We have made it back !

CLEMELLE L. MONTALLANA,DM, CESE

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR III DIRECTOR

PHYSICAL PLANT, FACILITIES

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
–Nelson Mandela

In my morning jog on that windy Monday on the 22^nd of August, I saw a different sight. This was somehow a new phenomenon that we had been all too familiar with.  I saw motorcycles laden with couples with baskets of food fresh from the market, I saw several  Trisikad ( A three-wheel vehicle, powered by foot ) not on its usual stationary waiting but these are laden with female passengers, chattering and gesturing in full animated gusto.  As I make the third round of that picturesque Tacloban Astrodome grounds, I overheard two women walking saying that they have to cut the Zumba routine and make a final round for it’s a day like no other.

 Today marks the formal getting back to school day after more than a two-year hiatus of hibernation against the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Finally, we are getting back to our normal lives and normal schooling  rather slowly yet surely.  Barry Manilow has that touching  and poignant line in the 1989 song  ;

I’ll see you then
When the good times come again
The door that we go out of
Is the door that we come in

Yes, we are going back to that same door that we went out from and this is the symbolic beginning.

So how was the morning of that fateful day?  Traffic was congested and it was slow yet in a reassuring slow, it was a pat on the back that says, we are going to the exciting part. 

The event of the past two years ended officially when our young people came to the schools and face the task of building their future. Every rainbow has to have an end; as the song goes and sometimes that rainbow was gloom but it did pass on and rather the long wait seems to be a blink of an eye .  We have to face the fear that lingers and survive. As Nelson Mandela   said ;

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
 and yes as Barry Manilow had also said, we have made it through the rain but  surely we have made it back.