Final Paper for Leadership Class Agsb

My Calling, My Choice, My Life

I was originally enrolled in a Management Accounting class on a Thursday, 6-9PM. So it was the first week of the term and I was waiting outside the assigned room for my ManAcc class when I bumped into then my previous Business Communications classmates. They were so fond of me that they ‘deluded’ me to join them in their Leadership class with the same schedule of my ManAcc subject. I was hesitant at first but I later on realized I am on queue at the registrar to request for schedule and subject change. I never thought that my being fickle-minded and indecisiveness would lead me to a life-altering decision. I never thought that ‘that quick decision’ is the first of the series of abrupt and serious decisions I have made and will have to make. This Leadership class has been so instrumental in making one of my boldest decisions decision in my life. Because I think I just answered my calling.

I

You have been mentioning in class that a ‘calling’ is something that excites you, interests you and scares you at the same time. It has been mentioned also that a calling should foster a passion, a talent, a need and a conscience. A calling is something that goes beyond your personal motives and corporate interest. These callings sometimes come into the most unexpected time and would require an immediate response (even with some risks involved). It is a passion or a calling when you trust that even you know there are apparent risks, you still push through with the decision to pursue your calling. And that there is something bigger than you and your corporate dreams and aspirations, just waiting for you. As for me, I think I just started to hear this inner calling. A friend of my mom asks me (through my mom) if I wanted to be a college professor. My initial reaction was: COOL. All the wild and crazy ideas popped into my mind. Yeah, the per-hour salary, time convenience and intellectually-fulfilling. Just like Ninoy Aquino, who initially is a traditional politician and ambitious enough to have a seat in the government. Nothing more than that. But he went through a transformative experience (put to exile for years) before he realized a bigger purpose in his life, which is to stand up for what is right and fight Marcos’ dictatorship. Just like him, I’ve had some realizations on what really is the essence of this calling. Realizations that tells me, ‘Hey, there’s something more to this calling than the per-hour salary and time convenience benefits’. (Practical realizations convinced me to quit my marketing job and pursue being a college instructor. So, yeah, I took the opportunity and indeed, I am a college instructor now). Each and every morning, when I have to attend my first class of the day, I am having that jittery feeling of ‘what ifs’. What if I cannot live up to the expectation of the Dean who hired me? What if students who were just a few years younger than me would not follow me? What if, what if? (I think this is very much of a Three, when we’re having this constant need to ‘stand out’ and get ‘admired’ or ‘impress’ others of whatever we’re doing, in this case, new job of teaching). I felt nervous. Every class I have to present. I have to convince them of my lectures, I should be a source of knowledge, I should be a bit of a ‘know-it-all’. It wasn’t even a month yet since I took a plunge to the pool of academe world. But all of those negative vibes were slowly fading away (-now, I think, this is more of the transformative experience relating to Ninoy’s) whenever I see my students in the library, waving cheerfully at me as they proudly say that they are reading the assigned case studies I have for them, whenever I see Facebook statuses of my students that they should ‘get serious’ with the subject I am facilitating, whenever I receive a ‘thank you for inspiring me’ message. I never thought that my first practical reasons of convenience would definitely turn into something deeper. I never thought that being an educator is tough yet a very fulfilling job. This calling has always been good to me. It satisfies almost all aspect of me, be it economically, psychologically, mentally and socially.

I know for a fact that this drastic happening in my life is a calling to which I responded to. Technically speaking and integrating it with our discussion about ‘calling’ in class:

* Passion. It is my passion to teach and do scholastic works. I always thought it is intellectually fulfilling. I am a Three. I love to talk, influence, advise and mentor. I love research and tourism. I love it more when I advise for tourism research. I can do it for free because I like to do. I am very much willing to influence those who would like to learn. I am so passionate about this that I really don’t mind if tourism planning papers I make will economically benefit me. * Talent. I know how to do it, systematically and purposively. I have a basic structural knowledge on how research and planning papers are made. I used books, journals and other secondary source of data. When I am faced with stuff I am unfamiliar with, I always find a way on how to do things. There will always be a way for me to know stuff. That, I think is when my passion and talent intertwine. It is a talent in a way, because you’re being resourceful to exhaust all possible means of information just because you really or badly want to do it because it makes you happy, or it satisfies the ‘inner you’. * Need. The world definitely needs research towards tourism planning and developments because tourism is just so broad that it impacts almost every living and nonliving creature. Our country needs it because tourism has a significant economic value. Our communities need these researches for their direct application and if well-implemented, would generate positive effects to them. The world, our country, our communities, all of them need a sustainable tourism planning and development and it is something addressed in the course I currently facilitate. Another thing, these students, I think they need some dose of reality checks when it comes to responsible tourism. I know I can somehow influence them to be an advocate for sustainable development in the future, or at the very least, consider practicing it in the future. * Conscience. I am able to live life equitably and I am able to provide for my physiological needs, as well as to my family. I am able to settle my financial obligations due to the remuneration I am given by the institution/university I serve.

