Autobiography

I was scanning through my boring documents and stumbled upon my Socio 10 assignment last sem. I just thought I needed more words in my blog.

Sociology is the study of the society, which is a group of people related to each other by different means. Every person has a role to play in the society, and every move he makes – no matter how big or pint-sized – affects the society. By these moves, I mean decisions, and through the acquisition of Sociological Imagination, his choices would elevate the betterment of society.

The mere utterance of the words Sociological Imagination brings to mind - how it all begins from an individual’s point of view of the society which affects his decisions that knowingly or unknowingly gear towards the betterment or deterioration of the society. In connection to this, let me share the story of my 16 years of being part of the society.

I was born in the city of Roxas, in Capiz, on the seventh of November, 1994. Both my parents were also born in Roxas City, but my mother lived most of her life in Manila. She moved to Roxas City when she was 28, and that was also when she met my father. The birth of yet another social being, I might say.

Of course, the people closest to you in the society or your first outer circle (as I’d like to call it) are your family. I belong to a big family of 10. My dad is probably the most practical person you'd ever meet. He is also a big fan of woodwork. My mom took up BS Family Life and Child Development in college. She's a “wondermom” in terms of raising children, and there's only one thing she can't do - cook. I have 7 other siblings - one older, and six younger than I am. My older brother is Anton. He loves photography. The one next to me is Juancho, whom I am closest with. He loves mind-boggling games and puzzles. Next is Jo, who loves baking. Next are Alphonso, Gabriel, and Luis, whom we call “the boys”. My youngest sibling is Julia. She’s only six, but she could walk in heels better than I could.

Your second outer circle are the people in your community. My first home was a tiny apartment in the tummy of Roxas City. I had no memories of it though, because we have only lived there until before I turned a year old. I now live in Villa Patria, a compound where all my neighbors are my relatives, right next to my grandparents' house. It used to be a cottage, but we had it extended as years went welcoming new members of our family. 

When I was a child, I had a nanny whom I called "Yaya Rit", which was short for Rita. She was thin, white, and petite. She was my second mom, because when my mom was at work, she was the one who took care of me. She brushed my hair, bathed me, read me books, and played with me. This, in relation to Sociological Imagination, signifies that members of the society are interdependent. One may not survive alone in the society. Figuratively speaking, one’s hands are significant to another’s.

Your third circle consists of those you meet outside your community: your schoolmates, officemates, friends, and the like. At the age of three, I started schooling at Stages Learning Center as a nursery student. At four, I moved to Capiz Commercial School, where we learned Chinese until sixth grade. I spent my high school in Assumption – Iloilo. Finally, I am now a student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, taking up BA Psychology.

When I was in preschool, I remember keeping the classroom alive – and by that, I mean doing little acts of mischievousness. A memory that would never get swept away was the time when we were supposed to make sculptures out of play dough. Because I was too young to understand anything about Sociological Imagination or to have even heard of such slang, innocent and clueless about almost everything, I threw a chunk of dough at the ceiling. My classmates laughed at me and they started doing the same thing. The teacher couldn’t do anything because we were out of control, and it was my entire fault. In today’s time, if people have no awareness about Social Imagination, things like this could happen. Doing things without discerning possible consequences could pilot you to chaos within the society.

My grade school life was quite a blur, since I couldn’t really remember most of what exactly happened, but if memory serves me right, it was normal, in the sense that I had good grades and didn’t have any problems in school. I was taught to read and write in Chinese since I was in Kindergarten until I graduated elementary school. It was also the time when I developed a passion for badminton. I won several tournaments that time, too.

The sequel of life goes on – intro’ed by a series of rollercoaster rides, waving emotions, drama, and exclusivity – high school. I was 12 years old upon entering the gates of hell. Almost too exaggerated, but I’m glad to say I survived high school and all its plagues. Those four years have taught me so many things, experiences which were engraved into the core of my being.  I stayed in the dorm in my first three years of high school and in an apartment in my fourth year. When I was in first year, I was still childish, innocent and blameless of the many happenings around me. I was not aware I annoyed others to the extent that I became a series of talks in the dormitory. In second year, I started to grow horns. That was when I started cheating, texting in class, eating in class, and doing all the bad things a student could ever do inside the classroom. In third year, everything just worsened. I got three verbal warnings in the dorm that year.

When I was in my final year in high school, that’s when everything started to change. We had immersions and retreats – and that’s when I started to realize I’ve been missing the point of life. That was when I understood that I had a purpose in this world which was to serve God through serving others, and this entailed the acquirement of social responsibility, which I think is a pre-requisite of Sociological Imagination. I knew that if I wanted a better world, I had to start the improvement within myself, and so I did. To be more concrete, I stopped cheating. I realized that if I kept cheating in the classroom, I would cheat in many aspects of life as well, and carry this all throughout my existence. Imagine this: if we all stop this bad habit of ours, corruption would be scratched out of the dictionary. Equity would be granted to us, which trails equality.

Now, as an Iskolar ng Bayan, I live by Gandhi’s words, “You should be the change you want to see in the world.” To be an Iskolar para sa bayan, I have to be the change the society has been yearning for.