“Reminisce”

            We cannot look forward to posterity if we never look backward to our ancestors. Because we are not the maker of history, we are made by history. History along with the early people in it is our molder and the reason of our existence today. So for a while, it’s a good thing to take a glimpse of the past and recognize our roots.

            There are many theories that sprouted about the origin of our existence. And one of the most recognized theories is the Wave of Migration. According to this theory, the trace of our early ancestors were said to be from the three groups of people who settled here in the Philippines which are the Negritos, Indonesians and Malays.

            We learned from our History subject about the simplicity of life of early people in the Philippines. How they manage to survive in their time, how they gradually became civilized and how they contribute in the formation of what we now own for ourselves: the Filipino culture.

            Filipinos life ago was difficult yet they were able to survive mainly from their surroundings. Early Filipinos used sharp stones for smashing the food they gathered and for splitting wooden branches. They lived in caves, forests, nipa huts or tree houses. And they even had their own structure of government and laws embedded in it. Since the people during that time were relatively small in numbers, there was not really a problem in terms of food supply and space to dwell which is undeniably opposite of our status quo wherein most of the people are homeless or residing in squatter’s area and suffering from hunger due to poverty.

            Over the years, Filipino and environment continued to interact and produced new discoveries and breakthroughs. And now that our country embraces different innovations and technological advancements, we cannot deny the fact that the way of life of each Filipino has been changed. In this fast pacing world, we can see how the life of individuals were altered, the life that are indeed far from what our ancestors had before.

             Before, it took a long time for our ancestors to create fire. It seems that their body fats will be the first to be burned (due to extreme rubbing of bamboo woods) rather than the food that they must suppose to burn. But now, it just one snap, the fire is all yours!

            Today, we have the easiest and fastest way to communicate with others. It can be through text, calls, Internet, different social networking sites and many more. But during the old times, messages are commonly spoken to other personally, but it’s a hard time for them to locate the person they want to speak with. That’s why some of them use birds to send messages for them. Well, it’s a bad story then when their “messenger bird” was got shot by someone because their message will remain untold. Oops! We also had our own version of “messenger bird” today! The “Twitter!” The good thing about it is it cannot be shot dead by anyone. But if you do not have Internet connection, well, that’s another sad story.

            And when it comes to the dissemination of information, people before had their umalohokan to announce it to the public personally. But today, there’s no sore throat anymore for the umalohokan, because of the presence of different media like television, radio and newspaper to distribute information, news and orders to the mass.

            Before they use boat and animals to travel from one place to another but most of the time, they walk barefooted. But now, we have different means of transportation, even if it’s in land, water, underwater, aerial or even going to space! And as a result, pollution and heavy traffic jam! No wonder, in the near future, there will be traffic in the sky too.

            In accordance to their laws and orders, some act of wrongdoing can be penalized by death. Sounded harsh? But as of today, death penalty is not allowed in the Philippines.

            Early Filipinos are contented in farming, fishing, hunting and making boats. There are no such things as blue collar jobs nor does white collar job. There’s also no thing like Minimum Wage.

            Their clothing was made from leaves, barks of trees, animal skin. And their accessories are made of elephant tusks, animals’ teeth, pearls from sea and stones. And as time went by, baro’t saya ang barong tagalong was introduced. Sorry for the boys of early times, because miniskirts, shorts and sleeveless were not yet introduced during those time.

            During the early times, courting a girl requires great courage for the man to face all the hardships. He cannot even touch her fingertip or her hair tip. But today, in just a blink of an eye, many relationships were build as well as new baby. Feelings are communicated and expressed through text or Facebook statuses which were never done before.

            These are just some of the way of life of our ancestors or the early Filipinos. Our life today and their life before have both pros and cons. It is just, life before is certainly simpler than what we have now. But still, they can generate happiness from this simplicity of life. I think, one implication of this continuously innovating world is that we are setting higher standards for living and happiness. And despite all the beneficial effects of modernization, we must admit that the simplicity of life is now altered of being complicated packed with branching problems.

            We cannot choose where and when to live. It’s only God decides whether what era we should rise. But wherever and whenever it is, we should utilize our time here on Earth in the best and noble as we can because time runs so fast and we will also become the ancestors of the new Filipinos to be born in the near future. Let us make future generations remember us as proud ancestors just as, today, we remember our forefathers.