Connect the Nine dots (Reflection 2B)

                There are things that can be learned in a different way. That’s what I realize in the moment as I went home and refreshing all the happenings from school. I thought the second meeting in Technopreneurship would be a tough day because we supposed to present our innovations in the class but it didn’t happen, not yet but soon. The class was fun as always. It’s a usual scene that late students will stand in the front of the class and show their talents, maybe “punishment” is not really the appropriate word for that but for me, it is. As the show is over, our facilitator instructed us to get a piece of paper with a black pen. I was already asking to some classmate to hand me a paper but to my surprise, our facilitator did not allow it and made us bought a single paper worth 50 pesos and it was not a joke. That moment was a prick in my pocket. I hand my 50 pesos to my classmate with regret in my eyes. The If’s statements come in my mind as I gaze the paper. “If only I bought some piece of paper before going to this class. If only I already ask my classmate to give me a paper. If only I knew that this would happened” I said this to myself as if myself is another person. To think that I bought just one piece of paper which has the same worth of a whole pad of paper, it’s really a bad day to me. But thanks to my classmate, she didn’t really get it and just gave it back to me after the class ended. If buying a piece of paper worth 50 pesos is a bad shot, too bad for my classmates who bought black pens from others which only cost you 100 pesos, yes I confirm again that it’s not a joke. Well, these overpricing of pens and paper is not for the purpose of corrupting or any bad things you can came up in your head. It’s not bad as I think in that moment as Sir Gamboa explains why he let us buy those things. Since our subject is Technopreneurship, it’s our facilitator’s way to introduce and explain what’s the true definition of this subject. Even though we’re shock and almost choked up upon paying those amounts for just a piece of paper and a black pen, at least we learn that Technopreneurship is about selling and stuffs like in entrepreneurship but differs only in the idea that Technopreneurship embraces the touch of the technology which suits in our course. After knowing the definition of our subject, our facilitator instructs us to write our name in the upper left corner in our paper. I gaze at my paper and I was thinking that it will be a difficult quiz and I was right. I was clueless as the nine dots were shown in the board. “What will we do in that figure?” my mind spoke in that moment.

                Connect the nine dots with just four strokes without lifting your pen. That was the instruction given to us. So I made a try and I try it repeatedly just focusing my sight to the nine dots forming a square shape. I was talking to myself as I try to connect all the dots. How could I do that? That’s the question that I utter to myself. Even my seatmates in that time don’t know how to do it. There are few of them tried to connect the nine dots but only one got the right one which our facilitator agree to his answer. I was amaze in that moment on how my classmate, who I don’t know his name, did it. He connects the nine dots extending the line over the boundaries that the nine dots formed. Our classmate explains the meaning of the figure as our facilitator asked him. As our facilitator explains more the idea behind the connected dots, it hits me and I discover what kind of person I am. Go beyond the box. Go beyond the boundaries. Though it’s not the exact words that he stated, it’s the same thought of those words. As that idea sinks in me, I find myself making a bubble somewhere in my mind. I realize that a part of me is like those people who are scared to step out on their shells. People who can’t afford guts to explore the world and find what’s something new. People who will miss half of their lives to not crossing the line they build by themselves. Those words are sad to know but I find the thought realistic. It’s not just a simple thought that will just pass into your ears in just one millisecond as you hear it but it will definitely sticks in your mind and will makes you examine yourself if what kind of a person you are. As I examine myself, sometimes I do the same things as the person who doesn’t go beyond to his box but not as always. In my perspective, people who always set boundaries are some kind of boring. Why staying in the box is boring? Well, it’s like you’re just stopping yourself to have fun and see how life is beautiful. It’s a dramatic thought but a real one though. There are times that a person must cross those lines especially if it’s a good thing. Example, if you’re good at singing, then why you’ll hide it? Why you just make a concert in your bathroom if you can make a good one in the big stage of Araneta Coliseum? If you have an idea which is very helpful in your community then why not make a move and think unlimited as all what you want? Seeing what you just want to see and experience what you just want to experience is like your choosing a stone rather than to have gold bars. If you just make a try, at least you will know how’s the feeling and what will be the results of it. You may end up regretting if you just always limit yourself and your capabilities to do things. If people don’t have the guts to go beyond of what they can do, there will be no gadgets in our hands today. There will be no facebook nor twitter and even the kind of life we have right now. Without the people who have great imaginations from the pass, we’re still the caveman who just live their lives just to eat, rest and do the same thing all over again.

                Nine dots forming a square shape. A simple illustration which all you have to do is connect them considering the rules of it. Others may find it as an easy task nor non-sense but, in a thought that it gives us an important lesson in life, it’s priceless. Though Sir Gamboa, our facilitator said that we must don’t believe him since he said to us that all he’s words are lies, I think I would buy this one. Whether if these are all lies or true, I’m glad that I open my ears for this even the second meeting went more than an hour. This one inspires me to be a better student, to be more productive in a way that I must think outside the box. I’m thankful that I learned new lessons which not only talks about Technopreneurship but how to be a person with a good outlook in life.