Mr. Dado Banatao (Reflection)

Everyone in this world is born with a special reason, a meaning, and a unique life. We are bound with something along with our journey in life. Some people do not care about life, because they just let things happen as if it is really meant to be. Like for example, if a man was born poor, most of the poor people will just stick to that kind of life but for others like Mr. Dado, he did not let his poverty be the reason to let his life not to prosper.

As I watch the short clip of the “PhilDev Foundation”, a short story clip about the life of Mr. Dado Banatao, I feel deep inside me a bursting and powerful encouragement. I am sure that everyone who watches the short video clip feels the same way too or maybe feel something more. I have seen a lot of videos the same way like this and hear a lot of stories about dedication and encouragement but this video of Mr. Dado really touches me. Anyone who will watch his story will surely be blessed and will pick a lot of lessons about life. Mr. Dado as a young boy has faced a lot of problems, not a typical child who wears a decent dress and play wherever and whenever. Mr. Dado does not live a life of pleasure; he is a member of a community where everybody’s families are always working hard to sustain their everyday and also their daily needs. As what he have said in his video clip, “most of his friends stop schooling after finishing the 6^th grade and then will work full time at the field to help their families”. This statement is really happening especially to those who live at the rural parts or area of the Philippines. I can testify that because it is the thing that happened to my cousins who lives at the province of Banay-banay. I can say that I was just a bit lucky that I did not experience what Mr. Dado experienced as a child. I can wish for what I want but of course not most of the time I can’t get it but unlike Mr. Dado case they have nothing. They only have the dedication and courage that someday they will rise from the mud and live at the top mansion. I rally can tell that living in the area wherein there is no electricity is quite tough because you have to deal with all of the mosquitoes, dark roads that could danger our lives and many more troubles that we can face when we live to that rural area. I have experienced to live ones and trust me; I can’t survive a week to live there. I must admit and say that I really salute Mr. Dado for his effort and strong heart to overcome poverty and become a successful life. I salute how he manages his problems in life and continue to study. He made a choice, a choice that brings good results to his life and brings him to where he is right now. Mr. Dado is one of the men who are especial, special in terms of bravery in life to fight back against the challenges and never surrender. He could have just followed the steps of his fellow young friends which is to stop at the 6^th grade and do the works at the rice fields but he made a choice to go on and follow his dreams. True enlightenment showers upon me; I was blessed by his wonderful and amazing story. It makes me become more eager and compassionate to reach my dreams and goals in life. I admit that I was at the stage of my life that I want to give up the my dreams, wherein I just want to have a short cut in life and stop studying then have a work but when I saw Mr. Dado’s video clip, it feels like I was struck by lightning and was energize by the good vibes spreading from his life. I didn’t meet Mr. Dado, but if I got the chance of a lifetime to meet this wonderful man who grabs his chance to succeed, I will surely take a hand shake and say “thank you very much for inspiring us, people like us who has been challenge by life”. After all, I must say thank you to Mr. Gamboa too, because without him sharing the video clip, I wouldn’t be inspired as I am right now. I can say that after watching the video clip, I have been back to my old self, a self with a warm soul who wants nothing but to achieve my dreams and payback for my parent’s sacrifices for me. I became more passionate to my selected course now; this course is one of the toughest courses in the University of Southeastern Philippines. Not everyone can graduate here, as in the records, only 3 out of 10 can do graduate. But now, I must not look at the negative side but instead embrace the bright positive side that I can graduate. Because like Mr. Dado, I want to survive the challenge inside the Institute of Computing, I want to survive the hype of Information technology; I want to be one of the best.

In the story of Mr. Dado’s life, I have seen also the amazing support of Mr. Dado’s father. In the story, it is not tackled what kind of father he is but I am sure that he is kind and a very responsible father to his siblings. In my mind tangles what Mr. Dado’s father have said to him as he was at his young age which is “It is my job to bring food for the table and your job is to study”. The father of Mr. Dado have made a clear statement to his son Dado that he must not let his family down and become a successful man on the path of career that he will choose. The hard work of Mr. Dado’s father surely was paid off because his son Mr. Dado made his all best to finish his study and find a great job. I salute to the effort and support of both Mr. Dado and his family because they help each other so that everyone will benefit the crops that they planted. I am sure, very sure that they are reaping the fruits of happiness now in life. I am sure that also her mother have done an equal part in guiding his son Dado, I am sure that she made sure that Mr. Dado will grow a fine, responsible and a brave man. Though the clip is too short, I can say that Mr. Dado is a very thoughtful son to his parents. Why I say so? Because I believe that he thinks all the effort of his family just to support him to continue studying and I believe that Mr. Dado didn’t make himself be blind, because he did not put all the effort of his parents into waste. Mr. Dado treasures all the sacrifices that his parents did for him. His parents put all their lives just to make sure that Mr. Dado will get his dreams come true and that sacrifice was all paid off, because Mr. Dado made the right decisions in his life. If there is someone who is very happy of all of his achievements now, I am sure that it will be his parents.

