YOUNG VOICE
Recognition
Recognition programs. My earliest memory was in kindergarten when knowing how to spell the word flower means you’re the best student and the fast learner. I paraded across the stage, gripping nanay’s hands tightly. I wasn’t scared. It was simply just my first time. A few more steps and we paused in the middle of the stage. My teacher presented us my very first award, an onion-skin paper with printed words that seemed like hieroglyphics. I turned to my father down stage and beamed my widest smile as he took my picture.
Sixteen years later and sixteen more recognition programs, my parents and I are die-hard patrons of the school’s auditorium.
Medals? Sixteen years have made them like my own version of wind chimes. Certificates? Sixteen years can now finally make ten life-size piñatas out of them. Ignore my fleet of exaggeration. I admit my air-headedness. But I simply wanted to point out that within the sixteen years of climbing up and down the stage to receive one award after another never have I fully understood what recognition truly means. Recognition for me back then was simply letting others know that you’re smart. But not until recently. Recognition means something else.
I saw a recognition program from a different vantage point. My brother, in his white polo and black slacks, approached the stage with our nanay who at that point looked prettier than ever. Ramon was not holding her hand. He overcame stage fright long ago, I guess. A few steps more and they were in the middle of the stage. I saw my tatay standing from his seat and attempting to capture the best still with his camera and planned to upload the pictures in Facebook when we get home. I saw my brother smiling like that for the first time. It was different. And I could not have described my brother’s smile when my brother’s fellow director’s lister, Jan Parvin, gave his message.
The context of his message pierced deep to someone who thought, with her 16 years, knew what recognition truly meant. Jan Parvin said the most important part is not the recognition itself, but what you are recognized for. Yes, it is not about the 1.0’s or your name printed on a certificate. It is about the sleepless nights, the homesickness, the resistance to distractions; it is about the journey that sailed you to the 1.0. It’s easy to call names in a roll and walk across stage smiling for cameras. It’s easy to gain medals, framed certificates, plaques and ribbons; they’re even sold along the sidewalks of calle real. But it’s difficult to remain diligent and ever pursuant to go through the process again that led you to achieving. It’s like seeing a piece of diamond; you’ll admire and recognize it for its beauty. But we often tend to forget about how it looked like initially. Diamonds are simply coal put under pressure. We see diamonds but we passed seeing the coal and recognizing the pressure.
Although the outcome gets the most attention, the process remains an indelible part of the system. In solving math problems, there is always a corresponding number of points given to the process or the solution. Even if your answer is wrong, as long as your equip yourself with the right formula and followed the process, you will always have a score, you can never get zero. Yes, recognition programs celebrate the process through making known the pleasing outcome.
Amazing. 16 years of recognition programs and it simply took one that wasn’t my own to make me realize that awards are not primarily given to tell everyone that you’re smart, but the extent of what you have done to become one. The cliché, “it’s all about the efforts”, renders true.
Congratulations to all director’s listers of Philippine Science High School – Western Visayas Campus for the 1st Quarter of School Year 2010-2011. Thank you for teaching me what recognition is all about. Your extra effort and your genuine love for learning separates you from other students, making you the cherry on top of the cream of the crop. Continue to make your parents proud. Continue to strive for the reasons of your recognition.
My brother, Ramon Ariel Ken M. Garcia, a second year student of Philippine Science High School-Western Visayas Campus, ranked 1st for the 1st Quarter of SY 2010-2011. He smiled upon receiving his certificate. A smile that says, “Thank goodness, finally everything paid off.” Instead of, “I’m a smart-ass. Worship me.”
* * *
Belated happy birthday to one of the suki of recognition programs, my mother, Llane M. Garcia. (Reactions to reylangarcia@yahoo.com)
