one little candle

last night i attended a seminar/workshop promoting the new community service initiative (for lack of a better description) of the university. being graduate students, the university officials made a special pitch to us (those were their words, honest); apparently this has been implemented in the undergrad campus some time ago. this is a potentially large undertaking for the school, and judging from the concessions they made (we had no classes for a week just so we'd attend either of the two scheduled sessions), it is being given top priority. not that you'd expect less when it comes to serving the country.

in spite of the headache i was nursing, the boredom, the discomfort whenever you're stuck someplace and forced to listen, i still enjoyed the activity. more importantly, i was reminded of my civic and patriotic duty, as i'm sure all the other students were. in the small-group workshop that followed, some of us shared our ideas on what a typical graduate student can do, individually and as an organized group. some of these ideas might be trite or overused, while others have switched on the proverbial light bulb in our minds. i guess the objective here is inspiring all of us into thinking that we can do something, thereby creating the mindset. and once that mindset is ingrained, it is easier for us to do all these activities because we are compelled by our own values.

i think every citizen of this land, no matter how selfish or ignorant he may be, wants our country to come out of these troubled times. it is evident in the way we complain about our system, the way we worry about the peso-dollar exchange, the way we criticize our politicians. we all have some grand ideas about turning this country around, but it's hard to imagine how to do it knowing ourselves and knowing how others act. i agree with the premise that what we need right now is a constant bombardment of the conscience. when we reach a certain mindset, together, then we can implement programs more effectively. we can start small. and we can start with ourselves.

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i was walking along the corridor after the workshop, still feeing ambivalent, inspired, and challenged at the same time, when i saw a banner at the opposite wall. i thought it was an omen, especially after the last blog i posted.

it said: mediocrity is not an option