This is an excerpt from the Keynote speech I gave at the Cream Silk Conditioned for Greater Summit on my personal definition of greatness and the deeper WHY that drives my pursuit.
One of the first lessons I learned when I was young was that the world is unfair.
Some people were born with a lot, some are born with a lot less, while majority of the people in the world are born with almost nothing. I picked up on this reality very early, having come from a middle class family. When my sister and I were very young, my parents weren’t earning much yet but believed in the value of a good education. They sold butong pakwan on top of their day jobs, just so they could put my sister and I in good but expensive private schools.
My classmates were much more privileged than I was and I remember how I would always ask my Mom why my baon was always rice and whatever we had for breakfast versus the fancy snacks and gourmet food my classmates brought, or why they all had this fun birthday parties in fast-food restaurants while the only birthday I got to celebrate was my 7th, and it was just a simple salu-salo at home. She would always reply in a matter of fact tone- with no hint of sadness or pity— Anak, this is all we call for now, but if you study hard and work hard you can have whatever you want someday.
That phrase ended up shaping the way I approached my life. Since my Mom said “for now” — it stuck to me that a person's present situation doesn’t have to last forever. That yes the world may be unfair, but where we start in life, should not limit how far we can go.
When I was in second year college, my Mom called me to tell me that she had lost her job,. This meant that there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to finish my education in the University I was enrolled in. Lucky for me, there was an essay competition in school for aspiring journalists, and the prize was a full scholarship. I entered and I won for two consecutive years, allowing me to get my degree for free.
From then on, I decided that this will be my mission. Someone decided to invest in my potential, and I made a promise to devote my life doing the same for others.
When I was 23 years old, I co-founded Mano Amiga Philippines. Mano Amiga means helping hand in English and our goal is to provide underprivileged children access to high quality education. We believe that high tuition fees shouldn’t stop kids from going to a good school so 70% of our students are on scholarships.
From only 35 kindergarten students in 2008, Mano Amiga has now provided over a thousand scholarships from kinder until senior high school. We have also started providing employment to their parents.
Privilege may give a someone a head start in life, but ultimately, it is a person’s character that defines his fate.
Oftentimes we think of greatness as a destination— something we will get to someday. When in fact, greatness happens in the choices we make everyday. It’s choosing to show up and to give your best, moment to moment, not just when things are going your way, but most specially when things are not.
Let me share a story with you before I end—
For our creative writing class, we posed this question to our students— What problem would you like to solve someday?
A lot of students said traffic, some said climate change, one girl said she wants to know how to make plants happy. However, one answer stood out among the rest. Arianne, a fifth grader, said she’d like to build a hospital for kids called- “Don’t Be Afraid.”
You see, Arianne had lost her baby sister to Dengue. According to her essay, the parents did not immediately bring the child to the health center because her sister was afraid of needles, and when they did, it was already too late. And so Arianne wants to build a hospital where kids don’t ever have to feel afraid about visiting.
Reading this, Arianne reminded me that we are called to greatness not for personal vanity, nor just for our own self-actualization, but so we could each fulfil our unique vocation to make a difference in the world and in the lives of others.
And it’s only when we choose greatness, we can fulfil this personal vocation— the mission that’s uniquely ours.
Greatness is not something external- but something that resides within all of us. It is up to all of us to believe it, to embrace it, and to embody. My wish, is for us to always choose greatness every moment of our life, may we always remember that we’re called for something bigger, and may our actions and our example inspire others to find that spark within them as well.
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Click to watch the Conditioned for Greater Summit in full.
