Life Lessons You Learn As You Go – Here I Go!

I’m 83, a happy blogger among other things, and why should I now be learning “8 Life Lessons I Wish I Knew Earlier” from Brian McEntee, an animation and Art Director known for Ice Age (2002), The Brave Little Toaster (1987, and Beauty And The Beast (1991) (IMDb, imdb.com), published 24 Jan 2024, source quitandconquer.com)?

The list is shared by Ramon Rivera on Facebook (image of “Life Lessons” from bing.com). And yes, I can identify with all 8!

Brian McEntee is an animation art director; here is his list (Quit & Conquer, quitandconquer.com/):

1. Time is your most valuable asset.
2. It’s okay to fail and make mistakes.
3. No one is coming to save you.
4. What you aren’t doing is just as important as you what you are doing.
5. Spend time thinking about what you want your life to look like.
6. If you don’t know what to do, pick something and adjust your plans as you go.
7. Don’t compare yourself to others, compare yourself today to who you were yesterday.
8. Do it right or don’t do it at all.

#1 – “Time is your most valuable asset.” No, I’m not worried about Time – let Time worry about me!

#2 – “It’s okay to fail and make mistakes.” and #3. “No one is coming to save you.” My mistake: I participated in the outcry against President Ferdinand “FM” Marcos Sr; I was blacklisted, almost incarcerated. UP Los Baños discontinued my employment in 1968, and so I had to apply to other agriculture schools. Xavier University College of Agriculture (XUCA) in Cagayan De Oro City accepted me – God bless Fr Masterson, XUCA Dean!

At XUCA, I produced what could well be my masterpiece(s) as a teacher:  5 syllabuses in Horticulture – Floriculture (flowers), Landscape Horticulture, Olericulture (vegetables), Ornamental Horticulture, and Pomology (trees). All original, I must say – and, more importantly, they espoused Organic Agriculture, not what my alma mater UPLB espoused: Chemical Agriculture.

“#8. Do it right or don’t do it at all.”

Since Mr McEntee’s list does not include it, now I want to add a

“#9. Be creative, whatever.”

I have a creative mind, self-taught. Proof? In 1975, at the Forest Research Institute (FORI) based at UP Los Baños, I began my 5-year creative journey as The Editor In Chief of the monthly newsletter Canopy, quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop, and quarterly color magazine Habitat. All original concepts. Nota Bene: Those were Typewriter Days!

And now I have to add a “#10. Teach yourself digital.”

From 2003 to 2007/2008, I was engaged as The Editor In Chief of the much-delayed Philippine Journal of Crop Science (PJCS), the technical publication of the Crop Science Society of the Philippines. I was a one-man band. I did everything, up to and including desktop publishing, which is next to commercial printing. Double digital achievement: (1) I made the PJCS up-to-date in 2006, and (2) I made the PJCS accepted in the elite international list called “ISI” (now “Web of Science”).

You can do the impossible if you will it!@517