By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
It has been some time now since the start of our semester. Exams are again at our doorstep. Assignments are never-ending and the stress-level of every student is peaking to its apex, all seems to be normal. The challenge for me at the start was always about making it to the dreaded 7:30 am first periods. Starting all the way from Tuba and to the city center and competing with the other students for the jeepneys, these were the starting hurdles I knew I had to overcome first. Now half way through the term, I can only be proud of the changes and small habits I have come to cement as my daily routine.
Checking on my progress, the challenge I always had a hard time with, making a habit of waking up early and reaching that 7:30 deadline has come very far from my younger days in high school and elementary filled with consistent tardiness. Checking on that progress, I can be proud now that I can count on my own body to open its eyes at the very least before the sun has come up. Now, the sounds of my alarm clock doesn’t go out the other ear but goes straight to my head and clangs the brain into waking up.
There have been a few stumbles here and there, some days where my eyes couldn’t open only until the bright sun was beaming at my window and the sounds of my alarm clock flowed smoothly to one ear and out the other. But those shouldn’t get us down. The person we must not neglect in praising is always ourselves. Despite some stumbles here and there, the immediate action should always be picking ourselves up instead of beating our own selves down further into the deeper levels of self-hate.
It can be easy to lean into the path of impressing others and using their praises as fuel to keep us going further forward. Then that just transforms us into someone so reliant on others we start living for the sake of others’ kind words. The praise must come from us first, the source of positivity closer to ourselves.
That even when we encounter harsh words from others, we have ourselves to convince us otherwise. A stronger person, for me, is someone who has genuine belief in themselves against any obstacle or challengers.
Our character and all its good traits should be shown to others but we must first show it to ourselves and be proud of our progress. If we can show it to ourselves then it is inevitable that others would come to see it too. **
