Patricia Jana J.

Abeabe
BTM13
G-SOSC001
Sir. Jumel G. Estrañero
“The Power of History in Our Personal Lives”
The webinar hosted by BYU MS Asia Pacific with a very special guest, Professor
Xiao Chua, a Filipino historian who is famous for his own academic works concerning
the history of the Philippines. He has a specialization on history which made the event
more interesting. He shared a lot of facts not just about history but also in life. He also
shared how he first engaged with history and explained the importance of studying it.
Studying history is for everyone to learn, he highlighted the part wherein he said that if a
person wants to become interested in history, he/she must begin in understanding
current events. The speaker also discussed the proper way and attitude to be able to
spread correct information concerning history to a lot of people especially in today’s
time. The event was all about Professor Xiao Chua giving his words of wisdom upon his
engagement in history for a long time.
As I watched and listened to Professor Xiao Chua’s words and advice from the
webinar, I have learned a lot of things in regard to engaging in history. It was very
inspiring to listen to him and as he shared his views and opinions in life which is based
on his own experience. He speaks with determination that’s why every statement he
says is very convincing. Though he is a famous public historian, he knows how to admit
his own mistakes and uses it as a motivation to do good and correct his wrongdoings.
He even stated that a person’s credentials don’t define who he/she is, in which I
completely agree. Whatever your position is in the society, we are all humans who
commit mistakes. We all have different views and opinion concerning history as people
believe based on their own historical experiences. Another fact that the speaker said, is
that history will always be political. Antagonists have their own stand, and we must not
belittle them based on what they believe if we aim to convince them and instead, we
should respect them. Professor Xiao Chua stated a lot of points in means on how to
spread knowledge and awareness about history to many people in a proper way. One
way of this is through the use of social media which is a big advantage of advanced
technology as it reaches more people from different places especially now that there is
a pandemic. In means of doing this, a post should have proper context. Correct
information must be disseminated since history is still a part of our everyday lives. Also,
he stated this motto wherein I completely agree and was very convinced which is
“Today’s event is tomorrow’s history”. We must make every day count and always fight
for what we believe is right, but we must not forget to respect each other’s decision.
Therefore, upon participating in the event prepared by BYU MS Asia Pacific with
the public historian Professor Xiao Chua, history became much more interesting to me.
Though I already find it interesting even before, but it is such a great opportunity that I
got a chance to listen to Professor Xiao Chua’s webinar about the significance of history
into our lives today. I enjoyed listening to this event and is interested to hear more from
the famous public historian, Professor Xiao Chua. He is very knowledgeable about what
happened from the past and all of the things that he says do have a point. He explained
very well the importance of studying history. We cannot forget what happened from the
past as it is what that took part of the country that we have now. All is still related to the
present time that we live in now. This event was very informative and expanded my
knowledge both in history and life.