Reflexive Essay

I have been a student of Far Eastern University for a few months now, and over the course
of my stay I have grown and learned more than I thought possible. It allowed me to pursue the
field of liberal arts while taking an objective course like Medical Technology. It allowed to think
outside of what is given to me and of more than what is in front of me. I came to this school all the
way from the city of General Santos hoping that I will not grow only as a Medical Technologist
but as a person with great purpose and a clear direction in life, alas I was not disappointed. I was
met with teachers of great calibre and courses that will elevate my way of thinking as a future
medical practitioner. One of the courses that were tantamount to my growth was “The life and
works of Rizal”. I’ve taken numerous History classes in my life, existing in different forms and of
different leaders. Going through the program has taught me so much more than stuff about
literature and history, it has taught me how to be me. I have learned here how to write and express
myself, how to think for myself, and how to find the answers to the things that I don't know. Most
importantly I have learned how important being critical and analytical is, most specially in the life
that I plan to take. When I started this subject, I thought I was going to spend the next few months
reading classics, discussing them and then writing about them, after all that are what you do in
History classes right? On the surface, to an outsider, I am sure that this is what it appears that of
in attending a person centric course. In most all my classes I did read, discuss, and write papers;
however, in this particular course I quickly found out that that there was so much more to it.

The very first activity which is a debate regarding the importance of this subject to the
curriculum served as a salient turning point on how I view this class, it set the standard for future
activities and assignments that I will undertake. I also happened to remember discussing the perils
of having to read a novel translated from another language yet remains one of the most cherished
works on patriotism in the country. On the one hand lies the danger of alienating, or even baffling,
the contemporary reader with mystifying idioms and references, while on the other hand,
‘updating’ runs the risk of hatching hideous anachronisms. So one may ask, why should a hero of
such intrigue and works full of risk be induced in the lessons of the Filipino students? The answer
is simple, cultivation. The law sought to cultivate character, discipline, and conscience and to teach
the obligations of citizenship. The law sought not only to provide not of the what, when and where
but also the how and why. It is to provide students a platform for personal cultivation of meaning
to which were the most important pieces of literature on its day as to what it means now.

The next prominent reading was Rizal’s annotation on the work of a Spanish Historian
named Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas .Rizal said the Noli Me Tangere is a
sketch of the actual conditions of our country and while writing his first novel, he realized that
before he could write more chapters about the present, or produce a sequel, he first had to visit the
past. He had to reflect on what had taken place during the past 3 centuries. He said he was born
and bred oblivious of our past, like most of his contemporaries; so, he felt that he had no voice or
authority to talk on what he did not know. He found it necessary “to invoke the testimony of an
“illustrious Spaniard” who ruled the destiny of the Philippines and was witness to the dwindling
of our former identity.The illustrious Spaniard was DoctorAntonio de Morga, author of Sucesos
de las Islas Filipinas that was published in Mexico in 1609. The book had been out of circulation
when Rizal discovered it in an obscure corner of the British Library and Museum. Some of my
historian friends believe that Rizal had always wanted to write a history of the Philippines but
never found the time, so the next best thing was to annotate Morga’s book, which he copied by
hand. Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt was asked to write the prologue in Spanish, instead he wrote
Rizal a long letter with constructive criticism.

Morga wrote copiously about the Moro pirate raids of the Visayas and Luzon and the
myriad attempts of the Spanish governors to conquer Mindanao, Jolo, and Sulu. Rizal noted that
because the Spanish colonial administration forbade the Christianized natives to bear arms, they
could not defend themselves against the Moro raids; that encouraged the marauders.Rizal said that
Antonio de Morga was a witness of the dying days of the native way of life, the end of that contact
period and because he was a lay man, his observations would be a counterpoint to what the
religious missionaries had written about the Philippines.

Chapter 8 contains his more personal observations, which elicited punctilious annotations
from Jose Rizal. At one point, when Morga wrote about loose morals among the natives, Rizal
recommended to the reader, Blumentritt’s treatise, “Versuch einer Etnographie der Philippinen.”
Morga wrote about food and, like current-day foreign visitors, he said that we natives love to eat
fish “that is smelly and about to rot.” That is bagoong, Rizal explained, which is fermented and is
a delicacy; Europeans also have smelly food, like certain kinds of cheese.

