Almost 22 years ago, me and a couple of other classmates started hanging out back in our old high school. I can’t really recall much what bonded us together. We all came from pretty much diverse backgrounds and nothing really much in common between us. All I recall is that we were all enthralled in starting an organization that we would consider as our own. Back in those days, high school fraternities was all the rage and peer pressure to join such groups was such a pull to almost everyone in school. I almost joined one such organization but quit after the “baptismal” ceremony. I think nobody even remembers me even joining that organization, if it’s still existing, or what effects it could have been to my life and to everyone else around me. I honestly think that I have made the right decision after all and I am proud to admit that I did quit. I don’t have the stigma of being a quitter at all. Let’s just say I am here, and if someone do say that I am quitter, my question would be “where are you now?”. And so we did plant the seed of an organization that have lasted through this years, has gone beyond what we have dreamed it to be and exceeded our expectations. Everyone else that I have told about my dream of starting the roots of an organization have always discouraged me. I was told that only a privilege few can do what I was dreaming. I have proven all the naysayers wrong. Me and the other pioneers of these organizations have proven everyone that it does not matter who we are, it’s what we stand for that matters and that individually we are nothing, but as a group we are a force to be reckoned with.
So for the past two decades, me, Ronhill and Omar have shared our dreams and aspirations for a brotherhood that we could truly call our own. We have shed tears, sweat, and in my case, even blood. There have been plenty of times that the brotherhood seem to die a slow, malingering death but there’s also one of us to revive and resuscitate it back to life. It have become an unwritten pact amongst us to never let this happen. This pact have extended even beyond us who planted the seeds, but to the other brothers and sisters that have shared their life and their youth with us. This organization have truly evolve from just a organization with a Greek letter name to a brotherhood that have meant so much to a lot of us. We are not concerned anymore of sheer numbers or exuberance of a well known name in campus. We have transcended these pettiness and have evolved to a true brotherhood of men.
I have not always been a person of brute force, or of great knowledge, but I believe I have contributed in developing the soul of the brotherhood. I have always strive to make this brotherhood better than what is expected and go beyond what society expect of organizations such as ours. I believe that for some people to grow, tough love needs to be meted out. We need to learn from our mistakes, and understand it, and strive to not do it again. I have tried multiple times to pass on the baton, but always have to come back to correct mistakes and to assist in whatever way I can for the brotherhood. I will never let this brotherhood die. There is too much at stake for me.
I will forever be rooted with this brotherhood. It will also be a part of me, always and forever. I hope, and I pray that this brotherhood will last beyond me and the other founding brothers. We didn’t expect it to grow this big and to go beyond this point, but hopefully it will outlast us, and that the essence of the motto that I have written on a simple white paper two decades ago be a guiding light to future brothers to come – “synergos fide et fortitudine”.
