"Yung tipong, para ka laging magpeperform sa Araneta."
Noong 2002, naranasan kong umapak sa mismong court. Salinggawi kasi ako dati, so nag peperform kami ng halftime dun, intermission, saka lumalaban sa mga cheering competition. Syempre, nirerepresent namin ang UST. Masayang experience, di matatawaran. Nakakapagod nga lang. Madalas din nasasakripisyo ang pagaaral.
Di tulad ng iniisip ng mga nakakarami, marami sa aming mga mananayaw noon ay mga regular na estudyante sa kolehiyo.
Mga estudyanteng takot ma-zero ang exam.
Mga estudyanteng takot magka-singko sa classcard.
Pati mga holdaper sa Sampaloc, kinakatakutan din.
Pero kaming mga mananayaw, dagdag sa kinakatakutan namin ang magkalat sa performance. Pero, sa bawat performance na matatapos, nawawala ang takot, napapalitan ng saya kasi nakapag-perform ako ng maayos. Pagdating ng gabi at ako ay matutulog na, saka ko mararamdaman ang pagod at sakit ng katawan. Pero hindi ako pwedeng magreklamo. May pasok pa bukas, este, mamaya na pala (madaling araw na kasi) – alas syete ng umaga. Putsa.
Masaya man ang karanasan na iyon, kinailangan ko tumahak ng ibang landas. Actually, kinailangan ko lang pala mag-focus. Syempre isa iyong mahirap na desisyon, pero sa totoo lang, ang bawat desisyon na gagawin mo ay depende naman sa mga priorities mo. So inuna ko ang aking prioridad – ang kagustuhan kong maging accountant. Pero hindi ibig sabihin nun, wala na sa akin ang pagiging mananayaw.
Di lang naman ang pag-eexecute ng steps ang tanging nagdedefine noon. Nariyan ang disiplina. Ang sakripisyo. At higit sa lahat, ang kagustuhan na ibigay ang 100% ng makakaya mo sa lahat ng ginagawa mo. Tawag nga sa amin pag praktis – PL o Performance Level.
Yung tipong, para ka laging magpeperform sa Araneta.
Yung sa lahat ng gagawin mo, dapat maging proud ka pag nakita o napanood ng ibang tao. Isipin mo, puno ang Araneta na laging nakasubaybay sayo. Kahit wala naman. Kahit ang nasa paligid mo ay buhangin at mga batong nagkalat. Kahit na nasa disyerto ka pa.
Pero ito ang mas matinding rason para gawin ang mga bagay na ikaka-proud mo. Gagawin mo ang mabuti at maganda dahil alam mo na si Lord ay laging nakasubaybay sayo.
Nasa Araneta ka man.
Nasa bundok.
Nag-iiscuba diving.
O kaya’y nasa Afghanistan na tulad ko.
- champ
- champ
Ang susunod na parte ay isinulat ko bilang contribution sa ‘Memoirs’ book ng kolehiyo namin. Ito ay para sa pagdiriwang ng ika-400 na taon ng UST. Mejo bitin nga lang kasi limited sa 500 words pero pwede ng pagtsagaan.
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| My alma mater, UST, is celebrating its 400th year. 1611 - 2011 (photo from Chic-a-boo.tumblr.com) |
"I am no superman. But I am a Thomasian."
2002 - Araneta Coliseum
From inside the dressing room where people in yellow suits were hastily putting make up on or braiding someone else’s hair, I heard the indecipherable chants and bass drums. They were like rolls of thunder with rhythm. Everything was loud, but nothing was more audible than my own heartbeat, and perhaps, my prayers that I repeatedly said in my thoughts. “This is it, Lord! Please do not let me drop Ate Dol, or sprain my wrist when I do my tumbling pass” I mumbled. Then our group was called and we came out into the mat-covered court. Surrounding us were 22,000 people, grouped in different colors – green, maroon, blue, and red. Yet, no other group shone more brightly than the pack of the tiger-costumed, yellow-shirted students, who, at the top of their lungs, were cheering “Go USTe!”
That was my first performance in a UAAP Cheerdance competition. Well, that same performance somehow helped UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe win in the first year of its five-peat championship streak. To date, no other school was able to achieve such feat.
2011 - Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan
Exactly nine years after, I heard the same thunder-like sound and indecipherable chants that I knew didn’t come from basses or snares, not even from students yelling their own school’s cheers. The helicopter I was getting on just landed from another forward operating base en route to my latest assignment – Helmand Province. People who often watch CNN will know that that is a dangerous place. How dangerous? Think of Cebu as home to Cebuanos – that’s how Helmand is abode to the Taliban.
I am not going to lie. I was afraid that time, and the sound of the helicopter landing and US Marines yelling out boarding instructions tend to make my heart beat faster. I’ve been in these situations many times for many years, but I will admit that fear would always seep in. But just as when fear gets into my mind, a prayer would come out of my lips. And somehow, faith has always taken me into reveries of my triumphs in life. On that day in a US Airbase flight line, the afternoon in Araneta resurrected in my mind.
I realized that the fear I felt of going to a hostile territory is just as much as the anxiety I felt when I danced into that competition. Yet, just like the fear, the assurance that my faith in God gave me never faltered. I overcame fear before and I will overcome it now.
Well such was my routine since I started joining a US Air Force contractor first as a Cost Controller. Right after I passed the CPA exams in 2007, I found myself in war-torn countries supporting the US Military’s reconstruction efforts. I became a Project Scheduling Engineer, not a dancer as I hoped I would be. But no matter what I’ve become, I know I will always triumph. Don’t get me wrong – I am no superman. But I am a Thomasian.