I am not born rich; I am also a son of poverty, born in a family that can only just sustain a living in just a moderate level. I am also one of those who struggle in terms of study finances. As I am in the elementary, I was lucky that I become one the lucky sponsored child in the Compassion Philippines Project PH-570. We were sponsored by the Christians from other country, like for example, my sponsor for almost 8 years now lives in Canada and that is all the information I have in them aside from their names and work. I am thankful to them because God uses them to be an instrument to support in me in my studies in terms of finances and school supplies. My mother and father are too old by the time I entered the elementary years. I am the youngest child of the 8 siblings and my gap to my brother is 7 years, I was like as what others say a “menopausal baby”. Like the story of Mr. Dado with his parents, my parents also made all the things that they can do just to send me in school every day and encourage me all the time to never surrender. It was a real pressure to me since I was the only one in the 8 siblings who is close to finish or graduate from college. My brothers and sisters did not have the chance to go this far because during the early years of my family’s living, we were too poor. My parents can’t support my brothers and sisters to send them all into school but most some of them really choose not to continue due to they choose to work to help the financial problem of the family. It is a big challenge for me to finish my study especially when my mother told me that I am her only chance so that she can climb on the stage for a graduation ceremony. I admit that I am a bit stressed of that challenge but I don’t take it as a burden instead I take it as my motivation to really finish my study. Especially that I have seen a lot of people giving all what they can give to support me. I have a lot of things to finish; I must pay back to my parent’s sacrifices. I must make the right decisions just like Mr. Dado did. I must keep the flame in my heart to keep on burning. I must keep my dreams alive and let not the struggles of life stop me from surviving.

In the story of Mr. Dado, I have learned to choose between short happiness and lasting happiness. In his speech, he said “when my friends play basketball, I study”. That statement really hits me. Choosing from right or wrong is sometimes tough but we can endure it but what Mr. Dado teaches me is to choose between happiness that is lasting or just short. Most of the time, when my friend says “let’s go to the mall” or “let’s play video games”, it always pop out in my mind that I must now waste my money and time doing those things over my top priorities in study but I always end up following them because in my mind it always say that it is fun doing those. So sometimes, instead of doing my assignment, I was there at the mall or playing basketball. In my mind, I do it with my friends so that I can stressed out, let my problems go for a minute or an hour. I didn’t realize that I have a lot more top things to do. I let my heart win over my mind. I realize now that I must stay focus on my studies. Hanging out with my friends can really give me a happy time but it depends on the happening and the time is too short but if choose to choose to do what is my priority then this will give me a real lasting happiness because I and my family will benefit from the results of my right decisions.

I have learned from Mr. Dado’s story that I must not be afraid. It was said in the story that Mr. Dado was sent away from his home town into the central city to finish his high school and college level. It was a whole new world for him by that time but he did not let it beat him up. He stays focus and disregards his fears. I did not experienced to send away from home to study in another city but I do experienced to be a friend of a stranger at some point of my life. It might be so hard for Mr. Dado to dwell at first to the city boys and gals as he was a pure rural boy. I have experienced to have a classmate at school that happen came from far provinces. I have observed them on how they cope up to their new environment. Most of them take only time to get mingled by other student but some of them really finds a hard time because for some reason they are shy and afraid. But I guess if Mr. Dado did not overcome his fear over the new environment then maybe he will not become successful as he is now. I have learned that I must not afraid to explore new grounds in my life. I must learn to how to enjoy life’s challenges. Fear is just a word unless you let it become an obstacle.

“Don’t settle” it is one of the things that I have learned after watching the video of Mr. Dado. He is a graduate engineer. By the time he graduate there is no enough work for engineers here in the Philippines so he decided to fly abroad. After graduating from college he did not settle to be in that state only. He did not let his journey stop just because there is no enough work for engineers. He chooses to level up his dreams to a foreign land very far away from his home. I realize that I must not stay inside my safe zone; I must also level up my dreams and keep on dreaming. Find new motivation in life and goals to catch on. Settling for good is good if you already live a fruitful life but as long as I did not, I will keep on moving on. As I remember the quote that I read a long time ago from an article on the web where it states that “Movement is life” it made me realize that being stagnant is only for the weak. That it is only for those who stop dreaming in life but for those who embrace success, moving is essential. If I manage to finish a goal, I must make new goals. I learned that I must strive for more and stop when I am contented.

I have learned from Mr. Dado’s video that after all the successful that you will meet in your life, you must always turn back to where you from and share to others the fruits of success to your fellow men. He never keep all his treasures just for his own because we can see that he wants all the Filipino, all his country man to prosper like he do. Sharing is very important because what we are receiving is also a gift from God, a God’s blessing to human kind.

