The Last Eleven Words

With three months remaining preparing for the 2019 Bar Examination, I asked myself. “Where will I stay?”

I could stay in my place, an easy access to my “command center,” to my car, to my mom’s great food and the company of my family, friends, and girlfriend. This is my comfort zone. I could likewise stay in a condominium unit or an apartment in Manila – alone and totally free.

With these things to consider, I had to come up with a hard decision.

Using my lifeline, I told “Him”: “You know the desires of my heart, saan ba pinakamainam mag-stay?”

Then I remembered Kapatiran-Kaunlaran Foundation Inc. (KKFI) where my advance bar review program was held. Without any hesitation, I made the necessary arrangements with KKFI. My decision was firm—I will start staying there on September until the grueling bar month of November.

Still, something bothered me. What about those people who cares for me? How can I convince them that this is the best place to fulfill our dream of having a lawyer in my person?

I brought my family and girlfriend at KKFI. With one of the accommodating staff members, they let us see the entire place – the receiving area for visitors, the chapel, the room, the library and the grounds. Back at home, they declared to me: “KKFI is home.”

KKFI is a home because like in my place in province, I can freely do whatever I want – meditate, study, rest, recreate…, less distraction. More so, the support group here is alive – not in the sense that we are exchanging thoughts of what we are studying, but in inspiring each other to study (which is the most important preparation in every examination).

“Madaling araw pa lang marami ng nagbabasa sa hallway,” I told myself. “Paanong ‘di ka gaganahan nun?”

As it is written in the Gospel of Matthew, “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”