Howie Severino addresses young graduates: ‘Ask not, why me, but why not me?’

Journalist Howie Severino on Wednesday shared on Facebook the commencement address he delivered to graduates of The Beacon Academy.

Read the full speech below.

“Why Not Us?”

Commencement address
by Horacio “Howie” Severino
The Beacon Academy
June 3, 2020

Let me start with the obvious: The year 2020 so far hasn’t been great.

But as Batch 2020, you will always be associated with it. So own it. But first, we must survive 2020 and survive it well.

So step up and make the most of whatever our times have to offer. This doesn’t have to be just a year of crisis; it could be the year we reimagined nearly everything, so that the world you inherit will not just be a new normal that was forced on you, but a much improved normal that we all made together.

A crisis, wise men say, is a terrible thing to waste.

Students like you the world over have been traumatized by this sudden disruption of a stable, secure environment. Seems like everything today poses a danger, even just touching loved ones. Part of this new normal is fear and anxiety.

But Batch 2020, this is not the first time your character and resilience have been tested this year. It seems now long ago but it’s been less than five months when a nearby volcano erupted, dropped tons of ash, and closed your school. It threatened communities and stopped commerce for weeks.

Then things got even worse with this pandemic. Yes you’ve had it rough. Now let me tell you what I’ve been through.

As I speak to you, I can see Taal Volcano across the lake from my home, which is just 10 kilometers away as the crow flies. When it erupted, my family’s lives were in danger.

We were saved, but we thought we would lose our home and way of life. Many in neighboring towns did lose their homes. But that catastrophe also triggered a tsunami of kindness, a flood of relief and volunteerism bringing comfort to tens of thousands of evacuees.

That too was a force of nature, a tidal wave of empathy that surprised even the victims, some of whom said they got fat from all the relief goods.

Our region was still recovering from that crisis when news of a new disease began to spread.

Last March 19, I developed a fever. I was diagnosed with pneumonia and covid-19. I spent 11 days in the hospital alone, not sure if I would ever see my family again. There were nights when I was delirious and felt like I was dying. I began to think of what I had left undone in my life, the people I should have spent time with, the essential things that I neglected and I would do if I were blessed with more time on earth.

My morale and mind were saved by the only social connection I had left – phone calls to my wife who encouraged me and gave me hope.

After a few days, my body responded to medicines, my fever broke, and I finally felt that I would survive and see my family again. Now through the grace of God, support of my family and the benefits of excellent medical care, I am fully recovered and I can talk to you. I have recovered my health but I am still piecing my life together and realizing that I need not be my old self that perhaps spent way too much time doing things for himself, and that took essential things for granted.

My friend and fellow covid survivor Iza Calzado could not breathe in the hospital without the help of a machine. Now that she’s well, she told me she’s always aware that her every breath is a blessing.

It’s like time. We almost lost it, all of it. Now every moment is a blessing.

And I have the wonderful luck of having this time on earth to share with you the true story of my survival and what it taught me.

One lesson is the obvious but often overlooked truth of our existence, which is any day could be the last day of your life. So use each day well, always be kind, and try to leave no regrets.

Another lesson is we must give time and attention to essential things, like building good family relationships and serving others. There is actually a branch of psychology that studies “happiness.” And much of the research concludes that happiness is often directly proportional not to the value of material things we accumulate, but to the amount of time and focus we devote to others – whether it is doing them favors, giving them comfort, or performing a service to the pubic or even to just strangers.

I was listening to a podcast recently about a young man who had a car, and he noticed a couple of parents pushing their small child to a hospital in a wheelchair on the street during community quarantine because there was no public transportation, no taxis or tricycles.

The young man offered this family a ride in his car to the hospital where the child needed regular treatment for a chronic condition. And then he brought them home. He wouldn’t even give his real name, but the young man has done this regularly now for the family he just met on the street. And while he was sharing this story with listeners, he sounded like the happiest person on earth.

I suspect that’s why all these frontliners persist in showing up for dangerous work despite the fears, exhaustion, and discrimination. It goes beyond a sense of duty. Few of them will talk about it this way, but the science backs up the notion that people like frontliners do it because stepping up when they are absolutely needed simply gives them joy in the deepest sense.

But I don’t need science to know that. In my hospital bed, lonely and very sick, the only people I saw were frontliners in their space suits. I could see only their eyes, but that was enough to get a sense of what was driving them to attend to me with utmost devotion even when I was at my most contagious.

Lesson number three is that the experts got their terminology wrong. We need physical distancing, not social distancing. On the contrary, we need social closeness more than ever. When so much is uncertain – our jobs, our education, our health – we need the certainty of our social connections, the presence even on zoom of our families and friends.

Our old practice of showing affection, the timeless comforts of touch, may be suspended, but that only means we need to redefine the ways we interact and express our emotions to each other. I learned this the hard way in solitude in the hospital when the only source of comfort was the voice of my wife on the phone.

The fourth and final lesson I’d like to share is this: When I first learned that I was sick with covid, I reacted the way many would – why me? Of all the millions of Filipinos, why me? Was this punishment for something? Had I been careless?

Now that I’ve been given a second chance at life, and being asked to share what this recent experience has taught me, I now tell myself, why not me? Better me than my loved ones. Better me, so that I can use the story and lessons of my survival to help others make sense of what we’re all going through.

As a journalist, I’m acutely aware of something called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. It can happen after you witness disaster, crime, war or anything with bloodshed. It need not create permanent damage. But this condition must be processed; we need to talk about our fears and concerns, get these out of our systems. Our current crisis is a form of trauma for many that likewise needs to be processed.

If it’s managed well, trauma and PTSD can evolve into something beneficial but less well known – in psychology, it’s called Post Traumatic Growth, or PTG. That’s when trauma can lead to a positive transformation, a greater appreciation for life and what truly matter, a change of attitude for the better. It can happen to a person, a community or an entire society. But that won’t happen by itself. It’s a conscious effort that will enable us to go from simply surviving this new normal to thriving in a better normal we’ve created together.

So I ask you to consider turning the tables on this pandemic. You could ask yourselves, of all the years this could have happened, why did it have to happen in the year I graduated? Why us? There’s no climbing the stage, no wearing of special outfits, no applause at a milestone event.

A milestone for you indeed, but it would have been like any other graduation through the ages.

This is not a template commencement, as it’s not an ordinary time. Yours is a trailblazing moment, an innovation by your school to get this done despite the odds. We’re getting it done, and it’s not so bad.

This is unique, as you are unique. As Beacon students who have already been through a lot, you’re prepared for this moment. Your character has been built for it.

As the sage Bob Marley once said, you never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.

So ask not, why me, but why not me? Why not us, why not our batch? The pandemic batch or volcano batch is also Batch 2020, which in another context could signify a clarity of vision. In the next stage of your lives, use this experience, this trauma to clarify your vision, imagine a better self and better society based on a sharper sense of what truly matters.

There’s that old saying, may you live in interesting times. Some people wait a long time before anything truly extraordinary happens. At the perfect age, you’re already there. Make the most of it.

Congratulations Batch 2020.

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