PURSUING EDUCATION AMIDST DIFFICULT CHALLENGES
Rochyll Angel C. Galecia
To our honored guests, board of judges, faculty and staff, and to my fellow
students, Good day!
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations,
Challenges makes everything more interesting and,
Surviving, it gives life meaning.
As I stand before you, right here, RIGHT NOW, I ASK THIS:
WHAT IS EDUCATION?
Education provides us knowledge about- ourselves, our society and
our environment. It hones our skills and abilities, unleashes our fullest
potentials that enable us to control our destiny, live our lives on our own
terms.
Education also helps us to develop our own perspectives, prepares us
to have our own points of view and form our own opinions on issues
relevant to our lives and our loved ones. Education today is not just about
learning but also about application, analysis, evaluation and, ultimately,
synthesis of everything that we have learned from the classroom and those
that we learned from the proverbial streets of experience. Simply put,
education is about becoming better versions of ourselves, that we may
become active, dynamic members of the society that we belong to.
As an old saying goes, “Education is the only inheritance which nobody
can take away from you.” Our elders have always emphasized the
importance of education in one’s life, no matter how dire one’s
circumstances in life are. And this old maxim was never truer than when
COVID-19 pandemic reached the shores of this fair archipelago of 7, 107
islands. Despite economic and physical setbacks brought about by the
pandemic, the Filipino students- ever desirous, continued their studies a
soldiered-on exemplifying all that is the best of the Filipino Youth- relentless,
resilient, adaptive.
I myself as a student of West Visayas State University, have
experienced it, endured it, survived it, the cold, despair- inducing as I
attempt to navigate the new knowledge that, because of the pandemic, I
must now remember, comprehend and commit to memory on my own. No
teachers to ask for elaboration, clarification or demonstration. All I had, was
myself and the remote- learning instructional materials that I have received
from my instructors. It is just myself only, that crafts my creativity and talent
that I can use for my studying. I. Am. On. My. Own. I am on my own
discovering and learning new things connecting with my past experiences
and knowledge.
Many a time during the lockdowns I was filled with self-doubt and I
wanted to give up. Looking at the proverbial mirror through my mind’s eye, I
ask myself: CAN I DO THIS? WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME, TO
OTHERS LIKE ME? All I want is to gain knowledge and wisdom that I can use
and share with my future students. But as things go back then, I found it
very hard to adjust and cope with all the changes that were happening to my
life as an education student and, to be honest, there moments as I lay alone
in the dark and I thought of quitting.
But my parents, they did not raise a quitter, and I never did. The
German Existentialist Friedrich Nietzsche once said in one of his books “That
which does not kill you will only make you stronger.” And the hardships I
experienced in the first months of the lockdowns, they only made me
stronger as I decided to hang on, endure, never quitting, always trying until
that one faithful moment when I finally made it!!! I adjusted, I coped, I
survived and my journey as an education student continues- ever forward. I
have adapted, and have become the better for it.
This school year, 2022- 2023, we see a return to face-to-face classes
as the government eased down on the restrictions because COVID-19 went
from a pandemic to an endemic. For all that I have experienced I am
grateful, for they have made me into a better version of who I was before.
Things will never be the way they were before the pandemic, but it’s all
right, I’ve been through the worst of it. Things will be better from here on out
into the future, and it will be better future, for me, my loved ones, and
everyone.
And as I end this, I leave you with these words: Never waver in your
passion to learn for therein lies the pathway to success.
Thank you all, a good day and basta taga West, the Best!!
