"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Was a line attributed to Mahatma Gandhi and reverberated by one of the veteran teachers in my school after a decade of hearing the line for the last time in a crucial ceremony for students last week. It reminds me of my core purpose as an adolescent in my country which is to serve, and it has something to do with the content of this blog.
Service comes in many forms and is done by all walks of life. It could be as simple as a sidewalk rule or as lovely as a specially cooked recipe for someone you truly care about. But for the students in my school, mostly coming from the Department of Criminal Justice, service is not always a soft touch to someone's face but can also be a fiery battle between men—just not literally tho.
In this blog, I will be sharing with you the event I attended last Sunday, and you would actually know how busy and overflowing I am with work these days if you read my blogs I uploaded in Hive lately. So welcome... this is "Students in the Service of Others."
The Reserved Officers Training Corps came at birth just three years ago in random days of my college journey. ROTC is one of the many programs mandated in the school as subject/units, focusing on preparing college students for service opportunities in different fields such as the Navy and Army. When I was in first year, we had two choices as to which program in NSTP we would want to study, namely, the CWTS and ROTC.
As a freshman, I knew little information about the National Service Training Program and when the registrar handed me those two programs during my enrollment, without doubt and consideration, I chose CWTS because my friend had told me it is easy and a flexible subject unlike ROTC. During those years of studying CWTS, I found out my friend was correct, and I was grateful not to have chosen the other one because I wasn’t mandated to cut my hair short and have Sunday classes. It was a flexible semester, only gathering and attending classes for community extension activities and listening about Philippine laws, respectively.
But in the years being, I realized that the opposite pole must have been my choice. I grew large in my program but considering the rise of social issues not only in my country but also around the globe, ROTC must be a good training ground for the conflicts that could possibly arise in the future, and it could have equipped me with skills and knowledge useful for national services. It was a wrong turn for me, but I am still grateful for the things I learned in CWTS. From those years until now, I still think of the potential experience and skills I could have acquired if I had chosen the other side.
But last week, that feeling of regret was gone because of one invitation. Our team was invited to document the Opening Ceremony of ROTC for the new batch of students under the program. I was very happy to witness a good amount of iron fist and wide chest on the very ground of our gymnasium, waiting and willing to pledge themselves for the nation.
It was promising to see that, even if the program is hard, a lot of students are still interested to join the training corps, knowing they have the passion to serve the country. Think of it twice that these are only young men and women but they have the fiery dream of protecting and caring for the country. Just thinking of it thrice blows my mind that younger generations can still be in high hopes of changing the country and believing it starts with them.
When a guest speaker I am familiar with echoed the line "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others" in the corners of the gymnasium, that was when I knew the program had started. It was a powerful line and I adore Gandhi for throwing those words to the whole world because it actually changes someone's way of perceiving the purpose of life.
The first part was all about the powerful remarks of the PIC and guests invited to the ceremony, and I took some photos of them while having their speeches. As someone below listening to their words, I cannot help but adore their expertise and passion in the world of service. Whether it was a man or a woman in speech, the momentum didn’t change, for one thing stayed the same on their tongues, and it was determination—to serve and to protect the nation.
Navy, cadets, acting city fire marshall, and newly graduates of NSTP last year were invited, and some of them are familiar to me since I attended their graduation ceremony also last year. I am proud to see them again in the same exact place last year but now they are entirely different—an inspiring and effective figure in ROTC, not students anymore. Time flies so fast that their changes, especially their physique, are untraceable from last year.
As the program flowed, I noticed some commotion at the back of the sitting students. It was a woman who fainted during the ceremony, and those graduates of ROTC last year were the ones who attended to the woman. You see, last year, they were only students, but now they are in service for others, and it is one piece of evidence to prove that this program changes a young individual. I took a photo of them, and this photo, although not taken righteously, speaks so much for the training and sacrifices they had through the years. It was a dramatic moment but a promise that there is always service around you.
The first aid kit they used while attending to the needs of the student.
The program was not as grand as an actual ceremony and not as long as our path, so it ended earlier than we expected. It ran only for two hours, and the next hours were all about forums and getting to know the new members of ROTC.
The navy and officers were assigned to different groups to check the names of each student and to orient them in a way that is strange for me. Although I enjoyed the program, I just found it funny that they were all very serious and stood in a bold frame. That is how they should act when in training so I understand why they moved that way.
This is one of the officers I met in the ceremony and the boldest and most serious among the others.
Some officers I photographed were more approachable than the others. I heard them checking attendance and sometimes they would yell at students who were not obedient, which was their own way of disciplining new members.
I climbed up the stairs to have a good bird’s eye view of the ceremony. They stood in unison and the boldness of their aura felt wrecking and scary that no one should be triggering the country if they are assigned soon. LOL.
As I descended, one of the navy approached me and asked if I could take a photo of them while doing something I didn’t understand. I just saw a freshman lying and they asked me to take photographs. Do you know what they were doing? Please drop it in the comment box.
The program was officially ended by the exit of colors, and these are the individuals who compose the popular Colors in our school. They are invited to every formal ceremony in our school to both commence and end the program with respect and integrity.
These photos contain the cadets, and observe how fierce they are. It amazes me as I scan the photos I took. I was too focused on documenting the event that I didn’t notice it firsthand.
I left the venue before them since it was only an orientation being performed, and after that, they would all leave. I was not able to say my goodbye to the guests and teachers who invited me because I had to leave immediately, and before I exited the place, I was handed plenty of food and survival food by one of the officers who expressed his gratitude for my presence.
I was happy to know that I served my purpose of documenting the event, which they would use for formal reports to higher departments. I served the people who would soon serve the country, and thinking of that idea drives me to serve more because other individuals have a heavier purpose than me.
The ROTC program, although it is not fully explained to me, feels safe and protective because it shapes regular students into bold ones, and whenever conflicts or incidents arise, there will be individuals around you ready to serve and protect you from harm and danger.
That is all about my blog, dearest Hivers, and I am very thankful to Gandhi, just for you to know, that I was able to write this blog today and that line really inspired me. Quotes and words can really change the world, so you can now throw that line to your close ones and together we shape the world into unified and indestructible ones.