As I am writing my 14th
post, it made realize how really time flies. It’s a cliché but there are no other
words that would perfectly describe what I am feeling right now. As my first
term is officially coming to an end, anxiety and happiness started to creep in.
Anxiety because I’m still not sure
whether I will pass my other subject and happiness because after 3 months of
juggling work and study I am now already looking forward to longer hours of
sleep and rest.
After much deliberation, we
decided to conduct our Service Learning at Muntinlupa National High school
through the help of Singles for Christ (SFC) last Saturday, November 28, 2015. Before
this was finalized, we had gone through many changes such as member and
activity changes. We had member changes because three of our group mates are unavailable
on the said date and we don’t have any spare time left. On the other hand, we
had activity changes because of uncertainty in the schedule of the activity from
our chosen organization, Handog Tungkod Project.
Our agreed meeting time was
6:45am at Cash and Carry mall. I was second to arrive there and thankfully I was
not late even though I barely had proper sleep as I kept on waking up every
other hour since 1 am for fear of being late. Though there was bad traffic specifically
on Osmena Highway and in Alabang, we still made it on time.
Most of the group got their education
from private institutions and some even from exclusive schools. Our worst dilemma
was we might not connect to the students well enough as we are from a different
section of the society. Based on the information given by SFC, we did our best
to use examples and analogy that they can relate to considering they are still
High school students and some of them are not financially well-off. However,
through our surprise we connected with them more than what we expected. When it
was my turn to conduct my part in the “Financial Literacy Seminar,” I shared to
the students the very bad future (2009 Manulife statistics on Filipino senior
citizens) that we might face if we don’t do anything today. This is to stress
the importance of developing the habit of saving at an early age and starting
from small savings. During this time, I also explained to them the consequences
of not saving and planning for the future. Furthermore, I asked them how are
their lolo’s and lolo’s are doing? Are they financially dependent or are they
like what the statistics say that most relies on relative/s for financial
support? Surprisingly, a couple of them
said yes and told their story. Personally speaking, I was taken a bit because I
can still remember that when I was their age I was shielded by my parents from any
financial woes that are affecting my family. This made me have mixed emotions
as I felt happy that the seminar that we are conducting will have more impact
to their lives and because they are already aware of what is happening to their
family. However, I felt sad as I pitied them for being exposed to those at such
a young age where ideally they should be enjoying their teens instead of
worrying matters that are supposed to be for adults.
Overall the experience was good
for everyone. We went there teach and complete a requirement in our ethics
class but at the same we also learned from the students. We ended the seminar
by taking the feedback from some students and the Team Lead of SFC for that
school. Money is often construed as evil. However as we know that it is not;
rather it is how the person earns and how he utilizes it that make it evil most
of the time. By combining texts from the Bible and scientific findings
(financial statistics) we were able to bring the students closer to God in our
own way and at the same time equip them with some financial knowledge that will
help them have a secure a financial future. In fact, SFC said that they might
conduct this yearly as they realize that what we had just taught the students
can’t normally be acquired from school. 