“At last, graduation!” I have been learning all my life in school.”
What was wrong with what I have just stated?
Learning in its broadest sense does not occur to us only in school. Well in fact, we have been learning every time. Before, yesterday, right now... People learn how to walk, talk, love, unlove, hate, steal , lie, to say “hi” and all knowledge, skills, and abilities we have.
But why do we need school? Some people would say that college is necessary to get a decent job. Decent in terms of not working as a janitor maybe? You define decent yourselves.
The school only charges us of mountain-high fees anyway... So why go to school?
I asked this question to my mother who was nevertheless proud of being a high school graduate. She is an efficient budget planner and effective discipline enforcer. She always wanted four of us (bros&sis) to go to good schools. Again, I rest the definition of good school to you.
My parents grew up in Sara, Iloilo and education is limited to them. Perhaps they wanted us of a better future by having a college degree so we will not experience what they had experienced in their past struggles. My father on the other hand, is a mgt-acct graduate in UE in Manila. He is a working student funding his own allowances and tuition. In his early career, he worked as a bank auditor but his compensation was not enough to suffice the needs of the family. He went abroad and became an OFW in Saudi, so I grew up without him in my early years. These are my parents who never failed to support us and make me who I am today. I am very proud of them.
We are lucky enough to be able to eat and go to school without constraints, but we also are not enjoying life’s luxuries. Beyond this luck, my parents were able to feed us and supply our needs by working hard and working requires some degree of knowledge. The degree of knowledge depends upon the degree of your education in school. It is safe to claim that the higher your degree of education, the higher your pay would be. Even the minimum pay is not enough to satisfy the needs. Some work does not require knowledge gained from school. For example, being a painter, farmer, singer, and many other talents you have but is the salary of those jobs enough for an individual especially in a large family like ours.
There are many issues regarding education like education inaccessible to all Filipinos. It is because the school is brought about by society and all other social systems wherein human beings interact. Other than being a social institution, it is where our lives become more meaningful rather than all play years. We meet people from different and diverse backgrounds. One thing is common though, our GIFTEDNESS whether intelligence/skills/talents or whatever you call gifted. It is a constant renounced common knowledge which we are made to believe and somehow foolishly believe. In my experience here in UP, it has been a process. I can say that UP transformed me into a whole individual putting together the shattered pieces of excellence in the unconscious. Teachers, colleagues, or friends are the contributing factors. Teachers here in UP are not motivated by money as I suppose. Classmates and schoolmates are my inspiration and they serve as a basis in being geniuses like them. My friends are my batchmates, within the school friends, outside school friends, enemies, security guards, librarians, college secretary staff, and CUB personnel. They always make my day... A reason to go to school every day.
Before I entered UP, I encountered some of life’s choices. To take up Nursing or follow my interests.
To become an OFW and gain bigger money or stay in the Philippines and be patriotic. Both are questions and choices I have to ponder because I was too dependent back then and I can’t choose in any of them. But when I am in UP, I finally had a life direction. TO pusue a law degree here in the country and try to help in addressing the legal needs of people in poverty. No money, no equality. It is like working in P.A.O. It is quite similar to a 6 year old saying: I want to become a doctor to help the sick. I want to become an engineer and build structures for the people.
Well there’s nothing wrong with it as long as you are sincere with your words of dedication. What motivates me in this is being a Filipino. It is because Filipinos have the sense of PAKIKIPAGKAPWA. If we know someone is a Filipino, then we know that the same blood runs into our veins and we become one. It is the same feeling of being altruistic. One can make big changes in simple ways now we are close to finishing our respective areas of study.
Now we are graduating, it is time to face the real reality. We can say that we can finally work and earn a living for ourselves and others. We feel a greater sense of success in school.
It is true that we have been learning all our lives but in school... We have been learning to succeed in life.
MABUHAY ANG PILIPINAS! LOL!
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