Maia's Deck

Monday, July 31, 2006

Last Friday, I gave a speech for KAPITAS, a Philosophy Organization of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. The organization celebrated its 16th year in existence and I had the honor of being one among the four guest speakers invited. In my invitation, I was informed that the set-up would be talk-show-ish so I did not prepare any speech. However, the only other person who was supposed to be the only other teen guest apart from me was unable to show up so I had to prepare an impromptu speech. A professor from the Philosophy department, A professor from the Psychology department (who incidentally, teaches Paranormal Psychology) and a junior instructor from the psychology department gave their own speeches before me. Two of them had powerpoint presentations while another had handouts. I on the otherhand was sitting in front of the audience, beside a professor forty years my senior with nothing prepared. They gave their analysis of the youth and I was tasked to speak as the representative.

Bell came up the podium to introduce me and said, "her philosophy in life is, 'Mabuhay Ka.'" Believe you me, I did not think that they would actually say that but they did and so I scrapped whatever little I had in mind and jumped off from that philosophy.

I remember saying I believed in only two things in life. One is to live life, and the other is to not hurt people. I can't remember much of what I said but the gist of it was that I want to see the youth enjoy their freedom and be able to be rowdy and carefree at one point in their lives with the expectation that they will grow out of it and be able to accept the responsibilities society has in store for them.

In the concept paper of Kapitas, the youth was defined as rowdy, uncaring and basically unrefined. I said, "well I used to be all of that."
In high school, I had the guts to literally run through the halls of my high school and scream at the top of my lungs." I made two teachers cry, made one jump onto a chair, made one storm out of a forum on vandalized encyclopedias, practically insulted all teachers in the same forum, played hide and seek at night in the sports complex, stole three bottles of 1.5 liter coke during the fair, cut classes, went to the clinic to skip classes and so much more. I'm not saying all the things I did were right but in the end, all that mattered was that I was able to own up to the things I did, pick myself up or pull myself down (depending on what you think of me) and take a big step towards my big dreams.

I am sure a lot of our politicians and lawyers were nerds in their youth but look at them now. THey are wreaking havoc whereever they are placed. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, GMA, Mike Defensor, Bunye, Raul Gonzales--all of them. I am not saying I won't turn out like them. Maybe I would. The point is though, so much of our lives are in our control and most of the time, one need not have a precise defining moment before they turn around from a rowdy to a prim and proper youth. I did not have that moment. I still am as rowdy as I can possibly be. The only difference is that now, I hurt less people and I want to help more.

My teacher once asked me if I regretted not getting honors in High School. To answer her question, I asked her if she regretted not being able to enjoy high school as much as I did.

I just found out there's no such thing as the real world, just a lie you've got to rise above.

posted by The Lonely Joker who stares too deeply & too much at 8:32 AM

The Lonely Joker who stares too deeply & too much at 8:32 AM

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