Education, Careers & Professional News
How do you go the distance?
Before me, under a gloaming sky, were expectant and giddy young women in caps and gowns—an extraordinary collection of talent and ambition, with enough intellectual horsepower to charge a corner of the universe or change the world. My rhetorical repertoire was peppered with words like “seize the day” and “fulfill our promise and potential.” Cardinal Sin, the guest of honor, was so moved, he said, that he asked for a copy of my valedictory speech to plunder for his next sermon.
I clutched in my hand a letter from my boyfriend. “Tonight the stars will be out in force to cheer you on. As I will be,” it began. “Tomorrow our work begins, for much is demanded of those to whom much has been given.” He always did have a way with words, and into my heart, and yes, he went on to become a master of the universe.
Mom didn’t quite know what to make of my prospects, except hold a wish in her heart for my happiness and life’s grace. It was elusive—this happiness—and rested precariously on the untender mercies of my own ambitions. Dad was sterner: Live life in the imperative, he exhorted, with a multitude of exclamation marks! Raise your life’s quotient, he said, and lift the bar of your expectations! Be a better version of yourself!
If you’re not in clover and didn’t inherit it, if you weren’t born with Gisele Bundchen’s good looks and a pneumatic body, if you can’t marry a Zobel de Ayala or a Gokongwei, going the distance demands sacrifice of the kind that drives us beyond ourselves.
Becoming a better version of ourselves is hard work of Olympian proportions and striving of Himalayan heights. You invest deeply in the venture of your life that its failure could cost you your happiness or your peace of mind. You can’t run away or hide from yourself. Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan. Just ask Lucio Tan.
I woke up next day, weighed down by a heavy freight of expectation. I could hear the beat of the assegai, I knew my purpose, but there was no road map.
Lifetimes later, age has come with some experience and knowledge. There’s only one thing wrong with the younger generation, Bernard Baruch said, a lot of us don’t belong to it anymore. Let me share these with you:
1. Educational deficit works imperceptibly throughout our lifetime: There will always be people cleverer than us. Education doesn’t end with graduation. It’s not a destination, but a process of learning, all the time. We have more information these days, but less knowledge.
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