When I stared at the wall
where all the family hall of famers hanged their evidences, I recalled that I
was once a fan and a dreamer to follow the long family history composed of
several people that made their way to academic limelight. I kept on wishing
that someday I would earn as much and prove that my blood has the same effect
on my report cards. Surprisingly, from the very first medal out of the many
more that came, I became hungry of knowledge, ranking, and academic position. I
hanged and tied my own collection until it was enough for me to feel proud and
proven worthy.
In that very same wall, I
noticed that on the adjacent display was a medal that seemed unrecognized, raw,
and seemingly unimportant - it was my 37th medal and the one I earned from my
masters. I did not bother pick it up nor had it placed on a special spot with
the rest of its kind. I realized that the glitters of the medals and the
prestige of the glass, wooden, and metal trophies no longer capture my
interest. The accomplishments that they represent no longer make me proud for
they are only a souvenir of the past and not a definition of my personhood.
I focus on the present and
the things I can do in the near future. The past is only but a source of
lessons and inspiration but nonetheless an ineffective determinant of the
changes that I can make. My ideals, degree of intelligence, general fund of
knowledge, and the expertise I have in my profession will someday, just like
medals and trophies, wither and fade. Nothing is permanent indeed and,
the acceptance of the fact that someday we will also lose our identity and
pretty much everything, makes the "now" more precious.
While I still have my talents and other capacities, I believe that it is
important to be guided by principles to raise the level of my quality of life
and of those around me. Let us live the now smartly and expect the
inevitableness of a happy future and start by discovering principles based on both
the angle of the human and the extraordinaire. These principles I call the
Biala Philosophy. Welcome to my blog.
