“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!

"Making Money....the Biblical Way"

           Frugality is not my cup of tea. Whenever I'm in the mood to earn more than I spend, I always stumble and ends up broke due to my own ignorance of money-making/money-managing principles that I ought to have, especially now that we have a tight budget to follow. Perhaps, I can also blame my personal values as well because I have been used with the belief that as long as you earn money, you don't have to worry about your own survival. But this same principle has led me into many awful traps and made me the worst money handler that I can be. I remember earning 20,000 pesos in my last call center job and spending all of it within an astounding 2 weeks. It's just recently when my father died of heart attack that all of my financial flaws have dawned on me. Luckily, the price to learn these lessons was something I could afford; It came in the form of a very affordable book (it will only cost you 50 pesos!)  entitled "Ang Pera na Hindi Bitin: How to Manage Your Money so God Will Entrust You With More" written by Ardy Roberto, an award winning entrepreneur and writer, and published by OMF Literature Inc.

       The book was written in simple Tag-lish (Tagalog-English), informal, and conversational in approach. It is so entertaining and engaging that I finished reading the 97-paged book in just two-and-a-half hours of sitting. Mr. Roberto not only presented realistic principles about money but also infused several biblical examples and passages that surprised me so much because I thought that "the money is the root of all evil" thing already made it clear that the holy manuscript is totally against 'making money' and 'being rich'. But I was wrong about two things: first, the book is not about helping people to become billionaires but about helping people earn and make the most of what they have, second, God doesn't despise money-making businesses, instead, He cares so much about how we manage our money and wealth through the principle of "financial stewardship", which was emphasized by the author at the very beginning of the book. This principle tells us about God and how he entrust us with the money and wealth that we have just like the servants in "the parable of talents" written in the Bible. We don't own a single thing here on earth but how we make the money that God has entrusted to us grow  no matter how scarce or limited it is will be the determining factor of how trustworthy we are as His servants. It is not all about having more money than we actually need, which is usually the root of greed and all evils, but having the right principles and frame of mind about managing our money to suit our own needs and even give to people who are in need.
             This little book of practicality is bursting with easily digested information that will motivate people like me who are in need of an inspiration to start managing our resources more effectively. The seven principles of effective money-management suggested by Mr. Ardy Roberto is both  timeless and practical which can be applied by people from all walks of life. I'm about to graduate from college this April 2011 and the life-changing money principles and biblical verses I got from this book will definitely be of great help once I step out of the university and start fulfilling the duties of a 'breadwinner'. I still have many things to learn but I will take my own 'baby steps' to move forward. I'm thankful that God made me grab this book at a very crucial time of my life. Needless to say, money and bible can be a perfect combination if treated with the right kind of technique and wisdom. I'm very glad that "Ang Pera na Hindi Bitin" has made it all possible.   

"Beyond Diploma"

“A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that 'individuality' is the key to success.”

- Robert Orben

Every time I smell the aroma of the graduation season which, as of this writing, is now drawing closer and closer, I always remember what U.P. Diliman Chancellor Sergio Cao once said: “There’s a difference between getting a degree and being educated.” It never fails to leave me with the impression that if somebody is about to enter college, he or she must aim both the degree and what Sergio Cao emphasized as real 'education'. There is a clear demarcation line between the two and for people like me who have struggled a lot just to reach this point, it's easy to admit that the essence of graduation rites is more than the degree or diploma you earn but rather in its role as a crucial time to reminisce every single hardship you have earned just to have an education and those that made you stronger, mature, and more prepared than ever to get out of your comfort zone and start following your path outside school. Five years ago, I entered MCU with just the thought of getting a bachelor's degree. I'm lucky that I'm about to leave with both a degree and an education.

Unbeknownst to most of my contemporaries, I spent one and a half years of my college life studying biology in a state university and then stopped for about 6 months to work in a local restaurant as a crew. The following school year, I enrolled in MCU and studied nursing for the next 3 years until I went out of school for the second time around this time to work as a call center agent in Makati. We were evicted at that time from our apartment that's why I have to voluntarily work and help our family build a house first. After 6 months of struggle, I was terminated from my job and was diagnosed with mild tuberculosis, leaving me unemployed and depressed. But due to my parent's encouragement, I went back to school to finish what I have started before. But life, with its own twists and turns, never fails to test my character. Last December, my father, who have worked as an OFW for four years in Saudi Arabia, died of heart attack 2 days before Christmas and almost 3 months before my graduation. This is my story and although I don't know Sergio Cao personally, I strongly believe that the lessons and courage I have gained from these experiences are the same things that he referred as 'education'. I never wanted to sound melodramatic but I thought that a great example should come straight from the horse's mouth. And after the 22 years of my existence, I can proudly say that I've had my own fair share of struggles that taught me a lot of things you just can't learn by simply staying inside school.

As my final days in this educational institution slowly creep in, I have realized that different students have different perceptions about this solemn ceremony. Some believes that it is just a transient ceremony done just for formality's sake when people finally wear their academic attires and throws their mortarboards cheerfully above the air. Some pessimists see it as a simple rite of passage that will welcome students to the world dominated by unemployed and underemployed citizens. Some academic achievers, on the other hand, put more importance to awards and distinctions above anything else, blinded by their belief that impressive grades will assure them of success in life. From my own vantage point, graduation is more than a diploma, more than any awards or medals, and even beyond its usual definition as a 'start' of a new beginning. It is, for me, a ticket to success, a key that will lead anyone to his niche as long as he uses his education to its full potential and believe that learning doesn't stop after graduation. Universities will give us the degree but none of them will automatically provide us the genuine education that takes real character and experience to be achieved.

Graduation can mean a lot of things to different people but one thing should be clear about it: gratitude is not enough to thank our parents and benefactors for the education that has a shelf-life of forever and will withstand the test of time. Few people are lucky enough to have been blessed with the gift of education. It doesn't matter what school you came from but how you use every single lesson that life and your school have inculcated to you. I hope everyone would see graduation the way I see it now. It's above every superficiality and empty interpretation. Life doesn't end where graduation stops. It persists and goes beyond diploma.