Encounter with TV Production

It was during our second term in our second year when I heard about this subject called "TV Prod." I also heard a lot of rumors and some kind of a "myth" about it.

Rumors like:

"sa TV Prod mo makilala yung mga tunay mong kaibigan." ;

"Mag-aaway-away kayo sa TV Prod.";

"may mga magkakasiraan sa TV Prod." etc.

On the hand, there were comments like:

"mahirap ang TV Prod pero masaya." ;

"nakakapagod yung TV Prod pero sobrang na-enjoy ko." 

"madami kang matutunan sa TV Prod." 

I entitled this note: Encounter with TV Production Subject because obviously it is one of the highlights of my 1st term  of my 3rd year in CA. I am not saying that the other subjects are less important, it is just that I realized that majority of my time in school was spent on this subject but there were no regrets. Allow me to share the lessons that I learned. 

1.) Learning has a Price - if you want to learn new things, then you have to pay a new price. Metaphorically and literally. If you want the best from this subject then you have to give your best in return - in effort, ideas, decisions, etc. Most of the students today want to learn and yet neglect the need to pay the price. We want to acquire discipline in a certain area of our life and yet we don't want to pay the price. This subject taught me how to literally take risks. Go to places where there is uncertainty of weather, give tasks to people with uncertainty if they are able to finish it, ask requests with an uncertainty of approval, etc. but at the end of the day, learning it was all worth it. 

2.) Excellence is a heart issue - I remember receiving a group grade of 80% in one of our shows which was led by yours truly. A lot of things went into my head. A lot of questions. I started to doubt my ability to lead and worse is - I started to doubt my ability to be excellent. As my mind battles with the "what ifs", my heart was also wrestling with God. I began to question God: Lord, how am I suppose to lead these people to you if I wasn't able to lead them to excellence? How am I suppose to attract these people for you if my leadership repelled them? And God, not audibly of course, made me realize this: IS YOUR LACK MORE POWERFUL THAN MY PERFECTION? DO I NEED YOU TO CHANGE THE LIVES OF YOUR CLASSMATES? The answer is and will always be, "No". But how about excellence? I was reminded that excellence is not always a grade of 100% in terms of scores but is always a 100% in terms of the Integrity of the Heart. Excellence is not a hand issue but a Heart issue. 

3.) Never compare yourself to others - now this is a familiar lesson but only a few people really get a hang of it - especially in a discipline wherein creativity and originality is highly valued. But the value of not comparing yourself to others is both for the least and the great - for the least that they may remember that God is proud of them and that He didn't make a mistake in creating them and for the great that they may remember to humble themselves before God and that He opposes the proud. We are His creations and one of the worst things that we can do is to not appreciate it by comparing ourselves to others. 

4.) Bear with one another. Go the extra mile. - during our TV production subject, I would always hear random people say: "Di ko trabaho 'yan." Though I admit that they have a point and I am also guilty of this but later on I realized, this is not just your groupmate or classmate asking for your help - THIS IS YOUR FRIEND FOR CRYING OUT LOUD,MATT! I remember a friend of mine telling me: "ahh samin kasi saluhan kami eh, pag di kaya ng isa, tulungan."  Yes, it is difficult but it is worth it.

5.) The Person is more important than the things/skills that he can contribute to the group – this was tested during my time of being an EP (yeah,the one with a group grade of 80%).  Two of our segment vids won’t play 10 mins. before our airing time. We didn’t have time to re-render it and doing so would delay our airing. It was lunch time, everyone’s getting hungry and angry at the same time. I was given the decision whether to go on with the airing without the vids (thus wasting one of my editor’s effort) or delay the airing (thus welcoming a big chunk of deduction). I chose to delay our airing. Yes, I know it didn’t make sense during that time. You could say: Matt, it’s just one person – everyone’s grade will be pulled down if you delay this because of your editor. Yes, it’s just one person – but she is still a person. No one gets left behind. If one falls down then we all do, besides it’s not a matter of life and death and the goal was to learn. Most of the times, it won’t make sense but along the way, God will show you. After the show that I headed – the rest of the EP’s learned from my mistakes and everyone started to receive higher grades and I hope the lesson of valuing people.

6.) The best encouragements will come from your family. – I also learned this during that same show. This is not really a lesson but a reminder to us. I was chatting with my papa in FB. We were updating with one another. He was telling me about his projects and I was telling him about school. We learned that we were both being stressed by work and school and while I was typing all the things that I needed to accomplish, I was not able to finish because he sent me this message: Kaya mo yan. I know it sounded simple but its timing was perfect. The same thing happened with my mama, I was telling her all the things that I needed to do then she said: Kayang-kaya mo yan. I didn’t cry but the Lord knows my spirit was lifted up.

7.) Never Give Up – Never give up on anything. Never give up on anyone. No matter how stubborn they are. How selfish they are. How close-minded they are. How irritating they are. They said that we will know who our true friends are during TV Prod. They said that there will be relationships that will be broken. Yes, I have seen the true side of my friends and even of myself; yes, there were relationships that were broken but I am not giving up on them. Never give up on your friendship by not giving up your pride. Never give up on learning. Never give up on your dreams. Never give up on yourself. Never give up on God because He never gave up on you. When we begin to realize how God fought for us and how he accepted us – it will remove the “right of giving up”. We have no right to give up on people because God didn’t give up on them. When we were on the lowest point of our lives, He was always there. When we were struggling with sin – He was always ready to forgive. When we were being overpowered by our lack and insecurities – He never loved us less. When our success went to our heads – He never lost His patience.  He did not give up on loving us. It is a lot easier to give up that is why the value of never giving up is not for everyone – it is only for those who are strong enough to admit that they are weak apart from God. This is a lesson that I am still learning and I guess there’s a lot to it.  I’ll begin with this: God did not give up on loving me.