I went back to the classroom where I first learned the ABAKADA. I saw the same board drawn by balloons and balls to teach me to count. Twelve years later I last used that classroom but I still carry the thing that introduced me to the magnificence of questioning: Knowledge. I carried it until the spelling became paragraph writing. Until the balloons and balls on the board became the numbers I needed to add, divide and subtract. The form of Knowledge has changed.
Here I realize that he not only lives in the pages of the book, he stays in the experience of the person you meet, he plays with memories that are too important to forget. Knowledge can never be confined to a room or a book. He will continue to wander and leave you traces. Traces that will take you on the path of Research. And it will not be easy. You can not shape it with your imagination and must overcome every obstacle that lies here. At every turn you will be greeted with a question, because it is not just about asking questions but about ability to find and create answers.
You will explore the vast sea of information, it will take time to rest. You will be greeted once a day without even having a soft bed. And most of all, need to cross the language fence. In Research I became aware of so many forms of knowledge. Many studies have been published about and for my fellow Filipinos, but each word is dressed in a way that they do not seem to understand easily. And as I, who continue and continue on the path of Research, I will play the cross of the language fence. As a Filipino, it is my responsibility to cross our language in ‘insignificant’ fields such as science and mathematics.
The path of Research is not easy but man will travel it over and over again. Because this is not how the true form of knowledge is achieved? As we cling to something we have known for a long time and to the endless quest to discover?