Ian Joseph

There’s a saying that goes “A person who fears a lot, values a lot.” But I know that this saying doesn’t apply to all but I think I could relate myself to this. The most valuable thing for me is my loved ones and my enemies. Diogenes said that for us to arrive at perfection, a man should have very sincere friends or inveterate enemies: because he would be made sensible of his good or ill conduct, either by the censures of the one, or the admonitions of the other. Basically, my greatest fear is to lose them that’s why I can’t imagine myself without them. They are composed primarily of my parents, relatives and close friends. Without them, I wouldn’t be what I am right now. I could also risk my life for them if necessary. On the other hand, this is kind of ironic to say because I also treasure life. I believe that we just borrowed our life/ our body from God so it is just right and fair to take good care of what He has lend us. I also believe that we must not waste our time in some senseless shit because life is like a river. You can’t step on the same water twice because the flow that has passed will never pass you again. As we all know, He has created us in His own image and likeness and that we are also unique in different ways. We all have a purpose here in earth that’s why He created us. We just have do discover what it is and maximize our talents to the fullest. But you know what, we shouldn’t be afraid of death because there is something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now! I would also like to point out an issue about virginity. Philippine women as we know are the conservative types of girls. They value too much their virginity. Now, if I were a girl, I think I would be a bit liberated. My motto would be like this “Virginity is a state of mind. It’s only important if you believe it’s important.” In other words, I wouldn’t value my virginity too much. But still, I will value my self-image. I wouldn’t just go for any hot guy who would just whistle and say “Oh, you’re a hot looking chick, wanna chill out with me?” I don’t want to be a bitch. Yes, I’ll give it to you, but I’ll make sure that it’s called love making and not just satisfying lust. But I think majority of the Philippine women would agree to this: “Losing virginity is like losing a tooth, when it’s gone, it’s gone…” Another thing that I value is my education. I am a person who dreams a lot. And I dream high! Even though for some, these dreams are impossible, I am still determined to reach or achieve these dreams. As a saying goes, “It is in the person’s determination that the difference between the impossible and the possible lies…” It is just right now, here in college that I realized how important education is. I think what I make of right now will determine what will be my life in the future. Will I be driving some PUJ’s or PUB’s? Or will I be drug syndicate? Or much better, will I be a president of a known company? These questions pass my mind every time I think that I’ll be graduating next year if God permits. And I also fully understand right now why my parents keep on telling me when I was still young this lines: “Anak, pagbutihin mo yang pag-aaral mo dahil yan lang ang kaya naming ipamana sayo…” I think this made a great impact on me and this is one of the reasons why even at the hardest point of studying, I still don’t lose hope! On the lighter part, I also value my cell phone. I think I value this too much because I used my own savings for this. I didn’t ask my parents to buy me this. And I also consider this thing important to me because this plays a large part in my life with regards to communicating with others. Practically, this helps me a lot in my daily activities because it keeps me in touch with so many people. And cell phones nowadays are very hi-tech because they can even penetrate banks and the Internet. They could also be used in paying transactions. They could also take pictures already. This is the feature I like most because I am a sentimental fool, and I really love keeping memories in pictures. Cell phones also satisfies my love for music, because you can now play am/fm and record songs into them. I also value money. To tell you a story, I am a varsity player since high school. When I was in first year until third year, I was a member of the chess varsity team of our school. Then I realized that I am only developing my thinking because in chess you learn how to analyze every move that you and your opponents take. And my coach told me before, chess players are the least persons to commit suicide because it is in their nature to think ahead what will happen. So much for the chess, so I tried my luck when I was in fourth year in joining the swimming varsity team of our school and luckily I was able to join it. It was then a different story. At first, it was so hard to adopt because most of my teammates before already swims fast. I just poured my best and eventually cope up with them. This now became my stepping stone to different schools in college. To tell you frankly, I am not supposed to study at San Beda. I tried my luck at UP as a swimming varsity player but unluckily I exceeded the quota of the athletes already. They told me that if I want to study at UP, I should train there and just wait for the next semester to come. So I just decided to find another school for me so my coach referred me here to San Beda! Luckily I am still a varsity player right now of the swimming team and I think that this has been a blessing in disguise for me because I receive my scholarship every term. Now the catch here is that, I value money because I want to help my parents by being a scholar in school. Even though sometimes, all I think of is to quit the varsity team because of the very rigid training, my will and determination to help my parents still wins over the hardships that I encounter. I am a catholic. I treasure my religion. Basically, I have a very religious family, my mom and dad are both into Couples for Christ for a long time already. They have been serving as commentators and lectors in our church almost every Sunday and in some special occasions. They are also active in community services. In addition to that, my younger brother is the head or the president of the Knights of the altar here in our village. Like my parents, he is also active in community services and in the Youth For Christ. Well, I think I am the black sheep in our family. But even though I am not active at community services and Church activities compared to them, I still have my own way of serving God and my own way of valuing my religion. Every Sunday, I see to it that I attend mass. I don’t usually go with my parents but instead I go with my friends. The reason behind this is that they attend the 6:30pm mass which I am not comfortable attending to because majority of the people I see during this time are those who only attend mass for some social purposes and also because they only want to make ‘porma’. But this is only my assumption, I maybe wrong and I may also be right. But basically, the mass that I attend to is the morning mass or the children’s mass at five in the afternoon. But more often, I attend the children’s mass because this is the time when I really feel the presence of God, and knowing that majority of the people inside the church is children, I feel that I was once again a child. In a sense that, I feel that I am young, “young at heart.” I also feel the solemnity of the mass during this time and seeing children in the choir brings me back to my childhood days when I was still a “sakristan” and a choir member also. And whenever I pass through any church, I see to it that I say a little prayer or at least make the sign of the cross. One thing more is that, I always bring with me a rosary. I acquired this practice when I was still in high school. I could still remember how strict my professors are that time because if you don’t have a rosary, you are considered absent. Basically, these are the things that matter to me the most. bwahaha! baduy na kung baduy! nampotah! wlang pakiaalaman ng trip! bangagerz nanaman ako! bwahaha! cge, pagtyagaan nyo nalang! bwhaha! \m/- -\m/