I Will Never Stay Idle

Special Feature: Philippine Social Realities

 “Our hope is placed on you.  The world belongs to you.  The future belongs to you.” - Mao Tse Tsung

Moments when I viewed my grades online, when my heart sank into frustration, and a part of me burst of regret — flabbergasted by the numbers that appeared on the computer screen. A little dissatisfied, perhaps because I knew that wasn't tantamount to all of my laudable efforts on the academe.

A roster of Uno’s yet still lacks a .7 to reach the average of 1.25 to be qualified as a President’s Lister (though I am thankful now being a Dean’s Lister).

It took me an hour to move on from the regret; it took me countless text messages from my comrades to make me feel relieved. And while over-thinking of some people I knew who qualified for PL, I recalled my personal experiences with them inside the four walls of the classroom — my regrets vanished into oblivion.

I was like a kid on my first month of stay in my University, confident that this institution will prepare me for life, and even make me feel safe for the next 3 years to come.

then my first year of college opened my eyes to reality. The lessons were copied then pasted from the internet, the syllabi wholly imitated from other schools, the kind of system implemented a facsimile of, yet again, that from other schools, and some professors teaching inefficiently and imposing unethical rules, I formed a notion that it is, perhaps, the reason why several students are academically good yet politically ignorant.

Indeed. To graduate with flying colors is a passport to a more sustainable future. But what kind of future is to come if the present is already lambasted with fascist dictatorship, with semi-colonial and semi-feudal systems, if our present is repeatedly raped by abusive and imperialist nations, if the present has a cue of an unbearable future?  

Algebra, Science, English... aren't we forgetting the Society and its system? If Society (the out-of-the-box context of it) is just a subject to be learned and analyzed at school, I guess people will not anymore become ignorant: Indeed, they will finally fight for their rights; finally realize that they are being suppressed without knowing it at all.

I bet students will no longer be a mere Laude who is theoretically good yet unable to apply his/her knowledge into practice. If all are to study society and how our nation and the Filipino people are being maltreated and abused, perhaps people will demand for justice, and that these inhumane systems will be changed.

I will never ever forget this one teacher of mine, not for the low grade that he gave me, but for his alleged accusations that made me furious at him. I blurted profanities while thinking of defending my right as a student. I then said to him, “Sir, your action just clearly justifies that the education system is colonial, commercialized, and fascist. And that I refuse to embrace this kind of system.”

Some of my classmates thought that I was over reacting on a little issue. But if only they were aware of the neo-liberal policies that made the education system poor and dreadful — that made Kristel Tejada suffer and surrender — if only they knew how many underprivileged youths were desperate enough to try prostitution and other less-than moral choices just to go to school, if only they saw lots of parents painstakingly sweeping every corner of a capitalist’s office just to pay his/her child’s high tuition and other fees at school, I guess they would somehow understand my battle.

I guess they would no longer laugh at me when I’m discussing the society’s ill-fated situation, the political issues and how they are being affected by them. I hope they would no longer react sarcastically when I am tasked to report the peasant situation in the Philippines. I guess they would no longer be busy memorizing our lectures while the Union has a greater chance to conduct a strike. I guess, and hope, that they would embrace our day to day battle.

And I suppose my professor would somehow realize that all battles are related. And that we are all part of a one struggle.

Of the two semesters, I learned ‘some’ things. Though majority of it came from spoon-fed lessons and memorizing the word-for-word definition of a term that one can also simply defined in a simple, straightforward sentence, I learned more, and guess where? It’s with integrating with the peasants and laborers; it’s living in the unfortunate communities, it’s in socializing with the marginalized sectors; it is being with the MASSES and UNDERSTANDING them. It is being with them that I learned of the real-world difficulties and how we can solve them — It is with them that I learned the essence of applying THEORY into PRACTICE.

For whom do you study hard? For whom do you work? To live and toil solely for your OWN satisfaction is like not living a LIFE at all. A friend once told me, “Mas gugustuhin ko pang mamatay kaysa mabuhay ng walang nagawa para sa bayan.”

To quote my one professor, “Grades are just mere figures.” Numbers don’t define you. Numbers don't measure your precious experience.

I regret nothing now. I do not regret of not pursuing my summer job as a call center agent and setting aside the opportunity to earn money. For I have been working, not for myself, but for the majority and for a better world, without salary, and through my work I have earned many things more than the amount of a call center’s income could compensate.

We are often labeled as extremist, as rebels, as noisy unsatisfied radicals. But the state never affirms, never exhibits, that we are SERVING THE PEOPLE.

I am thankful being able to go to school. I am thankful to see the big picture. And one thing is for sure, I will never stay SILENT and IDLE. Never. Lester May Castillo

Lester May D. Castillo, 16, Angeles City, is a first year Bachelor of Arts in Communication student of Holy Angel University.

Lester May is currently the Secretary-General of College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) – Central Luzon, a writer on The Angelite - The Official Student Publication of Holy Angel University (HAU), acting Provincial Coordinator of Kabataan Partylist (KPL) – Pampanga, acting as Spokesperson of Youth Response for Change (UR4Change), a 2^nd Year Board of Committee on HAU Communicators’ League, and a member of Communicators’ Guild (COMMGUILD). She is also a consistent Dean’s Lister.