I learned from Mr. Dado that I must not stop from learning. From his story, he mentioned going to abroad so that he can get a fine work but he felt like what he learned or his knowledge is not enough because everyone there in the place he have worked are all smart, so he challenge his self to double up his effort in studying. I have realized that I must welcome healthy challenges that will come to my life because if there is someone who will benefit from it, is me. To gain more knowledge is a great weapon in fighting every day’s problem most especially now that we are living at the 21^st century wherein everyone is force to do more.

Be brave and courageous, it is a strong statement that comes from the movie. It teaches me to never surrender in my quest of life. I as a student have encountered a lot of problems inside the school but I must not let them make me down. I must stand firm in my decisions in life so that I will not regret in the future. I must be brave to face any kind of problem at school because it through that problems and obstacles it will mold me to become stronger in life’s challenges. I must take a great courage to keep me going in life. Discouragements in life are always there but I must not entertain it, I must ignore all of those discouragements. I must let go of the things that will make me only stagnant in life. I will fight in this life. Being poor is not a reason, it is not a reason to stop schooling, it is not the reason to stop dreaming, it is not the reason from making myself believe that I don’t have the capacity to become rich. I must be brave and courageous all the time.

Stay focus on your goal and set aside temptations. We must not let temptation lead us to wrong way. Temptations are there to make us forget what are real priorities, and to forget our missions in life. We students have a lot of temptations in life like video games, vices, party, late night show and most especially some social networking sites. We are drowning too much in many things right now which separate us from doing the right things in life. The worst case scenarios is, we youths of today are patronizing too much the social networking sites, it seems like we are making our self be a slave to that sites. I am not against social networking site, what I am against with is those youth worshipping social networking site and do foolishness there. They are tempted, separated from right way to success. We students must think straight and proper. If we are at the stage of temptation now, we should think deeply, we should ask our self if are we doing the right thing in life. We should ask ourselves if this things happening to me now will lead me to a beautiful and successful life at the future. We should ask ourselves if we are doing our best to pay back the sacrifices and hard works of our parents to send us to school. We should ask our self, are we tracking the way to great happiness in life. We should ask our self, are we really doing our very best to lift up our life status into a fine one. If all of these questions are answerable by yes then it is good for you but if the answer is no then maybe we should think it over again. We should think that temptations bring nothing but bad results. Yes we will have or gain pleasure from embracing those temptations but it only last for minutes or an hour but the punishment is like forever. Let us focus on the things that bring only success in our lives. We must not waste or squander the things in life; we should value the things that will become a tool for us to rise up from poverty.

Think the entire person that made all their sacrifices just to support you and make them as your inspiration and motivation. That person who supports us from behind our backs also suffers from pains and struggles. What they are doing is priceless. They do everything to support you, they give all their best for you because all they wish is for you to graduate and have a good life at the future so that you will not live your life like they do. They don’t want you to live a life that is hard. They want your life to be harmonious and fine, they want you to be successful so that you will not get a taste of just salt on top of your rice. Life is not easy; we need to have companions to finish the ride of life.

Life is a gift and we must not squander it. I believe it is alright to have fun but we must know our limitations so because as what the old ones always said “Everything that is “sobra” is bad”. It is our right to have fun but we must have a time management. Time management is one of the most important key for success. Lots of teenagers during these days have forgotten this type of tool for success. Most of our time are spent over non-sense things, we does not mind how much time we spent and think that it is alright because we only live ones. We were influenced by things that we see through the internet. Patronizing the #YOLO or You Only Live Ones concept of life. Not everyone truly understands that because as they believe on it, they were foolishness in life that sometimes results into bad things. The “Living Young, Wild, and Free” concept. It is too annoying to think that they are doing things which are not suitable by law. Taking drugs, doing premarital sex and so many things that does not bring good to their lives. They are not helping their selves to be successful; they are helping their selves to drag down more. Time management is very important because without it, schedules or plans in life will not be synchronized. It is so hard to live a live not in synchronicity. 

Problems are tough but we must not let it rule over us. Never surrender to any problem. It is there to test you. If you are in the state of being so down, just think of how lucky you are that you have a good life and not crawling on the streets. Be inspired by the story of Mr. Dado Banatao, he surely have encountered a lot of problems in life but yet he choose to fight it all and never surrender. And we can see now how he reaps the sweet success in life. Never think that you have no chance of being on top because you don’t have money, there are things that you can do to make sure that you will graduate from school by taking scholarships offered by the school and government.

