DEFINE “DEFINE”

Photo credits: Wikipedia

I picked up this eye-catching brochure in a fast food restaurant (I think I have to justify it’s a restaurant because of the ambience but not their concept of food) that read “What you are is what you eat…” then, I whispered to myself, “Yeah, right…”. Then a couple of the similar thoughts came rushing in like “what you wear is what you are, tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are, what you think is what you are, what you say is what you are”, All of the what’s and who’s seem to define what a person is, how the person should be and all the hullabaloo that this concept suggests.

Then comes the striking truth that “is it what defines you?” Take for example studying. You do good, you complete your requirements, you share your thoughts, you debate, you raise your eyebrows when issues turn to facts and facts turn to lies, you make your presence felt, you make your existence linger in and out of the class. Then comes the dreaded day of exams when you gauge what you learned. Then the last part before you get to breathe and embrace freedom (for a moment at least) – is when you get your class card. Of course you have your eyes fixated on that small circle. That circle which says “you did good, you’re ok, you’re a bum”. Then (again), is this what gauges your knowledge? I mean, yeah, it will at one point, then I’ve learned that IT WON’T.

Yeah, you learn, you gain knowledge but the experience that comes with it can’t be scored, no matter how you want to. Even if you put it in paper, it won’t suffice. I would like to argue that when I enter the class, not everything that I learn in three hours stays inside my head. NO, IT DOESN’T. No matter how I want to master everything, my mind chooses what it wants to understand, what it wants to remember. And that’s something that is immeasurable. Experience is the best teacher, and that’s one thing no one will ever have the chance to equate it in a number and have it encircled. So the grade of 3 or (75-78) or 1 (95-100) won’t define you as the genius or the average... take it from me, intelligence is relative…

Then there’s experience – like a sculptor that gives a person the right curves and the right edges. Yeah, we learn from experience, you get to have a girlfriend who dishes you for another, then you learn, then comes another with a perfect heart, but… doesn’t meet your desires, etc, then comes another, then comes another. Do you think a lesson in one experience molds you? Nah… I doubt… what defines you only lasts for a moment… Yeah, a moment, a second to be exact. I am a student right now, but after two years, I would go back to my desk at PhilRice and do what I am suppose to do, then who knows, after three years, I would be holding my baby in my arms… Change is inevitable, so is “defining one's self”.

According to the series KYLE XY, the more humans define themselves, the more they get confused. True. The more you see yourself get jumbled in the world of uncertainties and the more you tangle yourself in a web of confusions, the more you won’t be able to put a letter to define who you are.

Like this song, "Mirror" by Barlow Girls:

"Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Have I got it?
'Cause Mirror you've always told me who I am
I'm finding it's not easy to be perfect
So sorry you won't define me
Sorry you don't own me

Who are you to tell me
That I'm less than what I should be?
Who are you? Who are you?
I don't need to listen
To the list of things I should do
I won't try, I won't try

Mirror I am seeing a new reflection
I'm looking into the eyes of He who made me
And to Him I have beauty beyond compare
I know He defines me

You don't define me, you don't define me"

In all of these, one thing is for sure: to those who have their hearts set on JESUS, I bet, will be enough to make them define themselves.