Yesterday for me would be one of the most memorable days of my life because first of all it was my 21st birthday and I’m looking forward to graduating at last in my Computer Science degree after 5 years in college. But what made this day memorable aside from the fact that it was my debut was that it was this day that our recollection for the graduating college students from our university took place. There were 3 departments scheduled and attended the said recollection so the venue were somehow filled with graduating students. We sometimes had joke yesterday with some of my classmates saying in our dialect “nanimaho na ug toga dire”. Though it was not the first time that I joined recollections before graduating cause I have attended same event during my elementary and high school days, this recollection was totally different since were totally grownups now and we are a step closer in facing the real world and we need some reflections and listen to some words of wisdom on what we are going to do after our graduation day. In other words, we need guidance and blessings from the LORD for us to be ready on the challenges we were facing outside of school and into the real world.
The first part of the half day event was the celebration of the Holy Eucharist for the recollection to become successful, inspiring and so that GOD will bless those who attended the recollection both the students and the speakers that came to share their experiences and some tips on how to become successful in our lives. Good for me also since it was my birthday so no need for me to go to church in the afternoon. What a gift for me for my debut; a word of GOD plus words of wisdom from those who became successful in life because of their faith in GOD. When father gave his homily, he simply told us the true meaning of a recollection and saying why we came to attend. Recollection is isolating ourselves and our mind from the real world and come closer to GOD, that’s what father said upon sharing to us the true meaning of recollection. He also urged us to listen carefully to the recollection and to get things that will be helping us on our journey to the real world. The mass ended with my smile in my face knowing that I received a special gift from GOD and that was inspiration to continue my dream and become successful in the future.
The recollection started few minutes after the mass ended. The recollection also started with a prayer and some singing religious song with choreography to lift our energy and spirit up to be both physically and mentally present, ready to listen and apply what we will hear from our speakers. There were 7 speakers ready to share to us the keys to success. There was 1 of them that was an attorney, 1 that had a construction business and had stories of falling down but standing up again and fight, another 1 was soon to be a foreign diplomat, even 1 of them was daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal and half sister of the President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. I will just provide the summary on what they have shared because even I didn’t memorize word by word what they have said but I really got the main points in which the speakers want us to know.
For them, there were 4 things that we must do in order for us to become successful in the future like them. First was knowing into my inner self what I meant to be, knowing what I want to be in the future or what are the things that I wanted to do in spite of the risks or trials that may came along the way. I recalled one of the speakers shared his stories of being a mining engineer. For him, yes the environment where he works or his workplace were very dangerous, going inside a tunnel finding gold mines with huge rocks would fall anytime, but he wanted to become a mining engineer so he pursue it and finished it. But being a mining engineering alone was not he meant to be. He and all the speakers were also meant to share the word of our LORD to those who needs it. Upon hearing this thing, it made me thought of what are the things that will make me happy and what are the things I wanted to do in the future. Honestly if I were going to ask myself, there was no clear picture yet on what will I going to do when I graduate, there was this side of my heart and mind that I wanted to teach and share my knowledge to those who need it, but there is also one side thinking I will do my best to land a job abroad to secure my future. This recollection had helped me in seeking what really I meant to be. Few weeks from now maybe I could decide 100% on what I wanted and meant to be.
Second thing is how will I grow up? Not literally to grow in terms of height but growing as a better person in the society, growing in terms of skills in job or interpersonal and intrapersonal communication skills. There was one speaker who said that one way of growing up is to learn new skill every day and don’t waste any time that are not related to the things that will make you successful. Competition in the workplace is very tight, so we need to grow for us not to be overtaken by those who are younger and eager to learn than us. Since I don’t have any experience on working in a bigger company yet, this thing could somehow inspire me to learn new things that are very helpful in my future jobs or develop my skills more to become an expert on one field then learn new skill so that I could be very productive the time I will have my job.
Third key point they taught us was to cope up with the flow. Cope up with the flow so that we will not be left behind by our competitors in the workplace or in our field. With technology changes rapidly, so as the learning of new students who are younger than us. They told us it is very important to know the things that are happening in our place for us to be able to go with the flow and be able to compete and even outperform those who are way ahead than us in terms of experience.
Fourth key point and I believe the most important thing was to know the meaning of success by sharing to others. In the field of Information Technology (IT) there was a term commonly known as open-source. Those things that are free like software and information that are free to access, use and modify by others fall into this type. In the field of IT open-source software took the market by waves as the primary competitor of the commercial ones. Since it is open for other programmers or developers to modify and to improve, the development would be very fast since there are a lot of people working as compared to commercial where the development is only within their company. So the main point in this analogy is that when we share what you have, others will most likely share also what they have, so both of you learned and move up together. It is hitting two birds with one stone indeed. Both of you don’t need to start from scratch instead you just capitalize on the knowledge that is already available and improve by adding what you learn and what others shared to you. Selfishness is a bad attitude so we must left it in school as part of our competition days and look at the future with sharing in our mind.
All those four key points are very inspiring and very essential aspects that will bring us to success. But the speakers pointed out the most important thing in life to become successful in our lives and that is to have GOD in our lives in times of happiness, success, trouble, problems, everything that will come into our lives. I can always recall one speaker told us that we people didn’t choose our GOD, but GOD chooses us as his people because HE believes in us. GOD chooses us because HE loves us and want us to be HIS sheep and HE is the Shepherd. Know GOD very well by reading the Bible and listen to his word even if we are busy. Always find time to talk to GOD in terms of prayers and GOD for sure will guide you.
What a wonderful present for my 21st birthday, this probably the best gift I have and I will never forget it. Those words and those people will always remain in my heart as the people that inspire me guide me into facing the future.
