A Grandfather's Advice to His Granddaughter Carlos P.

Romulo My dear Clarissa: I am proud of you, and proud of all your friends on your graduation day. You are now about to begin another and even more important stage, for today you embark on the voyage of life. This is the voyage into the unknown, a voyage far more difficult from the voyage undertaken by the intrepid adventurers of the past who sailed into the uncharted seas with nothing but their courage and faith to guide them. Yes, life is an adventure, the most exciting and the most perilous of them all. You can win it or you lose it but how well you come out of it depends entirely upon you. For unlike the voyagers of the past, your home, your school and your community have provided you with most of the tools that you will need to cope with life. The rest is up to you in the quality of your spirit in your common sense, in your zest for great adventures that is life. Having said that you can look forward to a long life, I now give you the first of my advice. I hope you will accept it in the spirit it is given. It is this: You must begin deciding now how you will fill your long life. There is time to do everything that your heart desires. There is time for marriage, time for having babies and raising them to be useful adults. But this need not take up your entire life, for you would still have time to follow your ambitions, to fulfill yourself as a human being, before, during or

after your own productive years. Because of the boundless freedom of current society, it is important to decide now what you value most in life. And you must begin to draw the pattern for your life accordingly. Having this pattern you can anticipate trouble before it arises and decide how you are going to handle it. My second advice is to decide on your values. You must try to examine yourself now and find out what it is you most wish to do. If it is a career you want, then now is the time to schedule your next school or training years with a goal in mind. If on the other hand, you want a home and family, start thinking about the qualities and characteristics you most admire in men. For the man you choose is not going to be a transient partner. For you will share your whole life with him; he is someone you share many years with and grow with, and hopefully change together with. You can begin by asking yourself the qualities you admire most in your father, your uncles, perhaps even you grandfather. I would suggest that there are certain steadfast qualities in a man ... the qualities of fidelity, courage, intelligence. My third advice is this. There are few pastimes more pleasant than building castles in the air. It is normal with the young. But you must have, in preparation for life, to build on something less airy and insubstantial. In other words, have a plan. Your grandfather, Carlos