Idea Junkie

Sourcefed 4

Sourcefed 3

A leader’s Ship

Another old article. Student council days are coming to a close.

_____________________

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching.

Its iconic crest has long symbolized Southridge; blue Vinta on the left, and green Helm on the right. Our school’s whole “shippy” image has been made even more ship-like with dawn of our name, Southridge Admirals. Queen Anne’s Revenge had Captain Black Beard as its fearful and demanding captain; the Black Pearl had witty Jack Sparrow taking the lead. All these things beg the question—Who is the captain of our ship?

That question begs another question to be answered, what makes someone a captain? For me, the most important thing any captain needs is drive. You see, captains aren’t just doers, they’re idealists. You’re never going to be able to accomplish anything unless you yourself want to accomplish something. Goals are essential in any captains’ set of artilleries. With goals and a desire to fulfill those goals, that’s when a captain can find a path to the X mark. For pirates, X marked the spot for treasure, but for admirals, X stands for excellence. That, I suppose, is something any decent Southridge student should have a drive for.

Remember that monkey that’s always hanging out with captain Barbosa? No one could understand that, for the lack of better words, feisty thing. It’s funny, because that’s another trait any captain should possess. I’m not saying go be a feisty monkey, I’m saying captains need to have understanding. It’s much easier said than done. Trying to put one’s self in another ones shoes require not only will, but also genuine interest to understand where someone else is coming from. To put it in simpler terms, to understand someone, you’ll need compassion. Isn’t it a coincidence that these two things are thought to us here in this school? Heck, not only in school, but in our basic Christian lives.

Mutinies are a ship’s equivalent to a lovely land lovers’ coup d‘état. More often than not, that leads to a downfall of the captain and his crew. After one has occurred, crews are divided, confused, and lose a sense of direction towards the reason on why it set sailed in the first place. So what, if I may so humbly ask, can make a captain avoid such a sticky situation? Well I suppose it’s a proper sense of communication. For all aspiring captains out there, one thing that’s critical in any relationship is communication. Captainship is essentially a relationship between the ship’s captain and the ship’s crew. You’ll have to learn how to properly put forward your ideas in such a manner that everyone understands where you’re coming from. That way, you’ll avoid any problems caused by miscommunication or misunderstanding of certain information or issue.

Inspiration. Captain Barbosa demonstrated this in his famous “Are we not kings men?” speech. A true captain isn’t going to be able to get all the tedious work done by himself. He’s not superman. To get a ship to its goal, he’ll have to have an active effort to make individuals do the things they’re supposed to do, not because they have to do it, but also because they want to do it! I think this is the most important trait a captain, a leader, should possess.

Now back to the question we asked earlier, who is the captain of our ship? People have this misconception that because I’m the head of the Student Council, I’m the captain of our ship. But if we think about what makes a captain—Drive for excellence, Understanding and Compassion, Communication skills, and the ability to inspire. Each one of you has a purpose or drive to excel at something. Understanding and compassion are main virtues that Southridge has trained its students to learn and love. Communication skills are something we obviously possess. And inspiration? Everyday, my Southridge family, (yes this means you) inspires me to keep doing what I’m doing.

No, I’m not the captain of our ship. We are the captains, we are the leaders, of our ship.

Prom?

An article that never made it to my school paper since we’re that conservative. Made it about a year ago. Enjoy!

___________________________

“Prom?”

It’s funny how whenever I talk to people and ask about their High school life, they’d always bring up a story about prom. “I didn’t know how to dance!”, “I forgot to bring the flowers!”, and “I tripped on my heels!” are only a few of the many stories about their  mishaps and blunders. You think that with so many things that went wrong, people would like to forget about that event, but they don’t. They don’t because it’s special.

So what makes prom so special? Some people like to think it’s about their date. All year round, juniors and seniors (and even sophomores who want to start early) ask around curiously trying to find out who’s taking whom. They spend hours trying to set up their not so smooth-with-them-ladies friends just so they can experience a “true” prom. They take weeks to months coming up with some grand scheme to ask that one girl for that one night (and may I add, if everyone put the same effort into coming up with creative ideas for prom to their studies, we’d all graduate with flying colors). Is prom really all about her and a “kilig vibe”? If it is, then what do we have to say about those who went stag? I don’t think they had less of a prom experience than those with dates, seeing that they still remember about prom and all its glory (and horror).

Is prom about looking good? “How much was your coat?” “Oh I got this from Armani.” “I made pagawa my suit last week!”. All these terms are tossed around come the season. It’s no secret that people spend a whole lot for an outfit. It takes an effort to look good, and I’m pretty sure all of us have exerted more than enough effort. But why do we spend so much on this? Do we dress to impress? (Friends who we see almost everyday and probably don’t notice the awesomeness of your outfit because they’re too worried about how they look or how their date is feeling). We spend so much effort on the tinniest of details. We take etiquette classes, so that we know which fork to use for the salad, and how to eat our soups the right way. We don’t put on our coats until we get to the front of the house because it might get a little, just a little, bit crumpled. And it’s funny how people put so much effort into these things, yet no one really pays fine attention to it.

Maybe prom is about having better proms than other schools? I hear a lot of people talk about how this prom had better lights, how that prom had worse food, how this prom had a great venue, and how that prom had great slow dancing. Do we put so much effort into preparing an unforgettable night, just to see which school, or even which batch prepared the “best unforgettable night”? I certainly hope not.

Preparing a prom is no easy task. It takes not just the effort of the promcom, but the whole batch to set-up a truly unforgettable prom. You need to set up sounds, lights, decors, food, venue, invitations, souvenirs, and not to mention having to bug your batchmates constantly for payments. With all these promblems up and about, one can’t help but ask what its really for, why are we celebrating?

Fortunately I found my answer, on prom day itself.

I was seated at table somewhere at the bottom left of the center stage, beside my date and around the company of some of my oldest and closest friends. During the middle of a conversation with the table, the room suddenly got darker and we were asked to focus our attentions to the two screens. They played junior and senior tributes. And as it was playing, the answer hit me.

They were showing us pictures of the days we started our first years in Southridge, our first years as a batch. Different pictures of me and my batchmates as cute kids dancing in mother’s day, running around in father’s day, and having a good time in school brought about a sweet nostalgia. Then they showed pictures of our day to day madness in highschool, and our usual craziness outside school, and it brought back a lot of things.

I came to a realization: All those quizzes, LTs, PTs, QEs, and days of class were endured together. Student seminars, soirees, parties, field trips, different school activities were celebrated together. Our batch grew up together.

Prom was indeed a celebration, but not for our dates, our outfits, our great event planning (although they do play a part in the celebration), but for ourselves. The eleven or so years of hardships and good times was the reason we endured these promblems. That one special night, is special because it gives tribute to how much we’ve grown not only individually, but collectively as a batch.

I can’t force upon everyone this line of thinking, but its something to think about next time prom comes crawling your way. A celebration is empty without meaning, and although dressing up, having a hot date, an after party, and slow dancing are all very nice things, you’ll find that perhaps the most memorable things about prom are the most meaningful ones. And I definitely find meaning in celebrating the triumph of a batch, of a band brothers.

So this was what I thought prom was supposed to be all about. How about yours?

China wants China to be China.

Four reasons to watch the Super Bowl

Seeds Seeds Seeds Seeds

Sourcefed 2

Sourcefed 1