I thought
everything will go according to plan---I was wrong. God showed me the way and
lead me to a better plan, a better project, a better cause.
It
has always been a requisite for candidates eyeing for positions in the Student
Council that they have platforms which are essential as far as the welfare of
the students are concerned; and ever since, it has been a problem to me,
because I consume too much time, since I am not the type of person that always
has a light bulb in the head, someone always ready because his mind is
overflowing with ideas.
So after so many
days of thinking, I thought of proposing the first ever AB Leaders Congress.
It
was easy, I thought, I was just going to combine all the great speakers I have
known, and just pattern the flow of the program with the previous Congresses I
have attended. But I was just about to be surprised with what God has planned
me to do with this cause, with this project.
It
was all planned out. During summer I was busy finalizing the project proposal,
and I had continuous meetings with my team with regard the details of the
project. When the Academic Year started, I had it processed early, and we
started finalizing the details bit by bit. It was smooth. The budget arrived
earlier than expected. And everything was going okay as planned. Speakers
started to confirm one by one, the posters are finished and were more than what
I expected it to be (aesthetically speaking), and registrations were already
on-going.
And
then just like that, Yolanda happened.
I
was really saddened with what I saw over the news. Immediately, I was called
for meetings for our donation drives. I asked my co-officers to find ways and
the council initiated various projects for the victims of the said typhoon.
Volunteers were all over, and the council office was once again full of
donations. Everything was urgent. Everything was fast. But I thought, may kulang pa talaga; may kaya pa kaming
ibigay.
And
it hit me: I must call off the AB Leaders Congress and donate the budget to the
Yolanda Victims instead. Mas kailangan
nila ‘to, I thought. And so, even though this would mean that I’ll not be
able to execute the Congress I planned for, I decided to cancel it. Speakers
were sent letters stating that they will no longer be asked to come over due to
the recent calamity, and that the budget was donated instead. Posters were put
down, registrations were stopped. I was devastated; I worked with great people,
and then everything just gone. The big event, the big plan, the great
posters—all gone.
Maybe,
you (reader) are wondering why this is what I shared. Maybe you are expecting
that I share with you our Community Development Projects in the Student
Council, along with pictures, and with everything else. No. This is what I want
to share, because through this, I’ll be able to share to you that it is not
only the Community Development Projects per se that can help reach out to the
people who need help the most.
No
matter how big or small that is, so long as it’s there, it will help. We do not
need to have big events and big projects to succeed in our mission to enlighten
and empower other people. What we need is a big heart and an open mind. As
simple as cancelling a project and donating the budget to the victims of
Yolanda is already something.
And
as a student leader, I had to call it off. No matter how big the event was, I
just had to. Mas kailangan nila yung pera
eh. We can always have that type of event some other time. But now, as far
as the Yolanda Victims are concerned, it is a better decision that I call this
off. Nevermind the people who’ll say bad things about me not being able to
pursue one of my platforms when I ran for the council, what’s important is that
in our very little way, we were able to help them.
And
I know, that this is His way of teaching me that it is indeed better to give.
______________________________________________________________
Not
Ordinary
I
still remember it so clear that when I was a freshman, I badly wanted to get in
the council. I thought that it would be just as easy as to how easy things were
during high school. I was wrong.
In
college, it’s not always going to be the what
you see is what you get kind of life. In college, politics is too high. And
yes, too much of it could destroy the organization, the council—it could
destroy you. That is simply because being in the council, being a student
leader, being an officer doesn’t require only politics. Being in the council
means you are able to influence, to inspire, and to touch the lives of the
people around you. Too much politics leaves no room for leadership. Too much
politics kills leadership.
When
I was just new to everything, all I wanted was just that all the candidates
running under the banner of my political party win the student council
elections. I don’t care whether or not they are efficient; I don’t care if they
were just asked to run because of their physical attributes. I just wanted them
to win. I hated that part of me. I
hated the fact that I only realized this when I was already inside the council.
Now I have learned that it doesn’t matter whether or not the candidates of my
political party lost. For what it’s worth, what actually matters is that the
students who get elected are the student leaders that our university needs.
Now
how did I learn those things? I took a leap of faith.
It
was really difficult to earn any position in the AB Student Council, due to the
fact that before you win the elections have to please or impress at least
majority of the 4,000 students of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, which means
a large group of students who are sceptic, political, and most of all, liberal.
It means pleasing debaters, aspiring lawyers, and very excellent communicators.
All of those things were running in my head and it just kept on eating me
alive. I didn’t know how to speak in front of such a diverse audience. I didn’t
know how to persuade them that I deserve
to be the person in the position that will enable me to spearhead the council,
and serve the entire student body.
It
was hard. Until I realized that winning isn’t only about getting those votes.
I’m actually competing with myself, and I will win if and only if I become better than the old me. I will
win. And I will become better—I kept on saying this to myself during the
campaign period. It got into my head, and it became the fuel that I needed for
me to fight for our political party’s principles, and it became the push that I
needed for me to know how to make the students feel how sincere I really am in terms of offering myself to serve
for the entire academic year.
And
there you have it, Enrique Villamiel, the President of the Faculty of Arts and
Letters Student Council, AY 2013-2014.
I
love the Student Council and everything that it has taught me. This is why I
love the students of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, for giving me and the
rest of the executive board an opportunity to have a life out of the box; a
life that we will always look for when we’ve grown old. I love how it worked
out well that I am able to have hassle-free days with my executive board
despite the fact that we’re so diverse as far as our political parties are
concerned, and that we have tons of papers to process, meetings to attend to,
people to transact business with. I love everything that happened. The rough
times, for allowing me to learn my lesson every single time I forget my core
values; and the good times, that allow me to feel more inspired to work even
harder.
Leading with the purpose of leaving.
That’s what I believe I am here for: to prepare the next batch of leaders that
will replace us. That will love the council and the students the way we did.
And that doesn’t necessarily mean I let all my candidates win. What I mean is,
to let all the right candidates win.
That
is how political I am. The irony.
A CSR Story by: Henry Villamiel, AB Legal
Management, University of Sto. Tomas
No comments:
Post a Comment