Establishing the Spirit of "Kapwa"

Here’s to another semester– same school, similar classes.

And, of course, new people.

The comfort level drops again as we must bring ourselves together to familiarize with new scholars and new faces.

However, being in the BAYAN Learning Community again, I believe that bonding was easier and stronger, especially with the major focus at the beginning of the semester was kapwa.

Kapwa is the Filipino psychological term of the idea of togetherness, to make sure that you can connect with others and be close to them. Throughout the beginning, meeting new people and making them feel welcomed was probably considered our task as “veterans” of the learning community.

It was possibly a challenge for many of us scholars to apply this concept– we’ve already been exposed to this idea in the previous semester. It was only a matter of the application and being able to break out of our comfort zone and talk to new people; there was half of the classroom who knew each other, and then the other half who were brand new to the class. We veterans needed to take a greater step: come up to a person and introduce ourselves, take a moment to initiate a conversation and learn a little bit about the newer ones.

It seems difficult at first; we're already used to our cliques who know us deeply whom we can joke around with and be ourselves. Few are afraid of what people may think of us, others is because it's hard to go back and bring ourselves to others, as that could be our personalities. "Will they accept us?" "Will we accept them?" Just to name a few thoughts, as it's hard to come together on the spot.

However, I believe a lot of us did pretty well in becoming one with others. Some of us already became quick friends with the newer students as we tried to expand our friend list, others we at least make sure that nobody is left behind in class, and that is very important.

Overall, I believe that the spirit of kapwa has definitely sparked within our environment; we’ve been able to help others and become closer with one another. It is only a matter of time before we grow and be able to come together.