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Confessions of a Self-Professed Apathetic


I am an apathetic. No public issue or crisis can break into my walls of indifference for whatever my fellow people are going through. I’ve become a cynic towards what our country would be and is encountering. How could that be?, you might ask, for I’m in the heart and center of which these ideals are nurtured and formed. I breathe the same air and am fed with the same concepts in this school, U.P. the home of the ‘iskolars ng bayan’, the liberals, the activists, etc.

I wasn’t like this before. When I was younger, I had a burning passion for these very ideals. Back in high school, I joined other concerned citizens rallying at EDSA and overthrowing a corrupt president. In my freshman year, my mind was soon molded into thinking more critically. Looking into “social reality’s layers of meaning” (Peter L. Berger), I had a voice. It may not be as loud as those of the students who passionately rally in the school’s corridors and steps, still, I had one. Year after year, I lost slowly that voice. I’ve grown numb with the unending cycle of disappointments to what was happening to our country. The passionate activists in school sounded more to me like broken records playing repetitively. Their shouts were more of noises rather than meaningful battle cries and I ignored them.

I believe time hasn’t given up on me. In my last semester in this university I was fortunate enough to come across a course that has begun to deal with my apathy. What was a simple class requirement has become an open door to change the way I think. Somehow, I’m beginning to look into the “sociological perspective which makes us see in a new light the very world in which we live” (C. Wright Mills). I’m starting to develop the “sociological imagination” in which “by such means the personal uneasiness of individuals is focused upon explicit troubles and the indifference of publics is transformed into involvement with public issues.”(C. Wright Mills) I’m beginning to place myself and my own experiences within my generation gauging what my fate would be. I am now becoming aware that as I live in this society I contribute in the shaping of it. Most especially at this crucial moment in my life, I’d be graduating and making my mark in whichever work field I’m lead into. I’ve got bigger roles to fill, so as the other individuals in my batch and in the next. I have begun to understand further what I was passionate with before and have been seeing them in a “new light”, in “many layers”. I’ve realized that I’ve been on the right path all along and that I have to continue on carrying with me the knowledge and enlightenment that I’m learning and receiving from this course and in my everyday dealings with others. It is good to feel that the high walls of indifference are now crumbling down into ruin. I’m beginning to gain again my voice.

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Confessions of a Self-Professed Apathetic


I am an apathetic. No public issue or crisis can break into my walls of indifference for whatever my fellow people are going through. I’ve become a cynic towards what our country would be and is encountering. How could that be?, you might ask, for I’m in the heart and center of which these ideals are nurtured and formed. I breathe the same air and am fed with the same concepts in this school, U.P. the home of the ‘iskolars ng bayan’, the liberals, the activists, etc.

I wasn’t like this before. When I was younger, I had a burning passion for these very ideals. Back in high school, I joined other concerned citizens rallying at EDSA and overthrowing a corrupt president. In my freshman year, my mind was soon molded into thinking more critically. Looking into “social reality’s layers of meaning” (Peter L. Berger), I had a voice. It may not be as loud as those of the students who passionately rally in the school’s corridors and steps, still, I had one. Year after year, I lost slowly that voice. I’ve grown numb with the unending cycle of disappointments to what was happening to our country. The passionate activists in school sounded more to me like broken records playing repetitively. Their shouts were more of noises rather than meaningful battle cries and I ignored them.

I believe time hasn’t given up on me. In my last semester in this university I was fortunate enough to come across a course that has begun to deal with my apathy. What was a simple class requirement has become an open door to change the way I think. Somehow, I’m beginning to look into the “sociological perspective which makes us see in a new light the very world in which we live” (C. Wright Mills). I’m starting to develop the “sociological imagination” in which “by such means the personal uneasiness of individuals is focused upon explicit troubles and the indifference of publics is transformed into involvement with public issues.”(C. Wright Mills) I’m beginning to place myself and my own experiences within my generation gauging what my fate would be. I am now becoming aware that as I live in this society I contribute in the shaping of it. Most especially at this crucial moment in my life, I’d be graduating and making my mark in whichever work field I’m lead into. I’ve got bigger roles to fill, so as the other individuals in my batch and in the next. I have begun to understand further what I was passionate with before and have been seeing them in a “new light”, in “many layers”. I’ve realized that I’ve been on the right path all along and that I have to continue on carrying with me the knowledge and enlightenment that I’m learning and receiving from this course and in my everyday dealings with others. It is good to feel that the high walls of indifference are now crumbling down into ruin. I’m beginning to gain again my voice.

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