Look Back 2018

A Year of Many Lasts

When you were young, a mother would use a pacifier to make you stop from crying. But if you cry at your age today, would you desire a pacifier to make you calm? Not anymore, right? You might think of a crying shoulder to lean on, or your pens to write something to express yourself, but not a pacifier. This year, we also bid goodbye to the things we once used to do. There are things we have to let go since we have to accept that there are really things that we cannot do anymore as we get older. Sometimes, if the limited edition of time has run out, there are no more chances to do these same things again. Like age, we can't go back in time to be young again. We can just feel young, but not young at all.

This year, I have ended my campus journalism journey through the Radio Broadcasting and Scriptwriting contest that I've joined for years. In the District Level, for three consecutive years, I was chosen as the Best Anchor among all schools in our district in Bulacan. I never expected to maintain a streak all throughout. It's indeed a blessing. Our team was able to maintain itself in overall places making it into the next level, the Division Level. Unfortunately, it was another bad year for the team since we didn't get into the Regionals like we did two years ago. But somehow, we treated still ourselves as winners in spite of the loss. What matters more, like what I always say to myself, is the experience and the way how you fight the fight, for that will make you a winner.

he RadioBroad Fam from 2016 to 2018, shot from our Coach Gelo

This year also marks a sign of an end in service. This will be, for now, the last time I'll be celebrating Paskong Batibot, a Christmas Party held for the kids whom we teach every week in our Saturday School. The Saturday School outreach activity is an exciting community engagement project where student volunteers teach and share the Gospel to the kids who are from the slums of a certain county, or barangay. I am now on my 12th Grade, the final year before entering college, and perhaps, this is also going to be also my last year in teaching the kids whom I'm with for the last four years. 12th Grade students, who dominated the teaching body of the family, are going to bid goodbye and it's hard especially when you fell in love with them and in what you do for them. This Christmas party brought back the memories I had with the kids, from the moment when I was the only student volunteer left in the Saturday School about three years ago up to that very moment when the family grew with more than 20 active volunteers. God is just so good! My only wish whenever I leave the family already is that even if they will no longer remember who I am, they would still remember and apply the lessons I was able to impart with them before.

he selfless Saturday School teachers, a shot taken by Sir RD

On the first chapter, you'd still recall my sharing of the last retreat experience I have in a cool December at Angel's Hills Retreat Formation Center in Tagaytay City. It made me look into the mirror to ask if I'm still on the right track, if I'm still with the correct people, if I'm free from any boulders that hinder me from growing. The Crossroads send-off retreat made me look back to who I was for the past six years I had with the school where I belong until today. It made me remember how I transformed myself to who I am right now, from that kid who was just ranting carelessly about everything in social media, to a man who is writing his drama on Wattpad at this very juncture. 

id I just get fat here? Shot taken by Gelo

Whenever things are going to be your last, it makes you remember how you started, like how I did here. It makes you remember who you were and who you are. It also makes you realize that you have to open yourself to embarking once more to another journey. After another boat, comes another. I have to let go right now of some things I used to have and I used to to do, all by accepting the fact I can never do the same things again and again. It's like never wearing the same old clothes because they cannot fit you anymore. I have to give them to others, instead. (Well, I don't throw old clothes.)

I may not be the district's Best Anchor again in the competition I annually join in campus journalism. I may not be the same teacher again that the kids will have weekly in our Saturday School. I may not be the same student again that our school will have. Although corny, the statement seems truthful, "Nothing lasts forever."

It is in letting go where we can start anew. From this, I'll welcome 2019 with an embrace, ready for new opportunities and for milestones to claim.