You Define Who You Are

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination”

Tammy Lacourda

I have a story to share it’s about my friend back in Butuan. She’s the daughter of one of the workers in the company who were lucky to be given a chance to live inside the company. They don’t have to worry about anything except for their daily food consumption, everything is for free, no bills. By the looks alone I can tell that they’re average but she’s is pretty, smart and well-mannered. She is a happy-go-lucky and very smiling person that is why I really like her as my friend and I can easily tell that she is has problems because she became less talkative and she seems to be thinking something else. I noticed that she’s been in a blank-state for days now. So I asked her “What’s the problem?” she replied “Nothing,” so I said “Oh c’mon, we’re friends and even if your not telling me what that is your keeping still I can feel it.” So she has no choice she told me everything. The problem that she’s been keeping for days now was that they’re about to become a broken family. Her mother just found out that her father is having an affair with another woman and this resulted to her mother’s decision to file for an annulment case. As she was relaying the story tears fell from her eyes and I can feel that it’s really painful. Where would they find a house to stay? Since in the company once an employee committed an act of moral violation he/she would loose his job and all his benefits. They would probably be kicked out from the company. She burst into tears thinking about the future of his younger brother and sister, knowing that her mom has no job and a college undergrad, and their only relying on her fathers’ salary. So she decided to not to go to school anymore and look for a job. She’s aware that at her young age, it would be impossible to find a job, so I asked my dad to help my friend out. Since the company is aware of their financial and family status they applied and got the job as an encoder and her mom as a clerk, earning just enough for their daily consumption. After having a rough start and months of hard work, adjustments and sacrifices they finally can now afford to rent an apartment but still it would be impossible for her to send them all to school, so as the eldest she needed to give way for her younger siblings. But she’s very eager to go back to school, so she applied scholarship programs but since she has no money to pay for the examination fee, she begged me that she will do my laundry just to find a way to pay for the fee, she even tried doing 2 jobs as the time, just to help herself and her family. Since she’s a very smart lady and very determined she got the scholarship. Now she’s a 2^nd year Chemical Engineer student in UP Diliman still a scholar helping her family especially her mom.

Even though we encounter problems that we think we can’t handle just think and always remember that God wouldn’t give us problems that we can’t handle. Problems are just part of life molding us to become a better person tomorrow. But we should also remember that if one is determined to achieve their goals then one can make the impossible, possible.