Lil, you have reached a point in your life when your eyes are cast into the far horizon with the eagerness of one who longs to find his place in the sun. Your youthful mind seeks for answers to the riddles of human existence. Your heart throbs with fiery longings for adventures. Your supple body aches with urges and drives that long for fulfilment. Yes, such is the marvel of being at the threshold of full adulthood.
On this your 20th year in life, barely one step to legal age so called, you must have acquired from the random paths of humanly experience as a young man, robust with dreams and pursuits for personal happiness, some bits of wisdom alongside indiscretions, faults and failures. And that is just as commonplace as breathing in and out fresh or foul air.
And life goes on. . . and you must not falter. But it is imperative that this early you know the main direction of the journey you embarked upon. And find that you are not a lone traveler. Many are in the same path on which your curiosity must find secure footing so that you can go on with confidence to reach your goal, because there’s no straight and smooth path, nor is there a life constantly decked with blossoms.
Life is a struggle, varying in harshness as you plod across the years, fraught with contradictions that require lots of stratagems and maneuverings. So many obstacles are scattered along the road. And one needs strength of will to overcome and outlast them. But in the combat against forces that stand on the way, you need to consider the people by the wayside. Heed that they may not be imperiled by your necessary engagements. Be mindful that you don’t unnecessarily marginalize them and worsen their unhappy plight. They too are engaged in skirmishes against unspeakably terrible odds that cripple them in the midst of their exploited and oppressed state.
Last of all, hearken to the core of my message that aims to touch your mind and heart with this injunction: Love this poor country of ours—its people, its history, its culture, its freedom. Better still, in your own humble ways, be part of the instruments that would design the architecture of its future.
– Papa Don
