Friday, August 9, 2013

In A Trance

by Cole Tan

Reading Marcel, I honestly did not understand the word transcendence in the reading. Granted I was En 10 but even using context clues on the reading made me more confused. =)) Anyway, silently listening to Dr. Garcia, and yes I mean silent because again I had no idea what to recite, I started understanding the word transcendence.

Transcendence is doing more than what is expected, at least how I understood it. So like Dr. Garcia said “For example you’re in a corridor and you see people doing different kind of things, some people are laughing, some are studying, some are sweet you are aware of these people. Being aware that you are aware of others is like being transcendent. More than being conscious of others, you are conscious of yourself being conscious of others.” (I might have paraphrased a bit but that was the general idea ahahaha) And Sir Earl asked us what we have done recently that is in line with the whole idea of transcendence.

Last semester, I was faced with a grave dilemma (at least it seemed that heavy at that point in my life) whether to run for Second Year Batch Representative and retain my position in the Executive Board or drop my position and start from the bottom up for something I truly want. Like anyone would do, I weighed the pros and cons. If I stay in my position, I would have been EB for three straight years in the same position with only the first three characters in the title changing (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), the freshmen will remember me faster, I would still have a voice in decision making for the org, I will have free org shirts and lanyards, I get to go to Lex Camp for free and would probably have a greater chance of becoming a president having known the constitution at the back of my mind and the would have been three executive titles to back my campaign. Cons: It’s going to be another year of weekly 1.5 hour meetings and monthly 3 hour meetings, another year of texting all 135 LM majors for updates, another year of un-magis-like studying for long tests, and another year of questioning my worth to the org.

The pros truly outnumbered the cons. However, I knew I will not be satisfied nor will I be happy in that position. And so, I chose to give my position to a person I truly believe can do the work, trained her and I moved on to work under both the Executive Board and the Associate Vice Presidents as a Core Head, a Project Manager , and a Marketing Director. I have exemplified transcendence by choosing to do what I love and in extension doing more for my org rather than fulfilling my wants and my desire to be president. Well, as for that last part, there’s still a way. AHAHAHAHHA But we’ll still see.


xoxo

2 comments:

  1. Yes, transcendence is actually being more, being a better version of ourselves. It is this wanting to give out instead of always taking in and it is precisely in our passions in which we find this exigence for transcendence. I think we can all see this transcendence in our wanting to do more for others, precisely how you wanted to do more for your org, to be of service to the people you love. :)

    Frenchi Baluyot (A)

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  2. I think that what you did was really brave and most people in your position would've chosen the easier and much safer way. Transcendence reminds me about how there's a point in our lives wherein we have to choose the road less taken. It may come with a lot of risks, a lot of people will probably advice you not to, but your gut tells you that you have to and you'll come out a better person because of this.

    Genica Lim (C)

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