Age Is Not A Hindrance To Reach Your Dreams

In our lives we meet different people with different attitudes. It may be easy to be friends with everyone, but it is hard to find a friend that is really true and will stand by your side during the hardships of your life. Consider yourself lucky if you have even one true friend because not everyone is blessed with real friends. I consider myself lucky having found one.

This is all about a friend that I have met during my college days in one of the universities here in Cebu. I can say that she's different from some other girls. Her name is Cindy Longakit. A 34-year old woman, married to a good husband, and has one kid. She's a classmate, friend, adviser, and at the same time, a good sister to me.

It was the first day of class. When I entered the classroom, the students seated at the front stared at me, making me uneasy, and I felt as if there were butterflies in my stomach. There was this woman who offered me a seat beside her and I took it.

At first I was a little bit timid because she was older than me and, in my mind, maybe hard to deal with. Eventually, after we introduced ourselves to each other, I became much more comfortable. We talked about everything under the sun. She tells a lot of jokes that made me burst out laughing.

Since then we became close and we started sharing our personal stories. Sometimes, though, I just wondered how she can laugh with all her personal burdens.

This part of her life story touched me the most.

When she was still a child, she did not feel the affection of a parent or experienced the feeling of being cared for. She grew up with her grandmother. Her days were lonely and sad, although she had her grandmother, because her heart was craving for a mother's love.

To sustain their daily needs, they sold fried banana-on-sticks on the roadside near a school, even when she was yet very young. Luckily. her kindly grandmother was resolute in providing for her education, in spite of their financial constraints, that she was allowed to enroll for college.

She studied at the University in Cebu taking up a course on Information Technology. Unfortunately, economic difficulties forced her to stop after the first semester. She looked for a job, but sadly she usually did not qualify because of her age, being 17 years young at the time. So, for the time being, it was back to selling on the roadside. When she reached 18 years of age, she resumed job-searching, until she was hired as a production worker.

After two years, she met the man that will bring her to the altar. She thought that marriage was the only way for someone to escape from life's problems. Soon, she had her first child.

Initially quite content with what she already had, she began to wonder and then realized that it is not too late for her to continue the goal she had when still a child. With full support from her understanding husband. she registered at the Cebu Technological University, taking up Bachelor of Elementary Education major in Special Education.

It's a big challenge for her to face because of her age, but it was not a hindrance to continue the goal which she already started. She meets different kind of people with different personalities. She ignores whatever discrimination faces her, rather she focus more on her study with the aim to graduate with honors. She gained high grades and she was acknowledged as a Dean's Lister in her school.

In tribute to her we learned the lessons that, no matter whoever or whatever you are, never lose hope and always believe in the Almighty. Placed under His divine guidance, dreams have a way of coming true.