27/04/2025
From an early age, many of us are taught to define ourselves by our professions.
We are asked what we want to become, rarely who we want to be.
The choice of academic programs in high school, the selection of courses in college — even the justification for an expensive education — is often filtered through a single lens: the promise of economic return.
For many, especially those of us who pursued the arts, the unspoken question lingers: Will you even find a job after graduation?
This pressure reveals a deeper flaw in how society frames worth:
Work becomes life, and life becomes work. We live so that we can work, and we work so that we can live — a cycle that leaves little room for meaning beyond survival.
This is where the argument for universal basic income finds its human core. It is not merely about economic redistribution. It is about liberating people from being reduced to mere economic units — allowing them instead to pursue lives of creativity, service, discovery, and joy.
I am reminded of a beautiful thought I once encountered:
Huwag tayong mangarap nang mataas; mangarap tayo nang malalim.
If money were not an obstacle, aside from fulfilling my responsibilities to my family and community, I would dream of a life filled with wonder:
I would play Dota and basketball, swim in open waters, run long distances, sing and dance freely. I would take thousands of photographs, read countless books, play the piano and the guitar, learn another language, even master another instrument. I would create, explore, and celebrate the fullness of being alive. I will travel and take my family and friends to celebrations of various milestones.
In a world free from economic fear, some would dream of service, others of beauty — many of both.
Service would no longer feel like sacrifice; it would be a natural outpouring of a life lived with meaning.
As Professor Dumbledore wisely said:
"It is not our abilities that show what we truly are... it is our choices."
Our worth is not anchored in how much we can produce, earn, or perform — but in how deeply we choose to live, to love, and to serve.
Thus, the dream is not merely personal ambition, but collective flourishing.
It is not about rising above others, but about growing roots — reaching deep into the needs of our nation, our people, and the inner lives we have long suppressed for the sake of survival.
Imagine a world where our first question to the young is not:
"What do you want to be?"
but rather:
"Who do you want to become?"
And from there, we help them build lives not of mere existence, but of meaning.
Blessed Sunday, everyone.
