8TH MEETING: GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR JOURNAL ENTRIES

8TH MEETING: GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR JOURNAL ENTRIES
I. Challenge yourself

Choose a challenge:
a. Tell the truth
b. Return recovered things (personal items, money, etc)
c. Admit mistake
d. Return excess change
e. Avoid cheating

On your journal, process your experience with the aid of the following guide questions:
a. What challenge did you take?
b. Were you able to do the challenge? How do you feel about it?
c. What have you realized/learned from your experience?

Yesterday, one of the mentioned challenges above came my way. Everyday I rode the jeepney to Pulo. As usual, I boarded on a jeepney and handed out my twenty pesos for my 'bayad'. As the people seated next to me handed my payment to the driver's assistant, I told him, "Pulo po, estudyante po."

The driver's assistant faced me and asked, "How much do you pay for Pulo?"
I answered, "Twenty pesos po."

But I guess he didn't hear me clearly because after a few seconds, the guy next to me was handing me some 'barya' or coins. I politely said that that change wasn't mine. I looked at the driver's assistant and he insisted that it was mine. I smiled a little, and told him again, "I pay twenty pesos for Pulo."

He looked at me for some time and then spoke, "Oh...I thought you said you pay twelve pesos." So the change (that wasn't even supposed to be) was returned back to him.

Maybe they were new, I thought. They didn't know how much a student from Pacita would pay to get to Pulo.

Still, I was very proud of myself after that incident. To think of it, I could have just kept quiet and take the excess change. I could have took advantage of it, since lately I've been wishing that I could have a little more extra money. But I knew it was wrong, and I'm an honest and good-natured person. I'm very proud, I feel happy that I was honest and I knew that the people there in the jeepney learned something from me. I may have taught the driver and his assistant that a student from Pacita pays twenty pesos to get to Pulo, and the passengers to be honest too, because they were watching me closely when the incident was happening.

I realized that being good feels good. And I would very much choose to have that light and clean feeling than having my pocket or wallet a bit heavier from keeping some excess change.