“Every. Some. Any. None” Part 2 of 2

But high school was more than that. High school helped me decide what I want to be. I remembered back in my fourth year, I shared to classmates my dream to become an interior designer. I want to design and create spaces for people — To create something unique, to create something different. They said I need to have an ambition I thought I’d be able to fulfill that ambition and then have the 3 of the remaining challenges be done asap. But to and behold everything from that point onwards was just getting started.

Somebody – I really thought that I was going to shape my future by choosing to study interior design but somebody chose for me. My parents decided that I should study psychology instead of interior design for practicality. Interior design was an expensive course and psychology wasn’t. But I know that I am not going to take it lightly so I took the decision as it was my own and enrolled.

Until finances hit the family really hard that I thought I was only going to finish a semester in college. I was able to enroll the following semester though but I had to find ways and means to make ends meet or else, I will not be able to finish college and will not be able to fulfill those four challenges. I know I am not going to take it lightly. I took a part-time job at a fast food chain for me to aid me financially in my studies.

It was not easy as I had to juggle a lot in my hands – work, studies, and responsibilities at home. But what motivated me was to be able to achieve those life goals. But the motivation really was not enough to sustain me for the remaining 2 years of college. I started to get back to that mindset that I might as well be a nobody – no hassle, no stress, nothing; until somebody came to the rescue.

That somebody was my mother’s half-sister. She saw that I had a future and that if helped, that I will be able to achieve a lot. My aunt helped me get my diploma. I am proud to say that with the difficulties, I finished a bachelor’s degree in psychology in four straight years. This was something that my siblings were equally proud of. They know that they have someone to look up to.

Getting the diploma was my first of many success stories I would wish to share to you. A success story because that simple nod of what everybody wanted me to be became an experience for me to be a somebody and not a nobody.

Anybody — I believe that anybody can relate to my story and may have more hardships compared to mine. Anybody could say that, “Nah, it’s a story I’ve heard a number of times” or “Wow, that was a great story!”

In any story that one creates, a character will always have a choice to either be passive or to choose to make a difference. Being the character in your own story, what would you choose?

This is a story about a girl who became Everybody, Nobody, Somebody, and Anybody. There was an important goal to be done and everybody was sure that she will be able to achieve it.

Everybody did not know that she thought that she was starting to feel to be a nobody until somebody knew and believed that she can do it. Hopefully, her experience made everybody know that one will never be a nobody if everybody would believe that anybody can definitely be a somebody.

*Joy is the president of Queen City Toastmasters Club. The club meets every second and fourth Saturdays of the month, at Salt Restaurant, St. Patrick’s Square near Redemptorist Church, Cebu City, 6 p.m.