“A hero is the fruit, soul, and love of a country. A country without a hero is like a tree without any fruit, a body without life and a heart without love “ "Un héroe es la fruta, el alma, y el amor de un país. Un país sin un héroe está como un árbol sin cualquier fruta, un cuerpo sin la vida y un corazón sin el amor" – JOSE P. RIZAL

I first heard about Rizal when I was just Grade 1. That was the time that I didn’t knew anything about him or even knowing that he is the greatest Malay ever born. All I knew, Rizal was the pambansang bayani with pambansang ibon, pambansang punongkahoy, pambansang bulaklak, pambansang hayop and other pambansang stuffs teacher usually taught us.

In other words Rizal serve as just one of my required data to be memorized because my teacher might hit me with her chalk or worse forced me again to stand by the blackboard all day long if a failed to answer her so called recitation. It was indeed a silly experience that a fellow like me was being treated like that. There was also a time when my teacher got mad at me due to very serious offense and threw an eraser right at my head. That would be the usual thing that might happen to me when I would say that her lessons are boring and doesn’t make sense. Even the deepest times of our Grade one lesson, I really cannot visualize Jose Rizal as our national hero. His picture was beside the sampaguita and the maya. That’s all I can remember. In fact, what’s the sense of knowing Rizal as our pambansang bayani, maya as our pambansang ibon, narra as our pambansang punongkahoy, kalabaw as our pambansang hayop and sampaguita as our pambansang bulaklak. Will I be able to play more at the park?

My travel experiences with my Mom during our visit to my Lola in Manila just before I graduated elementary, gave me a chance to visit the neighbors of maya and sampaguita. The pambansang bayani was at the monument and mysteriously being guarded by immovable guards. The simple existence of those immovable guards at the monument amaze me and realize how this pambansang bayani is more than maya and sampaguita.

The monument likewise served as my opening sight of how Rizal died because of a serious crime on which my mother said “due to his love of our country.” My heart leap a bit when I knew he just didn’t die but rather killed by gunshots – a thrill that made me remember my favorite action films I used to watch. But then when thinking about the old book, I wondered what the kalabaw, maya, and sampaguita did to make it our national celebrities.

FRUIT. When I stepped high school, my mind as expected broaden some more knowledge of Sciences, Mathematics, Music, Economics, English, and History. It is not a single doubt that I excel in most of our subjects except in History. My teachers usually gave me just an average score for not memorizing the years and inputs from the required text of reference.

Amidst my weakness in History, I met another two books of Rizal – the Noli and the Fili that served as a requirement in our History lesson. This is the time I knew more about our national hero. He was such a genius and I named him as “ekselente!” in most of our group studies. Honestly speaking, I was indeed touched by the books. It brought me numerous flashback memories and insights about my grade school teachers who in most of my readings resembles to the personality of the wicked teacher of the novel.

Through those books, I likewise imagined how Rizal changed my life as a person and opened my mind on what principles in life and education should be. Indeed that our hero serves a fruit right intended for the proper methods of teaching, to bring human right awareness and right for education.

His famous saying that “The youth is the hope of our fatherland,” stored in my memory not just a part of my quotation collection but also a part of my life of realizing my importance as a person who pays tax in our society. I then quit on thinking that I am useless. I knew that I could make a difference and contribute even in my most simple ways. Even my boss said that even just paying taxes and following the law would be relevant enough for the country. Indeed that the country needs me and the country needs me too. I am not just a mere player of the country but a hope for the society.

SOUL. The UP education gently brought me to a higher pitch of learning the man behind the Noli and the Fili. Aside from knowing again that he was “ekselente!.” I realize that for the past years of reading his brilliant works and writings, I neglected the fact that he is still like a normal person that commits mistakes, fails, and acts like the way I do. He has emotions and also cries. That made me to know that we are similar in some extent. The only one that differs is our intellectual capacity.

In my personal realization, because of Rizal, I had touch a part of my brain to prejudge a person for doing a wrong thing. Rizal was a gambler in his days and a “chick boy” material although those points were still debatable nowadays but those points were not a mere reason to make him a lesser person and not capable of being a hero.

The real personality of the person is not by his behavior but by his soul – the one that our national hero possesses. He has a soul for our country that continuously floats into the air that he slowly let it to be offered as part of our country’s life. It is not about the wines, the tobaccos, the women, the looks, and the behavior. What matters is the way a person floats for his principle and not for others. Standing in my own belief would be the greatest lesson Rizal had taught me. The lesson is about voicing out my concerns if I knew I was left out or maltreated in any situations. Ignorance to reality is the way I always avoid. Making myself informed and familiar with my environment is the way I used to do now. As a journalist and as former member of a campus paper, I ensure that my floating soul would be of work to let people well informed and proactive rather than reactive in various issues concerning our country. I really made a legacy to make me a way for the general public to visualize where they are and what are the things happening in their location that may affect them.

LOVE. Indeed that my history is full of Rizal-inspired stories that made me realize how Rizal shaped my life as a responsible citizen of this country. But how my life shaped won’t be like this is also due to those similar stories of my kababayans that also became part of my life being a Filipino citizen. They also possess fruit, soul, and love ingredients of being a hero. I am inspired. They were also inspired. There are these government employees that continue to be of service to the people. There are those industrial workers of the city to give us the food we eat and survive. There are those utility workers who keep the city or barangay clean amidst the rain or excessive heat of the sun. There are those vendors in the market who serves the people all day with fresh fish and vegetables. There are those teachers and professors who guide their students and let them gain knowledge. There are those parents who continuously develop their children's minds for the future. And lastly, there are those like me who work at a certain bookstore to pay taxes every 15th and 30th of the month, and writing stuffs in this blog who is just like Rizal, a hero.