The Early Worm
By: Maria Reylan M. Garcia
The early bird gets the early worm. I always thought this line only applied to my pres-school classmate who was always an hour early for class. I envied him, for each day he was early he gets to greet our teacher good morning before any one could. I was afraid my teacher would soon give him more gold stars than the rest of the class. But as I became more rational and thought more than just twinkling stars and jumbo-sized crayons, my eyes were opened to an appalling portrait of society's obsession to get ahead of one another. We see would-be political candidates each playing their game whether it maybe of altruistic origin as relief missions and house loans or simply getting the rubbish out in the open of other contenders. We see officemates each having their own cup of coffee blended with creamy nepotism and sugary bribery towards looking good in front of the boss, towards promotion. We see students each racing for the top spot in the honor rolls either through sleepless and brain-wrecking nights of studying or taking the easy street of copying off someone when exam day comes. Undoubtedly, most of us would like to be an early bird.
But, has it ever occurred to you that the early worm gets eaten? The unfortunate fate of an early worm who wanted to be better than the rest of the underground crawlies ended up in a punctual bird's growling stomach. Sometimes it pays to wait in the background before jumping in the spotlight. The first mouse gets trapped while the second one gets the cheese. I am not sure if the first mouse was just plain idiotic or simply was too anxious, but I am sure that the second mouse knew that being number two has its own advantages. What's wrong with being number two or number three? What's wrong with silver or bronze? I myself believe that being unable to reach the top gives you more opportunities and much wider space for improvement thereby letting you exhaust all of your potentials. Presuming one has reached the top spot, became numero uno, and hoisted the golden trophy; one's adventure then ceases to continue, because there's nothing more to come after being number one. The journey ended too soon and one's life will just revolve around maintaining dominion over the first rank.
I would be a hypocrite if I would deny that I want to be number one; that I dream to be the best. It is but normal for everyone to do so because if the enthusiasm and goal of achieving the paramount of greatness ceased, life itself and its purpose will be put into dire waste. I salute all of you who sit in the apex of academic hierarchy: the top notchers of recent nursing licensure exam, May your tribe increase. Hats off to the modern merchants whose earnings are worth more than the population of China and India combined: the business tycoons. Thank you for considering philanthropy. With all the glory and splendor received by the hotshots of society, sometimes we tend to be so hard on ourselves when we fail to be number one. But hopefully, we'll all remember that life still goes on even if we get a B+ instead of an A-, even if we were just down to number two, number three or even ranked the very last. Life is a matter of perspective; we can be jubilant about being the best and aim for perfection or just take the plunge of embarrassment and mistakes and be hopeful for other opportunities to grow and learn.
Last week, I felt like the early worm facing the agitated beak of an early bird. I received a comment regarding my article on the Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2007 last July 29, 2008. Honestly my initial reaction was pure shame and regret of letting teenage angst and tactless instincts to overrule myself. If ever I have stepped on someone else's opinion or had been the reason for misconception, I humbly apologize. I might have overlooked and failed to completely weigh both sides of the issue. The Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2007 was indeed intended for married couples in their course of family planning. It was too abrupt and impulsive of me to begin relating the connection of such bill with unmarried couples. But since condoms are quite readily accessible in most convenience stores, it is obviously possible for even unmarried couples to gain access to such contraceptive, right? But, although I stood corrected I still am firm of my stand of being against the use of artificial family planning using contraceptives even for married couples. I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate or rather restate my grounds.
The Philippines is not overpopulated because there are still wide open spaces in most of our rural areas with a population density lower than Singapore being a stable country. I stated this fact not to promote perfect population distribution and massive migration to the inhabited farmlands of the Philippines but to remind us that the number of people within a nation isn't the gauge and assurance for economic stability. Why can Singapore be more economically progressed than our country if they have a far greater population density than we do? Artificial family planning or the use of contraceptives in my own personal opinion is immoral because the art and gift of sex should be a sacred act for procreation, and using contraceptives would only mean the married couple doesn't want to procreate which doesn't coincide with my first argument. They call it sacred because it was given for a purpose and that is, to give existence to a new life. The reason of couples intending a comfortable life for their family by preventing the existence of another one is to my own view is very shallow. Life starts at conception, during the union of the sperm and the egg the very point of union. Mind you, contraceptive pills contains levonorgestrel causing early abortion through preventing not of conception but of implantation. Implantation is the sticking of the fertilized egg cell to the walls of the uterus. This simply means an offspring has already been conceived and has the basic quality of life before such innocent creature was aborted.
To the concerned mister who commented on my article last week, I thank you for your time of reading my on view and am sorry if I had been too tactless. But I stand firm to my belief. This is my opinion as a concerned youth, as a devout Catholic and as a pro-life.
I admit I was an early worm, too impulsive and rash.
But, it doesn't affect me at all. I still have chances and opportunities.
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