Realia: Pozorrubio in Thailand

by Jonathan R. Carreon

It has been quite some time, yet the reminiscences of a meaningful and worth-living youthful memoir remains undaunted and intact in my cognition. Twenty four long years passed so swiftly; although for a pro-active person like me, that span of time seems like another “kahapon lamang” – with all the joys, laughters, tears and “maboboteng usapan” I had with my friends, acquaintances and “kabaleyans”. Two snapshots in my humble elementary and high school moments continue to create, recreate, remind and stir my imagination of what Pozorrubio Central School and Saint Philomena’s Academy’s central tenets contributed to the present me. My memory is still fresh of my Grade 6 teachers’ parting words: “As you progress in your endeavors, look back and say ‘Thank you’.” While my mentors may no longer remember me, may this short missive express my most profound gratitude to the Grade 6 teachers of Batch 1984. You are all heroes in my heart! Similarly, my high school mentors’ indispensable “tulong at tulak” (for me the Caucasian version is less emphatic) continually reminds me of the authentic yet slowly eroding Filipino values such as diligence, benevolence, and “bayanihan” (although the last one is more of a hyponym under the super-ordinate ‘culture’). I salute you all!

As an educator away from home, I continue to impart these values – the very values that served and still serving as maxims in my life – to my students, a living legacy I should say, that distinguishes a Pozorrubian from the multiracial educators in Thailand.

Agyamanac cadacayo amin!
Jonathan R. Carreon
Lecturer

Email: kmuttjc@live.com, milojohn23@gmail.com
King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
Website: http://www.kmutt.ac.th