Last Thursday, I rose above my fear of parking in tight spaces to catch the talk by Ian Rosales Casocot on How to Turn your Passion into a Profession: The Business of Writing/Publishing, during the recently-concluded Copyright Caravan.
Ian, winner of several Palanca awards, shared with the audience how he went through a stage where his mentors practically forced him to join contests, and submit his work to various publications.
After I left the seminar, I messaged him that people showed him his superpower! And now, he is the one pushing his students to continue writing, and to join contests. Showing them their superpower.
I, too, am an overbearing teacher. I have practically forced my Law students and young people I’ve worked with to apply for fellowships, take on difficult posts, and to just send in their resumes even when they felt inadequate or unprepared. Kanang walay daghan storya. I just send them a message: Apply here (with info attached). Karon na!
To think that many of these students I would encourage did not necessarily graduate at the top of their batches. And yet, they are excellent students.
I normally give them that hard push because my best journeys in life also partly started with people believing in me. Not because I was flawless or the best.
My positive framing of my superpower is: I have clarity — always knowing how I want to live my life.
But one mentor had a strange way of showing me my superpower when I was 26. She said: “You jump before you’re ready, and build your armor on the way back up.”
Ian Casocot’s talk may have been titled The Business of Writing/Publishing but because he shared so much of himself and his journey thus far, I left learning so much more.
(And yes, I managed to park the car in a tight space without crashing it.)
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