An open (and ambitious) letter to Mr. Ambeth Ocampo.
Dear Mr. Ambeth Ocampo,
Good day. I am Francis Lorenze Visco, and I am a 22-year old Literature graduate. I have read your articles and numerous chapters of your books crucial to my learning, some used for papers as my sources (please don’t sue me). Because of all that, I have high respects for you and your towering credentials. However, a quote around a certain social blogging site is roaming around and is claiming to be yours.
If it isn’t true, then cut your reading short, and bless your day sir, I’m sorry to have wasted your time. If it is, I will have to disagree on your statement.
It can be said that your quote should be taken with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Then again, who does that, really? Sarcasm is thrown around often that people actually forget that they are being sarcastic. But not you.
I must admit, you definitely struck a chord with countless 20-somethings when I first read the said quote from a friend’s Skype message. This was my impromptu reply, which was pretty much naive and brash:
“I act. It may not be Repertory or be shown in Resorts World, but in no way am I wasting my youth, Mr. Ambeth Ocampo.”
My friend quoted me on her Facebook wall and we all had a good laugh about it. However, that naive and brash statement remains.
Unlike those kids who party all night and only work to support their constant partying and extravagant lifestyles, I was never one to party. Drink with friends, teachers and colleagues, definitely. But partying? That can be argued and negotiated upon.
I work to save, Mr. Ocampo. I have plans for the future. Plans that if I mention here will seem arrogant and juvenile. Visions, Mr. Ocampo. Visions that are usually laughed at. My immediate family laughs at my plans and visions, since most of then will cost me a lot of time and money. Coming from a middle class family who pushed their children’s butts up until we marched up the stage on graduation day, their laughs and disapprovals are not really frowned upon, and my respect for them remains.
This is where my friends (and accomplices to these said plans) come in. They help me realize that I am not part of that 95% who work at call centers and pretty much live to be happy. No Mr. Ocampo, I am not that majority.
And there are so many others too. Obscure artists in non-art schools who are trying their hardest to stand out from their cookie-cutter schools are ever present. My organization (a theatre org that has existed before the school even became a university) picks out these people and help them stand out and try to continually insert art into everyday life.
This may be far from becoming the “Hero” standard that you want kids to be. Then again, if everybody wanted to become a hero, then every hero would become the everyman.
But I digress. I know I am too young for the target age of the said quote (it did say “Filipinos in their late 20’s” somewhere), but do I really have to wait to be in my late 20’s to answer your question?
No I don’t. So to answer your question Mr. Ocampo, I have been active in the theatre industry during my college years, so there’s my share in the arts, just like Juan Luna. It may not be as big as the “Spolarium,” but playing Serapio in “Ang Paglilitis kay Mang Serapio” is pretty big for me.
I perpetually listen to my parents advice, advice that affects my studies, love life, social life and overall life philosophy, just like how Rizal highly regarded the words of his mother, whom he cared for dearly.
I love my school. I love it so much that I became party head to spark the change. And so far so good. My University is going only up, and I would like to think that I have had my share in that progress. I may not have led a revolution, but people listened when I talked. And leading that political party is one of the greatest accomplishments I consider in my life.
Mr. Ocampo, I am sorry but I would have to disagree with your statement. However, people do need to see this. Because that 95% who are falsely thinking that they are “living their lives trying to be happy by having fun” will never be happy. They need to realize that “fun” and “happiness” are two different things.
So what do Filipinos in their late 20s do today? Me, I just live my normal life, acting once in a while, saving up for the plans that no one would probably approve of, but will hopefully change the world.
Just a 20-something wannabe theatre actor,
Francis Lorenze Visco
View the quote here.
