Throwback Thursday feat. Fr. Jett Villarin, SJ!
Fr. Jett is the past president of Xavier University and now the president of ADMU. This was taken during the Student Leadership Development Program (SLDP 2010).
Officially, it’s been a month since we ended our volunteer year under the Jesuit Volunteers Philippines (JVP). I am now back in my hometown here in CdeO. After a year of service, I am now also back here on tumblr. I already got a month to finally lay on the ground after a year of floating and flying my self out in the realm of the rural life in Mindoro. But somehow it’s so hard to go back and embrace the changes.
Right now, there have been gazillion of thoughts running on my mind. I can’t fathom all these ideas in just a blurt of writing, or a moment of conversation with an acquaintance.
Literally and figuratively, I’m filled.
But somehow all this fullness is not easy to bare and contain. I need to let this out. I need outlets to make this easy for me to handle. Maybe, this going back to tumblr might help in one way or another. I’ve got to say that somehow unpacking is harder than packing.
After a month of staying here in my hometown, I have this feeling of alienation. But this is part of what we’ve expected in the first place, and we are already been prepared, of the least we thought, of returning to our comfort zones and going back to this reality differently. And part of this is the reverse culture shocks and all the separation anxiety that we are going to experience. But at the top of it all, comes the greatest challenge perhaps for a Jesuit volunteer going back to this life, on how we try to live out our JVP life and on how we try to align this with what we expected our lives to be on the first place. Challenging, yes.
My volunteer year had filled with me with a lot of things, and these had affected my life now, my decisions, my future plans.
The whole experience has been both rewarding and disheartening, overwhelming and underwhelming, loving and hurting. Needless to say, all these things had transpired to be a wonderful grace. A great blessing. Indeed, my decision to join JVP had been the best decision I made in my life. 
Kasama ang graduating batch ng Farm School at ang faculty and staff! :)
It has been a while since I posted something here in tumblr. My last post was so last year! HAHA Anyway, here are some of the mementos I had during the Christmas break. I was able to go home for the holiday, though short but truly I enjoyed the break. Happy to see fam and friends after a long time. But now, I’m back here in Mindoro and making the most of the last phase of my volunteer year. :) Patuloy lang!
Waiting. NAIA.
