instruction through modeling. As a future teacher, I have come to give a very high regard on teaching by modeling and this He did by communicating the need for Christians, through His healing and preaching ministry, to consider acting as a manifestation of love. Before any Human Rights advocate, He was the pioneer of all humanitarian concerns. The question for me is not anymore on whether the bible is authentic or not but rather, on if it still has a pressing relevance at present---and it does. It has a concrete call to act on faith, love and ideals as in directly do something. Such exacted great effort especially for me but I only had to reflect on the faith and experiences of a simple housewife who set aside her grief and uncertainty to respond to such biblical challenge.

        

            All these reflections which I have been making since my graduation from high school has made me rethink my life’s orientation and motivation. That is the reason why, at the last hour, I made the completely life-changing decision to be a teacher, instead of being someone who is the dream of my old self. With this choice, I made a big yet uncertain YES to SERVICE and to the promise to transform myself for the betterment of the people outside my immediate concern.

           

         I have allowed the voices within me and Ateneo’s prayer to disturb me because the Lord Himself disturbed Himself with such and has expected His followers to do the same. Ninoy and Cory also allowed the same. It caused them so much yet it was worth it because a lot of Filipinos are allowing themselves to be disturbed so that the filling of their cups will overflow.

           

          This is the reason why, as busy as I am with the extremely demanding ordeal of college life as a scholar, far from the consolation of family and intimate friends, I also brave the at times uncomfortable and equally demanding life of a volunteer in many of the school’s endeavors to serve. I have learned about the need to maximize one’s personal resources and capacities to identify problems and form solutions which should be acted upon. It exhausts me now but I am contended at the thought that with such outflow of my best held resources, my cup will never be empty.

THE HOPELESS DOES NOT EXIST

      I have written this during the first semester of 2010-2011 when I was in my third year in college. It is based on a required reading about a teacher who helped a child improve his reading despite the odds. Teachers are indeed miracle-workers. Generally, one does not need to have special powers or special authority to work miracles in his/her life and in others most especially.

      I struggled as I brainstrormed for this required paper. I was rather saturated with writing tasks that I found no meaning in them. I was tired and I wanted to give up. That is why I focused on hopelessness.

I am hopeless.

I have found Rommel’s story inspiring like the other stories and testimonies I have read with a similar theme but that is just about it. Unfortunately, I have nothing more to say. In the past, compulsory reflection still worked out for me; I was still able to relate the assigned readings to a personal experience or a particular aspect of my life. Yet, as this exercise became a routine, beginning in freshmen college, I honestly admit that I have learned to take it for granted. I am only sorry because the dryness had to reach its peak while being asked to see myself in this story of hope.

To say something about the text, Rommel’s case, though not a new one for me, was rather surprising. At the age of ten, he still was not able to recognize sounds. Seemingly, that was the only impediment he had, a major one. Despite that, his ability to comprehend was fairly well and he also proved to be a very critical listener, always wanting to have a deep discussion of the story narrated to him. He was an amazing boy. He displayed great potential which would have been laid to waste had Mr. Currie continued ignoring him.

This is now the point where the teacher’s role is given due emphasis. When Mr. Currie finally decided to seriously look over Rommel’s situation, he was actually discrediting the existence of the hopeless. I believe he was challenged by such lack of competence and his “teacher instincts” got to him. Where there was inability, he reached out to teach. He did it one step at a time and he gave particular focus on Rommel because he agreed that there “Ain’t no way [he] can fix everything around here.”

I hope that I can be like Mr. Currie. Actually, there is no hindrance at all. I can be like him. The “teacher instincts” also got to me when I was going over the part where Rommel was asked to read yet could not even utter the sound of a single letter he is not familiar with correctly. I am becoming sensitive to deficiencies. I have been drawn to them. During my first year in college when we, scholars, were conducting tutorials for street children, I always found time to prepare for the sessions though it would usually take until 12 midnight. I would report to the venue still sleepy yet it would all be gone when tutorials begin.

I love teaching. The satisfaction of seeing progress is worth more than any effort in preparing, strategizing, studying and reflecting. This is my motivation. This is the reason why I still lift my fingers to locate and type every single letter and punctuation in this reflection.

Rommel’s story is at the same time Mr. Currie’s story. It is the latter’s success story, a proof of his commitment, a proof that the hopeless is something imagined, something which is unmotivated.

The hopeless does not exist. It is only animated by reservations. I have not been very open to the idea of submitting reflections. I have eventually run out of words and reasons for doing so. At this point, I discover a motivation anew: I love teaching and I also want to disprove the state of hopelessness. There is always a way and there will always be a reason and use for everything. I will surely get something worthwhile from this reflection as a future teacher.

I am hope.