07.29.07
Posted in Four Corners at 5:57 pm by erald17
Sacrifice, Honesty and Relationships
It has been a difficulty for me determining my
three great values in life. My life has been a trial-and-error and the roads I
have led are yet unclear to me. I am a person with few experiences yet but I am
proud that though few they may be, I treasure so much each of them. As far as
experiences are concerned, I believe that life is not a matter of who
experiences the most and the hardest. It is more about how the bearer reflects
and finds meaning in every life circumstance.
Although values are integral parts of the
entirety of a person, they are still changeable as one goes on with life.
Looking back, I realized that the values I had when I was a bit younger were
different from what I have today. This is after I have met people who became
important to me.
I VALUE SACRIFICE. This is what I call “sweet
pain.” Sacrifice is the state when pain becomes painless. A person’s openness
to sacrifice enables him or her to give more of himself or herself. I would
take it from Mahatma Gandhi, “The best way to find one’s self is to lose it in
the service of others.”
Reality check tells me that life will not be
generous to me. It has to be the other way around. Giving myself to life is a
way to experience it better and to enjoy it more. Ironic but true, the more we
keep things to ourselves, the more we feel incomplete.
Sacrifice has also provided me with the fuel
to go on with… life: detachment. Life is not a home; it is a travel. We can only
choose the very essential things that we can take with us. Even if that’s the
case, we may still lose these essential things in the course of our travel. Personal
success is cycle of fighting for something and giving up another. That goes
together with weighing which is more valuable to us. On the top of it all is
the value to give up something for another with greater significance and
meaning.
I can’t have everything. My choices are
limited. Through sacrifices, I get by.
I VALUE HONESTY. This is my only gift to myself.
Many people go through the process of self-discovery and I am one of them. I
believe in what Socrates said that knowing oneself is the stepping stone to
wisdom.
No one would feel comfortable living a life
full of masquerades and pretensions. Honesty to one’s self, opinions and
feelings is a way to courage, and itself its manifestation. Honesty as well is
one great liberator. An honest person is the one who easily finds reason to
face the world without fear, and finds pleasure being approached and questioned
by others.
We reap what we sow. I become honest to the
world, the world becomes honest to me. Perhaps that is one reason why I find my
instinct reliable. I train myself to be honest with my thoughts and feelings.
Respect and integrity are two important things
that a person can ever possess. They can never be bought; they are gained.
Honesty is the way of life, the pattern of living, by which a person gains two
precious possessions aforementioned.
I VALUE RELATIONSHIPS. I was drowning in tears
when a friend told me, “Hindi masama ang makasakit ng kapwa. Wag lang yung
sobra sa dapat.”
Man is a social being that is why we can never
avoid entering into relationships. While others categorize relationship into a
few forms, I believe that there are innumerable forms of relationships as there
numerous ways of sharing and understanding.
Getting hurt for a social being is natural and
indeed saddening. But the more saddening part is when we choose to give up
because of our pride. I was recalling the Seven Deadly Sins and noticed that
this word that others consider common and inevitable is one of them. Like many
other things, pride also has its constructive and destructive purpose. At
certain limits, there is nothing wrong about having pride to uplift the value of
our “alities”. That is part of becoming influential human beings for the
purpose of making life less difficult for many. However, pride is useless when
it serves to create gap among souls and destroy cherished relationships. This
is also one reason why I hate “dirty politics.” That is so having in my mind
that leaders can politicize without hurting people. But regarding how to do it,
still I do not know how.
Still, as much as I can, I value
relationships. Though I know that people change. Though I know that people come
and go. Though I know that people live and die. If I won’t value relationships,
will it change the fact that people do live, change and die? At least I have
the present to enjoy the time with them, and to have something to write about.
So by the time that the people in my life have changed and gone, I can still
look back to what we have had before. Yes, it may not be as sweet as what we
actually had, but the relationships I have once had with these people are
evident in the pieces of the whole person that I am right now.
(This is the first draft of my assignment in Crimora.)
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Posted in Affiliations at 1:55 am by erald17
July 29, 2007
We just had meeting with ALMAP officers and their adviser today. Natuwa naman ako:) I just missed mingling with people outside the campus. Sakit ko na yun, since high school I got used to meeting students from other institutions, and I have found pleasure in it. I always get excited during inter-institutional/inter-school activities especially when I get to travel and to compete. The officers presented some of the planned activities and I can’t help feeling excited. I know that I am the type of the student who always wants exposure. There are more important things that we get to learn from interacting with different types of people than we do from confining ourselves within the four corners of the classroom. That is my stance. As far as I can remember, that was the content of my extemporaneous speech when I was in third year, HS. That was the same lesson instilled in me by my mentors way back in high school.
