Trip to Bantayog ng mga Bayani: A Feels Trip

When I learned that we will be having a fieldtrip, I was sort of excited. I thought that it would be something new, something, if you may, innovative. I thought that this would be one way to prove that learning is not limited to the four corners of a classroom. This is the first feeling, excitement.

On the day of the fieldtrip, our jeep was the last one to depart from Econ, and by some reason, we sort of lost our way, I was uncertain if we would find Bantayog, since we were already feeling lost. Fortunately we found our way to Bantayog ng mga Bayani with some help. This is the second feeling, uncertainty.

During the whole fieldtrip, the excitement I felt was slowly waning; it was being replaced by interest. I was beginning to be interested in the heroes, in all the heroic acts they did. The way the guide talked about the names of the heroes on the wall, about how heroic those people were, it made me feel small. I was humbled in a way that some of these heroes were my age when they did heroic deeds, and it made me feel that I was not doing enough for my country. The feeling that I was experiencing at this point was is very hard to explain, it was a feeling that I lacked something, a feeling that there was a void inside of me.

When the fieldtrip was about to end, the speaker made me realize what was lacking. He made me realize that what I, if not my whole generation, was missing was a question. He told us that evry generation needs a problem, a question perhaps, and it would be us who would look for the answer, or the solution. At this point, all my doubts about myself doing nothing for the country were slowly going away, I was slightly enlightened by the speaker, and it made me realize that we first need to look for something wrong before we could act.

 

Mark Buenaventura

2012-09358