1. External - what are family, environment school and work experience that shaped you today?
FAMILY:
A vivid memory about my family is we haven't experience being "only us family" in our house – meaning Father, Mother and Siblings. Since the day my brain neurons start to function for the first time; I can see an old man in his deathbed... It's my grandfather's brother. My parents together with some of the relatives are the at the side praying. I can see the sadness in their eyes and the look of their face though I still really don't have an idea what's really happening. My parents also the one took care majority of their nephews, nieces, their cousins and some siblings. There is always somebody in the house that we need to shelter and provide food. Sometimes the people we are helping occupied the best room in our house. All of us are just sleeping just anywhere where my mom can just put our sleeping mats. I experienced rescuing our relatives living near a river creek at a very young age of 10. I could still hear the roaring and huge "tsunami like" brown water just 20 meters away from us. I'm scared but I'm determined to help our cousins. When my father became a PTA president; we are the one doing the painting job in school. I'm only in my 3rd grade in elementary during that period. My parents taught me how to help others. I never complained on what they have done in their life; As my mom saids: "Mabuting ikaw ang tumutulong kaysa ikaw ang tinutulungan". Helping others without expecting anything in return is one of the values I learned from my family.
ENVIRONMENT:
It is in my environment that I learned to adapt new things. My cousins and brothers are all very adventurous. We always go to this place called Paradise (back of Holy Mary Memorial Park in Bgy. Cutcut) every weekend. We can swim and fish most of the time without any problem at all. It is also a place where my Aunt do her laundry. At an early age; I learned how to survive in that jungle and eat only what's available. We are also one of the few kids that can build our own basketball court and create our own toys. I always tell my children that we're the one designing and building our toys during our childhood years. Unlike today where you can just buy anything. The environment in my childhood years developed my ingenuity and adaptability which are part of the important ingredients of leadership.
SCHOOL:
My mom does not intend to put me to school at a very young age. But when I saw some of my friends going to school already since we're living just in front of our school; I told my mom that I need to go to school now. That very day; my mom enrolled me even though I still don't know my ABCs. I can still remember my first teacher; she's basically a witch! The way she talk, the way she laugh and the way she treated us students. Imagine being first time in the school and you come face to face with this teacher. But I never gave up even though I'm scared. Some of my classmates dropped out of school and some even got sick because of her.
In high school; some may say that it's the best day of their life, but I bet to disagree. High school for me is not a memorable years of my life. It was all those years that I am still a certified introvert. I don't have closed friends in high school. I didn't attend any proms or any school activities. Because I'm too shy; even a simple task of buying in store is a bit hard for me because I'm just shy to do it. But I'm studying so hard to please my mom.
Then goes college; it's the best days of my life. It is during this time that I felt truly belong with the group, probably because I took engineering. Engineering students are known to think/act differently from the norm. Here I tried to overcome my Introvert way of life by meeting friends and joining organizations. It was in college that I learned to value friendship. College also gave me the experience on how to be a mad scientist by experimenting on something that will totally blow your mind and literally blow the machine. It's fun! During my school days especially in college that somehow I realized that I need to change something in me. I think that is self-awareness.
WORK EXPERIENCE
The best thing about my work is travelling to different places around the world and meeting the best engineers in our industry. I loved travelling around the world because it teaches me how to rely on myself alone. In abroad; no one will take care of you except yourself. I was humbled and realize to myself that I still need to improve the way I do things. It inspired me to do more, work more and study more. It also opened my mind in appreciating the different perspectives of foreign reasoning and their cultures. My work is the one that really molded me to where I am right now. Because it pushes me to my limit by giving my best in everything I do. It forced me to go out of my comfort zone. I believed that a man can only improved if he/she is not on his/her comfort zone.
Because of my work I was also exposed in handling an organization that cares for the environment. I'm presently the Treasurer of Environmental Practitioners Association of the Philippines. In this organization; I met the best people in the industry of environmental protection. I was amazed on how they spent their talent and time for this endeavor. It made me realized that we are living in a very fragile world. It's an honor for me to work in protecting the environment. It is the only gift we can give to our future generations.
I'm also the Vice Governor of Electronics Engineers of the Philippines – Pampanga chapter. Here we help fellow Electronics Engineers to make sure that they can renew their PRC license without any problem and we also conduct trainings/seminars to further improve their craft. We also have an outreach program that caters the cleanliness of the school to make it conducive for learning, tree-planting, feeding program to name a few. We just try to help as much as we can. We wanted to help in the field of education but it is a huge task to solve. Maybe it is the reason why crook politicians do not intend to improve it because once the people become intelligent; they will not get their votes anymore. Work experience taught me how to make hard decisions and at the same time work as a team while my organizations are the same with the values I learned from my family; helping others without expecting anything in return. We sacrificed to do our duties.
2. Internal - your values, strength, weakness and how do they affect on how you decide act.
I always pray for guidance whenever I decide on something. God's teachings are the very foundation of my life. Others might not notice that on me because I want my relationship with God as personal as possible. But yes; I always pray and a constant visitor of Carmelites monastery in Angeles City. We had to realize that we cannot do anything without him. Because we are Christian; As my religion teacher in high school said: Christ-ian. If you remove Christ - i a n = I Am Nothing. I too have some weakness in leading the company where I am and they served as my point to improve oneself. The weaknesses will give us a chance to be humble and realize that we are a work in progress. On the other hand; Self awareness (introvert) and ingenuity (designing and building own toys) are also some of the strength which I learned from my childhood years.
3. How do they prepare you for your future challenges?
It is true that experience is the best teacher. As we grow old; all the experience we accumulated are the weapons we need as we continue our quest to be better in this life. As an avid gamer of computer games; I see myself as the main character in the game. We accumulate elixirs, gold and gems as we continue to play the game. There is a chance to train yourself as you go with the adventures. You will continue to win every level of the game as you constantly accumulate the elixirs, gold and gems. There is a point that you will lose in the game but you continue to identify your mistakes to come up with a better solutions. You continue to be better, faster, stronger and smarter as you go on with different levels. Challenges just suddenly just become part of your everyday life. Your friends and family will continue to support and motivate you all the way to win every battle.
CONCLUSION:
This reflection paper further gave a deeper meaning of the word self-awareness. In this exercise; I remember all my experience that molded me to where I am right now. Science is correct in saying that only humans have the capacity to be genuinely self-aware. It's the reason why we are the dominating species in this world. Self-awareness is a very powerful tool in this life. It teaches us to be a better leader but it will also make us innovative, caring and work for others.
All the words written in this reflection paper are like numbers and factual data that we engineers always rely on when doing an innovation. It served as part of a scientific method when trying to do a conclusion on a particular question. It also brought the technique of being observant which is one of the main qualities of Henry Sy and Steve Jobs on why they became a great business leader. 3
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