XUHS Magis Awards 2015

Good morning fellow Ateneans! Good morning Fr. Sympaico and all the faculty, former teachers. It is good to be back to the place where everything began.

First, allow me to congratulate you, the magis awardees. Among your peers, you have personified the “more in your service to the school and to the community. I also would like to congratulate all the teachers, the club moderators who share in the celebration today. But most specially, please allow me to congratulate every single Atenean inside this covered courts (including those who are absent). 

You see, though I understand that today, we award individuals for their service, we should never forget to see that their ability to lead is not just their own doing, it is not just because of their own achievement or hard work. It is not just because of your sense of exceptionalism.

That would be my first point: (You are the sum of all the people you meet.)

The confidence to lead is formed not only through your own self-reassurance and self-realization, but it is always nurtured with and because of others.  You, my dear Ateneans are the sum of all the people you meet. You can never be who you are at this moment without the people you have had made regular contact with from your friends, to your teachers, to your parents, or even to the beggar who smiled because you gave food.  You are the sum of all of these people. You achieved because of their good influence on you in many ways. So please take time to thank your seatmate or whoever you think has influenced you greatly in treading this path of service. you owe it to them.

In a practical note, the action point for this idea is about you analyzing your network and this is an advice to all of you. Take time to also analyze your network, map out those groups of people or individuals that possess a tremendous influence in your life. Try even this, visit www.wolframalpha.com which gives you information about the substance of your facebook network. It is really helpful. The point here is be conscious in building a personal network that is a good influence to you. Find mentors dear friends, you are so blessed to have plenty in campus. Meet like-minded peers and always be conscious of their influence.

As you are unique individuals, so as your leadership story. There is no standard path. There are gazillions of paths towards building good influence in the world. And that would be my second point: Do not compare yourself to others my dear Ateneans, realize that each journey of leadership is unique.  

Know this, journey of leadership is unique because it is about who you are rather than what you do. It is about you and your experiences first.

I realized this because I often share that my leadership journey, as I saw it, really began not with leading groups in the playground, but by playing video games – hear this video games – particularly Age of Empires. Why I say so? Because my sort-of-addiction to this game made me fall in love with history and ancient civilizations.  This was in grade 2! I was a nerd in grade two. I was so in love with it that all my books are all about civilizations and history and as I was introduced, I got the academic excellence award for social studies during my batch because I just love it. History showed me how societies evolve and develop. Because this fascination about societies and its leaders, it guided my choices and made me meet great people in high school and college.  It eventually led me to my present advocacy on citizenship engagement in governance – in how to improve government’s arrangement with its citizens.

Compare my story to my friend whom I met in the Oro youth development council. He lived in a shanty house at a low-cost housing area in Macasandig. He used his meager allowance to play Dota – almost everyday. He drank and smoked. That was his life. then, on December 2011 Sendong came. His house including his family and himself were washed away by the raging flood. Luckily they all survived, but guess what, they were rescued near Camiguin island. He and his family clung to a banana truck and this saved their lives. This close brush with death changed his life forever. After recovering from Sendong, he made his own volunteer group in his relocation site and became an active member of his local parish. Now he is the youth representative in the whole city in disaster preparedness and mitigation under the CDRMC.

See how completely different our stories are. I would even think that mine is nothing close to inspiring. But the point here is this: It is not so much about the positions we took but it is mostly all about the experiences that made us who we are. So never worry that you are not active in your organization or you have not handled any bigger responsibility now. If you just see and understand your consistent patterns, sooner or later your leadership story will begin to unfold in your own way and in your own time. 

In a practical note, my advice to all of you here is please keep a journal. Take time to write your feelings and thoughts down in a span of six months. Record your high moments and low moments, the ideas, things and people that excite you and that desolate you. Record these things and when you review it, you will begin to see decipherable patterns of yourself. Seeing where you gravitate towards, be it science, k-pop, social studies or math, is an empowering feeling that will lead you to make better choices and better investments in your time and involvements. And this will eventually develop into confidence and then influence.

Lastly, my third point: Leadership is action, after seeing the world in a different lens.

Oftentimes, when we reflect about our community outreach or immersion, we say this: “I realized that I am so blessed. - Period”. Good that you felt that but please push that a little bit further. Be reasonably disturbed why others do not have what you have! Think of solutions to that! Then act on it! And if you want to push it a little more, challenge attitudes and mindsets! You, my dear Ateneans, have that power to change things. You have a power now that past generations do not have. You know what it is? It is called social media. You have seen it. It is a double-edged sword. You can use it to do evil or good.  Revolutions against dictators in the Middle East started with 120 characters or less, the million people march against pork barrel started with a Facebook rant, and a student in his room, posting a picture of pupils swimming to get to school, raised thousands of pesos to buy boats.  Social media is your power. In a practical note, since you spend xxxx hours on it a day, why not use it on something meaningful rather than flooding selfies on other people’s feeds. You can mobilize people for a clean-up drive in Facebook; start a scholarship fund, report corruption, and share ideas and opinions worthy of a share. Use your social media influence wisely and strategically. Use if for the good.  

With all these are said and done, Do you now know what is the difference between you – the Atenean and the rest?  An Atenean sees his education not just as a means for him to secure a competitive edge in a globalized economy; he primarily sees his education as a powerful tool that can liberate and empower others, especially those who are voiceless, those who are powerless, those who cannot even think for themselves and even to those who don’t even care. That I believe is an image of uncle iggy’s call on setting the world on fire. We go to where others do not dare of going. We go where the greater need is. We use or giftedness and our talents into a concrete matter that builds people up. We tutor street kids after class, we set up businesses with a social cause, we organize to challenge unjust systems, we do not profit from corruption, we live simply so that others may simply live.

I close with Maya Angelou’s line. An American poet who just passed. She said that in her long life, she realized that people will forget what you did. People will forget what you said. But people will never forget how you made them feel.

THANK YOU!