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Sept 3, 2010
“For many are called but few are chosen.”
-Jesus Christ-
OUR TOP NOTCHER!
Graduations are very special events in the lives of children and parents. My wife and I were exceptionally proud when Andreah her daughter (my step-daughter) received her certificate from the North Shore School as a nurse anesthetist.
Though she received her masters’ at De Paul University (Chicago), it was the special diploma that established her as a fully certified anesthesiologist. The field of Anesthesia is wide open but very few applicants qualify due to the extraordinary degree of severity in completing the intensive special training required. As I understand a number of Andreah’s former De Paul classmates applied but a mere 25 managed to pass the difficult entrance examination. Of the 25 who were accepted as part to the North Shore University Health System’s candidacy program, only 18 managed to graduate. Our Andreah were among those who successfully completed the grueling 3 year program.
All we can say to her is well done on her high achievement in her very challenging and difficult field of anesthesiology. Though our family is naturally very proud of our Andreah, this article lauds her and the many other Fil Ams in Chicagoland and throughout the world.
NEED $$$$$$?
Reader you already know the high pedestal Filipinos place education so I don’t have to go there. But where do you go when ‘dough’ is low and you’re as ‘broke as Job’s turkey?’ Here’s a list of some potential sources I found that may be useful in your search for scholarship $$$$$:
* Asian Pacific Fund
* Filipino American Human Services, Inc. * FAHSI College Scholarship Programs * Read: ‘Filipino American Grants’ an article by: Rianne Hill Soriano (www.eHow.com) ‘BOOK LEARNING’ VS. WISDOM The old cliché that says education is the key to a successful future remains valid. It’s June 2015. The Great Recession is over. President Clinton (Hillary) has just pulled our troops out of Iran and America is on the mend. You recently graduated ‘cum’ (Cum Laude) from the university of your choice in your chosen field. Your alma mater placed you with a company that pays well. Most of your student loans were canceled. Happy days are here again. The money is rolling in. Your education is paying off. Life is good. But ‘so as not to be proud you were given a thorn in your side’ to paraphrase St. Paul, as a constant reminder that you too are a mere mortal like the rest of us. Case in point:
Back in the ‘Stone Age’ (1975) I had just received my master’s degree from Governor’s State University. In case you don’t know GSU is in University Park, Illinois. That city runs parallel to the Indiana State Line. GSU is a small institution that looks like it was placed in the middle of the Chicago Botanical Garden a very pretty place. I got my masters in Urban Education and Communication. Back then I was still thin, spoke ‘proper English,’ and over eager to advance the cause of humanity in the service of the People of GOD. I couldn’t wait to show off my new skills to the rest of the planet! Shortly after graduation I was assigned to a human zoo they called a high school on Chicago’s south side.
There I was newly graduated, raring to go! Hell I was more than ready to conquer the world for the Lord, the Civil Rights Movement, and make some money while doing it. What I didn’t figure was that in my efforts to change the world, I was ‘pissing-off’ a lot of people. It all came to a head when I was in line ordering lunch in the school cafeteria when I was verbally pounced upon by three or four very rough burly and busty fast-talking cooks. To make a long story short whatever bubble (inflated ego) I had they burst it with a loud BOOM! Though I wasn’t ‘kicking knowledge’ (showing off) deliberately my high toned mannerisms set them off. Lesson learned: NEVER ASSUME THAT ACADEMICS CAN OVERRIDE COMMON SENSE (WISDOM) or you will be sorry. To paraphrase a term Jesse Jackson, Sr. popularized, never let ‘edjamacation’ (academic education) mess with you (interfere with rational decision making).
Though not intentionally I certainly did and paid the price.
CHALLENGES
My step-daughter, Andreah
Our Andreah, like all new graduates, will soon discover that like marriage, clergy ordination, passing the Bar, making that first car the glamour and hype soon wears thin in any profession. It takes an enormous amount of effort to retain that initial degree of enthusiasm after a few years on the job. The challenges mount and so does the drudgery but you gotta’ stay focused at all times. You get sloppy. You f***-up. You make bad decisions. You cause a lot of bad things to happen to a lot of good people:
* In medicine someone dies or have to live out what’s left of their lives in a vegetate state. * In education you kill the dreams and hopes of a child.
* In the ranks of religion you isolate a man/woman from his/her Creator.
* In auto manufacturing a person is killed or maimed in a gory accident
* In law someone goes to prison or is executed.
* In government you kill an entire country!
‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth!’
-Revelation 3:16-
GET YOUR DAMN OWN DREAM!
There’s a lot to be said about wanting to live the American Dream some of it good, some not. Me, I say
get your own damn dream and never be dependent upon the dreams of somebody else. Like my buddy Will ( William Shakespeare) once said, ‘to your own self be true.’ You got a mind-use it!! Reader, that’s it. I-am-DONE for this week’s Mega Scene’s Philippine Adventures. I hope you enjoyed reading it as I enjoyed writing it. Till next week bye-bye and GOD bless.
(vamaxwell@yahoo.com)