LIFE'S JOURNEY

-A Journal of a Graduating Student

I am Manfred. Life to me is like an old staircase. After every step another follows. While climbing you may find broken steps. This represents hardships and obstacles in life. You must face and get through them to get to the next step. You must not skip a step or else you’ll fall. Like a staircase, life must be taken one step at a time and you must face all its challenges.

In this life, I am a typical teenager; that’s how I see myself. A typical teen who is striving to make his dreams a reality-a guy who is willing to face any challenge for his dreams. Another face in the crowd, they may say. I may not rise above all the rest but I’ll do my best to bring out the best in me and survive the challenges to make it to the next step.

My years as an elementary student were fine. Yes, it was quite a challenge and I was a bit irresponsible but I somehow managed to get through it. All of this changed when I got promoted to a greater challenge, high school. Instead of rising up to the challenge by improving myself, I degraded. I became worse than what I was before. My personality and the way I did things were inversely proportional to the challenges. The challenges became harder but I degraded. I did twisted things that didn’t contribute to my wellbeing. I forgot the value of time, the importance of knowledge. I missed what is supposed to be the foundations of my high school education. I wasted my crucial first two years. Mistakes I did in the past that I cannot take back.

My outlook in life only changed when I was in my middle stages of high school. It was in my third year that I learned the true meaning of friendship. I met friends who always wanted the best for you but never left when you were at you worst. They were friends who held together even in the darkest of days. They helped me in a very nice way that I was able to help others in need too. They made me realize that you can have fun while learning. I was able to get through the end of my junior year and entered my senior year with what they taught me. At the start of my senior year was a bumpy ride but I was able to make it until the last months of the school year.

My high school days are indeed coming to a near close. I can hear folks joke about the toga so near, they could smell it. This does not mean it’s the end of my journey. Next stop is a greater challenge, college. Here is where I’ll be polished more to become a better person. This time I’ll do my best to live up to the challenge. I’ll change the way I do things by being more responsible in contrast to what I did in high school. I’ll get through college’s four year span with the consistency of my new found wisdom.

Hopefully in the year 2011, the year for my college graduation, I’ll graduate with flying colors and face a far greater challenge, the true test of life, the outside world. I’ll be busy finding a job for financial security. Then I can help my parents and let them experience the luxury they sacrificed for me. I’ll be married then but only after I have set my priorities. I must find financial stability for my first family before I start a new one.

Every new beginning comes from some of the beginning’s end. As a chapter of my life ends, another one opens. Each and every time a new one opens, it imposes a greater challenge. Each and every time the challenge becomes greater, I’ll do my best to live up to this. This reminds me of a line I heard from a movie I once saw, “It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, as long as you came.” It’s better to face the pains of defeat than to face the pains of forfeit. After all defeat has his consolation. The greatest gift of defeat is wisdom, wisdom that makes you a better person for the next upcoming challenges. I’ll strive even if I fail to achieve my dreams.

(This was written by one of my graduates last SY 2008. I like this work for its sheer honesty. The author writes with sincerity, a mature take of what life was and what it will be.)