“Lessons from the Walking University”

Graduation in the Philippines, as far as the traditional ceremony is concerned, is a mirror image of our culture that mainly comprises of the “diploma mentality” which continues to exist hitherto. We put so much importance to ‘diploma’, “the milk and honey” that most of us believe will lead a family to the yellow brick road of success and glory, while neglecting the fact that some graduates lack the passion to follow that said road because they were either forced to take their college course or just robbed of the necessary motivation to get far in life. Getting a diploma and a degree is one thing but getting real life’s education is another thing. And as I slowly anticipate my final days in this educational institution, the insights I’ve learned about the secrets of success and getting the most out of life slowly creeps in my consciousness. I’m lucky I’ve learned the lessons from the legendary “walking university” the hardest way. You can see them anywhere teaching the real essence of education. Have you met one?

Chris Gardner is one of the most unforgettable characters I’ve ever encountered in my many years of movie-watching. In “The Pursuit of Happyness”, his true rags-to-riches story left an indelible impression on me that a person without any college degree can get the greatest successes in life by merely relying on the power of dreams and self-determination. From being a third-class salesperson, he worked his way up to become one of the greatest stockbrokers and he summed up the secret of this feat by saying one of the equally unforgettable lines in the movie: "Dont ever let somebody tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you, you can't do it. If you want for something, go for it. Period" . His story is not even as rare as a solar eclipse; We can get a lot of stories like this everywhere we go: from national icons to international personalities, from complete strangers to people we really know and close to our hearts, they all have testified that you don’t need a diploma all the time to prove your personal worth and potentials. Many educated individuals ended up being a failure because they never learned how to “use their heads” and utilize the values they’ve achieved inside school. I’m not saying that we don’t need a diploma anymore, but once you get out of university, no matter how prestigious it is, all that is left of you is your “dream” and what old folks say as “diskarte” that will make or break you depending on how resilient you are in chasing your dreams. You don’t even have to receive latin honors in graduation just to get ‘there’, all it takes is your diploma, which by the way is an ‘edge’ on itself, and a strong motivation to grow and achieve whatever it is that defines “success” for us. We should learn from people like Chris Gardner and realize that graduation is not the finish line but rather a pit stop that will make us ready for another exhausting and rewarding journey of life. Edwin Hubbell Chapin once underscored: “Do not ask if a man has been through college; ask if a college has been through him; if he is a walking university.” His statement clearly defined what I mentioned above as the “walking university”: a person who got no college diploma yet determined enough to make his mark in this world or a college graduate who uses all that he learned in college and equally resilient to achieve his dream no matter how many times he fall.

We are not strangers to the fact that not all who finished summa cum laudes of their class get the same level of achievements in real life or some of the “unknown faces” in the university campus who make an indelible inspiration by achieving success despite their privations. To all graduates of batch 2011 and also those who are next in line, let’s challenge ourselves and dream big time not just for ourselves and family but for the society as well, who are entitled to receive the service we are about to give back after many years of painstaking studies inside the university campus. Once we step out of this educational institution, we will be facing a lot of difficult choices with corresponding obstacles and repercussions. But what will matter most are the values inculcated to us and the education that will make us one step ahead of everybody once we utilize it for good. Education is the only thing that will be left of us when everything else has been robbed so as graduating students, we have to be thankful to God, our families, and to our Alma Mater for imbibing us all the values that take years to be fully absorbed. I will be forever indebted to my parents, relatives, friends, group mates, clinical instructors, and of course to God, for giving me a once in a lifetime opportunity to grow at my own pace and learn from my past mistakes and errors that being perfect and unflawed are not the ideal goals in life. Thank you for teaching me that if I fall seven times, I have to try hard to rise again eight times because winners never quit and quitters never win in this marathon called ‘life’. I won’t be gloomy if I’ll never receive a single medal in our graduation because for me, getting a palpable diploma and learning the ‘real education’ are overwhelming accolades on their own. Let’s not be a person with a degree but don’t have a real ambition in life; He is a dead man walking, breathing yet doesn’t have the driving force for his existence. Rather, let us all be a “walking university” who continues to grow even outside school for the many years to come. Godspeed graduates!