What's the True Measure of Intelligence? (Page 1 of 3)

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Jenora: Yes, I'm the Regional Finance Director of an International organization now. My responsibility covers Europe and Africa.

Me: That's amazing, Jen! I'm so glad to hear this big success of yours.

Jenora: The same is true here. I'm glad I heard from you. Remember our high school escapades? And have you heard anything about Lugina?

Me: In fact, I am planning to call her right after this conversation with you. I'd like that the three of us will have a reunion sometime when we happen to have some time to go back to our city.

Jenora: All right. Please let me know what's the latest with her if you can contact her. I would like to talk with her as well.

Me: No problem. Byw for now. I bet you're very busy. I'll call you again when I have news about our old dear friend. Ciao Jen.

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Me: What?!?! You have four kids now? That's a big surprise. I never expected that motherhood could happen to you so soon. I mean, we are 25 and you have five children. I just spoke with Jenora and we're still both single.

By the way, how have you been? It's been years since we last talked to each other. Tell me about you, Ludge.

Lugina: Oh Rogue... It's been a crazy life for me. I never succeeded with my dreams. I'm stuck here in our city, with four children, with a life thrown. I mean, I do love my four little angels but sometimes I do regret I got into this marriage life so soon. My husband does not even have a permanent job. I did bad decisions and here I am. Sigh...

How's Jen by the way? You mentioned you just talked with her?

Me: Yes Ludge. She's travelling all over Europe and Africa so she really is not staying in a single country. She sounded so pleased with her work. Ah, you know that go-getter. She has a residence in Munich though and she told me that if she has time, she stays there.

Lugina: I'm so envoìious of you two. You have reached your dreams, while I.. I really think I'm a failure. Sigh.... Oh wait! That's my youngest crying. I bet she's hungry now. I'm still breast feeding her. Hope to talk yìto you soon Rogue. For now I need to hang up. Thanks for calling.

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What's the True Measure of Intelligence? (Page 2 of 3)

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I just finished those conversations with my two close friends back in high school. I was able to secure their respective contact numbers from a social networking site where the three of us are members since high school days. I was lucky to have found their updated profiles, still with correct information, at least with regards their contact numbers.

The three of us were inseparable back in high school. We mostly hang out in the same places, we supported each other in our respective activities, and our respective families were also aware how close we were to each other. The two of them, Jenora and Lugina, were the brightest among our batch and I can say that it was a great deal of luck to have both of them as my closest of friends. I was the sporty tyoe while those two were highly intellectuals.

The challenge in our friendship came during our moment to graduate. The school records show that both Jen and Ludge were deserving Valedictorians. However, only one, as the school rules and regulations state, should be the Valedictorian in each school year.

Jenora was the one who simply gets what she wants. She perfected almost all examinations without spending so much time studying. She was the most easy going intellectual type of girl and Ireally admired her for that.

On the other hand, Lugina really studied so much and sometimes, when Jenora had to render some moral support for my tournaments, Lugina busied herself studying, making sure she gets the best of each examination. She was the bookworm, studious type of intellectual. While I admire her patience for studying, I resented secretly for her absense in some of my basketball, soccer, or martial art tournaments being one of my closest friends.

When the high school Principal and our Adviser in senior year called the two of them in the Principal's office, I already knew what was the problem. I knew that my two closest friends are holding the same position as the School's Valedictorian that year. I was thinking of the worse to happen, especially in our friendship, when I realized this fact.

However, after a very short period of time, barely ten minutes, the Principal's office opened and my two friends emerged out of it, with wide smiles in their faces while they walked arm-in-arm towards me. "What the hell is happening?" I had to question myself.

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What's the True Measure of Intelligence? (Page 3 of 3)

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Jenora conceded!Lugina was the decided Valedictorian for the year. Lugina was so happy and so proud that she could tell her parents this great success.

