Spotlight: Melzar R. Galicia, Jr.

FRESH MIND THEORY

by: Melzar R. Galicia, Jr.

MAGIS… Boyztrek, Cyberia, NetEx, these are places that I frequent back in college. A balance of everything is always key.

On a regular day, my time back in college was spent on studying, extra-curricular organizational activities, exercise, and online games. Studying Business Management in Ateneo, I was challenged more on the fact that most of our activities and schoolwork were group based. The aspect of grinding hours to study and memorize, as what other courses do, were not the highlight of our training, rather, we spent much of our time debating over who has better ideas, and learning to compromise. Having that every day in class was actually very helpful with my other activities as I was able to translate the theories we discussed and see it work real time with real people in different organizations.

Again, balance is key. I can never forget a certain quiz in our Rizal class as it was a very big learning experience for me. For that quiz, I studied over-night and crammed during the day, reading other materials not recommended by our professor, while all my barkadas were sleeping beside me in the library. When the results were handed out to us, I was the only one who failed the quiz, hence, I was forced to play the role of Simoun for our final presentation. From that experience I learned that efficiency is always better than pure hard work. Grinding and grinding, reading everything, will not do much good if you do not have focus. My barkadas jokingly dubbed their act of relaxing as the “Fresh Mind Theory.” Looking back at it, the Fresh Mind Theory is actually very effective and is what I would like for us to have especially now in times of pandemic.

Unlike the other graduates of SBG who shared their stories in this platform, I do not have anything to share about professional life or success after schooling as I myself am still a student. Now taking up my law degree, I experience the same struggles that you readers are having with online classes. As mentioned above, back in college, the struggle was to keep things in balance by inserting means of relaxation into my daily school grind. However, now with the current setting and with us stuck at home, things seem to be in reverse. The challenge now is to have study inserted in hours of comfort in our homes and with our families. Most of us study, and eventually work hard, all for the purpose of gaining enough resource, and free time to be able to spend with our loved ones. With this setting due to the pandemic, we are reminded that life isn’t strictly a step-by-step process. Balance is key. We do not need to be successful professionals to be able to contribute to our families. Our duties inside our homes are as important as our responsibilities outside. Simple acts such as doing chores for your parents or spending quality time with your siblings binging Netflix Series is essential for our development. Working hard is good, but always remember to rest. Rest is good, but too much of it leads to complacency and under productiveness. We should strike a balance all the time. Always have a Fresh Mind when doing things and never forget magis!

As I end, to all business students, I give emphasis on the challenge that we have to take and that is to be men and women for others. We must always also remember that “others” include families and friends. Dealing with people is the essence of our future professions, let’s start by being good sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, migo and miga.

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Written by: Melzar Jr. R. Galicia | Bachelor of Science in Business Management | Magna Cum Laude, Class Valedictorian of Class 2017