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7 I The Best Online Education System in the world
A LIFE WORTH LIVING
Kathlyn Q. Barrozo
Class of 1991, University of Santo Tomas
B.S. Medical Technology
I’d like to think that the word Opportunity has been designed to contain eleven letters because it’s one letter
away from having ten and one letter away from having twelve---in short, a wealth of possibilities. If it had been
coined as mere OPPORTUNIT—it would have ten letters, but it’s pretty incomplete. If it were designed to
contain a vowel or a consonant after the Y, it’d sound like a word from another language. That’s why, it was
meant to have eleven letters, because after eleven comes twelve and thirteen and more. It’s the perfect word
to show us just how one eleven-letter word can present many exciting possibilities.
The world is filled with endless possibilities. Some of them, we simply disregard as crap, while others we
glowingly describe as golden, ripe opportunities. And indeed, opportunities sometimes are golden and ripe,
but many times will disguise themselves as crap.
Too often, we give up on an uphill climb because we go against gravity, and probably, that is all for the better.
How can you go against gravity, such a powerful force to reckon with as it is? But if people do not pursue an
opportunity because of the many obstacles along the way, then Mount Everest might never have been climbed,
the oceans would have continued to be deep, dark mysteries, diseases would have remained untreated, the
computer would never have been invented. Set your sights high and far, let your dreams guide you. If you do,
the opportunities you seek will eventually get laid on your feet, and all you have to do is pick them up and work
on them and reap the fruits of your labor. Do not be ashamed to take the road less taken, or build what has yet
to be built. If you blaze a trail, others will follow. If you build it, they will come.
Do not be overwhelmed by the uncooperativeness of the world where you exist. Think of those naysayers as
part of your test; they’re simply out there to egg you on. Do not let failure be your main color; paint your
tapestry with the sweetness of success earned through dint of hard work, perseverance, faith and good
character. Do not let your past successes become a cocoon to keep you ever unmoving. Come out from those
successes as a butterfly does from its larval stages—ever beautiful, ever more swift, ever more ready to make
the world a better place to live in.
Opportunity does not come to you gift wrapped, but it often comes to you in the most unusual packaging. It is
now up to you to see the real gift within, the true possibility waiting to be revealed only to you and to no one
else. In the end, the success will be yours to savor and share.
Questions for Discussion:
1. Is there any word in the English language that can best be used to replace opportunity? What is it?
2. Why do people often give up when faced with challenges? What makes winners surpass those challenges?
3. Has there been any experience you’ve had where your patience was tested? Talk about it in detail.
4. Explain this poem:
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Be not afraid to try.
So dream big dreams, reach for the stars,
And set your standards high.
5. Why do people lose opportunities so easily?