Hardwork, Perseverance help made dream come true

Life is all about choices. But while you have the freedom to chart your own path, you would need to face struggles, hardships, and even failures along the way before you can reach your goals. As such, one must work hard, remain focused, and persevere, no matter how difficult the task may be. And one individual who clearly embodies such exemplary character would be security guard, turned lawyer, and now Bureau of Customs employee Roy Lawagan. Family as inspiration Lawagan came from humble beginnings, well aware at an early age that he cannot have everything that he wanted in life and had to, in fact, make do with the little resources they have on hand. But a large part of his success can also be credited to his parents’ character and the way they raised Lawagan in a happy environment despite pressing challenges. “I grew up in a happy environment despite the fact that we don't have much in life, meaning everything that we want or have we had to work hard for it. We had to really strive and study hard, we are not allowed or rather we cannot complain for not having access to the things that we want,” Lawagan recalled. “Good thing I have friends who would give help from time to time In the early days, I was considered as the black sheep of the family because I would often disobey my parents' orders,” he added. The youngest in the brood of four, Lawagan admitted that he and his siblings would often disagree on many things like him always being out of the house to be with his friends. But his perspective changed when Lawagan started to raise his own family. “The turning point was when I saw my first born. That was when I said to myself that I need to be more responsible now because there’s a life that depends on me. I said to myself that I’m going to do everything to make sure that my family would have a good life. I didn’t want my kids to go through what I went through growing up,” Lawagan related. Pursuing dreams To achieve his dream, Lawagan had to work as a security guard for more than five years to help support his studies. This, he said, was likely the most difficult time in his life as there were instances when he felt that he just wanted to give up. But thoughts about his family alone would drive him to do better and pursue his dream. “I cannot afford to give up because I have a family whose lives depended on me. But I must admit that there were many times that I just want to turn my back on everything because of the problems that I have at school, work and even in my own family,” Lawagan admitted. The biggest blow came when Lawagan failed school. And at that crucial time, he was far from his family and was thus left wanting for that much needed support. “I failed, and I had to take summer classes. Otherwise I would be left behind and the tuition was no small amount. For just two units, I had to pay P16,000. And what made it even worse was that I didn't have my family then to support me. I had to endure being away from them because of work and school. At times, it came to a point that my family doubted my sincerity and that made things even more difficult,” Lawagan shared. “It was through prayers and my family that I survived. They kept me going—they were my inspiration. It’s from them that I drew my strength and they're the reason why I never really gave up,” Lawagan claimed. According to Lawagan, it was actually his father’s lifelong wish to have a priest or a lawyer in the family and thus he felt the need to pursue his father’s wish, if only to repay and give back to him all the hard work he has done for the family.

Energy boost

Also helping Lawagan survive all the physical stress during those challenging times was Cobra Energy Drink, which he claimed to have helped him go tirelessly about his day. “Because of my schedule, meaning studying law and working as a security guard at the same time, I would often have only four to five hours of sleep in a day. So it was really physical and mentally exhausting. I really needed that extra energy and that’s how I discovered Cobra energy drink. Cobra gave me that much needed energy and strength that I needed to survive the daily grind,” he said. Lawagan is now happily working at the Bureau of Customs and his concurrent duty was to manage the BOC Sports Development (Lady Transformers Volleyball team), a task that was completely new to him but for which he has been able to do an excellent job. “I thought after law school, everything would be easy already. But on the contrary, a bigger and more difficult task awaits because apart from attending to your duty to your countrymen, you also have a duty to your family and thus the need for greater physical power and energy which I believe only Cobra can provide,” Lawagan said. “Giving up must never be an option. Failures can’t be avoided but what matters is that you know how to rise above such and evolve to become a better version of yourself,” Lawagan concluded.