PEOPLE
TENACITY IN A FIREFIGHTER’S HEART WRITTEN BY KORINA AURELIO
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“The future does not belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.” – Ronald Reagan Growing up, every one of us has an inkling of a dream. A blueprint of how our lives would play out as soon as we reach our desired goals, a driving force that pushes us to constantly work with everything that we got. A dream is a manifestation, a visual representation within the mind, which presents countless possibilities of what we’re capable of achieving in the future. Just like how light presents itself at the end of a dark tunnel and the way metals are attracted to magnets, a dream is what motivates us to keep on reaching for the end despite the difficulties throughout the long journey. It is what keeps us enthralled; the thought of being able to get to the finish line is more than enough to put someone in a state of euphoria. The heroine in our story went through a series of unfortunate events growing up. She faced losses, discouragement, and was led astray from the path she originally wanted to trudge down. It’s her courageous heart, her tenacity, and her down-to-earth personality that made her far in life. She wouldn’t be the resilient firefighter that she is today. Micah Trishia E. Alojado is the third child out of four siblings. She, together with her siblings, grew up and lived most of their lives without their parents by their sides. “My father was a seaman and my mother was a high school teacher. They died early because of stroke; my father died in 1997 while I was only seven years old and my mother in the year 2003. I was thirteen back then.” Without the aid and the financial support of her parents, the thought of going to any of the existing prestigious universities at the time was out of the line. They were like ripe fruits blossoming on unimaginably tall trees; beautiful to look at yet impossible to reach. 23
“We had relatives residing in Sibalom. After our parents died, our uncle [which happens to be my mom’s brother] took us in and decided that we should go to the University of Antique.” All seemed to farewell at that point yet another tragedy presented itself; déjà vu of sorts. “In the year 2007, when I was only in my first year, my uncle died due to stroke as well. Because of that, our aunt [who is my father’s sister] ended up being the one who helped us continue and finish our studies.” A dream often shifts its course in the long run; yesterday’s dream may dissipate into a cloud of nothingness as another dream manifests itself. We dream of different things and we aspire to reach a certain profession. However, external factors and hindrances cannot be avoided. This is what Micah had to face as she was choosing a course suitable for her. “Actually, my first choice was nursing but UA didn’t offer the said course. So I decided to go with my second choice, which was Criminology. I wanted to be a policewoman because my ex of seven years was a policeman and I was influenced by him. But my aunt was against this idea and told me to pursue Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant Management (BSHRM) instead since it was easy to go abroad.” This was not in any of her choices and it
