PURPOSE PAPER

By Jose Miguel T. Platero

To inspire and be inspired. To help and to be helped. To teach and to be

taught. To strive for excellence and to learn from mistakes. To be honest.
To embody integrity. To play the good and clean game – these are my
purpose as a soon to be lawyer.
This will be my guidepost or parameter in everything I do towards reaching
my goal of becoming a lawyer. I believe that these purposes will make me
not only a good law student but also a good lawyer someday.
Being inspired to do excellently all things (even the most simple and menial
things) in my journey towards becoming a lawyer will teach me to be a
detail-oriented lawyer who spots the simplest but most important issues in
a case.
Having the courage to help my fellow classmates and law students and
having the humility to admit to myself that I, too, need help will teach me
this early that in the practice of law, no man is an island. Everybody in the
field of law needs a helping hand, including me. Being humble and knowing
that I cannot do everything alone, seeking the help of other people by
knowing their story, their wisdom and their lessons will help inspire me to
become a better lawyer.
Seeking the advice of good and honest lawyers will help me in my journey
towards becoming a good and honest lawyer as well. Surrounding myself
with good and honest lawyers will encourage me to be good and honest as
well.
Being honest, living with integrity and playing the good and clean game as
early as now will help me embody these principles once I become a lawyer.
Being honest in answering my exams and my assignments will help me to
be honest in my transactions as a lawyer. Living with integrity and playing
the good and clean game as a law student will help me to fight the good
fight – without bribes and without illegalities.
Living in accordance with these purposes as a soon to be lawyer is what
feeds my drive because these are my core values. Living a life in
accordance with one’s core values is what satisfies one’s soul with content
as you can never be truly who you are when you do not practice what lies
inside your heart – your core values.
While living a core-centered life as a soon to be lawyer is a rough path with
numerous obstacles, I continue to forge through this path of honesty and
integrity because I know that in my journey, I am not alone. There are also
other people (my friends, classmates, and colleagues) who is in this with
me. It is with this knowledge that I am not alone that I find further courage
and strength to continue despite the hardships, temptations and obstacles I
am facing.
In addition, being grateful for every simple things that I have right now
inspires me to continue and strive even more than I had before. Further,
knowing that God always favors in the end a good and honest man, I feel
content and secured in continue doing what I ought to be doing.
Lastly, I strive despite the difficulties I am facing because of my daughter. I
want to teach her by example. I want her to see that her father lived his life
with honesty and integrity. I want her to learn and to know that being good,
being honest, striving for excellence, having humility is the best and the
most noble way to live. I want her not to follow my footsteps but for her to
live her life as she wants it but with honesty, integrity, excellence and
humility.
Hence, despite all the difficulties I am facing, I have my eye on my core
values and my daughter, who I know will be watching every step, decision,
and move I make in my lifetime.