My Keynote Address at the Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue, 2010, where I encouraged over 1,000 Filipino youth to be beautifully delusional. Man. I can’t believe they let a goof like me have this responsibility. Tsk tsk. Just kidding =)
(video above is only part 1. you can find parts 2 and 3 on youtube.)
I have a confession to make. While I was preparing for this speech, (a huge responsibility, mind you) the questions that stressed me out most weren’t “What profound statement can I make today”, or “What words will I choose to make the greatest impact”, but “Oh dear. What oh what am I going to wear?
I’m kidding, of course. Delivering a speech at an opening ceremony (or any other speech for that matter) is inevitably, a high stress situation, which lead many people to wonder why I volunteer to do them, time and time and again. Clearly, I am insane. Or maybe I’m just crazy enough to choose to be brave.
I have another confession to make. Even though I was born and raised in the Philippines, I’m a bit bitter about missing an important Filipina trait. Well, besides being born 5’9” and not 5’2”, I also didn’t quite inherit the “voice”. You know, the kind of voice, the boses, that wins every karaoke battle and makes a star out of anyone that appears on a variety show. Regrettably, even my sweetest friends have shyly admitted that I am in fact, tone deaf.
Thankfully, I have found other ways to create something powerful and magnificent out of this voice.
The theme of this year’s conference is boses, voice. Fittingly, it is my voice and my expression that holds the core of who I am, who I have been, and who I am destined to become. Using my voice is at the forefront of the dreams I am pursuing, leading me aboard on an unconventional career path that has taken me on adventures beyond my wildest imaginations. However, it is also this unconventional career path that threatens to place me in again, a state of insanity- how dare I venture towards unfamiliar territory outside of comfortable, traditional ideas? When I get frustrated on my path, I picture my mom saying, “See? Sayang. You should have become a nurse, ha.” Yet, it is this path, the path that depends on my voice to amplify the richness of our culture, that gives me power.
And so today, I lovingly encourage you all to join me in my insanity. One of my favorite actors, Will Smith, once said, “I think there’s a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have. You have to believe that something different can happen than what has happened for the last 50 million years of history…Why be realistic? Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.” As we all know, we just want to be successful. But the outcomes of true success are far more than a paycheck and status. True success is finding something you are so passionate about, that you wake up excited every single day with a fire in your heart in loving pursuit of it. True success is having the kind of work that makes the world better, more livable, more compassionate, more peaceful. True success is your ability to discover, own, and define your power, and that which gives your life meaning.
Seeking and claiming your power is best done when you follow your intuition, when you listen to the voice inside you that tells you what moves your heart and what gives you life, and when you break through the fear of risking everything to follow what it is you truly love. The good news is that by choosing to be here, you have already taken the first step. There is nothing more effective in the search for your power than being with your community- your greatest asset. The next step is finding the courage to wholeheartedly believe that your power is worthwhile.
Now because I’m all about confessions today, I will admit- the path I chose hasn’t been an easy one. I never chose to be an artist. Honestly, I once dreamt of how cute I’ll look in baby phat scrubs, because I didn’t just want to be a nurse- I wanted to be a nurse with fabulosity. But here I am, because ever since I recognized the power my voice held in changing the world around me, I knew I could never let it go. This voice is my art, and even when it wasn’t enough to pay all the bills, I knew I was rich in all the ways that mattered.
And isn’t that all that we strive for? To matter? As the new generation and rapidly growing population of Filipino Americans, we deserve to matter. The time has arrived for us to matter. Let me be clear: demanding visibility is no longer enough. We have to aspire to become far more than visible- but relevant, significant. WE DESERVE TO MATTER. But for us to matter, we have to live a life that is contributing to our world. One of my current inspirations, an author by the name of Simon Sinek, has said, “It all starts with WHY”. We all have a “What.” We know what we want to do, but are we clear about WHY we do it? There has to be a meaningful reason behind all that we do.
We become significant when we follow our power, our purpose and our passions.
With that, we must learn to use our voice with conviction that our dreams are valuable and necessary.
For a long while now, I’ve pursued my path wholeheartedly, and even when it has offered many seemingly impossible hurdles, I know that my strength lies in the belief that my passions will eventually lead me to the person the world needs me to become. We are here today at FIND so you can find that person in you that the world needs you to become.
My hope is that you will use these next few days to align yourself with purpose, progress, and the people. Your voice, whether you know it or not, is a tremendous source of transformative change. Of course, being Filipino, it’s usually more effective when you can broadcast this message through karaoke. But like I said, not everyone is that lucky. Yet, everyone has a voice that can resonate inspiration. You have a voice that can serve as a call to action, a call to ignite positive change, a voice, that when used right, can empower a thousand others to give birth to a movement that is beautifully delusional, incredible and insane, but unmistakably extraordinary. Most of us refer to this, as People Power.
Many would call the possibility of a mere housewife restoring democracy after a dictator’s rule delusional, but we and the rest of the world, call her Corazon Aquino. Some would call gaining not one, but two doctorates as well as being fluent in not one but TEN languages crazy, but my goodness, we call him Jose Rizal.
Today I want you to remember that we descend from greatness. We come from an incredible power, and I don’t know about you, but I feel that power thundering in my lungs each time I place my hand to chest to sing our national anthem. That anthem fills me with the courage to believe that like you and the rest of my country, I am a walking, breathing, living legend.
We have inherited our country’s resiliency. Our hands were not only made to grasp the torch that has been lit with the fire of the sun and the stars, but they were also made to hold each other. I want you to remember that already, just by being here, you are champions- a product of survival, courage, tenacity, and brave audacity. We have survived wars, governments, poverty, the painful separation and disconnection that immigration lends our families, and thankfully, the side-part haircut.
Your voice is the gateway to your grandest ability to manifest a new reality. I hope you will use it to not only spark dialogue about issues that matter, but to spark creativity and connection between each other. I hope you will use your voice to find something worth fighting for, a passion to hang on to, a cause to feed your spirit, and the way towards a bit of insanity.
Because in the words of Jack Keouac, the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
I want to end this speech by offering the quote I live by, spoken by civil rights leader Dr. Howard Thurman:
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.
In Tagalog, we have a very special word, Mabuhay, which when literally translated, means to give life, or to come alive.
So by all means, and by any means necessary,
Mabuhay.
Come alive.
Lil Sexy's Rants and Raves
Fri
Apr
15
