Basic HTML Version
2 I The Best Online Education System in the world
TRUST IS NOT A FIVE-LETTER WORD
Kathlyn Q. Barrozo
Class of 1991, University of Santo Tomas
B.S. Medical Technology
That’s right, you’ve read it correctly. The word trust is not merely a word; it’s a conglomeration of five distinct
words. You know what this writer believes? Trust means: Total Reliance Unto Someone’s Truthfulness. Okay,
okay. Pummel me all you want with your mockery and allegations of cheesiness. But in this often insane world,
TRUST has often been bandied about and made a mockery of so openly. Getting it from those reading this
essay should prove to be a learning experience.
How much does it take to break someone’s trust? As many of you are most likely to agree, very little. Make one
mistake and the slightest whisper of doubt travels down the spine. Make two, and the sliver of doubt becomes
an incision. Make one more, and the incision becomes a whole chunk taken off. Make some more, and the cuts
become bites that hurt really, really deep. Sad to say, many of us build trust according to the number of times it
is breached, not the number of times it is structured slowly and with care. In other words, when you see a
clean whiteboard, you’ll just take it for granted as being a clean whiteboard. But when someone draws a black
or dark dot or even a short line on the board’s immaculately-white surface, you’ll say the board hasn’t been
thoroughly cleaned. Get it?
Finger snap to real life.
During my clinical lab internship at a medical hospital, I made the mistake of doing the morning readings on lab
samples taken that morning using a different (totally incorrect!) parameter. It was a few minutes before my co-
interns and I were about to wrap up our 24-hour tour of duty for the week. I think my stupidity was caused by
the struggle to fight sleepiness or the number of exhausting blood sucking (read: extractions) that I had to do
prior to doing the readings. Memory evades me now. But what I distinctly remember was when the laboratory
technologist on duty that morning became really (!) upset at my mistake. I profusely voiced my apologies, of
course, while she went about doing the readings properly-and expertly. She graciously took them, my apologies
I mean. However, I was issued a very (!) stern oral warning NOT.TO.COMMIT.THE.SAME.MISTAKE.EVER.AGAIN.
Or else. Fortunately, the “ever again” stuck to my brain like a leech. I was always careful since then not to let
sleepiness, or whatever it was, get the better of me.
We learn from our mistakes after the mistakes are made, never before. However, the trust that gets broken can
be difficult to bring back. However, what we can do as human beings is to admit things in a most sincere
manner and work ourselves up from there. Who knows? What can be broken can ultimately be repaired, or
made much stronger. N’est-ce pas?
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
1.
Define “trust”.
2.
How do you personally value the trust that others place in you?
3.
Why is trust so difficult to gain back once it gets broken?
4.
Cite instances when you have broken others’ trust. Cite instances when others have broken your trust.
5.
Give suggestions on how to regain trust. Be as specific as you need to be.