Chasing Gavin
These changing times
Keating: Mr. Dalton, that was a pretty lame stunt you pulled today.
Charlie: You're siding with Mr. Nolan? What about sucking all the marrow out of
life and all that?
Keating: Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone. Such
there's a time for daring and a time for caution and a wise man
understands when he is called for.
-Dead Poets Society
What scuba divers would say about underwater life is: "It's a different world down there."
Skydivers on the other hand, would definitely say: "It's a different world up there."
Ask a student like me and you will most probably get an answer like: "It's a different world at the student's table."
It is a different world out there, with the company of books, notebooks and short brown envelopes. It's a different world out there, amidst the one whole, crosswise and lengthwise pad papers, red ball pens and oslo papers in packs of twenty. And yes, it's a different world out there, with the occasional pop quizzes, formal themes and no. 2 Mongol pencils. For an average student like me, my world revolves around these concerns, my classmates, teachers and the inevitable Math long test traumas.
In the twelve years that I have spent in school, so far I've had 2,451 flag ceremonies, 2,156 lunch breaks, gone through 11 Christmas parties, 2 graduation ceremonies and countless quizzes, long tests, exams and projects. Then comes the unavoidable question which all of us perhaps, not only students, try every way available to avoid: Have I learned anything?
In those twelve years, I have had my own dose of ups and downs, like any other student would. I know how it feels to win, to lose, to cram for a quiz, to be recognized for an achievement and enjoy every moment I spend within the four corners of the classroom. I have met terror teachers, friendly cafeteria personnel, Mang Jojo, Aling Fe and other students like me, struggling to pass every test, balance activities with school work, go home and finish requirements, wake up the next morning and do the same things all over again. Sometimes I wonder, why a life as such seems so simple from an adult's perspective, yet so treacherous for the young in mind and in spirit.
But then again, outside the campus, each student lives a life that is different from others, and gone are the walls that separate and categorize us as similar individuals under the same curriculum. I, for a fact, am a distinctive individual. I have my own parents, my own brothers and my own neighbors for who-knows-how-long. I know how it is like to wash dishes, cook meals and clean the house after a flashflood. I've had my own problems to deal with, and found solutions for every one of them. I too, have dreams of my own, things that I plan, or hope to accomplish someday, and experience the joy there is from reaching them.
Unfortunately, some people just don't know how to live life to the fullest. Those are people who settle for less than what they could actually do. So much talent is wasted on these people, and since they have done nothing important with their so-called brilliance, they might as well have been given an I.Q. of 50.
In my sixteen years in this world, I have made mistakes, learned from others', realized my lessons and grown into somebody (I believe) who is better than before. My greatest achievement perhaps, is reaching this stage with a positive outlook, unlike those who long to reach the high-ups of human fancy until it is lofty enough for them in their depths of despair to jump down. I know how to suck the marrow out of life, not choke on the bone, and yet savor every flavor of it. After all, we are all players in this world, in a game called life.
