Where Idealism Meets Pragmatism

Day 3 of MOSO class

Food and parking were main topics of conversation before class started. There were chocolate cookies that Karen (Sepak Takraw) baked and Calasiao puto that Raymond (Karatedo) brought from Pangasinan. The early birds started enjoying the treats over coffee while waiting for the others to arrive.

Gen. Tanchanco, the ASMC-MOSO program director, offered the newcomers some of Karen's "biscuits". Her daughter jokingly quipped to her dad that she feels insulted as those are not "biscuits" but cookies. Everyone shared a good laugh at the easy banter between father and daughter. The good general and his contemporaries argued that biscuits and cookies are essentially the same for them citing generation gap as possibly the reason why the two are now considered different.

The others began arriving and one look at each newcomer clued us in that they shared the same issues with the guard over parking. Apparently the guards would not allow them to park near the building, which they have been doing in the past Saturdays that we were there. It was funny how all of each one of them entered the room looking bewildered and a bit irritated. The newcomers were offered coffee and food and things quickly settled to the usual banters. They all didn't seem to mind the rain and losing one day of yet another precious weekend to a course that would take six months to finish.

We were assigned to different groups today and I found myself grouped with Karen, Atty. Saliva (Dance Sport), Gina (POC), Jen (Basketball) and Andy (Muay). Once again, us women outnumbered the single man in the group but that certainly did not hindered what ended up to be a very vibrant, interesting and exhilirating series of discussions.

I felt a mix of pride and humility the whole time I was with them. I was proud to be among such strong and accomplished people who exude strength of character and conviction. Volunteerism is a strong part of their lives. They inspire me to strive to be better.

It was also a humbling experience for me to hear shared experiences of facing a lot of roadblocks in our respective roles in sports because we are women. However, knowing that does not stop us from doing our jobs.

Perhaps my key takeaways from today's sessions are our discussions on volunteerism as a noble act, acceptance of how the changes we wish to see in Philippine sports would take a lot of years to happen, the passion to continue to serve anyway and the resolve to explore ways on how we could focus our thirst for changes on things that we can influence.

There was too much to learn in what feels like too little time. I am soaking up everything, just like everyone was doing. Sometimes I feel like I'm bleeding information out of my ears because of information overload. But it was a good feeling. Maybe, just maybe, ten years from now I would see the changes that the people in our class hope to see.