“I got STINKY, I got DIRTY, but see…I LEARNED!” (NIDO)

"Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan."

-       Dr. Jose P. Rizal

Since Rizal’s death, his famous quote has been one of the Filipinos’ guiding principles. Dr. Jose P. Rizal is simply telling us that in order to reach our destination, we need to look back from where we come from, look back to our past.

According to Wikipedia, “past” is a term used to indicate the totality of events which occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience time, and is accessed through memory and recollection. In addition, human beings have recorded the past since the advent of written language.

When talking about the “past”, another famous quote usually comes into mind. What is this famous quote? Aren’t you familiar with “Past is past”? I am quite sure that almost all of us have quoted this quote every once in a while. I was unable to find the origin of this quote in the internet but they say it was used by people who are brokenhearted or “sawi sa pag-ibig”.

Comparing and contrasting these two quotes, which would you choose to believe in? Although they both talk about the past, they are different in meaning.

For us Filipinos, Rizal teaches us that looking back to where we come from is very important. We should remember that significant things had happened in the past and still we treasure and we should treasure those things until now. We always give time to celebrate important moments from the past and even we would say “Past is past”, what comes into our minds is that ‘at least I’ve learned something fruitful from my past’.

 

Source: http://www.jamesleonhardt.com/vision/

The past is like a gateway of molding us to become who we are now. We live from it, learn from it and love it because it is already a part of us. We usually tend to look back to those good memories that we have especially when we were still little. We laugh to those happy seconds of our time. We feel sad for those mistakes that we have done. We feel regrets for those promises that we have not accomplished. The beauty and the beast of the past are still circling around our head and it helps us grow stronger. It helps us to make good decisions. It helps us in all aspects of our lives.

Past, it is a broad term relating to one’s memoirs. Some believed that forgetting their past will release them from those bad situations that had happened to them but, you will only make it worse. Instead, we need to accept these kinds of things because we cannot change what happened in the past and it will remain constant no matter what we do. Holding on the past is like keeping a sacred thing and you must consider it as one of your keys in opening a better life in the future.

We need to think of what Rizal’s famous quote has left for us. It paves the way to have a beautiful and successful future. The key is looking back. When we’ve done stupid things in the past, remember that we have tomorrow as our second chance to do the right thing. Doing a mistake twice will not help you grow up, that is why God created the future to give us chance in life.

Source: http://awrightworld.tumblr.com/post/4109827414/letting-the-past-control-your-future

“Past is past” can sarcastically mean that we should ignore the past and not analyze its importance. It is totally a mistake when we do such thing. The past should not be and should never be ignored. We need to live a life as what Rizal has said. We need to treasure what the past has brought us. It has brought us freedom. Even if we relate this to the past events that had happened in our country, it gave us one special thing that we are using and claiming as of today, FREEDOM.

Keep the past closely in our hearts because someday it might be helpful to us. Without our past, we will never be in where we are today.