II

Focusing on the need of my calling, I basically am convinced that our community really needs a structure for tourism implementations through a sound and sustainable planning and management. Tourism activities in the Philippines have brought enormous positive economic impacts both on the national and community level in terms of job/employment it creates. According to World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Economic Impact 2013 - Philippines, travel and tourism in the Philippines contributed to the increase of country’s GDP of 7.5% this year as compared to 2012. This figure only proves that there is a consistent and growing demand for the tourism services in the country. These demands paved way to the developments of support tourism-related activities. Usually, tourism-related businesses tend to focus more on the profit with little regard to the impacts of the tourism activities they are fostering. They have the tendency to exhaust all possible resources just to maximize profit. Also, tourism is contributing to almost a million of direct jobs in 2012 (2% of total employment in PH, according to WTTC). With these, more and more young adults are having this desire to enter the ever growing tourism industry. It was even forecasted by the Department of Tourism that an approximation of 7 million jobs will be generated by tourism in the next years.

And with this calling of mine, I may somehow influence the future tourism stakeholders and practitioners to imbibe a culture of sustainability to wherever tourism field they may be assigned. Another thing I have noticed also is a poor tourism structure of implementations on rural communities (as very few rural municipalities have tourism master plans). I, having been a course facilitator for a Tourism Planning and Development subject, have the liberty to direct and lead the students to whatever initiatives and research to strengthen their skills in tourism planning. Instead on looking at the private sector of tourism planning, I encouraged my students to look for a community that needs help when it comes to their tourism projects. I am trying to open their eyes to the real condition of the communities with regard to tourism developments, on how can they be involved and be part of the solution to this dilemma. It has always been a family value (looking into my genogram, my parents being a member of a handful of civic/community organizations) to help in community building through simple efforts as such. It is in awareness when we foster an action towards a social dilemma.

III

I am currently answering my call to the abovementioned hunger of the community. I think I was also able to enumerate how the subject I am teaching can be a mechanism to the improvement of the ever lax tourism system in present in rural communities. I would want to be an advocate for responsible tourism by adopting sustainable strategies for implementation of the towns. One thing also that I would like to share with my students is the value of civic involvement. I want them to know that even they are just students, they can be of help to a certain community simply through the tourism master plans that they will be making as a requirement for my subject. I want to impart to them the importance of sustainability to these plans and create awareness. Because, as mentioned on previous discussions (self-awareness and self-management), the more we are aware the more we can anticipate whatever dilemma / situation is ahead. Through my tourism planning class, I would like to empower them in fostering community development through these community plans.

Looking back 14 weeks from now, I was an airline marketing person, confused of what I would like to be (marketing? Operations? Sales?) I was someone who is lost, definitely purposeless and not sure of what to do, really. Gradually, with all the learning I receive in this Leadership class, I began to take an inventory of who I am, who I was and who I will be. From the case of Rudy Espina (people’s appreciation as his main driver/motivator, to which I can relate because I realized it was my main motivator too), to discovering I was then a ‘Three’ and how my patterns of integration and disintegration are (I became aware of my lapses and how I am to address them), to looking back at my family history / genogram (my parents active community participation and my ‘educator relatives’) and lifeline (my life’s ups and downs, what worked and didn’t worked out for me in the past) and how it shaped my life’s decision, to reflecting on transformative experiences (financial hardship during college inspires me to study better for a more comfortable future), to taking an inventory of my passion, of what I always love to do. Integrating all these, in 14 weeks, here I am, an educator inspiring young and subtle minds in preparation to their chosen field (tourism) to imbibe and enculturate the value of sustainability on their future profession.

Sincerely, I, thank you, Sir Jake, for being a ‘catalyst’ for this calling of mine. I may not always actively participate in our class discussion, but the learning I had in each session is something I always contemplate about on my way home every Thursday night (talking about taking your ‘pabaon’ thoughts seriously).