Never lose heart.

"I'm tired and it's probably my fault."

"Why do you say that?"

"Maybe I'm taking more than I can chew."

"Is that even your responsibility?"

"Some are, some are not."

"Then why do you do things that are not your responsibility?"

"Because no one else will."

"And you wonder why you are tired."

This has been a recurrent conversation in my head for the past week or so. Third year of residency training has been taking a toll on me and today, as I was telling this to the boyfriend, he gave me two great pieces of advice that I know I ought to write about. 

"There was a man and a balut vendor. Everyday the man will buy balut from the vendor but will not get the balut; in a sense, the man was just giving the vendor 20 pesos every night. He did it for two years and then one night, as the man was giving the vendor 20 pesos,  the balut vendor replied, "30 pesos na po."

It is human nature to be selfish, probably because we were wired to think about oneself first to survive. That sometimes, when you lend someone a hand, they would try to take the whole arm. Personally, this makes it really difficult to do what is good because people abuse everything good in nature. But do you stop doing what is good?

DOTA is a game of 2 teams of 5 players playing against each other. You usually play with your teammates, people you know how to work/play with. But during the times that you don't play with people you know, you should always have the mindset that you are playing alone - that it's a 1 vs 9 game. It's not about being the best player, or trying to win by carrying all the burden by yourself but trying to make sure that you make the least mistakes. It is human nature to be selfish, that you should always assume that people will bring you down. They will not help you but by the time that they will need your help, they will complain about you not helping. That's why another powerful play in this game is to press the mute button.  

Who would have thought that I would get such deep life lessons from DOTA? No matter how unfair the playing field is, you should never compromise and instead even try to be better, shutting off your ears from the unnecessary noise around you. 

***

Last Friday, I was grateful to be able to attend and listen to the Ramon Magsaysay Awarding Ceremony. In a world full of people who only care about themselves, it's inspiring to listen to stories of compassion, courage and empathy. Although there are more of those who are selfish, there are those few who choose others more than oneself, and they should be the kind of people we should aspire to be to make this world better.

"Be the change that you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

"If you give the world your best, the world will give its best back." - Dr. Fe Del Mundo

Sometimes, it's so easy to lose faith in humanity with the kind of things we see and listen to which gets worse each day. Sometimes, you get to experience first hand the things that make this world more difficult to live in - the smart shaming because you are doing what is right and you make them look bad or being misunderstood just because you stand up for what is true.

I have repeatedly use this phrase but truly, it gets frustrating every time you assume that everyone has the same heart as you. It is so easy to be tired and overwhelmed. But still, muting the negativity, you choose to continue to do what is right, you do not compromise for what is just and you continue to stand up for what is true. Because, the world deserves every bit of goodness it can get.