By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
Pressure makes diamonds, as they say. We can all attest that going through pressure turns you into a different person at the end. Expectations and all that, they burden us all to what our elders call a bright future. We can learn many in tough situations and we can bear scars both seen and unseen because of it.
No one intentionally drops what others expect of us. We may be hesitant to carry them but we end up walking through years with burden unimaginable. It can be expected that one may falter here and there. Though others will see it in a different light, we can see it as us giving our all.
Exams have come for many students again. The younger may have only started their school year but their older compatriots were already in the midst of battle against tests. The signs could be seen with college students earnestly reading while in jeepneys and their more than weary faces in the afternoon.
It’s a complicated feeling when walking out of the classroom from a test. Relief is the loudest inside your head, but slowly creeping is the worry of failing. Else we let worry terrorize our head, the bitter aftertaste of alcohol easily washes those away and leaves us with a much-needed clear head. Sadly, alcohol can’t do much in fixing what lies ahead.
The crowd outside of classrooms are filled with talks ranging from depressed, defeated, accomplishments, and so many more. We don’t know what lies ahead in the distance, so speculations are free to roam for now. That all leads us back again to the genie and gin, wishing for positives to come and peace to arrive earlier.
After so many years of weariness there is only acceptance of whatever may come. Try as we ever will, there is no changing what is already in the works and what is planned.
Tests will come in good and horrifying forms. The result is all there is. All that is to do is swallow a bitter defeat or a rewarding victory.
A heart of a lion is what is needed in these worrying times. The courage to go forward, nonetheless, trumps that of a craven will.
There are no black magics that can change yesterday, only the golden chance of making tomorrow a much better one. Failure can sting but so can the regret of not doing anything about it. A double sting is what we all want to avoid.
Surely double the reward too for all who get through the tough times. But any amount of fight is already better than a will already sapped of any colorful dreams.
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