“In everything you do, put your heart in it”, says my mother.

“Be a God-fearing person and you will not falter in doing good”, that was my father’s constant reminder. As I entered the room to take my College Entrance Test, I saw myself in memory lane. In a few months, life would be different. It wouldn’t be as simple as high school and its daily routine.

It will be as huge as a university. Excitement and anxiousness are starting to set in. Looking back..

It seemed like yesterday, I was still a child running around, bragging to everyone how awfully I wanted to become a teacher for reasons such as holding a chalk and writing with it on a blackboard; preparing visual aids like writing lectures and drills on manila papers; and checking my future students’ papers, marking it with a red ink and signing it with my unique signature. It was also back then, that I even played with my sisters and pretend that I was their teacher. I enjoyed writing on the wall or even sometimes on an illustration board, using the chalk that I’ve brought home from school. I would make them copy some lectures and then give them quizzes and checked it myself. As a child, my heart was set into teaching, knowing that it was the only best and easiest job in the world.

But my prospects changed as I grew and came about the world, learning more of what it has to offer. Years passed, and I found myself writing. Name it. Poems, long stories, informal themes, formal themes, etc. I relished every single moment of my time spent in writing. For me it’s not really something that I would call a talent, but rather an instinct. I just write what I feel, express no matter what my mood was and voila, turns out that what I was writing was actually good. My teacher in English even asked me to join the annual Young Journalists’ Press Conference. I would also be even buying a notebook where my own stories would be written; naming casts, telling what kind of lives they have and what kind of people they are, controlling every little situations that was about to happen to them, making twists and turns in the story, writing the story that I wished I was currently experiencing and jotting down my daydreams— it was all worth my time. Although, my stories always ended up unfinished.

I would always start a new storyline whenever I get tired of continuing the story that I was writing but it was still good because it was something original. Back then, I even went into my mom’s stuffs and found her works during her young age. I know that she always wanted to become a journalist but my grandfather didn’t want her to become one. Writing was her passion. She used to come up with those short yet catchy messages placed inside a Hallmark card. She still even has with her samples of her works during those days. She even made a book of poem just for my cousin.

My mom is my inspiration whenever I write. Though now she is a very successful medical technologist, I know that writing will always be her ardor. During 6th grade, I’ve come to dream bigger again. My parents, especially my father, would always encourage us to take a course that is science-related. Maybe because my father took pathology and my mother, medical technology that’s why he wanted us to be inclined into pre-med courses too. During my 6th grade, I wanted to become an anthropologist. The funny part was, I never really knew what anthropologists exactly do. It was just months after learning the said profession that I’ve learned its purpose too which was to study the origin, behavior, physical, social and cultural development of humans.  But I really never was sure of this profession. It was as if I only was claiming into becoming one just to say to people that I have a dream.

I also wanted to become an engineer for I love math more than any subject. But  during my 3rd year in High School, I realized that my true dream was to become an accountant. I have learned what an accountant does, again from my father. Never really knowing what kind of things will I be facing with accountancy, my heart settled on the course easily. It’s as if I would be having no worries if I would take up accountancy. It is also as if I have found my calling. Fourth year came and we are to take the course, Accounting. I was scared at first for I was thinking; what if I won’t be able to understand and like accounting the way I do with math? But as what I first felt with the first time I heard of accountancy, I was very comfortable during our Accounting classes. I enjoy and understand accounting the way I do with math. And from then on, I entertained the idea that maybe I really am going to be an accountant. Wait, scratch that thought. I really want to be an accountant.

I want to graduate first from high school, then finish college, pass the board exam, and then become a successful certified public accountant (CPA). Who knows, maybe I’ll even end up as a CPA Lawyer. But one thing’s for sure, I know I have decided that I want to be a CPA, no matter what. My heart is determined to become one. I can already foresee myself being a successful one. Building my dream house, being able to travel around the world, cars, and a huge kitchen of my own. Everything. I am sure I will be able to pursue my dreams and my goals. Years from now, as I promised myself, I would be an accountant. And in being so, it will not only be the personal gain that would push me to be a good and honest one. I will put my heart in it to be the best accountant I could ever be.

Our dreams and goals may seem complicated and unsure at first, but when your heart is settled into what you are doing, if you enjoy what you are accomplishing and when your heart and mind are steadfast nto your goals— there is no doubt that you will become whoever you want to be. I am sure of this path that I am about to take, and am wholeheartedly devoted to my goal of becoming an accountant. I am so eager to graduate so that I will be able to help out my parents with the expenses. They will definitely have a share on my salary when I am already working. I will also take a share on my sibling’s tuition fee expenses. I also promised my parents to build a rest house for them somewhere in Baguio. I will make traveling to other countries for them, possible. My earnings will not only be spent on my own needs and necessities but for my family’s needs too. I might even sponsor a charity foundation. I want to help out the children who has come to live an unfortunate life; working at an early age and begging on sidewalks. I also want to form a foundation to take care of animals. I had watched a documentary one time about dog-napping, and it just caught my attention on how cruel people can be to animals. These things may all seem unrealistic for some but for me, these will be all real somewhere near in the future. Because I will make sure to put my heart into everything I will be doing, as what my mom tells me, may it be big or small. I will make sure that I won’t step on to anyone and will always be keeping my feet on the ground. Every obstacle or struggle that I will be facing is no match to what my heart yearns for.

“Everything must come from the heart to be the best of what you want to be”, and that was Ira speaking.

(Video from youtube.com; posted by stevenote 11.16.10)

[This article was written by one of the finalists for the Iglesia Science and Technology Award for 2009 at Notre Dame of Manila.]