MOVING TOWARDS A MORE EDUCATED CROWD

As summer vacation sets in the Philippines, every student looks forward to relaxation after toiling for almost ten months. But for those who have finally made it to graduation, it is a time to celebrate as a reward for accomplishing a goal.

Education is highly valued in every society. It is as necessary as the basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing. It open doors to opportunity and provides for a more sustainable living. It develops skills and hone talents to establish careers. It is the foundation of every job and career.

It is however not a about grades alone nor it is just acquiring a diploma. The real essence of education is when one learns and applies the lessons in the realms beyond the walls of the institution. It is what gives meaning to life. It enriches the soul. It teaches lessons that build character. It provides valuable knowledge to be able to better understand the world.

Acquiring an education has a way of uplifting our self-worth. It strengthens the foundation of the soul and equips us with the resources to hurdle the challenges we confront. More than anything else, education is experience. It sums-up and simulates varied experiences we need to learn to be able to apply in the real world.

It is unfortunate that in our society, we have taken for granted the true cause of education. We have failed to appreciate the core-value of the process involved in acquiring our diploma. We see it as a mere requirement to employment. We have further reduced it to status symbol as a passport to social mobility.

In a country with a fast-growing population and the number of unemployed increasing, personal aspirations are compromised just to have any job available that may only suffice for basic necessity. Personal fulfillment from education is a privilege of a few who acquire for the heck of it. Thus, the lack of education among Filipinos has ever been a burning political issue. Our educational system and the policies that govern it are major subjects of political upheaval ever since. It is indeed an issue representative of social injustice.

Graduation is not the end of education. In a way we remain students throughout our lifetime. We are in a never-ending process of learning. The world around us is ever changing and we have to keep-up with the times.

Perhaps it is high-time to re-evaluate how we perceive education. While it is essential in building a career or having a job, we should also realize that its purpose does not stop there. It should inspire in us to see its relevance beyond the economic gains and savor the wealth of experiences it provides to continually better our self and our relations. In these we will ultimately discover the wonder and excitement of a life moving towards a more educated crowd.

To the following,

Rebecca Rutchell Quetulio Austria, Ll. B.

Graduate, Bachelor of Laws

Lyceum of the Philippines, Makati City

Reynard Quetulio Sabater

Graduate, Bachelor of Science in Nursing

De La Salle University, Dasmariñas, Cavite

Matthew James O. Gonzales

Graduate, Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Saint Louie University, Baguio City

Amelita Flores

Graduate, Secondary Education

Pasay East High School

John Lawrence Sabater Medina

Graduate, Primary Education

Casa de San Miguel Montessori School

Bacoor, Cavite

Congratulations and welcome to a more educated crowd, batch 2011!

CONFRONTING GRIEF AS A FAMILY

My aunt, Aurora Quetulio Donadillo, passed-away yesterday March 25, 2011 at about 5:00 PM at the University of Sto. Tomas Hospital after succumbing from the complications of stroke. Together with her daughters, her sister (my mother) and other relatives, we were witnessed to her final moment. She was 66 years old.

How does a family confront grief when it had lost four of its member within the span of 15 months? Yet we accept the reality of death, there are no words enough to appease our hearts of the longing for those who have left us.

To loose someone dear is truly painful. We may try to rationalize death but with a heavy heart. We may accept death as a natural progression but the actual moment of parting make us feel abandoned, even betrayed. Regrets may slowly gnaw at the thought of those things we did but shouldn’t or those we didn’t do but should have in relation to the departed.

No one actually prepares for death. Or at least condition our emotions to how we will feel at the actual moment of lost. Common preparation may be in the form of the external necessities of dying such as memorial plan or insurance. Yet these may suffice for the nitty-gritty, these are never an answer to the primal need of those who mourn.

The words of Longfellow echoes the sentiments of those who experience the lost of a dearly departed: “For nothing can bring back the hours; of splendor in the grass nor the glory of the flowers. We shall grieve not but gather strength from what was left behind.” Indeed, the pain we feel is not from the resentment of death but the sadness that comes with the longing for the departed. It is the realization that we will never again share moments with those who have touched our lives with; that with their own life had shaped the person we are today.

Aunt Rory, as she was fondly called, will surely be missed. We, her nephews and nieces, as little kids refer to her as “Oyi”, a corruption of her name due to our juvenile utterance. I once was left to her care as an infant when my mother had to seek employment. Since she was then nursing her own daughter, my cousin born two months later than I, she had fed me. Years later, it had been an anecdote told at family gatherings at how I was as a suckling baby who devoured all her milk and left no more to my cousin because I awoken ahead. I may have felt embarrassed then but now I can only ponder with gratefulness at that moment when my survival depended on her.

I personally will be forever indebted to her for her helpful ways particularly in my most difficult time. She and her husband, uncle Ledo (died just last year), welcomed me into their home after my own father passed-away and I was then emotionally troubled. They’ve been instrumental for encouraging me to be strong so to be able to pick-up the broken pieces of my life.

I can go on and on about my memories of aunt Rory. It would however take so much to write about. Truly, words are not enough to tell about the experiences of a lifetime. We can only ponder them in our hearts and live through the lessons we had learned from them. With her passing, we will never be the same again. The familiar places, faces and moments we shared with her are altered forever. We will never have those like-moments ever again. And this realization pained us.

According to a common adage, “Time heals all wounds.” In this thought we take solace that through time the pain we feel now will ease away. Anyway, “Tomorrow is another day.” We will move on with greater courage and hope with the legacy of our dearly departed sustaining us in our own journey in this lifetime. We may have lost a beloved member but we have gained a more fortified spirit of solidarity as a family. Hence, this is what will withstand the test of time, whether through life or in death.

In behalf of aunt Rory’s daughters Atty. Patricia Quetulio Donadillo-Famaran and Grace Quetulio Donadillo; son-in-law Alfonso Famaran, M.D.; sisters Rosalina Quetulio-dela Cruz, Rufina D. Quetulio and Purisima Quetulio-Sabater; brothers Eduardo D. Quetulio and Jaime D. Quetulio; sisters-in-law Stefanie M. Quetulio and Lydia R. Quetulio; brother-in-law P/CINSP Reynaldo L. Sabater (Ret.); aunt Isabel Quetulio-Aquino; cousins, nieces and nephews; we as a family are grateful to those who lend moral support and extended whatever assistance to us from my aunt’s infirmary to her internment. May each of them be blessed in every way possible in this lifetime.

HOMESICK

For my cousin Ms. Grace Quetulio Donadillo

I breathe of London air
While riding on the tube
I clutch on my handbag
on my way to school

Amidst the British crowd
I stand anxious
My English resonates
Differently from them.

A sense of anticipation
My future lies ahead
From here I am
I see through a haze.

So soon I long for fishballs
I miss abodo and bagoong too
And the traffic in EDSA
I’m so used to hate

Mama’s voice
I hear from my celphone
I bear the pain of longing
To seek my fate.