By Melchor F. Cichon
(The author is the Librarian St. Paul University)
LET me share my experiences which could guide students to accomplish their dreams.
This has been my accomplishment motto since high school: “Work while others are sleeping.”
Early in high school, away from my parents and staying with my elder brothers in Zamboanga City, I thought I could not finish my studies. I had low morale due to my below-80 grades in elementary school. I flanked in grade five because I could hardly read. Spelling was my waterloo. I wished there were no math classes.
In high school, I befriended my classmates who were honor students to discover how they spent their time. I learned that they spent more of their time studying their lessons instead of going out to see movies or play basketball.
By following their example, I improved my grades in high school, became a staff member of our school organ, and graduated first honorable mention.
In college, I did the same technique. Instead of going out with my friends, I spent most of my time in the library reading and doing my assignments. Although, I did not earn any academic award, I was able to publish some poems in the Philippine Collegian, the Philippines Free Press, and other national magazines.
I was fortunate to land a job at the University of the Philippines’ main library in Diliman, Quezon City. It taught me to work in silence, even without the presence of my supervisor. If a task assigned to me was unfamiliar, I sought the help of my supervisor and co-workers. I read books or magazines to get a better understanding of my work. The only time I was absent was when I was sick. That efficiency must have motivated my employer to promote me to a higher position with a higher salary.
The internet had not been invented yet when a bottle of Coke or Pepsi cost only ten centavos while the jeepney within the UP Campus in Diliman was only five centavos.
Having enrolled in graduate schools, I earned two graduate degrees, plus a post-graduate study sponsored by UNDP-DOST-UP Institute of Library Science. While working at the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) library, I used my spare time researching and writing articles on fisheries. I eventually became a librarian at the UPV College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
I applied as a lecturer in management at the UPV College of Management and was accepted. Shortly before retiring, I received two awards as a UPV outstanding university employee. I do not know if someone else from the UPV Library has achieved such a feat.
And even after retirement from the government, I wrote a lot of poems and some short stories in the Aklan dialect, eventually becoming the first Aklanon to receive the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) award for my contribution in Aklanon Literature. The Province of Aklan also honored me as an Outstanding Aklanon in Culture and the Arts.
In 2019, I became the first Aklanon to receive the Taboan Award. To date, I have published 10 books/pamphlets on Aklanon Literature and history. Two of my books are Ham-at Madueom Ro Gabii?, a collection of Aklanon poems with Filipino translation, c2015; and The Katipunan in Aklan, as co-author of John E. Barrios and Dominador I. Ilio.
Some of my literary works have been included in anthologies like Sa Atong Dila, Iintroduction to Visayan Literature, c2015, and in Sansiglong Mahigit ng Makabagong Tula sa Filipinas.
Two graduate students studied my poems, namely Charlie Ileto Ureta for his Master of Arts in Education (English) thesis, and Sharon Concepcion Masula for her dissertation entitled Pagsusuri sa Istruktura ng Tatlumpu’t Limang (35) Piling Tula na Isinulat ni Melchor F. Cichon.
But the major reason behind the fulfillment of my dream is my supportive wife, Pilma D. Cichon.