Learning Check No.

Rizal had a quite privileged childhood for his family has money from
getting involved in different businesses. This gave him the privilege to be able
to enroll to the education institution of the Ateneo Municipal. The school
nurtured his artistic talents that he manifested in the visual art pieces he made
and the writing of his first poems that describes his family, his country as part of
colonial Spain as well as heavy influence of Christianity to his life. My childhood
has similarities to Rizal’s, such that our barangay is heavily influenced by Roman
Catholic church, but it also noticeable the belief of our neighborhood to the
mystic arts practiced by albularyo, manghihilot, and other similar practitioners.
There is also a blend of religion and the mystic arts such that elements of the
Christian faith like Jesus and Mary are used for healing common illnesses like
indigestion, unexplainable pains, and small inflammations. It was a fascinating
childhood that I can say contributed to my unquenchable curiosity for
Chemistry on this day.

Rizal’s writings between 1875 and 1877 mostly contains Christian and
colonial themes. During this period, he is a child. And a child as we all know,
can absorb, and learn everything that he usually encountered. That is why his
love of nature, everyone around him (especially his mother), Christianity and
the colonial Philippines are in his poems. It is a good memory to remind myself
that I was once a kid too like Rizal, ever curious to the life around me since I
grew in a farmland, it is always a delight to see the large carabao help in
plowing our fields, and how everything is just full of love, life, and joy. In his
writings, Rizal also used several references from figures from Christian faith and
different mythologies which further develops in his later writings.

From seeing the colonial Philippines in the lightest and youthful

perspective as country occupied by the motherland Spain with all his
childhood memories being a delight reminisce, it turned into a view of
hopefulness for the future of our country that encourages the drive to pursue
improvement, into a more critical perspective of injustices and how it can be
resolved and even prevented, into a reformist mindset that changes the
society in a way he observed he can, and into a more progressive sight of the
country and the beginning of the dreams of freedom of the Philippines from
the shackling grasp of the colonizing Spain. He has loved the Philippines as
separate country from Spain and acknowledges that certain circumstances
will not permit the victory of the revolutions rampaging all over the provinces
in the country. As a child, to me everything was magical mostly because of
endless imagination but it is also because as a child I cannot explain the world
around me. I remember the days just endlessly watching in the Knowledge
Channel and waiting for Sineskwela to play. The show has grade school level
of science that I can easily understand. It feels like something sparked inside
me that made me pursue studying Chemistry to explain the magical wonders
of the world around me. And I am sure anyone would have realized that the
same progression also happened in their perspective of their life, the world, our
society, and the Philippines, in general and more. We, as people, changes our
perspective, vocabulary, opinions, and more ideas as we age and as we
experience and understand more of the world around us, just like Rizal. Like in
his award-winning 1879 poem, A La Juventud Filipina (To the Youth of the
Philippines), we, especially the youth, must actively contribute to our society
by our using our special talents, volunteerism, novel ideas, and more so that
our beloved country progress and develop into the brighter future we have
dreamt of.