A letter to the rising youth

It’s 2010. You’re eight years old, and you wake up to the sound of rain rapping on your roof, overlapping with the hum of the kitchen radio announcing the day’s class suspension due to the typhoon. Promptly, you tug at your blankets, inhaling the nippy air as you drifted back to sleep.

This is probably one of everyone’s fondest memories as a child, and it’s a reminiscence that would always envelop us in warmth and nostalgia. Times were simpler back then, and it was painless to be carefree toward the future and everything that happened around us. But could you still say the same today?

Now, it’s 2022. You’re a full-time young adult, and you wake up to the sound of the news headlines reeling off from the TV. The national COVID-19 case count is still rising. UP Statisticians seem to have foreseen the future. They were right — while there is already a vaccine approved and prescribed by WHO, there will be none available for the Philippines until 2024. Activists, students, celebrities — innocents — are still being red-tagged. Poverty has gone worse, and the economy has dipped to its lowest point since the Martial Law. On top of all that, the country is now saddled with a whopping P13.7-trillion debt — a price to be paid not by government officials, but by the blood and sweat of the Filipino laborer. In other words, Philippine society is sailing against raging waters. And unlike in the past, this isn’t a storm you’d sleep through.

In your gut, an unsettling medley of anger and frustration has amassed, materializing into a mouthful of grievances, dangling at the tip of your tongue, itching for release. But what use is ranting on Twitter, or taking to the streets to protest about the government’s incompetence, when they refuse to listen? What use is my voice if it ends up being repressed? All calls for change have been futile efforts. And now the country is a veritable dystopia. So, what else is there to do?

You rack your brain for answers — for ways you could challenge the system and impact a change, when you remember: it’s 2022. The national elections are right around the corner, and you could cast your votes for the most promising candidates and exercise your right for a fair and capable administration. The only good thing about 2022 might just be the end of this hellish era, and you are more than ready to see that end become a reality, when you realize… you’re not.

The allowed period for voter’s registration has prescribed, and you’ve failed to apply for a voter’s ID. A sense of regret takes over, and you watch helplessly as the country plummets further down to ­disarray. You, and every other unprivileged resident of this land, are falling further and further down…

You wake with a jerk as consciousness rushes in like a tape rewinding. As you recount your nightmare, you realize that it’s only a mere possibility. But yes, a possibility.

While we have no absolute control of the government’s decisions (whether or not it will take the country ashore or let it sink in hot water), wouldn’t it be better if we utilized our weapon — our democracy — to secure a future that outlives the pandemic?

A year may feel like a long way to go, but time sorely moves at full throttle, especially when fueled with life-altering events that take our attention away from the clock and into the world. At this point, we’re no longer counting seconds until humanity’s liberation from the invisible enemy that changed the shape of the world. We’ve already adapted to its new form, but we can only take so much.

Most of us are already engrossed in our daily undertakings — like online class — and in calling out via social media the administration’s lapses and atrocities. But while we’re already doing our parts, we should remember that we, the youth who are stepping into the world of adulthood, are also stepping into a world of responsibilities, and one of our important duties is to exercise our right to vote, which is especially crucial during these fragile times.

You’re no longer a child, and when every day you wake up to the sound of your countrymen crying for change as they are shut up by incompetence, will you rise or sleep through the storm?

To the rising youth, rise.