What Have I Accomplished?

For A Student,

To Finish School. To Have A High Grade. To Graduate With Honor. To Earn a Degree.

For A Parent,

To See One’s Child Live A Better Life. To Be An Excellent Provider. To Succeed In Having A Complete And Happy Family.

For A Soldier,

To Serve The Nation. To Fight For One’s Belief. To Fulfill The Call of Duty. To Die In the Name of Honor.

For A Businessman,

To Seek Success. To Earn Profit. To Showcase One’s Business Talent and Skills. To Reach The Dream.

For A Dying Person,

To Do The Right Things. To Appreciate Things That have been Ignored. To Seek Forgiveness. To Enjoy Life as What It Offers.

WHY ASK?

I was watching BBC’s Special Documentary “A Story of People In War And Peace.” It was about the life of the Soldiers and their Family during and after the Armenian-Azerbaijan territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

One Sniper caught my attention when he said that the only goal at that time was to finish the war. Once the war ended, he went back to his civilian life and he dreamt to be successful but he was unlucky. He went back as a sniper and said,”What have I Accomplished?”

He was asked about how was his life. He would say that it was ok but deep inside it wasn’t. Most of the time, he would just be silent when he was asked about his life but he didn’t want to be silent in his surrounding for in a quiet surrounding gave him a torture of thoughts.

REFLECTION.

It made a flashback on my life with his thoughts. When I was a student, my goal was to finish school with a high grade. Once I was asked “what have I accomplished?” the answer was simple.

Then a following question was asked “WHAT'S NEXT?’ I was caught a little off guard. I replied “Magtrabaho ng Mabuti.” That answer wasn’t from my heart, it was based on Logic.

The Next Logical Thing for most newly graduates was to find work. Thus, the answer was just scripted.

It made me think that once a goal had been accomplished then one must be prepared for the next question “What’s Next?”

THE ROLE OF LUCK

I hade seen and heard about Valedictorian, Salutatorian and Other A-Students who were obviously academically excellent performers in High School but would somehow flunk in College, wouldn’t finish their degree on time or would have been a victim of vices. Their good high school image had been shattered in their college life.

Remember that the Sniper said that once the war ended, he went back to his civilian life and he dreamt to be successful but he was unlucky. That was like life after high school and life beginning in college – it all would start from scratch again.

I said to myself that the reason why such thing had occurred was because of pressure from expectation, unwilling to adjust, too much confidence and other psychological reasons – but as I grew older and eventually finish school way way way back, I had seen how LUCK played a vital role in our life.

Like an old saying, “Swertihan lang iyan.” No matter how good you are in one thing, luck shall have a part on the say of what the outcome is.

NAKABIBINGING KATAHIMIKAN

There are three things that would make me crazy

(1) Too much Thoughts

(2) No thoughts at All

(3) Egg or Chicken – Which came first?

The first and the third items were self-explanatory.

The second item was interesting. Once again, remember the sniper said that most of the time, he would just be silent when he was asked about his life but he didn’t want to be silent in his surrounding for in a quiet surrounding gave him a torture of thoughts. It was obvious that there were a lot of thoughts that he wasn’t thinking throughout the years - “the what if” “Regret” “should have and could have” thoughts had just caught him on the latter part of his life.

A silent environment could also give No Thoughts at All. I could remember that there were at least 5 times in my life where I heard the “Nakabibinging Katahimikan” significantly and it wasn’t good because No Thoughts At All would flow in my mind. It was just really such an awful state.

ACCOMPLISHMENT. LIFE. ACCOMPLISHMENT.

No one said that life was easy – life had, has and will be hard. However, “all life is fair because life is unfair.” No matter what life had brought, there was still a sense of completion and a notion of accomplishment.

Perspective gave such sense and notion however, if one couldn’t be ready after what he had accomplished then one shall be in a rollercoaster ride.

As I am writing, a question pop in my head,”Was it worth accomplishing what I had accomplish?” Yes, because it had molded my life and made a path to live on. No, because I had experience failure … but I saw failure as an opportunity that was given to realize the essence of doing better and of doing the right things and doing the things right.

Let me end this article with one question ,”Are you happy and satisfied with what have you accomplished in your life?”