To Whom Much is Given, Much is Expected

I came across this phrase one time while i was watching the telecast of the 2007 Emmy Awards. The show was giving honor to those television programs whose phenomenal success has enabled them to reach out far beyond the boob tube entertaionment. One show that was recognized for that higher purpose was the spin off of American Idol called Idol Gives Back, the top rating American show fund raising extravaganza thats featured performances of its past winners and finalists. The proceeds from the show were used to help children and young people in extreme poverty in the U.S. and in Africa. It was the Idol's way of sharing its success to those who have made the show enjoyed tremendous viewerships all through out its season runs.

A Bigger Job

Before I went out of the office this afternoon, I bid goodbye to my American superior, he just arrived from a month long vacation. I have just been regularized; so he asked me how my job was. I said it was fine. I said that I was getting along very well with the job and been learning a lot as each day progresses. Sounds good? Hmm, but you know what? Lately I have been trying hard to hold my head together as I dealt with the overwhelming responsibilities as the company's new accountant. Not that I feel incapable of doing what’s assigned to me, it’s only that sometimes I would want to tell them that true I am just a paid employee but I also do get tired dutifully unlike a restless robot.

Work in Progress

Anything that is subject for completion, as in pending road works, on-going house renovation, unfinished school project, in accounting, raw materials undergoing some manufacturing process. But perhaps the biggest example of work in progress is - life itself. Life that begins with conception, infancy, childhood, adolescence and so on and so forth and is weave with a slew of emotional tendencies and character originating with innocence. From there, an endless journey unfolds. So one can never be too sure or too complacent. For every minutes hold an opportunity to make or break. There are no certainties in life, which make it ever so changing, adapting and vulnerable. One can never be too careful or too careless, for any moment, calamity can overwhelm our happiness or overturn our sorrows.

Life without the ups and downs is boring. Only dead people beats their hearts flat. Before , I used to blame a lot of things for what's happening to me. I used to believe that it is not fair that some people must suffer while others flourish in abundance. I used to envy people who seems to enjoy their job despite their minimal salary. I used to question God why I have to go all these things when I haven't done anything wrong to anyone. Now I understand. Life without the ups and downs is boring. When you are always up there, you don't seem to see and appreciate the people who would catch you when you fall.

There is no permanent in our lives, not even happiness, love and security. But the good thing is, once you've lost or gave up something either by choice or by chance, you always have the opportunity to get it back and usually it comes with a free pack of lessons learned. They say for the second time, it's sweeter, it's lovelier and it's more appreciated. More than outgrowing our physicality, the work in progress that is life deals more with character formation, taking every bit of good seeds from the countless journeys that we may be in, be it on the green slopes, the stormy seas, the high mountains or the cold desert.

When I was still working with San Miguel, I thought that I would be doing that same job for the rest of my life. I thought that I would going to be a Megamall buddy until my legal retirement days. It never happened though.. Six years after spending time and drinking beer with Miguel, I went to Dubai to find a better fortune. Before that year ended however, I went back home with my pocket inside out. I was too childish then. The following year, I went back to Dubai for the second time and a year after, I was about to file for my life's biggest personal and emotional bankruptcy. Where is me now? I am still in Dubai and getting my myself back to business. I have learned how to dance with life. I have heartfully embraced the fact that I am human that I have to experience pain and pleasure, defiance and defeat and strength and arrogance at one point.

Right now, financially I have amounted myself to an unbelievable nothing! But in terms of character, I'd say that I am a whole lot better than yesterday. Life evolves constantly, there's no assurance that what you are holding right now will still be there the next morning. So for all who are down there, that's always a reason to look forward to. Life as a work in progress has no definite or fixed finished product, much less a period of when or where to become it. People going through the same difficulty may view their situation at different perspective. One may see it as a way to polish his weaknesses while another can see view it as a curse to give up his life. What we can evolved into depends greatly on how we take and accept the ways things happen and it always pay to be optimistic.

Iskul Bukol : A Trilogy

Episode 1. Grade School: Incredible Winner.
This story took place when I was twelve years old, when I was in grade six to be more particular. I represented my school, a public elementary, to the Division Level of the 5th Caltex DECS DOST Young Scientist Quiz. Most of the participants, totaling fifty, were from private schools and Montessori all over Cabanatuan. It's not really the typical quiz competition wherein sets of questions of varied difficulties are asked of each contestant and they get to answer in papers. It's a plain paper test of sixty questions that we have to answer in two hours. After that the papers would be checked and whoever gets the highest number of correct answers shall be declared winner. Moment of truth came, the third and second placers were already announced and I was ready to go back home. When the contestant number of the first placer was announced, no one was standing; I have no idea that it was me. I bested the best. I won the competition, I couldn't believe it and so were the organizers.

The following day, the Division School Superintendent for Science came to our school, not to congratulate me but to administer the same test that I took the other day. The same exam I have almost perfected and that made me won over a lot of students from different schools. I would have taken that re-taking against the organizers for it appeared that they were doubting the results and so my capabilities. Without malice, I retook the exam, right after; it was checked by the Superintendent herself. Proving that I indeed deservingly and honestly won the contest, I got the same number of correct answers as I did during the actual competition. There wasn't much to say after it, fairly and clearly, I won the contest. I was really the best. In two months, I got to represent the school in the regional Finals. I competed as a team together with the second and third placers though it was made to appear that I was the runner up. Glad we have lost. I couldn't take much of the discrimination. It has to end and it did.

I came from a public elementary school, but it doesn't mean I was inferior and less intelligent. I walked my way to school in slippers but it doesn't mean that I was incapable and incredible to win a contest of pure stock knowledge. I came from a public school, but it doesn't mean that I couldn't be the best

Episode 2. Forbidden School.
Oh my high school life! Would you believe that I didn’t attend my high school graduation? Just as everyone else’s excited to receive their certificates, I chose to excuse my presence in that once in a lifetime event. The reason: failed expectation. I landed on the 5th spot of the honorable mention, to my dismay and resentment. The culprit: the revised criteria for determining the honor list, 50% academic and 50% curricular. I might have excelled well ion academics but in participation with extra curricular activities, so it weighed me down. I felt it so unfair to have the two criteria combined. They could just have given the dumb but talented their some special awards for recognition and let alone academics determine the real honor list. Sad to say, some have to be pleased and some, including me, have to be sacrificed. I could have ruined the occasion by marching in protest, but I realized that the rest of the graduates have nothing to do with what has happened to me and so they deserved a memorable occasion. My silent protest was to be vindicated four years later


Episode 3. Dilemma.
My high school’s experience was a bit traumatic, so entered college, I didn’t stress myself out with too much concentration on studies, home works and assignments. I have found time to relax and focused on some previously unattended aspects such shabby dressing, making some friends, exploring outside school, etc. But soon enough I realized that I couldn’t afford to be lazy and lousy like the rest of my gangs because I have a battle to win and I have to prove something. Caught between the newfound joy of schooling and the ardent desire to get back the honor that was stolen from me in high school, I gave the former, with pain in my heart. Just as I was beginning to love and enjoy school, I was once again isolated from organization, from girls, from friends and from happiness so I could focus more on how to prove my high school wrong. It was a difficult choice. I could have at least as many girlfriends as I would have wanted. What I’ve got after four years was gold medal instead. I graduated at the top of my class. I was vindicated; just the same, I have missed some of the real thing.