Here's the complete transcript of the speech I gave this morning in school.
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To our Dean, Dr. Adorico Aya-ay, faculty, and students of the Liberal Arts program of the University of the Immaculate Conception, a marvelous Monday to all of you.
When I was invited to speak today for the Opening Ceremonies of your Liberal Arts week, the first thing I asked about was the theme. Well actually, that was the second thing I asked. My first question was, “Can’t you invite anybody else of a “more significant stature in society" who can do the speech?” Well obviously they couldn’t because I’m here. So you’re kinda stuck with me. But I’ll try my best to make this worthwhile.
So who am I really? Who’s this pint-sized professor walking the halls of UIC Annex? How can a new part-time teacher, who can even barely spend some time in the faculty room, be credible enough to speak about INNOVATION?
Yes that is the theme of this year’s Liberal Arts week program. Actually, the complete title is “Innovative Thinking with Dynamic Understanding: A Sublime Pathway to Liberal Giving.” Wow, that is a mouthful!
Maybe it’s being new to all of these scholastic terminologies but honestly the theme sounds overwhelming. When I asked the organizer what it means, I got what I suspected she would answer “I’m not really sure, Ma’am,” she said.
And maybe that’s the usual problem in the university. We become so engrossed with the profound and fail to make it practical.
We encounter the words INNOVATION, and INNOVATIVE, and even INNOVATE being loosely used countless times. In the academe... in business marketing... in advertising... But what do they really mean?
Innovation, by lexical definition, means “a new idea”. In business, INNOVATION is the process by which an idea or invention is translated into a good or service for which people will pay, or something that results from this process, while the word “innovative” means “being ahead of its time”.
In information technology, recent examples of INNOVATORS would be Steve Jobs and his iPhone and iPad, and Mark Zuckerberg’s FaceBook – both changing the way how we communicate. In music, we have Lady Gaga, who continuously pushes the envelope with her ever changing looks, and tweeting each of her minute-by-minute evolution to her 20 million Twitter fans.
These are the gods and geniuses of this generation. This fast paced world follows them because they are constantly developing something new, fresh, trailblazing, daring, and creative. They are considered INNOVATIVE.
Unfortunately we cannot invite Mark Zuckerberg or Lady Gaga, and definitely Steve Jobs is out of the question, to speak here today about INNOVATION and about being INNOVATIVE. You just have ME. So maybe you’re asking “What does she know about Innovation?”
I admit. I am not an inventor. I am merely a smudge of being an iconoclast. But I can say that the path that has led me to this stage today is by itself an innovation. Let me tell you why.
If being innovative means thinking out of the box then let me tell you first about the 4 sides that make up that box. We have to remember that before we can make an abstract drawing of a cat, you must know first of all, how to draw a simple cat. Right?
So visualize a 4 sided-box. Each of these sides represents one factor that completes an INNOVATION. Conveniently, they also all begin with the letter “I”.
Again, if innovative thinking means thinking out of the box then we must have the box first. So here we go...
The first side to that box is IMAGINATION.
When I was a kid, I would put a blanket over my back and then just like that I became Super Girl. On other days though, I would put on tennis wrist bands and just like that I became Wonder Woman. And then during Halloween, I’d just get the broom from the kitchen and just like that I became a witch.
As a kid, I wasn’t really conscious that I was just pretending. It wasn’t just simply child’s play. My seven year old self actually believed that if I can IMAGINE it then it’s real.
And I think we were all that kind of kid once but somehow things changed as we grew older.
When we fail an exam, we think the path towards our dream career has just reached a dead end. When we fall in love and get broken hearted, we think we will never ever walk that aisle to the altar anymore. And when we get burned out at work, we think there’s already no way for us to shift gears in the middle of the road.
Believe it or not, I’ve had my share of flunking grades (Mostly in Math). I’ve had my own string of bad boyfriends (Mostly non-committal rock stars). And I have also lost some glamorous jobs.
But what kept me going is my child-like imagination. The dictionary has three very different meanings for the word “imagine”. One is to form an image of something in the mind; the second is to see or hear something unreal; and the third is to assume something.
To imagine then is basically like DREAMING. Despite how far-fetched the idea may have seemed, I was a teenager living here in Davao City back when we only had Victoria Plaza as the mall, and yet I imagined myself working for MTV. I imagined myself interviewing my favourite stars. I imagined myself travelling to Hollywood to watch concerts. And guess what? They did happen!
Great inventions ever made and the greatest stories ever written are all fruits of some people’s imagination. The technology that makes our lives comfortable today; the movies that entertain us during the weekends – they all started out as dreams that eventually became innovations.
But how can we turn figments of our imagination into innovations?
That leads us to the second side of the box which is INFORMATION.
About a week ago, the Grammy Awards were held in the U.S. and Paul McCartney was given a tribute at the tail end of the show. What should have been an awe-inspiring moment became an outrageous trending topic on the Internet. Millennials (that’s your generation) were asking “Who is Paul McCartney?”
WHO IS PAUL MCCARTNEY? Anybody who asks that question yet claims that they love Bruno Mars or Rico Blanco or Spongecola is clearly naive and clueless. Sadly, that’s the rising problem that we have now in this generation. It is quite ironic that despite the free-flow of information in the internet, kids today hardly know anything.
There is a reason why everyone is not a prodigy. There is a reason why despite our innate talents and vivid imagination we have to go to school.
Why are we enrolled in the Liberal Arts program in the first place? Ideally because we are supposed to get our sublime education from the university. This is where we learn about the classics... the masters! This is where we learn about theories and philosophies. That is why it’s called Higher Learning. I got my Creative Writing degree from the University of the Philippines, in Diliman. And that is where I learned about the great artists – writers and filmmakers all throughout history.
