Red Starfish

As an alumnus of the Ayala Young Leaders Congress, I have always admired the analogy of what I can do as a person to initiate change with the starfish story that was told to every single alumni of the congress year after year. The story is about a man who was walking by the sea seeing a strange figure by a far doing something. As he went nearer to the figure, he saw a person, patiently picking up the starfishes washed ashore by the waves. To his curiosity the man asked the person, “What are you doing?” The person replied, I am throwing back the starfishes to the ocean or else they will die. Surprised by the answer that he received, the man replied,” well, you can’t possibly make any difference. There are thousands of starfishes in this coast extending over a mile”. But the person simply smiled at the weary man, picked up another starfish, threw it back to the ocean and said, “I made a difference with that one!”

Over the years, the credo of the AYLC is to enable the empowered youth of today to make a difference in their respective communities. It was in this light that I realized the potential that I have to share my skills and talents to my immediate community and the country as a whole with the hope that in my small act, I am able to make a difference and inspire others to do the same. It was with utmost humility that I share this personal pride to my school. Making it to the short listed 79 students to attend the congress in 2006 out of hundreds of nominations from all over the country was an astronomical feat that is not easy to reach. More than my personal achievement I also share this feat to my program (The Legal Management Program) which was then tagged as the department whose students were devoid of values. I went to the congress in representation of the many Legal Management majors like myself, who never had the opportunity like mine but nonetheless are playing a vital cog in the community in the field of music, social advocacy, sports, writing, leadership, organizational development, and social legislation. As the pioneer batch of Legal Management students, we etched our own mark in school and we are all eager to do something to initiate change for our country.

Two years has passed after the congress and I continually encourage and give hope to students to live up to their vision of change and join the congress like I did. It was not to be treated as a prize or as special credential that you can brag in your resume. It was an impetus to live a life of service, humility and nobility. It was a sad reality on my part to hear that my very own school has hindered some of its promising students to join this year’s congress because, there grades was simply not good enough to make the cut off. This is tantamount to saying that they lacked the qualities to become the epitome of a true Bedan student leader. I never thought before this that one’s character and capabilities can be translated into numerical averages that can be calculated and ranked. Of course, as a proprietary institution, our school sets standards for itself. After all, we are mere stakeholders of the school and we are only carrying its name wherever we go. Call it a classic case of tokenism this time, but as far as I can recall, most of the significant students from the school who made it to the congress were not Latin honors or recipient of coveted school accolades. In fact, most of them are student leaders, who does well in academics (not complete scholarly sycophants) but are excellent movers of communities because of what they can do while being plain students. They are risk takers, sacrificing points of whatever grade they lose in every absences they make in lieu of heeding to the call of service. In the end, my article won’t make so huge a change for the community to whom I dedicate this article. But just like the man who threw starfishes back to the ocean, I am hoping that I can make a difference. To my fellow student leaders, keep the fires of idealism burning in all of us. It’s what makes us who we are. Let not the day comes when people will ask themselves; where have all the starfishes gone?