COLUMNIST Susan Ople recently wrote about how her college-graduate daughter has a job, but not a career.

But she is not one to despair. She remembers herself in the same situation right after graduation, when she wanted to quit her job, telling her boss—Sen. Ernesto ‘Boy’ Herrera—that she was not happy with what she was doing. He understood and assigned her to media. Obviously, she has been much happier since.

When we were asked to search for a commencement speaker for our high school in San Juan, St. John’s Academy, without hesitation we said that Eugenia D. Apostol, our first editor at the original Manila Times, would be the perfect speaker.

She had given us the direction our career would take many years earlier, and we wouldn’t have become the writer we are now had it not been for her.

Ecstatic

Right after graduating from UP with an AB Major in Journalism, we started sending out features to the various newspapers around town while applying for a job. We got published twice, which made us ecstatic. However, all our inquiries for vacancies were negative. After three months of job hunting, we were accepted by a mutual fund purely on the basis of our typing skills.

By chance, a college chum from our party circuit, Letty Jimenez, mentioned that we could probably contribute to the Manila Times Teen page. We tried this out, and here’s where we met Eggie Apostol, who was Women’s editor of the Manila Times then.

This started our long relationship with the Times and Eggie. Had it not been for her, we still would be typing away in a corner of a mutual fund company and hating it by the day.

We remembered this crucial moment during the recent St. John’s commencement exercises. A hundred twenty-one graduates trooped into the auditorium all dressed in white. The salutatorian, Randall John Manalang, and valedictorian, Zyrianne Grace Grado, spoke of what to expect of the world outside, reminding co-graduates not to lose heart and give up.

Always think of education, they said, as more than perfecting lessons in class. More importantly, it’s about perpetuating positive moral traits.

These young graduates are aware of the gap between graduating and going on to college, or getting a job and meeting pitfalls along the way. Often, one’s career path is determined by luck, talent—and a helping hand.

In our case, it was Eggie’s helping hand. From her speech before the graduates, we found out that she’s been returning the favor throughout her long career.

Important day

In her 10-minute talk, Eggie told the graduates how much she was reminded of her own high-school graduation in 1942, before even their parents were born.

“Today is an important day in your life to be graduating from high school from a well-known, well-respected institution of learning. Before you, distinguished graduates have become well-known citizens of our land. Concepcion Gil, the school’s founder, was one of the professors of my class at UST. She inspired me to dedicate my life to scholarly pursuits. People like her showed me the way to propagate a newspaper known today as the Inquirer. How did this all begin?”

And Mrs. Apostol went on with her tale of how, as a little girl of 3 or 4 years old growing up in Sorsogon, she once slipped through the family gate and rode a bus for destinations unknown. It was a while before the bus conductor recognized her as the child of Dr. Duran, the town’s sanitary inspector, and brought her back to her home and to parents who were frantically searching everywhere for her.

“We were eight children growing up in Sorsogon, Sorsogon province. When my father, Dr. Duran, joined politics and became a representative for the province, he brought us all to Manila—four boys and four girls. Thanks to the bus conductor, I finished a course from the UST Philosophy and Letters. I then started working for the weekly Catholic publication, the Sentinel. Where would I be if that bus conductor had not recognized me and returned me to my family?”

“I have a high respect for bus conductors. My life would not have had its twists and turns today if not for him. Your lives would not have the advantages in the future if you did not graduate from St. John’s Academy. Think about that and be forever grateful to your beloved school.”

Indeed, who knows what other fate would have awaited Eggie if not for that bus conductor? She wouldn’t have become what she is today—an icon in journalism, the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, a visionary and maverick writer, editor and publisher.

In other words, while we make the most of what we have in pursuing our dreams, some factor can still determine the direction of those dreams—a helping hand, for instance. Keep your eyes open for it.

Send comments to bibsycarballo@yahoo.com

St. John’s Academy is the leading private coeducational secondary institution in San Juan, founded in 1930 by Concepcion Marquez Gil together with her six sisters. Two presidents—Joseph Ejercito Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo—had their elementary schooling here.