PS. I am posting Mikki’s speech. It is a good read. Besides, am proud of lector/server/commentator. Check our pictures in our previous post on her together with her group at the UP Campus Ministry.
Take not the road less traveled
One of the things that strike me as being very “UP Diliman” is the way
UPD students can’t seem to stay on the pavement. From every street
corner that bounds an unpaved piece of land, one will espy a narrow
trail that cuts the corner, or leads from it. Every lawn around the
buildings sports at least one of these paths, starting from a point
nearest to the IKOT stop and ending at the nearest entry to the
building. The trails are beaten on the grass by many pairs of feet
wanting to save a fraction of a meter of traveling, no matter that
doing so will exact some cost to the shoes, or, to the ubiquitous
slippers, especially when the trails are new.
What do these paths say about us, UP students?
One could say that the UP student is enamored with Mathematics and
Pythagoras, hence these triangles formed by the pavement and the path.
Many among you would disagree.
Others could say that the UP student is naturally countercultural. And
the refusal to use the pavement is just one of the myriads of ways to
show his defiance of the order of things. This time, many would agree.
Still, others will say that the UP student is the model of today’s
youth: they want everything easier, faster, now. The walkable paths
appeal to them because they get to their destination faster, and
presumably, with less effort. Now that is only partly true, and
totally unfair.
These trails weren’t always walkable. No doubt they started as patches
of grass, perhaps overgrown. Those who first walked them must have
soiled their shoes, stubbed their toes, or had insects biting their
legs, all in the immovable belief that the nearest distance between
two points is a straight line. They might even have seen snakes cross
their paths. But the soiled footwear, sore toes, and itchy legs
started to conquer the grass. Other people, seeing the yet faint
trail, followed. And as more and more walked the path, the grass gave
in and stopped growing altogether, making the path more and more
visible, more and more walkable.
The persistence of the paths pays tribute to those UP students who
walked them first – the pioneers of the unbeaten tracks: the defiant
and curious few who refuse the familiar and comfortable; the
out-of-the-box thinkers who solve problems instead of fretting about
them; the brave who dare do things differently, and open new
opportunities to those who follow.
They say how one behaved in the past would determine how he behaves in
the future. And as we leave the University, temporarily or for good,
let us call on the pioneering, defiant, and brave spirit that built
the paths to guide us in this next phase of our life.
We have been warned time and again. Our new world that they call
“adulthood” is one that’s full of compromises, where success is
determined more by the ability to belong than by the ability to think,
where it is much easier to do as everyone else does. Daily we are
bombarded with so much news of despair about the state of our nation,
and the apparent, perverse sense of satisfaction our politicians get
from vilifying our state of affairs. It is fashionable to migrate to
other countries to work in deceptively high-paying jobs like nursing
and teaching, forgetting that even at their favored work destinations,
nurses and teachers are some of the lowest paid professionals. The
lure of high and immediate monetary benefits in some low-end
outsourcing jobs has drawn even some of the brightest UP students away
from both industry and university teaching to which they would have
been better suited.
Like the sidewalks and pavement, these paths are the easiest to take.
But, like the sidewalks and pavement, these paths take longer to
traverse, just as individual successes do not always make for national
progress. The unceasing critic could get elected, but not get the job
done. The immigrant could get his visa, but disappear from our
brainpower pool. The highly paid employee would be underutilized for
his skills, and pine to get the job he truly wants, but is now out of
his reach. And the country, and we, are poorer because of these.
Today, the nation needs brave, defiant pioneers to reverse our
nation’s slide to despair. Today, we must call upon the spirit that
beat the tracks. Today, we must present an alternative way of doing
things.
Do NOT just take courage, for courage is not enough. Instead, be
BRAVE! It will take bravery to go against popular wisdom, against the
clichéd expectations of family and friends. It will take bravery to
gamble your future by staying in the country and try to make a
prosperous life here. It might help if for a start, we try to see why
our Korean friends are flocking to our country. Why, as many of us
line up for immigrant visas in various embassies, they get themselves
naturalized and settle here. Do they know something we don’t?
Do NOT just be strong in your convictions, for strength is not enough.
Instead, DEFY the pressure to lead a comfortable, but middling life.
Let us lead this country from the despair of mediocrity. Let us not
seek to do well, but strive to EXCEL in everything that we do. This,
so others will see us as a nation of brains of the highest quality,
not just of brawn that could be had for cheap.
Take NOT the road less traveled. Rather, MAKE new roads, BLAZE new
trails, FIND new routes to your dreams. Unlike the track-beaters in
campus who see where they’re going, we may not know how far we can go.
But if we are brave, defiant searchers of excellence, we will go far.
Explore possibilities, that others may get a similar chance. I have
tried it myself. And I’m speaking to you now.
But talk is cheap, they say. And so I put my money where my mouth is.
Today, I place myself in the service of the University, if it will
have me. I would like to teach, to share knowledge, and perhaps to be
an example to new UP students in thinking and striving beyond the
limits of the possible. This may only be a small disturbance in the
grass. But I hope you’ll come with me, and trample a new path.
Good evening, everyone.
By Mikaela Irene Fudolig
UP Graduation 22 April 2007
