“Everyone deserves a chance; however it depends on him if he is willing to take that particular chance.”

It is very important for a student to finish his/her studies. For me, it is a great burden for it requires many years of laborious training. However, as I went on through different levels, from pre-school, elementary, to high school, it felt like time was rapidly passing by. It seems that time does fly for I have not exactly thought about what I was doing.

Now that I am in my fourth year in high school, I realized that the things happening in my life now are very important. I need to reflect on those things that are currently happening for me to learn something from them. To be included in the Top 10 of my batch seemed an iimpossible feat for me when I was in the lower years. I feel blissful, not for being included in the Top 10 per se, but for  the joy that I have showered on my parents because of this. They are proud of me and that is the one thing that I certainly want to do in life: make them happy. That is the only thing I can give them in exchange for their never-ending love and support. Sometimes, I feel the pressure whenever my grades plummet but I don’t really mind.

I only do what I think is right. That has been who I am in the beginning and who I still am. I don’t think about what my grades will be, rather I think about how I act towards my classmates. Friendship can’t ever be proven through grades, for grades are merely numbers.  Friendship can get you through a fire and lend you a hand every single day of your life. I did not believe in that statement before but I have reflected and come to believe that our school Prefect of Discipline was right all along. Many students certainly do not like her because of her disciplinary methods but this is just because they don’t realize that she is right. What she is doing is right for if you think about it, she does these things for the students to be able to cope up with the proper discipline, with whatever life has to throw at them.

Being the class beadle certainly is a hard job. It seems like the hardest officer job apart from the governor for it tests not only the mental capacity but also a student’s responsibility. This is also my first time as an officer since the beginning of my stay here in Notre Dame, among other things. The job is pretty hard but fun at the same time as I get to be close to the teachers and my classmates respect me more. Being the class beadle is not necessarily a strenuous job if you don’t think about it. Just do what you think is right. I know that my classmates placed me in this position because they believe in me and know that I am a responsible person. I can definitely assure them that I will never let them down. In that way, I can prove to them that they made the right choice in making me an officer.

Now that the year is about to end and we will soon be graduating, it feels sad because I would be parting ways with my friends. They’re the ones who make me happy and help me out in times of trouble. They’re also the ones who give me strength to continue on with my studies. For now, maybe I shouldn’t think about whatever I will be losing at the end of this phase in my life. I should just enjoy the remaining days of school with my friends and make them happy. I should probably think too that I would never lose them for they are my friends and I am sure they will never leave me.

I’ve thought about college life a lot ever since I could remember. There have been many questions running around in my mind regarding that particular time of my life. I’m the kind of person who thinks about the future a lot to prepare myself for what is going to happen to me. I have a lot in mind on what I should do when I finish college. For one thing, there are a lot of things I would like to do to help my parents because I’m the last child and I will be the one to support them when they grow old. I will repay everything that they did for me since I’ve been born. I will study well and I will nurture the values that I learned during my high school life. I will never forget those values for they are the one way that I could fulfill my dream of giving back what I owe to my parents. I will never let the things that my parents did for me go to waste. After all these things, I can say that a lot has changed in me—in how I act. I also deepened my relationship with God for He was the one who guided me across this difficult, tiring but nevertheless happy chapter of my life. I also know that He is the one who gave me the chance to change for the better and the chance to lend a hand to everyone I came across. I will do everything in my power to help those who are in need even in a small or simple way.

“You need to think about the things happening in your life and reflect on it for it will be the foundation of whatever you build in your life.”

(Video from youtube.com; posted by arctan2010 07.20.08)

[Note: This article was written by a finalist in the 2009 Iglesia Science and Technology Award at Notre Dame of Manila.]