What happened inside the Principal's office, they both told me. Jenora insisted that Lugina be the Valedictorian as she studies a lot. The Principal and our Adviser agreed and in fact, they have been planning to have the honor given indeed to Lugina but Jenora got the same high grades and extra curricular activities which made them confused and undecided. Everybody was happy by then. Jenora, as the happy-go-lucky person, she did not mind being the Salutatorian for the year. The three of us remained very good friends until the university years.

Thinking about those happenings in high school, after my two phone calls to those two closest friends of mine back then, and checking on their current status in life, made me realize that Jenora was the deserving intelligent person. She reached her dreams and she used her intelligence to advance herself and be successful.

On the other hand, I am very disappointed with what happened to Lugina. She threw her future away. With four children and no work makes her, as she said earlier, a real failure. I don't know why she had to marry so young and bring four kids without stabilising her financial status and her career firsr.

I know that this world is not all about money. But a little stability would not hurt, especially if someone plans to have four children. When I had that phone call with Lugina, I heard desperation in her voice; I heard that she herself is disappointed with her own acts and decisions. Now I realize that Jenora is even more intelligent in real life. It is not in the books! The intelligence in dealing with real life cannot be read. It cannot be learned inside the four corners of the school, or the university but it is earned by real intelligent people.

Jenora contributes better to this world: her intelligence, her innovative mind, her charity donations as she is earning much more than herself, she helps her family financially and many other good things that improve and help everyone else around her because she decided to be successful.

Lugina becomes a burden of society. So many children, she cannot even help herself, and worse that I can expect, the children would have to suffer given that the parents are not very stable financially. Their education and future would be at stake just because their mother decided to marry and have four of them without thinking of the consequences first.

Now I understant why it was so easy for Jenora to give up the honor as the Valedictorian and have it given to Lugina. It is not the honor itself that makes a person fulfilled. It's the life itself. Now that's real intelligence!

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If I am God...

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If I am God
I would resign
My responsibilities are gigantic
The consequences of my acts
Are usually traumatic

If I am God
I'd be tired easily
Racism here, racism there
Racism is everywhere

If I am God ------------------------------------------------- - --------------- If I am God
I'd resign no more -----------------------------------------------------I'd really cover my ears
Why I changed my mind? ------------------------------- ---- ----When all opposing teams
I'll let Islam, Christianity ------------------------- ---- - ----------- -In each tournament
And other beliefs in unity ------------------------ --- ---------Utter their respective prayers

If I am God
I'd be damned
To allow countless deaths
In many wars

If I am God
I'd impersonate a clown
As I want everyone
To erase their frown

If I am God...
But I could not be...
If I am God...
But there's no way!

Isn't Life Supposed to Be Meaningful? page 1 of 2

Lord, I offer my life to you
Everything I've been through
Use it for your glory
Lord I offer my days to you
Lifting my praise to you
As a pleasing sacrifice
Lord I offer you my life

This is what he was hearing from his little speaker attached to his phone. He wonders why this song, which is not his taste of music, played out of the blue. He's soaked in the bath tub as he was thinking how to finish his own life. He's been dying to commit suicide but he lacks the courage to do so.


As he faintly hears the song from his little speaker, which he also use in his bedroom when he wants to fall asleep and FM stations play mellow music, he feels something from deep inside him. The feeling relates to the song but he tried to ignore it. He always enjoyed relaxing as he does his evening baths but this time, his purpose is different as he just stay soaked in the tub to imagine how it would be to die there. "Maybe I'll rip my wrist deep enough and voilà I'm dead!" he thinks like crazy.

In fact, not only this thought of ripping his wrist came into his mind. He was also thinking of loosening the screw connecting the gas tank to the main gas lines from the city to his apartment. "I'd open it just right for a little gas to escapee, then I'd lock myself here and I'd wake up facing Saint Peter," he was actually amused by this thought.

What is the reason of this all? Why he, the bright and talented and successful person trying to end his life?