Natives drink heavily, Morga said, they all end up drunk during wedding feasts; in his
annotation, Rizal quoted Fr. Colin who said it is common knowledge that they drink a lot but no
matter how inebriated they seem to be after a gathering or a feast, they can always find their way
home. On the positive side, Morga was amazed at the native skill for boat making and navigating
without a compass. Quite amazed, he described a boat with a hundred oars, carrying 30 well-armed
warriors. Rizal expounded on that by saying that Filipinos, like the inhabitants of the Marianas,
were known for their ship-building and navigational skills, but unfortunately, there was no
progress because the natives were obliged to make European-style boats like the galleons. Rizal
said that even with rudimentary tools, Filipinos made vessels that weighed 2,000 tons (He names
a source.) River transport to the interior had died because of the “insecure system” of government;
our naval architecture is nothing more than a memory. The boats Morga described were extinct
but never replaced by modern watercraft, unlike in neighboring countries. For their time, they were
the perfect type of vessels; so light, they could swiftly sail against the wind. The Spaniards called
them lanzaderas. Couldn’t these boats have been perfected? Rizal wondered. He also commented
on the loss of certain species of wood due to the construction of European-style vessels.

Rizal painstakingly put things in their proper context: Morga said the natives revere and venerate
the crocodile because they are afraid of its power. Even Christians curse “may the crocodile kill
him!” to those who make false promises, perjure, and breach contracts. May they suffer the wrath
of the buhaya! Rizal explained that there were instances when crocodiles, while sparing their Indio
servants, gobbled friars. Historians have given propitious explanations when that happens, but not
when Indios are victims.

Next is one of my favorites, Rizal’s letter to the young women of Malolos,Jose Rizal was
greatly impressed by the fighting spirit that the young women of Malolos had shown. In his letter,
he expresses great joy and satisfaction over the battle they had fought. In this portion of Rizal’s
letter, it is obvious that his ultimate desire was for women to be offered the same opportunities as
those received by men in terms of education. During those days young girls were not sent to school
because of the universal notion that they would soon only be taken as wives and stay at home with
the children. Rizal, however, emphasizes on freedom of thought and the right to education, which
must be granted to both boys and girls alike.
Next chapters 12 and 13 from Rizal’s book El Filibusterismo were discussed, Placido
Penitente and the Physic’s class. Chapter 12 is about Placido Penitente goes to school but is
distracted by his schoolmates while chapter 13 is about during Physics class, Padre Millon argues
with Placido Penitente about the lesson on mirrors. Both chapters show the class difference of the
Spaniards and the indos. It also showed the difference between education system before as to what
it is today. We also did the field notes, which is very interesting considering the amount of
pressure that we are in right now, we managed to find the leisure in this activity, having to
eavesdrop from the people around the campus was both fun and impactful in ways words can’t
even express. We’ve read the painstakingly long, The indolence of the Filipino, like any other
reading in this class, I was baffled by the impact it had, most specially knowing the effects of
colonialism in the country. Nevertheless, all of those readings prepared me for the next battles to
come.
I know that my ability to write and express my ideas, thoughts and knowledge has grown
stronger each activity. I have always struggled to put my thoughts on paper in a manner that is
coherent and correct according to assignments. I can remember being told numerous times in
Junior and Senior High School to "organize your thoughts" or "provide more support and
examples", as someone with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD, arranging what
I have to say was a real struggle. These are the things that I have worked on and improved over
the past couple of years and I feel that my work shows this. The papers I wrote when I first started
here was to show that I am not just another student, but then those self-created expectations then
disappeared as I got lost in the beauty of writing over again.
The activities and papers that I have written in the past couple of months have really helped
me shed the bad habit of self-created pressure and write better papers with a more open and relaxed
manner. I have learned how to write various styles of papers in different forms and different fields.
I feel confident that I could do papers and analyze long readings with a lighter amplitude and not
be perplexed or alienated by new concepts. I am not claiming to be the best student but to be the
best at trying. Trying to learn, trying to adapt, trying to do certain tasks, because no matter how
many failures I encounter as long as I keep trying I will never get lost.The life and works of Rizal
will serve as a constant reminder that time may have changed, technology may have advanced,
and Philippine history may have been written down with stories of different characters, time,
scenarios, and events. Yet the message and the theme of the story remained clear - Patriotism,
Nationalism, and Heroism. To this day, we have been fighting for our principle, and we have never
budged in. Filipinos are like diamonds, the more we chip it the more it shines.