Always be positive in life. Always seek wisdom and knowledge. Be guided by the works of the professional businessmen or anyone who gets successful in life. I am sure that you will learn something from their lives. For example, our beloved Filipino Boxing Champion Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao. A world boxing champion, very well-known all over the world, he is also a Congressman at their place in Sarangani Province and he is also the top richest athlete and celebrity all over the world. Everyone loves him, but if we look the past life of Mr. Manny Pacquiao, he came from nothing into something. He starts from a humble beginning, works so hard to become a world champion. He never surrender, he carries the name of our beloved country Philippines every time he fights on the ring at the foreign land. He always stays positive through all obstacles in life. His trainings are so hard; we all know that because there is always coverage during his fight preparations. But we can see his over powering determination, his will to succeed, he is bursting in power. He is driven by a good vibes, a positive outlook in life. Every technopreneur must have this kind of attitude. The market place is our boxing ring. The satisfaction of every customer will serve as our championship belts. Think always to think positive. It is hard if we lose our self to the problem, it hard to put things back together, maybe you can but it will take time. But if we have the mental positivity, then we can cope to any stress that problems could bring to our lives.

Be thankful always to God in everything. Always remember that he is the one who always guides us and gives us wisdom to understand things in a better way. God will give us strength to overcome daily problems in our lives. All we need to is to seek him. We must not forget that he is there always. Watching us from above, teaching us on how to live life in a happy way. As the bible scripture goes “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” –Matthew 6:33. I strongly believe that a successful man will never be truly successful if he or she does not have God in his or her life. I believe that Mr. Dado has sought the presence of God and asked guidance and wisdom to lead him to the right path. Because if he does not, I guess he will not gain what he has now.

Technopreneurs or entrepreneurs should always be competitive. We must not lose that kind of ability because if we do then we will fall from our fight to successful life. We must always be sharp in our every decision, keep in mind always that this fight is not just for your own but also for everyone who loves you. We must keep on studying things about success to business and we must not let our minds become dull and be stagnant on knowledge. We must always grind our mind like it was a blade warmed by fire and molded by the use of smashing hammer. We must let out selves fly, let’s free our minds, and unlock our capabilities and skills. Let’s stop thinking in stereo-type.

 Upon writing this whole reflection thing, I have realized that I am not doing my full best in my studies. I am not giving my all, I feel like I was doing mediocrity at school. I said it because if you look at my status now as a college student, I am still at my third-year college level. I must be a fourth-year level college student by this time and graduating next year in the month of March but no, I am graduating at the year 2017, a one year extension of life in my beloved school University of Southeastern Philippines. It is quite an embarrassment and disappointing on my side because I am not paying off the hard work of my parents. By watching the video clip of Mr. Dado, my eyes were opened. Things get clearer to me as I extract the lessons which are coming out from his life experiences. I have made up my mind and pledge to do all my best in my studies so that I will not regret at the future. I must thank Mr. Dado for being an inspiration. I must start to think of a solid plans and actions for my life, because years from now, I will become an adult and I must have or find a good job or become one of the successful men in business world. Life for me now is a bit crazy to live, a lot of stress and problems I have encountered every day, from the school, personal relationships, and so many things. I must learn to have priorities; I must set which is which and what is first. I think that setting my goal first is the best way to start up my dreams in life. I must let go of the things that holds me back, things that clouds my mind and divert my attention into things that does not help me to get my dreams and become successful. This reflection is quite a stress to me, because this is my first time to encounter a thousand words to write as a reflection, because during my high school and elementary days, I have learned to write a short but very solid reflection which is related to what our teacher is asking. But I love thee challenge of this five thousand word reflection because it makes me think that if I couldn’t write a five thousand words then maybe I can’t handle tougher situations in life at the future. This five thousand words and other thousand word reflection that I made is my new training ground. I am embracing this challenge if this will make me a better person and become a molded businessman. I will cheerfully accept this a bit tough works with all my heart. Mr. Dado Banatao maybe has encountered even tougher problems and obstacles in life that is why I don’t have the right to complain. Complaining will only worsens my situation, instead of complaining things in life, I will start thinking of an idea or a plan o how am I going to get my life successful five years from now. I will start thinking how will I make myself a successful businessman, a successful technopreneurs. I must draw myself to things that will help me build my ideas and refrain from things that will only bring nothing. I am inspired and very motivated now, I feel like I was a new man who wants to explore things in life. So I am starting to make my way to the top by finishing this whole lot of thousand-word reflections. I have realized that I must seek the real way and stop mediocrity in life because it will just ruin me, my dreams and also my parents dream for me.

 I should not waste my time watching cartoons and anime instead I must study a lot and sharpen my memory. I want to thank Mr. Gamboa for opening our eyes to the reality of the world. I will strongly believe in myself that one day I will become a successful business man in the world. I will make sure that I will study hard, I will start now. I will make sure to pass this subject no matter what. I will make my mother and father proud of me just like what Mr. Dado did.