Cause of Tapat, a course that should have taken 3 turned 8 years to finish.
For those who didn’t go to school in De La Salle University, Alyansang Tapat sa La Sallista (TAPAT) is a student political party in school. Twice a year (freshmen & general), the organization searches, trains & fields people to run during the student council elections. I am privileged to have been their youngest organization president becoming it’s head before becoming a sophomore. This year Tapat celebrated it’s 30th year and I am just marvelled at how time flies. It was only 5 years old when I joined and I didn’t notice that it was 25 years since. Now writting this blog just makes me feel so old…
In one bored moment in class, I did the salmon logo of Tapat which they still use till now.
As the President — I lived what Tapat stood for 24/7, I studied (or maybe even helped formulate) it’s mission / vision and lived it, and can honestly say with all my had that whatever I had, whoever I was, I poured it out into the organization even to the point of cutting classes and taking leaves of absence whenever the elections came up. Eventually, I became a walking Tapat and the organization became who I was. I was able to contribute so many things which are still used until this day like the salmon logo which I am really amazed at how it resembles the Ichtus symbol which incase you don’t know stands for Jesus or fishers of men, the slogan, the organization structure to name a few…
Victims of my craziness. I’m so sorry guys.
During my term, one of the thing I taught my core just for fun was a ritual we called “Cheers to Tapat”, a ritual wherein you have to say “cheers to Tapat cheers for the first time” and then do a bunch of body movements correctly 3x while chugging an entire glass or bottle of beer. If you make a mistake, you get to do everything over again making it a notch higher since you become more and more intoxicated as you repeat. During the recent party, I saw a table where everyone was around and I’m surprised that they were doing the ritual I taught. This made me ask myself “What does one do to leave a legacy?”. In my thinking i’ve come to the conclusion that Legacies are passed on whether accidental or intentional.
Honestly, I wanted to grab the mic and apologize… There could have been many other positive things I left as my legacy but why this? Something fun but not really proud of.
I write this to share, and make you aware and conscious that there are things we might not even be aware of that impacts others. The kind that gets passed on from generation to generation. Im my case, 25 years is equivalent to about 8 generations of students who totally missed each other in college (cause we have one new batch every year) and it’s not just in school or work but in our very homes. What kind of legacy are we creating for the next generation to follow? Is it something that we’ll be proud of or something that will put us to shame?
Here are some tips on leaving a legacy:
- Be authentic about who you are – Don’t be in character when you leave the house but different when you’re home. You never know which trait or action they will copy from you. So it pays to be aware of everything that you are doing. When I was young my dad would go home drunk and tell me “Son, when you get old, don’t be a drunkard like me.” So which did you think I followed, his actions or his words?
- Pray for a successor – Ask God to give you wisdom to see who it is that will replace you. For sure, one day you will leave this world and you can’t bring what you are doing with you? Are you in denial of this fact or is it something you are praparing yourself for?
- Be intentional in Preparing your successor – are you creating an environment where people know what you are doing and they can copy it? Allocate a day where you can put on your teacher cap and teach someone what you are doing. Don’t be afraid to tell someone “I am eyeing you to replace me when I leave.” The best time to start training him or her is now.
There was a book that I read before (sorry I forgot which) that said… a lot of companies don’t want to train people for fear that they will eventually leave them taking this knowledge with them. What they don’t understand is the higher cost the company needs to pay incase these untrained employees decide to stay.
In our family, i’ve taught my 3 oldest kids to scuba dive & take pictures. Jazz has been my stage manager for several events and Matthew was the food manager for a recent kaogma festival. Matthew checks our office for 5s violations and puts an orange sticker on them. I teach them about some techniques in art and drawing. When Jazz was younger, she’d read my diary and even photo copied them. As for my 2 other kids aged 4 and 3, they go to work with me and talk to them about many of my insights.
Last week I attended a funeral with my 4 year old son JD. When we were going to leave he said “Daddy, we haven’t looked at the dead yet.” and so we went to coffin and he took a look. My friend said “Its a good thing he is not scared.” and JD replied “No because dying is actually good. You get to see Jesus and be with Him in heaven.” We all just laughed but deep inside amazed at this truth which I unknowingly told him in passing last year.
