Thankfully, though. My trusty co-leader, Adrienne, agreed to tag along. Thank goodness she isn't employed!
So, yes, the 3-day congress began this afternoon. We both went there for lunch and joined the opening session. We, of course, didn't want to be eccentric about the endeavor so we purposely blended ourselves in. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we tried to like the so-called inspirational talk given by CHED's (Commission on Higher Education) resource speaker, we couldn't help but feel extremely drowsy. Imagine an hour-long lethargic palaver by a man with a very soporific pace and tone of voice. In addition to that, he mispronounced a lot of English words. Some found humor in what he was doing, but to have ridiculed him for his mistakes would have been a heavy chip on my plate of principles--so Adrienne and I opted not to. We nearly fell asleep while everyone else tried their best to be polite about the situation.
When he finished, I heard everyone's sigh of relief in unison after the forced applause. They were obviously clapping their hands because he was FINALLY done, not because they liked his message. There was nothing inspirational about it at all. It was a rant of purely bureaucratic hullabaloo that no one in the room was interested in hearing. I even forgot the man's name!
Due to that, Adriennne told me she was leaving to attend to a prior commitment at around 3:30. I think it was the sheer boredom that the man brought into the atmosphere that empowered her decision even more. I felt wary about her statement for a while since I didn't know anyone there except Benjie and a couple of hi-hello heads we met while dining. It wasn't until Liza arrived that I felt some sort of relief. I told myself, "finally, I'm not going to be alone later." As a plus as well, Sr. Sandra arrived. HAPPY DAY!
The rest was very good. Next to that drowsy episode was a welcome remark from Dr. Serena Bolos, my aunt. She was there proxying for the governor, my uncle, since he's in Manila right now and couldn't make it. It was really good, though. She was a former educator herself (and a favorite of many at that) so she really had her way of addressing the youth. She managed to bring the temperature down when the wax was on the verge of melting.
We had a short snack break after her talk. Liza and I walked Adrienne to the gate, where, to my dismay, Liza also announced she was going to be leaving as well. There goes my relief! "Well," I said, "at least Sister Sandra's here."
After the break was Commissioner Baltazar of the I-forgot-what commission. I apologize for forgetting and lacking information here. I left my program kit in dad's car so there's no way for me to find out right now. She was very good, nonetheless. Her passion for social change is something to be reckoned with, I must say. There's no one more qualified than her to talk about encouraging good governance from a grassroots level.
The last to deliver a talk was a very good speaker and youth action initator whose name, once again, escapes me. I did, however, remember what his talk was about. He delved on 12 Little Things a Filipino Youth Can Do for the Country. It was also quite long since his presentation was packed with a lot of experience stories and videos. He was only 26 and rather techy, so go figure. It was really, really good, though. His skill even led to a complete sell-out of some planners he had with him. Of course, it was for a good cause so the participants were more than happy to whack out an easy three hundred.
Well, 'till tomorrow then. I'll be hitting the hay early tonight. Don't argue! 12:00AM is early for me.
Over all, it was a fair day. I made a couple of new friends, refreshed old insights and gained a lot of new ones. Tomorrow's going to be a lot different from this, though. I'm really looking forward to what Sr. Sandra has in store.
'Till then! Toodles!
