2011 YEAR END REVIEW

As a way of tradition, I will now attempt to consolidate as much as I can the highlights 2011 has brought into my life. This is in the hope of tracking the past to aid the formation of the future.

Concluded College Life. After 5 years of College education, I finally graduated this year. I went through a lot academically. I transferred from 3 different courses before I finally settled with Business Economics and graduated with flying colors. Living in a material world, it is very important to ground ourselves with adequate and practicable knowledge on how our society manages our limited resources to meet our unlimited wants.

Concluded the Central Student Government Presidency. After a fruitful year of being president,  I ended the term in high spirits for much has been reformed in just a year. Being in CSG is one of the most defining moments of my life. It has convinced me the calling in which I seek to go forth which is policy-making and governance. Too general I know but it is a good start.  

Job Offers. I had a couple of job offers; one in the private sector and some in the public sector all in which I turned down because I decided to enrol in Law School. I realized the trade off but I choose to enter the latter because I am confident that I can best maximize myself in that position.

Law School. Too much has been said about my law school experience. I just can say that In this point in time, I still find sense in what I read and do. I hope this will not fade that fast. And when asked why I want to study law, the common sense response would be I want to be a lawyer. For a deeper response, I want to study the law because I want to be part of man’s great quest of putting order in society through the laws which we institute. Nonetheless, the law is nothing more than the reflection of what we see ourselves as human beings in relation to what is just and good as we see it in this point in time.

My Pad. Thank you to the generosity of my parents and relatives, I finally had a place of my own. I designed the room myself with the aid of ideas from the internet. This hopefully will nurture a sense of independence and identity.

Sendong. This experience defined a generation and it has defined me so much as well. Much has been seen and said. In a personal note, this might lead me to engage more in environmental law and social adaptation to climate change.

New Relationships. Bittersweet life is best experienced when shared by people you love.  

My previous last year posts:

2010: http://www.republikaneri.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html

2009: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=230581705895

2008: http://republikaneri.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50

2007: http://republikaneri.blogspot.com/2007/12/bias-year-end-review-2007-my-life-year.html

2006: http://republikaneri.blogspot.com/2006/12/happy-new-year.html

amdg.

Making Sense of Sendong

The whole nation mobilized because of it. And for a minute, our humble city and its region got the attention and sympathy of the world.

 A couple of hours before midnight, all went black.

I managed to wake up around midnight because of the eerie constant hiss of the wind and the banging noise of my bedroom window. The shaking of a metal sheen resonated behind these noises and the streets; void of people. These were the subtle signs that something sinister is happening.

Around 6:30 in the morning, my parents woke me up so we can assess what damage this unusual storm might have caused down the street in Burgos. The sun was already shining its normal course while we were almost ploughing through the thickly muddied street. I saw people already scraping mud off their concrete floors and piling up their soaked and destroyed belongings. Their faces still managed to create a smile so I figured this might just be a “manageable” flood. Unknown to me was the chaos already griping the residents just blocks away.

My childhood nanny is living just a couple of blocks past the hanging bridge of Isla de Oro from where we first made sense of what just happened.  Anxiously I decided to check her situation. As I ploughed through the thick mud going to my nanny’s place, I passed by the hanging bridge connecting Burgos to Isla de Oro. So many people and what was left of their belongings were scattered around. They were all soaked in mud and some still shivering cold under the heat of the morning sun. Then it dawned on me that houses or things were not the only casualties, but human lives as well. I can vividly remember walking pass 2 teenagers crying. They were inside a muddied motorela bowing and weeping their hearts out and their faces clearly speak the grief of family members lost. A couple of feet away, I can hear people already speaking of missing loved ones and all stood still before a rescue team recovering bodies scattered at the river banks. It was a horrible unimaginable and heart wrenching scene. I felt I was in the aftermath scene of a disaster movie but this one is real and raw. I was then able to assess the situation of my nanny and her family. Thank God they are all safe but all their properties are gone.

Back home, I can see from our terrace the increasing activity in the Somo funeral chapel. Out of curiosity, I summoned the courage to go there and see the scene for myself. Ten pale bodies lay before me. There were babies, a pregnant woman, old people and children. Their faces are still clear and vivid in my memory. The scene was just too overwhelming for me but I felt that I have to see it for me to understand the full length of this disaster. It took a man crying over her dead wife and washing her muddied face with water that made me leave and tremble in grief.

The scenes in Burgos and in the funeral home are enough for me to make a clearer sense of the scale and magnitude of this catastrophe. I then went on and volunteered for the relief operations organized by Xavier University.

The aftermath of the disaster can never be defined solely by the extent of destruction Sendong brought into our city and region. More than that, the aftermath of Sendong is best measured by the indomitable Filipino spirit that came to life in all forms and sizes. These typhoons that have been battering our nation for centuries left not only destruction in its wake but it also planted the seeds of that Filipino spirit of sturdiness and resiliency, bayanihan and pakikiisa in the face of a raging storm. It is still those Filipino values that we summon in these trying times. We never ran out of images and stories of heroism. And true enough, Sendong has brought out the best in all of us as a people. There is still faith in the midst of death and uncertainty, there is still heroism in the face of disaster, and there is still generosity in the time of need even from those who were affected.  God is present and the Filipino spirit is alive in these moments of collective tragedy. 

Let us continue to help and pray for the victims of Sendong. 

Ready to Engage in Law School

I am half way through my first year in Law School. I cannot consider this period as a hiatus since it is too early for that. However, the life I am beginning to live by has compelled me to review and articulate my disposition within the confines of Law School. As obviously as it is, my life now revolves around the study of law. I neither have a job nor an outside-of-law-school obligation. My life pretty much, from morning to evening revolves around reading, class, and reading. It is a hell lot boring that what I imagined.   I feel that my sharp impulse to engage is beginning to dull. I feel that the things I learned in undergrad are beginning to erode. I feel that the rich experiences I had is becoming meaningless. (Well, then again, as a freshman, settling in isolation is the best way to really get the hang of things) However, it is in these moments of intense monotony and a dreaded sense of personal depreciation that I begin to realize that the gentle breeze I need to light my ambers is clear and present in law school. This is also a realization that I am a person who never settles to what is obvious. I realized in my “disengagement” that I need to get out of the books and immerse in experiences that give life and meaning to those books.   Law school is more than just book-to-class experience; it is obviously what you make of it. In my case, in my process of finding my place in this jungle, it is slowly coming to light. As first year is about to end, hopefully with me still standing, prospects for greater engagements are in view. One in particular is my continued engagement with the young and promising leaders of the university. It is an exciting journey to be part of their growth and life. This has been one of my greatest blessings in my life. In law school, I have decided to commit as a volunteer for this year in the Center for Legal Assistance. This is the kind of stuff that I have been looking for. This is the kind of stuff that appeals to my reverence and devotion.   Being a law student is not just about being a law student. Even though we are armed with a humble and elementary knowledge of the laws, we are neither ill-equipped nor impotent to render legal services to others. Much more, with our energy and ripe idealism, we might be the best bearers of hope in a community whose perception about the legal profession is less than what we might see it. More than just passing our exams, we are called to greater engagement in the frontiers. We are given the chance to be the sparks to ignite in full light the noble yet illusive idea that those who have less in life should have more in Law.