UP!

 “Prof. Diane Princess B. (my husband’s surname)”

Assuming you’re right, yes, I want to be called in that way someday. Not because I will have a name in the field of philosophy and education, but because I want to be a part of college students’ lives before they enter the bolder and truer face of the life that requires great effort and determination.

It doesn’t matter if I will be teaching Theology, English, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology, or whatsoever. What matters the most is the fact that I will settle something remarkably important in the hearts and minds of my students—something that when time comes that these students will hopingly find and figure out their journeys in life, there they will remember me, my teachings, and my words and appreciate how I made a difference in their lives. By then, I can quite say I am ready to die—to die when I already know to myself that the things I have overwhelmingly done in this world will make me still alive within the etched letters turn in words, within the dreams turn in reality, and within the meaningless life turn into notable one.

 

To satisfactorily attain this profession is undeniably not easy. You have to study hard and willingly accept the risks. You have to put your heart in teaching enclosed with prayers and enthusiasm. You have to welcome the unceasing questions, wonders, and thoughts of every head nodding and disagreeing about the truths and theories of here and beyond. You have to carry them. You have to touch their lives not only because they are your student but because they are individuals whose lives are for society’s sakes and not just inside the wards. You have to inspire them and work out the importance of their existence.  You have to be who you have decided to be.

Elementary teachers teach the basics—and maybe when we become high school students, we might forget those (but do not forget how we all get started with these basic writing, counting and reading). Secondary teachers deepen and strengthen the basics—and maybe when we become college students (if we can afford and continue); 40-50% information and understanding about a certain subject will remain fresh before or on college life. Lastly, tertiary (college) teachers teach the most workable, inspiring, living and indelible lessons in life—and probably, even we already have our own world around, their lessons mostly remain alive. This is one of the reasonable reasons why I am endeared more in college teaching. And, I see myself in that field.

The fact that I also want to be a communications engineer, a columnist of Manila Bulletin or New York Times, a researcher, a broadcast journalist, a forensic scientist, a community server, a church leader, a pianist and so many more aspirations, is something I considered reason why God had created me. We can do a lot of things out of our in-born characteristics and talents. And this proves that it is unacceptable to say that you can do nothing. Vividly, satisfaction does not end up with one achievement only. Hundreds and thousands experiences and attainments will do.

Someday, I will be called like that. I will be a gift for them. And, I will be who I wanted to be.

 

 

 

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It's still in my mind if the project that our MAPEH teacher has given to us is something he really thought of many times. Probably that is not easy and is quite hard to do, uncommonly, when you don’t have the guts to interview a drug-dependent man. Well, can you?

Our fourth grading topic in MAPEH-Health cycles about prohibited drugs. Yes, I heard a lot of things about this since my elementary days—how to prevent it, what are the signs if you’re a chronic user and many more how-what-when-where-why facts and questions about the erroneous use of drugs. Bad, bad, bad indeed!

I have thought of reports or research (those that we students just usually hunt for in Google and then retouch as soft copy and finally get its hard copy without even reading it) that could be our project in this matter. Well, unexpectedly, he gave something new. We have to interview a drug-dependent person and ask him few questions which are then I found challenging.

(These are some of the questions I had prepared for the ‘target’)

1. Who motivated you to use prohibited drugs? How did he/she influence you?

2. Was your first taste of drug good to you? In what way?

3. Have you ever tried to do a crime when you have no money to buy drugs? When and to whom you had done it?

4. What type or kind of drug you use? How much it is being sold to you per gram?

5. Have you ever asked or convinced yourself to go to rehabilitation center to get cured? Why? Why not?

I asked these fretting questions to my brother’s friend—a good-looking, 24-year old guy. I was frightened of course at first thinking he might just snob or mock at me but I’m glad he listened and talked to me that well. Honestly, I felt “sayang!” the moment I was talking to him. By then, I started to understand more why people do such bad thing. I learned a lot and he revealed things that I am quite innocent still—sex, anxiety, money and crime—and advised how not to be involve with it.

We ended up our conversation satisfactorily. And the good thing is, he had stopped using it 5 months ago and promised that he will never use it again for it ruined his life.