The Defining Moment

Everyone has their own defining moment in college.

A defining moment is when someone discovers something about themselves that changes their whole
perspective of life.

All walk up the steps of life. The first few steps define the early years of life, from the first to the
eighteenth, it had already been a struggle and only a lot more struggle can come after it.

The seventeenth step is pivotal, as most people this age have entered college. People describe this time
as difficult and it is pretty easy to see why. They also say that it is also the time of discovery as children
turn into adults and lessons are learned.

We walk up these steps, knowing that we will never be able to go back to where we once were and that
we will never stop walking up and up and up the stairs until finally, the stairs just stop.

Before the stairs stop, however, everyone experiences their defining moment. One’s moment doesn’t
have to be winning a basketball game or getting elected as an officer of a club, it could be small things
too. Like finding a one peso coin in front of the boy’s bathroom or learning how to use an eyebrow
pencil. It doesn’t matter how, it just matters how it affects you and what you plan to do with it.

This moment will help the person discover who they are and who they can be. Essentially, it can change
lives. A chance to play basketball during PE could lead to a successful career in the PBA. Or learning to fill
in eyebrows could turn a shy freshmen into a confident young person.

One such student had this moment on the steps of CAS. She was wearing her wobbly heels and
balancing her heavy backpack while walking down the stairs when she suddenly slipped on one step and
slid for the last three steps to the middle platform. Her heels went flying from her feet and landed
beside her classmate in a weird position. In those seconds of shock, she realized something.

She realized that she didn’t want the responsibility she had. The pain she felt in her sitting area was a
mimic of what she felt on the inside. All of the responsibilities she had weren’t what she wanted. She
wasn’t happy. In that moment of clarity, she realized that what she was doing was wrong. All the stress
she was feeling wasn’t what her former self would have wanted. She realized that she didn’t want the
responsibility.

And that moment led to this girl changing her life for the better. Two days later, she wore the same
wobbly heels with her uniform, walked down the step of her house, her phone in hand and her first aid
kit in her bag. And for some reason, she slid down the stairs yet again. But this time, her left arm was
extended in a superman pose and grazed the edges of the stairs which left her with a big scar and the
confirmation that she wasn’t living the life she wanted to live.

This made her realize she had to change or she would never be happy.

The moment could be a game changer. That one moment on the steps of Quezon Hall changed the girl.
She changed the way she looked at things and finally became happy. She even bought a more reliable
pair of heels.