Basic HTML Version
3 I The Best Online Education System in the world
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS…
Kathlyn Q. Barrozo
Class of 1991, University of Santo Tomas
B.S. Medical Technology
I saw this lovely shout out on a co-teacher’s Skype window : When Opportunity knocks, invite it to come to
dinner. Very well said. In fact, couldn’t have said it better myself. Man is constantly in search of the perfect
opportunity/ies, but unfortunately, sometimes seems to be quite dense and deaf/blind when real opportunity
stares him in the face.
We are all flawed. Nobody’s perfect enough to know immediately when an opportunity is real or not, tangible
or a figment of your imagination. That constitutes our humanness; we are inherently frail and only years of
experience endow us with the wisdom to know what we must know. That is part of our purification, that is
part of our refinement. Like burnished gold, we need to pass through fire and find the form for which we are
meant, the destiny for which we are fated.
Personally, I subscribe to the motto, ”Live each day as if it were your last.” It has worked for me so far since I
decided to try out something I have long wanted to do but have never had the chance to do because I was so
enamored with my comfort zone—teaching. Now, I find the fulfillment of writing online. Admittedly, the tasks
sometimes seem a little overwhelming, because as a writer you’d have to come out with fresh ideas every time,
no matter if you’re on the job as a ghost writer. You are only as good as your last written piece. If you do not
continuously hone yourself, you lose your edge. Fortunately, my luck has been holding so far.
It was the same when I was just doing online teaching, and before that, man-to-man teaching. Both tasks
require dedication and commitment to come up to particular standards. The opportunity to teach man-to-man
arose out of a need for employment, while that of teaching online arose more from a need to diversify. Both
have served well to prepare me for an opportunity to write. Of course, I still have a long way to go, and I
believe just around the corner, there is yet another opportunity I have been destined to take.
The moral of the story is this: the opportunities that we take in life prepare us for more opportunities that offer
greater benefits and fulfillment that are to come in the future. We should not waste the opportunities we are
given---we should grab them, make ourselves really good at them, and then when another opportunity arises
and we feel we are ready to take it, grab it. Nobody’s there to stop us from doing so.
But if we do not take those opportunities that are presented to us, we have a lifetime of regret to contend with.
And that’s an opportunity that nobody really deserves.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Explain the saying: When opportunity knocks, invite it to come to dinner.
2. Do you think opportunities are always easy to find?
3. What are the job opportunities for people with your course/degree?
4. How can we find opportunities where there seems to be none?
5. What was the writer’s personal experience with opportunities? Do you think you would have done the same
thing in her place?