They left... and it's great!

I keep seeing profile picture updates from my former [private school] students who transferred out to another school. Each time I do, my heart leaps a little leap of joy.

This is not to be vindictive against my former employers. It's just that I love these students so much that I want them to explore their full potentials outside their safest littlest comfort zone — the school they grew up in. On retrospect of my student life, I know full well how detrimental thriving in a small comfort zone is.

It's a law of physics, "an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless an outside force acts upon it." It's the same with people. We tend to stay in our comforting little bubbles, because there's no one challenging us from the inside. We tend to become little robots, following only what's the norm inside our safe havens. Then, the moment we are forced out of our comfort zone after eons of staying in it, we falter. We trip and we fall, not knowing how to walk on a field with a different gravity with the place we were so comfortable with.

We tend to be complacent with what we do, exerting only the bare minimum to "survive." We do not exert our maximum efforts, thinking that "Hey, I was able to pass this way before; it turned out fine." When we are comfortable, we tend to laze away with the mediocrity. Because we were already triumphant with our bare minimum, we repeatedly act at exceedingly comfortable levels that we so often give creativity up in exchange for compliance. Yet we get rewarded. We get lionized just because we completed our  tasks — tasks that were so routinely done. 

Inside our comfort zones, we risk the danger of losing our sense of self. The more we are challenged, the more we know about ourselves. We learn what makes us tick, what requires us to quit. We find out the full potential of what we can contribute to the world we live in. Lounging too much in our comfort zones kills most of our opportunities to unleash our full potentials.

My students left their comfort zones... and that is great! This is not to vilify those who stayed, that is also perfectly okay. I just wish for their personal growth though, that they continually find ways to push outside their bubbles little by little. I wish that they try to push the walls they, and their environment, have built around themselves. I wish that they continually expand their horizons, making their comfort zones bigger and bigger as they grow older. #

PH Olympic High

 

The Big 4 of PH Olympic lineup during #Tokyo2020. Image from Philippine Star Facebook page.

#Tokyo2020 was a great Olympic run for the Philippines. For the first time ever, we heard our national anthem played on the awarding ceremony. It was a tear-inducing moment for a country that waited for almost a century for it to happen.

But more than that gold, it's the stories these athlete brought with them that resonates deep within our people's collective souls.

As a semi-avid follower of the Olympic games, I was able to follow Hidilyn Diaz's Olympic journey for that coveted gold. From her debut at Beijing in 2008, to her disheartening DNF at London in 2012 (where she was the PH flag bearer), to settling for silver at Rio in 2016, to that awe-inspiring golden lift at Tokyo - not to mention her mental health battle, especially when she was haphazardly included in the Oust Du30 matrix - Hidilyn proved to be the golden ray of sunshine the country needed in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. With her winning lift, she has also lifted the spirits of Filipinos here and abroad. Plus, her forgiving nature to those who wronged her is a real class act. 

Days later, it was Nesthy Petecio's turn to deliver the PH delegation's first silver medal on women's boxing. Just like her namesake, Nesthy was such a refreshing presence on the boxing ring. I have huge respect for LGBTQ+ athletes who choose to compete within the sex group they were born into. They are only being fair, that is, biologically. Nesthy dedicating her silver medal on the WOMEN'S boxing to the LGBTQ+ community in the Philippines is a refreshing way to honor the community coming from the athlete themselves. 

Eumir Marcial's bronze medal finish is a testament that good things come to those who wait. Eumir was already signed as a pro boxer under Manny Pacquiao's promotion and had one pro win. But he went back to amateur boxing, and waited for his turn to deliver his promise to his father: that he will bring home an Olympic medal. That he did spectacularly: his fights leading to the semifinals were one-round KO's. His fight with the Ukrainian was a really close fight, we couldn't have been more proud of his efforts in the ring. 

Perhaps the most poetic PH medal finish during Tokyo 2020 is Carlo Paalam's silver medal for the men's flyweight in boxing. Carlo used to be a scavenger, trading scraps for a little money. Now he's got an Olympic silver medal - made from cellphone scraps - which entitled him to at least 17M pesos worth of honorarium from public and private parties. No wonder he stared really hard at his medal during the awardimg ceremony - perhaps he was amused by the poetic justice boxing has afforded him. He also tagged along with him his coach of over a decade, the one who discovered his potential in a boxing park in Mindanao. 

Aside from these medalists we also saw some spirited efforts and uplifting stories from the other PH athletes in the Games. There's skateboarder Margielyn Didal, who captured the admiration of of the international sporting community with her optimistic charms and bright smiles. There's EJ Obiena who stood his ground on his right to a fair play by calmly but firmly explaining himself to the judges, even though it may not have given him a medal. There's the gymnastics darling Carlos Yulo who almost clinched a medal with his perfectly executed 2nd vault attempt. The golfers Yuka Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan, and Juvic Pagunsan, who all braved the heat in the golf course to finish their turns. There's also another boxer, Irish Magno who was the first Filipina boxer to ever join the Olympics. Swimmers Remedy Rule and Luke Gebbie and runner Kristina Knott holding - and Gebbie even breaking - the national records for their respective pet events. There's also rower Cris Nievares, who was the first Pinoy rower in five olympiads to join the competition. Judoka Kiyomi Watanabe who was the flag-bearer in the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony. Weightlifter Elreen Ando and shooter Jayson Valdez doing their absolute best to represent the country.

For a country seemingly distraught over its local stories in last few years, this batch of Olympic delegation is arguably the best batch to ever represent our country in the Games. We are lucky enough to have witnessed their fight during perhaps the most trying time of our lifetime.

Congratulations to all these athletes! Padayon!

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