to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy… and to laugh along the way
What began as a simple transfer for the sake of family placed me in a unique position to witness – up close and personal – the tension, the uncertainty, the courage, and the hope that unfolded during the historic EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986. It was a moment when history ceased to be something found in books and became something we lived through, those fateful days that would not only be the country’s pride, but would be a model for many more countries in the years that followed.
Life has taught me that growing older is not necessarily about abandoning ideals. It is about learning that truth rarely belongs entirely to one side. The fire of youth seeks to change the world overnight; maturity and the mellowing of years understand that conflicts are infinitely more complicated. I no longer see the world through the rigid lens of left or right. Time, experience, loss, and service have softened my perceptions. In the end, perhaps growing up is not about surrendering convictions, but learning to carry them with balance, wisdom and the humility to see humanity even in those we may have once called the enemy.
The experiences I gathered taught me that war is not composed solely of heroic battles, dramatic victories, or thrilling near-death escapes that we see in the movies. It is also made up of empty seats at family tables. Of birthdays spent far from home. Of children who know their fathers only through photographs. Of friendships ended abruptly by a burst of gunfire. Of brave men making decisions that unknowingly become their last.
Fifty years have lapsed in a heartbeat, yet I can still smell the pine-scented air of the Academy, and feel the frantic thumping in my chest as we marched down those “51 steps.” We were just boys then – naive, unsure of ourselves, and miles away from the families who waved us goodbye at Camp Aguinaldo or elsewhere. We didn’t know that we would be stripped of our civilian antics and molded into the leaders we would later be. Today, the echoes of those barking orders still reverberate as cherished stories of old men, but the fire lit that fateful April Fools’ Day will never waver.
Manoy Cesar taught me what it means to carry myself with dignity; he challenged me to pursue excellence for its own sake. And most of all, he inspired me to believe in myself.
I was an accidental soldier. Never really intended to be one, but I was lucky I had a cousin who was going to take the PMA exams. My Papa forced me to take the exam with him. The rest is history.
Color My World 