Completing The Circle

by Krista Agbayani

The first two discussions of the semester instantly reminded me of the film, Never Let Me Go, based from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel.

Never Let Me Go tells the story of three friends, Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, who study in a boarding school called Hailsham. In Hailsham, they are prepared for their ultimate purpose in life, which is to donate organs. Early on, they are taught to keep healthy and to accept their fate. After their 3rd or 4th donation, they are told that they will “complete” or to bluntly put it, die.

Like the three friends in the film, we spend most of our lives preparing ourselves for our future, only to end up serving other people.  We often resign ourselves to that fate. We take care of ourselves, so we can be physically capable of finishing tasks. We study, so we can get jobs that pay well later on. We think we are doing it for ourselves. Or are we really?

We spend the first part of our lives searching for our identity, finding out what we really enjoy, only to doubt all that once we interact and live with others.  The shift from “Who am I” to “What does the other demand from me?” is akin to the chicken or the egg problem (as someone mention during the previous discussion). Which came first? Which one is of greater importance? They are both equally important, that’s for sure. You can’t have one without the other.

We need others to help us look at life differently, and our active participation is needed to keep society going. But maybe we want to look in deeper, because we want to understand further.  As human beings, we are always looking for solidity and validation.  We seek and explore, before we can truly accept what lies ahead.