Rants-OTC

Darnit. Attendance pala yung evaluation sheets last ROTC graduation day. Saan na nga ba napunta yun? :-? We never really didn’t bother to answer those, thinking it was some lame-ass evaluation of a lame-ass activity. J Ang labo naman ng mga tao sa ROTC, attendance pala talaga yun. So kahit nagpunta kami, nagpawis at nagpakahirap, wala rin. Grr.

Anyway, it’s over. No use crying over something that was over more than two weeks ago.

And on the issue of our complaint, well, we all ended up going in the first place, just like how it was expected of us. (And personally, it never seemed like we wouldn’t go.) :-)

Today’s makeup activity, coastal cleanup, was surprisingly perhaps the most significant activity I ever did in the course of two terms being in the ROTC. As a former Lourdes guy, I tend to put much value into the beauty, preservation and protection of nature, and today’s activity showed a stark image of the destruction humankind has inflicted so far on our seas—Manila bay this morning, quite literally, stinks.

Trash is everywhere as flotsams. Rubber slippers, pieces of wood, plastic wrappers, Styrofoam. It was bad as it can be. There were even whole trunks of trees floating.

We started out cleaning the first minute the order was given out in the usual RCG-always-at-the-ready style. I got a walis-tingting and started sweeping for all the trash’s worth. A lot of students never dared to pick up nor even sweep the trash initially, but I think our spearheading efforts made some of them follow suit. It was all good. (At least for those who did their share in cleaning. :-p

I discovered a lot of things too; things that, frankly, I was surprised to learn. First was Chester.

Chester, you see, was the (kind of) usual rich kid. Living in White Plains (or was it Corinthian Gardens?), driving a car to school… mayaman. But he was not arrogant. Nor boastful either. He was as down-to-earth and friendly as moneyed kids could ever be, marked by a special flavour of extra-humility. And the best thing I learned today is, he actually helped a lot with the cleaning, his rich kid background notwithstanding.

A similar thing happened to Mico. Of course, being an achiever in the past, I sort of look up to him as a model and surely had a lot of expectations from him. I was also surprised when he valued much of what we did this morning, even though a lot were cringing at the fact that we would be handling trash.

Proof in itself that Lasallians and more importantly, the youth, are still, despite the usual stereotypes against us, very much concerned about our country in general.

Maybe we do have a bright future after all. If only a good number of young people like me would be like these two, we’ll have a good shot at a big surge forward as a nation united by common ideals, principles and goals.

But I still hate the ROTC training staff for their hair-pulling, really confusing policies. :-p