An Open Letter to UPCAT Takers

It's a letter to the young folks,

to the dreamers,

to keep on dreaming!

Republic of the Philippines

Region VIII

H. Jole Jole District Poblacion

Las Navas Northern Samar

June 17, 2019

Mr./Ms./Mrs./non-binary (name)

To where ever you are

+63 123 456 7891

Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs./non-binary (name):

It’s 3 months before the UPCAT and I admit, I am not ready yet.

I have been reviewing for 3 weeks in English, but why do I get this feeling that despite the progress that I have made, I still am skeptical and questioning my climb.

I doubt myself too often that it seems as if I would wanna back out from this venture.

“Carl, there are so many people better than you,”says I. “You’re stupid in math, how could you deny that!” “You should instead,slack on your bed, watch Netflix or something and stop wasting your time fantasizing of going to UP.”

These are the thoughts that governs me. Presumably, you’re one of their victims too, that’s why you are here, right?

But can we all take a moment, and look at the bigger picture here?

These thoughts are ours. These thoughts are generated by none other than our own consciousness! But why? Why does our mind keeps on sabotaging our plans, when in point of fact, it’s our property?

I happen to have listened to an audiobook that I can’t recall the name of.

It said that our brain always comes after goodness. There is always a reason why it acts the way it does.

That reason is:

We are always trying to find a way that will be convenient. Our brain keeps on sabotaging our dreams, our hopes and aspirations in life because it is afraid of us being burned out in the process and getting hurt at the end.

The human brain comes after something what it thinks is best for us, only at the time being.

See, after all that have been said and have been blamed. We come to realize that the reason was actually more conspicuous than we thought. Our brain does think, it is doing its job-- to do what it was ordered to do. Which is survival and elude losses.

This is maybe because we had suffered an unfortunate faith with the same aspiration in the past. I may not be a psychologist but this is clearly a defense mechanism. But for what? For something that has not happened yet?

Maybe it had been true in the past that you failed at a certain something and it was a debacle for you and maybe for your pride. It may have happened that you flopped and decided to never try again. Yes it may have turned out that way and I have no power to deny that.

But remember this. Time doesn’t go on a loop or repeat the same thing twice. There might be similarities, but overall it is not copied.

Lightning might strike at the same spot it struck before, but it will not give off the same impact and the same faith that it had.

I’m telling you about this lightning analogy because in spite of all the encouragement I can give to you, there still is a probability of you going short at the results. The odds of you passing is great as well.

The truth is, we are the greatest epitome of not-being-able-to-manipulate kind of specie.

Our faith is unpredictable and must not be predetermined by our past.

We may fail again, break our bones this time and cry at our own demise, or maybe prosper and harvest on a rich pastured land. There are millions of possibilities that our brains couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

Just do it, we all die in the end anyway. And for a fact, this one will not be the end of you.

Your friendly neighborhood motivator,

Carl Vincent Florano

UPCAT Trying hard

P.S I’m not just telling this you, but also I am taking to myself about it. I am struggling, we all are. So lets be there for each other.