say nothing, do nothing...

(taken from my Multiply Blog dated April 30, 2009)

Experience is the best teacher. When I was starting college here in Manila it was a totally different atmosphere. I was an observer in a big playground. Having grown in another country and studied in a school where the culture was totally different from where I am is a big shift.

As an observer I said nothing and basically weighed things according to how I see them. I learned from the people around me. I made experience teach me life's lessons. I explored around spent time with more people than I ever had compared to my high school life (when things were really just between me, myself and I). I was like a hound set off from its cage. I observed people, groups, church work, politics, and many more. I regarded myself as a historian (a lover of history), therefore I always relied on facts. Observation is a stage in getting the facts.

I was not an observer throughout. Observing was just a key to get the essentials. A key that allows us to learn what life is capable of giving us, and what we can give back to life. I started standing up for things that I believe is right. I started to say things that I believed is right. I started to initiate things that I believe is right. I was given several chances to speak, lead and serve.

Standing up for what you believe and doing things in accordance has its price. It has a price to pay. As I moved on I received criticism with increasing intensity. You have to mingle with people who did not share the same principles and practices and thus finding ways to get things done with them in the picture.

More than about a year ago when I was still teaching in Don Bosco Mandaluyong, I passed by the Small Chapel, as me and my colleagues usually do on our way home. There was a mass that time being held by the college. Fr. Edwin Soliva SDB was presiding and it was time for the homily when we got there. His words somehow caught my attention (it's something like this, because it was in Tagalog):

"If you do not want to receive criticism, I'll give you a piece of advice. It's this, when times arise say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. Maging isa kang wala! (Be nothing!)"

When people choose to stand up for what they believe is right, they receive crticism. When people choose to do what they believe is right, they receive criticism. When people choose to say what they believe is right, they receive criticim.

You see, when we receive criticism it means we stood up for something. At this point of my life, I can not remain silent nor can I remain still. I have been seduced by life and I have to do something for life, not just my life but also for the lives of those placed around me. I am a Bosconian, I am called to animate.