"That biatch! I trusted her with all my life and now she's fuc_ing with that idiot right under my nose! How dare they do this to me! And I... I... I am so coward to do any vengeance against them! I am a coward and I can't even manage my own death! This life sucks! I just wanna die"

That was Abelard. He's trying to kill himself. Her ex-girlfriend is Yvonne. It was a great love story between the two of them, full of romance for three full years until the relationship became sour. For what reason everything fell out of place he doesn't know. All he know is, he was happy with her and he hates the fact that she betrayed him. How he caught her betrayal? He doesn't want to remember.

Lord, I offer my life to you
Everything I've been through

The chorus played again. Now he's paying attention as he hears it. And now he listens deeply to it. He searched in his heart what this song is all about. Nothing. He tried his brain. Empty. He knows that the song connects onto something but in his confused mode he could not easily fathom what the song connects to.

He added more hot water in his tub unconsciously. He added the bath cream and tried to relax. He forgot everything about his suicide plans. He just wanted a few moment of peace for now and a little relaxation. He closed his eyes deeply.

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Isn't Life Supposed To Be Meaningful? page 2 of 2

Abelard woke up feeling cold. No more heat in the water he's soaked into. He got up and out of the bath tub and dried himself and took his phone and the little speaker to his bedroom. When he looked at his bedside table clock, it was already 1 o'clock and three minutes. Midnight has passed an hour ago. He fell asleep in the tub for about two and a half hours.

He put on his pajama and went under the sheets. Although it's spring already, he could still feel cold in the night so the bed cover remains thick but the heater is okay to be switched off. He went to bed thinking about the song. Now he has all the time to think about it. After an hour of deciphering the connection to the song he remembered what the song was, and why it was telling him a certain feeling.

Two weeks later Abelard was invited to deliver a speech to teens who attempted to extinguish their own lives. He told the whole story about his own suicide plans and the meaning of the song.

Her name was Strawberry but we gladly call her Berry. She's among the brightest in our batch in high school and she even managed to be second to me for a certain school year. I maintained the first honors in all my high school years. She was healthy by then and was the romantic type, not violent, not sporty. A simple yet very sweet girl. She's a friend to many but a casual friend to me at first. Later on, we went to date and she became my girlfriend. However, we both decided to put everything to normality, kind of "cool off" until we get our respective degrees. We made this agreement for our very own future.

University life came and we were all busy with our respective studies. Berry and I, we started to lose communication but I still think of her when there's space in my mind. Studying Accountancy and for the upcoming CPA examinations when I graduate really made me very occupied.

One day we all received the news that she died. She died of a complex sickness. She was in hospital for quite some time but we never had any news about it. We were only able to see her in her wake. That caused a lot of pain to me but since our communication was a little loose than when we were in high school, the pain was lesser than I expected. I did not even shed tear and when I met Yvonne, I forgot everything about Berry.

While we were in Berry's wake, it was like a reunion with all high school friends and acquaintances. The sister and the mother told us the story. While many of her family and friends gather at her wake, a background music was playing.... it's the song I heard that night... We asked the mother and the sister why the same music is playing in Berry's wake all the time and it's played over and over.

"Berry, while waiting her last moments, was having a smile in her face", said the mother. "She was never afraid of death and was even comforting us not to worry about her, and as her very final moments she sang the song.. until she finally lost her breath...", added the sister.

Lord, I offer my life to you
Everything I've been through
Use it for your glory
Lord I offer my days to you
Lifting my praise to you
As a pleasing sacrifice
Lord I offer you my life

When I realized the connection, I changed my mind about dying. Berry, enjoyed and appreciated her life 'till the last second of it. I am still feeling the pain Yvonne dug in my heart but I will be eventually all right. Life is a game and it's great to play wise with it. It will only be meaningful if we try instill meaning to it.

To be honest, I am not religious nor a believer in some kind of spirit but Berry's courage and that song inspire me and remind me to be alive. Little it may seem, what we had together had made me survive and be here in front of you at this very moment. Indeed, here I am, alive and kicking. I believe now that I am more courageous than I think I was. I chose to take life's path 'till the end. I must face life and conquer happiness. That's the true courage.

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