Blog Entry Reflections on Academic Survival through involvements

It was quite awhile since I last posted an entry. I took time to really review the past weeks and somehow, I’ve got to uncover some things about the world I live in.

I also took time to prepare for a very busy month of August. By the grace of God, I’ll be going to Cebu this August 1 and 2 with Sir Ivan for the 3^rd Aboitiz Future Leaders Summit and to Bandung, Indonesia with Donj and Ma’am Enerio for a Catholic values conference with other Jesuit and catholic schools. And in the middle, the KKP Barkada and I will be participating in the Service Learning Program of the KKP-SIO with foreign students coming from different Jesuit universities in Asia. I’m gearing up for this.

Now here is the thought. I’ve pondered on the relationship between my studies and my campus involvements. I evaluated my performance and concluded that I really don’t have a grave difficulty in balancing it and I credit this to one discovery. What I discovered is the great moral incentive involvements could bring in my academic life. Before, as I realized, I unfairly peg my satisfaction to the grades I’m getting. So basically, my world revolves so much around grades. My so called “happiness” was derived from being academically “sound”. When I started to really invest time in campus involvements, I realized that academics can never reach its full purpose if it is only caged in our brains, in the teachers’ class record, our in our transcripts or grade slips. Moreover, it can be translated into tangible things if we apply it in our involvements. Another idea is the great moral incentive it gives. If ever I get a low score or fail especially in my majors, I resolve to do better next time and I get to recovery quite quickly. I credit this “quick” recovery to a sort of “emotional stockpile” extracted from that sense of having a role in a reality bigger than myself. The great sense of fulfillment somehow could offset a sense of academic despair. Thus this gives a tremendous amount of energy to do better for the next time. It’s is like having 2 tanks of fuel. If one is depleted, you could get it from the other one.

I think in the end the wisdom is simple. Never forget that we are students first. Always invest quality time. But do not settle from being just a student. Be more than that because we are all destined to be great anyway because we are created by a great God. It is through immersing ourselves in these venues that we get to know what we are made of, what we are capable, what our possibilities are. Having that sense of growth, fulfillment and friendship will just follow. And academics will actually be more fun if it is intertwined with involvements in or out of campus. The glue that sticks the two together is a good mixture of discipline and good time management. So dare to join! At the end, it will just sharpen us.