Youth is NOT wasted on the young, it seems...

I gave a talk on "Youth Participation in Citizenship" yesterday for the 16th Congress of the Union of Catholic Student Councils (UCSC) at the beautiful MMLDC conference center in Antipolo. I must confess that when Dr. Antonio Torralba asked me, a few days ago, to address the student leaders of the UCSC, I was rather hesitant, not because I had doubts regarding the very noble objectives of these tireless student leaders but because, in the infancy of my adult married life, I lacked the one quality which separated these student leaders from myself: tirelessness. With all that's been happening the past couple of weeks (UA&P, St. John, and the odd seemingly insoluble problem that crops up from time to time to poke gentle fun at the conventions of married life), I was pretty much running on fumes.

The first miracle of the congress, entitled "Making a Stand in the Threshold of Change", occurred when Harold Verayo's dad, the quietly jolly and ever-attentive Boy Verayo, picked me up from UA&P to take me to MMLDC. Tito Boy, who has been with Meralco since 1968, had many fond memories of my dad, Johnny Borra, who used to be the Head of Personnel in Meralco back in the 80s. His easy going reminisces about the "good old days" were a welcome trip down memory lane, when the Meralco Compound was all about the Lighthouse, Jollye Recreation Center, and happy, smiling people going in and out my dad's office.

The second miracle was the welcome reception that Atty. Chito Gascon and I received from the indefatigable Reyner Villasenor and the lovely, albeit nameless delegates from San Beda College, University of Sto. Tomas, College of St. Benilde, Assumption College, Don Bosco Technical College, De La Salle University and my alma mater, Ateneo de Manila University. Truly, you disprove the adage that "Youth is wasted on the young." I apologize for any school or institution that I may have, inadvertently, left off the preceding list. Ladies and gentlemen, it was my privilege to address you.

NOTE: I do realize that there seems to be no correlation between the picture of Juan that I had lovingly provided to accompany this otherwise nondescript entry, but I remain unrepentant of my blatant display of fatherly pride. Besides, he is cute, so there!