“Kailan ka pa natutong tumanggi sa tuwing ika’y inanyayahang maglingkod?”
These words of Tatay Monch, when combined, simple as they may seem, have concealed meanings that allow you to pause, think, and reflect on this rhetorical question. As a leader, you must be aware that the moment you chose to be one, there are a hundredfold responsibilities waiting for you. So you must be physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared beforehand. Despite the time constraints and limitations that a leader experiences, there is always a way of doing what is asked of you as a leader, if you have the will and the passion.
The Ayala Young Leaders Alumni Association–Central Luzon is one of the active clusters of the Ayala Young Leaders Congress (AYLC) delegates in the country. With the strong-willed and extremely dedicated young leaders behind this cluster, a lot of leadership activities and projects were brought up, planned, and successfully materialized. Also, meetings are being regularly held due to the determination and initiatives of the AYLAA-CL officers through their “kulit” announcements via text messages and facebook.
The latest activity was the General Assembly of the cluster wherein we were even invited to change our timeline photos in facebook into the AYLAA-CL General Assembly announcement. You see how youth-oriented the officials behind this cluster are? They really know how to reach out and get the taste of its members to make a lot of them attend. And they did not fail, a total of 32 went, listened to the activities presented, shared their thoughts and ideas, and enjoyed the happiness of being part of AYLAA-CL family.
At the start of the assembly, we, the AYLC Batch 2012 were welcomed, and asked to introduce ourselves and say an animal related to us. The answers of my batch mates were humorous, yet intellectual. So when it’s already my turn, I didn’t know if they will also find it the same way. Nevertheless, I said, “If I’ll be an animal, magiging lovebird ako. Kasi love ko kayong lahat.” Luckily, they found it amusing as well. Little did I know, the word “lovebird” already spreads like a communicable disease in facebook after that. They even call me lovebird now!
Funny as it may seem, the introduction we’ve done was very helpful for the other AYLC batches to be familiar with us. And it is a way of expressing our personality. From there, you could already see the rapport established among each one of us. This made the general assembly more enjoyable and smoothly flowing.
So when the AYLAA-CL former Cluster Head Joseph Navarro (we call him Kuya Ju) already presented the report, and when one of our cluster advisers Mildred Ople (we’re fond of calling her Ate Dred) announced the upcoming activities of the AYLA community like the Central Luzon-wide Youth Leadership Summit, AYLAA–CL Babad–an immersion activity in an IP Community, and AYLAA–CL Fund Run–a Resource Mobilization Effort, we found it easy to share our thoughts and reactions, which made the aura of the meeting lighter. So when the election proper already began, it was easier for us to nominate and vote the ones deserving for a certain position because we had the chance to know each other even with just four hours of being together in the meeting.
Just to share, I had my first week of internship at Ayala Foundation, Inc. prior to the date of the AYLAA-CL General Assembly. Every Friday after work, I go home to Pampanga to be with my family. I went out of the office at 6:00pm because I needed to finish some stuffs, so I encountered the stressful traffic at EDSA, and experienced sitting on the back seat of a provincial bus since there were no empty seats left but that one, which made me really dizzy. I arrived home at 9:00pm, very tired. I had dinner, fixed myself, and slept at 11:00pm. It was truly a tiring ride, and I wanted to catch up some sleep because I’m still on the process of getting used to sleeping in my bedspace unit in Makati (I didn’t get enough sleep on my first week there).
You see, I had happy, fulfilling days at work, yet restless nights in my place. But, I was invited to be in that assembly. The mere fact that they have invited me there is already equivalent to an invitation to serve. Who am I to decline the invitation of my fellow AYLAA-CL? I was called. I responded. And I said, “yes,” with no second or third thoughts.
I’m glad I made the right decision. Because I have witnessed not only the family-like relationship we have, as manifested by the smiles, laughs, and fun we shared, but more importantly, the eagerness and the sincere passion to serve in each and every one of us–elected or not.
I was called to be one of the new officers. I knew I had a lot of responsibilities as a student and as a student leader in school. Nevertheless, I still responded with a believing heart that I’d be able to do my responsibilities well. So I answered, “yes,” for the second time. I’m sure my fellow alumni in Central Luzon are also busy doing a lot of things, but they amazingly have the heart that can’t say “no” to AYLAA-CL.
I answered twice to the calling of my AYLAA-CL family. I was supposed to write something about “Challenge Accepted” in my article. But I suddenly realized that serving is not a challenge after all; rather, it is a calling that must be answered, for our nation’s sake, for God’s glory.
The author is currently on her senior year in college pursuing a degree on communications. She was also part of the 14th National Ayala Young Leaders Congress, the Ayala Group's commitment to Nation Building.
