My Past, My Mentor

This speech was written by one of my students in High School who is now in her 3rd year in college at St. Paul University - Doralyn Valero.

My Past, My Mentor

“Forget the past.” This we basically hear from others, a statement which seemingly suggests that what a person experienced yesterday is unimportant to what he is today. Yes, some of us tend to ignore our past. Some even choose to forget it as they think in so doing they will make better of themselves. To this idea, I disagree as I believe that it is the past that has been responsible for what has become of each of us today. The past is the reason for what and who I am now.

Fellow junior toastmasters and guests, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon! Let me share with you my past and how I was made better by it. 

Pampered, I was. My family especially my parents were responsible for such. I had every thing I wanted. I was my family’s little princess. That’s how I interpreted the kind of treatment they were giving me then. When I started schooling, I never excelled much in academics but my parents did not seem to care. They accepted me and embraced my flaws, thus providing me a comfort zone which I think contributed to my becoming contented to all that I had. Life went smoothly for me.

                

 I got to high school, found good friends and experienced so much fun with them. Fun, that was all that mattered to me. Each thing I did, including my dealing with my fellows, was for fun. Until one day, I woke up realizing that I was alone. My friends left me for my having been finicky and sharp-tongued. I have gone selfish and proud. Rejection embraced me for a long time. I feared getting to school and studying became a millstone to me. Consequently, I felt the same was happening at home. I started getting the kind of attention I never used to have. I was no longer my parents’ darling. I was no longer everyone’s favorite. I had nobody to talk to and share my problems with. Abandoned, I was.

                

There had been a point that I desired to speak up about what I was feeling for all of them, about the situation that I was in. However, the thought that I would not be understood by any of my family members stopped me from doing so. Overcoming the pressure caused me the greatest of all the trials I had ever imagined.

            

Hence, I started pondering about myself, about the situation as a whole. I thought on my behavior in various instances, my attitude about people, my perception of myself and how it differs from their perception of me. Then, I realized, I have to change. I have to face the challenge, deal with reality. I have matured in age, so I need to act in a manner expected of a mature person. Thus, I learned to practice optimism, something which opened my eyes to a lot of things and brought me understanding of the situations I dealt with every day of my life. Listening to what others had to say and returning the care that my friends and family extended me became part of my existence. I even learned to associate with those whom I barely knew. And the one which I considered the most important was that, I got to see the vitality of accepting my very own weaknesses and trying my best to overcome them.

               

The past, my past.  How can I ever forget it if it’s something responsible for what and who I am today? If it’s something that let me see and realize life’s lessons? I believe that life is a choice and one can choose to either forget or remember his past. In my case, I chose to remember my past, examine it and ended up learning from it. I took steps to changing one at a time and I think I succeeded. As Dale Turner said, “Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.”

                   

How about you? Do you ever consider pondering about your past? What has it done to and for you?

Thank you.