Here comes the big difference between high school and college. A student is well-guided during high school years especially when enrolled in a Catholic school. I grew up that way. And lately, without so much warning, I realized that in order to continue growing up throughout college, it is a must that I learn to stand on my own feet. For no one is coming to rescue me. Everybody in college minds his or her own business and lives his or her own life. Too much freedom there is. When one won’t set and keep things straight, he or she will really lose his or her track. When one enters college, to be responsible is always one of the choices. Too much freedom there is. Growth isn’t solely nature’s job.
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07.28.07
Posted in Clouds at 4:01 am by erald17
People do change. And it is one of the painful realities that we have to deal with. There are yesterdays. Only meant to be looked back to. There are memories. Not as sweet as what really happened. Everything is but a droplet of life pleasures.
People do change. And more often we can’t do anything about it. People change for some reasons, known or unknown. They swiftly enter our lives, and just as swiftly do they slip away. Ever worried that eventually you’re going to be alone?
People do change. Sadly, suddenly. There are tomorrows, and each one is different. Ever thought that someone very close to you today would become a mere stranger tomorrow? And things will never ever be the same again. And you won’t know whether you have learned to accept or just deny the pain. You may get over it soon, but it may also haunt you forever.
People change you. Though you do not want to, you become changed. Does it mean that you are the weak and they are the strong? Why does it have to happen? After believing that you are tough enough. I always thought that belief is such a strong foundation. But I believe I am wrong.
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07.26.07
Posted in Womanhood at 8:27 am by erald17
"Thank you for the respect."
This is what I said to you, and it came from my heart. I want you to know that what you did means so much to me. You made feel loved and respected, and it is one of the greatest feelings I have ever had. That was the time when I specially felt that it was real, that it was true, and that you treasure me. I have never felt that secure in my life. I was embraced by the arms that protect and caress me, silently telling me , "I won’t let you go."
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07.22.07
Posted in Reflection at 2:58 am by erald17
What I am makes who I am.
I am a writer. I am not a formalist. I create my own standards; I have my own style. I do not write about facts; I write about life. My compositions have their roots on experiences and feelings. I write to express and never to impress. Writing is partly explaining the once inexplicable, and it can never tell the whole story. For a writing’s essence depends on its reader. I write that I may remember and that I may be remembered. For an author himself is more important than what he writes. People is my favorite subject. Nothing is more interesting than discovering the depths of the human soul, and delivering its message to its fellow souls. My purpose is to influence, for knowledge is dead when it is not worked out. Writing is my pacifier; a part of me is restless until I have written. My hands are my instrument, without which everything would be different.
I am a thinker. I do not look for mistakes; I just keep on wondering. I seldom conclude; I frequently ask. For facts are more dangerous than opinions; they are believed to be true and you will never know when they are false. I question questions and restate statements that I may communicate with their spirits. I analyze events then synthesize them that I myself may see the whole picture and unfold the drama.
I am a beautifier, a lover of nature. Beauty is God’s gift and everyone has his or her share. Our gifts are to be loved and nurtured, not to be hated and abused. Beauty is internal and ethereal; it comes from within and inspired by One above. Beauty shall produce good and shall not bring harm to itself and to others. Beauty shall be loved; it shall be preserved.
I am a teacher. I teach through words and deeds, not through chalks and boards. My tests come without warning, and I give perfect scores. I don’t have a regular schedule but I am always present. I don’t check notebooks but I remind to write. My books are carefully chosen, but often times I only use excerpts. For not all that is written is true, not all is good. I was once a new teacher, but I do not have plans to retire. My teachings will never die as my soul will be eternal. I am not the only teacher, and my only wish is for my students to become teachers in their own rights.
I am a reader. I read words. I read faces. I read actions. I read events. Reading is a fountain of wisdom and maturity. It is a good job for the bored, a good leisure for the tired. What I read I either digest or spit. Reading must be done with a critical mind, for one may come across a line that is either constructive or destructive. It must be done with an open mind, for the reader is the master of what he reads and not the other way around. If a writer must be zealous in what he writes, more so must the reader be in what he reads. If the former must be mighty to affect, more so must the reader be to be transformed.
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