Out of the box

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.

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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