True, you don’t need a college degree to get a full grasp of who Paul McCartney is. But the point is if you don’t even know anything about pop culture how would you even care about Shakespeare? Would you even give Jose Rizal the time of day?
These brilliant minds wrote masterpieces that became the canon for good literature but they were only able to create their art because they read the works of writers before them – the same way that your current music idols also listened to Paul McCartney and the Beatles.
Lady Gaga followed in Madonna’s footsteps, and Madonna adulated over Marilyn Monroe, while Marilyn grew up watching Jean Harlow, and so on and so forth. The point here is there’s always someone who came ahead of someone.
Shakespeare and Rizal weren’t just naturally talented and imaginative geniuses. They say that art imitates life, but I believe in Oscar Wilde when he said that artists must not simply copy life but rather must make better or more meaningful versions of life through their art.
Good artists are INFORMED of the world through their keen observations but a Great artist is one who can INNOVATE through INFORMATION and IMAGINATION.
Art therefore is an INNOVATION of Life!
But what happens after school? What happens after we graduate with a degree in Communication Arts? Or English? Are Psychology Majors only pre-destined for careers in Human Resource?
This is where the 3rd side of the box comes in – Innovation needs IMMERSION!
When I enrolled in the Creative Writing program, the career options seemed limited at that time. I thought I could either use this as a pre-Law course or become a Fiction writer. This was during the ‘90s when Philippine publication was at its bleakest state. So there goes my wishful thinking.
I honestly didn’t know what kind of job I would be getting if I didn’t pursue Law School, so good thing that I was naturally a curious cat and IMMERSED myself in all sorts of hobbies and fields of interests. I guess this goes naturally with my interest in literature and the arts.
I was into rock music and watched every gig of the Eraserheads at every club in Quezon City. I was also into movies and found myself munching popcorn over blockbusters, art films, and foreign flicks at the UP Film Center. I was into Hollywood and Fashion so I’d pore over magazines just to feed my eyes with eye candy. I was into Super Heroes so I read a lot of comic books and became interested in graphic novels. I loved dancing so I took some Ballroom and HipHop dancing lessons.
I was into art and photography so I visited museums and dabbled in black and white photography at some point too. I love drama so I watched plays and knew all the chorus lines to famous Broadway Musicals. I tickled my palate through gastronomic adventures. I frequented book shops and lived vicariously through someone’s exquisite perspective of the world.
I remember one time in class when I was giving a lecture on how to write Food Reviews, I asked my students if they have already tasted Creme Brulee. And as if it was like something they didn’t deserve, my students remarked that pang kwek-kwek lang daw sila.
I was aghast by their defeatist perception of themselves. First of all Creme Brulee is just a fancy version of the Leche Flan. It’s not strictly for royalty. Anyone who has good taste or at least an interest on what’s delicious must try some in their lifetime!
Immersion then is all about having a big appetite for life!
So it would seem that IMMERSING in all of these whimsical pursuits made me a Jack or rather Jill-of-all-trades-master-of-none but the penchant to know it all certainly paid off when I applied in MTV as a segment producer.
Clearly, I had no formal training in TV production because I was not even a MassComm Graduate. I studied Literature! But my would-be-boss said that a diploma is not enough. Instead, they were looking for someone whose brain is a chock-full of ideas!
And where did I get my ideas anyway?
Well, I have always had a wild Imagination when I was a kid. I am armed with Information about pop culture and the arts. And I’ve had Immersion in all sorts of hobbies and interests. So even if I wasn’t technically prepared for the job – I had that innovative edge.
Why are ideas more important than technical skills? Simply because the audience is evolving. People’s tastes change. Trends come and go. TV like any other entertainment medium is all about innovating ideas.
And so finally, we must not forget that the last side to that box is INSPIRATION.
It’s not just about being inspired by great artists who came before us but we must also become inspirations of the next generation. When we think of ideas; when we create, we must take into consideration the impact it’s going to make in the years to come. How will the next wave benefit from our ideas?
We study the past to understand the present. In my personal journey, it took some wrong answers for me to get to the right one. I had the break-ups that led to my breakdowns that ultimately led to my breakthrough.
After a 15-year roller coaster life that took me to Manila, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, and New York, I have come full circle in this chapter of my life now that I am back in Davao City.
Coming home to give back to the community; to the school that has shaped me in my early teens is what I consider my biggest achievement so far.
I say “so far” because as renowned American journalist Lincoln Steffens once said, “Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over. The greatest picture is not yet painted, the greatest play isn’t written, the greatest poem is unsung. There isn’t in all the physical world a perfect railroad, nor a good government, nor a sound law. Physics, mathematics, and especially the most advanced and exact of the sciences are being fundamentally revised. . . Psychology, economics, and sociology are awaiting a Darwin, whose work in turn is awaiting an Einstein.”
And that is what we call INNOVATION! As I shifted from showbiz to school; from entertainer to educator, I have made an innovation of myself.
But this is not the end. Anytime now, the iPad 3 will be out soon and this little baby I’m holding will be passé. On the same note, I can’t wait to have a better version of me as soon as I finish my Master’s Degree (which I promised the Dean to start soon, by the way).
This week, all of you will be showcasing your different talents and skills. We’ll never know which among these interests of yours will pay off and eventually become a lucrative career in the future. But that’s actually the best thing about being in the Liberal Arts program – we can be anything, we can go anywhere, we can do lots of things!
It’s all about innovation!
Just remember that “Innovative thinking is thinking out of the box!” But how can you think out of the box when there’s no box to begin with?
So begin with your Imagination. Fuel up with Information. Propel your wings with Immersion. And fly high with Inspiration. Leave this school and one day come back with Innovations of yourselves.
Thank you and I wish you all the awesomeness in your Liberal Arts Week!
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