I found this one under my desk.
Gathering dust.
Aging pages.
Creaky binders.
And crumbly covers.
This was a requirement for a subject.
An essay I wrote for my professor: Danillo B. Rulloda
Of Headlessness and
Heartfelt Sunsets
By: Ian Joshua Santos
These days everything requires no
thinking at all.
A quick copy – paste of an article. An
instant video stream. A swift click to a link. Everything does happen in a
blink nowadays. No action dwells too long on the sentient mind and almost
everything stockpiles into the sub-conscious parts of our mind. We then tend to
lose track of time and exaggeratingly exclaim to ourselves how fast time passes
by. We keep on mapping the ways the world this changes but so far we have only
kept track of what we are missing. All the thoughts and ideas swirl around my
head. At times it seems too much too handle and sometimes it really is. Life
gets too complicated and I wish I was 5 again. Spending a few minutes on a
swing, enjoying a real sweet treat, getting smiles from everyone I meet, these
are just things I wished I could still do. Acting my age, I simply stand aside
from the path of these thoughts and simply let them remain silently in the boy
inside me.
Things that matter in this world really
need not be that which concerns the head, but that of the heart.
Words are now long silenced. Words have
been exchanged for pictures, video cartridges and endless forms of photographs
filled with colours, shades and hues. The days when we take time to sit down
and listen to stories told, the times where we grab a piece of paper, to sit
down and write out thoughts, are gone.
Meeting this well-aged man a few
months ago, I never realized time-travelling could be done. A 3 – unit subject
that felt more like twice its unit count does not deserve this much attention
from me. I scribbled down ten-paged syntheses in a sum of more than 24 hours. I
read through pages of books concerning materials science and engineering. I
jotted notes covering terms, equations, principles and much more information
than what I can handle. It required laborious page scanning, pure thinking and
analysis and painstaking writing.
It all felt like a time before I was
born, or maybe it was me getting lazier by the moment. The professor required
everything to be done manually. He made the computer obsolete for a brief
moment time. No instant articles needed, no copy – pasting of old testaments,
no swift clicking of links. I am on my way to become an industrial engineer. I
try to find better ways of doing things, but this simply felt like not
practicing what I preach. These tedious things do not concern me; are they mere
hindrances to my progress? Sadly, it felt that way. Yet I decided not to
cherish the thought, I trudged and went ahead. In time, I then realized that
all of these were here to cultivate my attitude towards learning.
The professor is D. Rulloda. 65 years
of age and still giving students a feel of what it was like to study in his
time. He required his students to take quizzes daily, demanding an answer based
from last meeting’s discussion. Essays are also required: long descriptive
essays that should be written from the heart. He claims that he is in the
sunset if his life. Once, he said, “When you stand where I am now, you will
realize the world has great problems”. Has he taken steps to solve those
problems? Has he contributed deeds to the greater good? Once the quote “kabataan
and pag-asa ng bayan” points to his generation. Still, the world has so
many problems to deal with. Will he leave the world in a worse state than when
he entered it? Then, if so, perhaps he is a failure.
Frankly, my dear, the world does not
even care.
I was thankful that for at least a
time, I was under the clutches of his wisdom and knowledge. He did not regret
the actions he made. In each class, he would almost give a half-sinister laugh
when somebody gives a wrong answer. His jolly remarks and side-comments never
failed to catch attention. He now spends his last days of teaching imparting
the best of what he has learned throughout his years. He is a living example of
a person with good judgement which came from experience which came from bad
judgements. He now lives with his wife, proud of his two sons of who I think
will be following his steps.
Bluntly, my dear, the students you
taught care.
Smiling at the memory that I dipped a
pen in my professor’s morning coffee and the whole class laughing about it-the
professor included, learning has never been this fun.
The sun does set and it is a great
metaphor to match with your life. People do not look on the sun directly when
it is high above but it has always been peaceful to look at one when it sets.
Set if you must, but never be in a hurry to do it. Sunsets seems to wave
goodbye, vanish without a trace and leave a hanging message. Do all things
unhalf-heartedly. Devote yourself to your work but don’t forget Sundays. Never
disappoint others and yourself. Professor D. Rulloda always leaves me
dumbfounded after each example, of material properties, of bonding types, of
names of chemicals, compounds, ceramics and several other carbon combinations,
it was a memory to cherish and deserves a place – not in my head, but in my
heart.
Again I say things that matter in this
world really need not be that which concerns the head, but that of the
heart.
It was the term's end when he read
this.
I did not expect any reaction from him.
To my surprise, he wrote back. And that made my day.
Thank you,
I have to admit, I was a bit misty eyed
reading your essay.
I wish The New Builder (my alma mater's
school paper) will publish a good reading like this one, but then it may
not be appreciated as well as I do.
Anyway, very few students who can write
crossed my path.
Keep it up.
12/7/12 signed: Rulloda
