A schoolmate recently messaged me on Facebook to congratulate me. I reviewed our previous messages and found this:

Way back when I was in high school, I’ve got but one dream which eventually turned out to be one of my life’s goals. It is to pass the UPCAT and be a certified Iskolar ng Bayan. Now that I have fulfilled this item on my wishlist, I have thought of putting my aspirations and goals to a more complex one. This has been the hardest of all for it involves envisioning my future and the way how my life would run out in this earthly stage.

I began dreaming of myself wearing white garments, holding tools and instruments, and busy interacting with different kinds of people who amply share their concerns and worries. You may have thought that I wanted to become a priest. You are not wrong with that for I’ve envisioned myself as a priest once (more on this in another blog post). But, today, I think of myself as a person who offers himself to the nation by providing inevitable service to the Filipino people. Be not mistaken for my long lost and recently unfolded goal is to be a service-oriented professional. I never saw myself working in health centers or hospitals before. But now, I do dream of it to come true not someday but one day. Though it is really tough to study in UP, I’ll not let anything not worth it to deal with to hinder me from continuing my journey towards the mountain of success.

This just shows how I’ve conditioned myself to be a nars para sa bayan from the moment I set foot in UP. Such thoughts in the past always remind me why I chose UP, why I choose nursing.