13/07/2026
|| Sweet Child O' Mine
By: Gabriel Steffan L. Castillo
Miguel is a 13-year-old boy, freshly enrolled in his new high school. He has a hard time waking up in the morning, and so his mother helps him to do so. She gets up early, cooks breakfast, and packs his lunch every dayâthen, she sends him out to walk to school. With heavy eyes, Miguel makes his way, one foot in front of the other. Looking left and right before crossing each street, flashing a big grin at the people he passed by, butterflies in his stomach, utterly excited for the school day ahead. He studies well, each day stepping closer to the day he can take pride in the fruit and flowers grown from the seed his mother planted within him.
Itâs a cold morning, condensation forming on the school windows, students chatting and laughing, the teacher in front greets with a sweet tone. The students greet back and the class goes silent before the teacher takes attendance. You can hear the mellow and steady ticking clock at the back of the classroom. Tick⊠tick⊠tick⊠and all of a sudden⊠Bang! Bang! Bang! Shots fired. The distant sound of students and teachers screaming echo through the halls. A tear falls from Miguelâs face. His teacher cracks open the door, itâs clear. At the right moment, he sprints with all the energy and might his slim body can generate. He nears the exit, and it all turns dark. Crimson spilled and splattered by the school entrance. Dreams, incinerated. His mother no longer has to get up early and cook breakfast, no one to eat the lunch she had packed for himâbecause no matter how hard she tries, Miguel just wonât wake up in the morning anymore.
Children are our offspring, a reflection of us. For instance, Miguel felt the need to excel in school, as he experienced every morning the immense effort his own mother put into him just to simply get him to school. Mostâif not allâinfluences stem from the people who surround them since birth. A study titled âThe Family Pediatrics Reportâ (2003) states that families represent the most central and enduring influence in the lives of children.
Police have partially been blaming online games, namely Roblox and Gorebox, for the propagation of violent behavior among teenagers. Although this may be affirmed to some degree, a responsible parent would know that the games their child plays, violent or non-violent, should be played with moderation, caution, andâif necessaryâsupervision. As an individual, you are free to do whatever you desire, but all roads lead back to how these children are nurtured and influenced in totality. Miguelâs shooters may have been subject to these influences. His shooters were children, and children are easily persuaded; evidently, Sen. Risa Hontiveros had recently revealed a suspected âadult groomerâ could possibly have been involved in the recent school shooting in Tacloban City. That this suspect may have recruited the two minor suspects in the shooting via the â764,â an online extremist network that has been alleged to manipulate and coerce children into engaging in violent acts and sexually exploitative content.
As an individual who spends most of his time online as well, often scrolling through different media, exploring different sites and platforms, forming new acquaintances and friendships with people who were once strangers, I donât see social media as something that greatly contrasts the likes of real life. Throughout our lifespan, we will inevitably meet a wide variety of people, but the choice of whom to interact with remains in our favor.
School violence remains prominent in our news feeds, and pointing fingers at games have not made the gamer-community happy. As someone who has played games which may be classified as âgoryâ or âviolent,â how come I havenât killed anyone?
Truth is, anybody can become driven to violence. I am capable of ending another human life, and you are too, regardless of our background or experiences. The difference is, I (and hopefully you) have been taught to love others, no matter their quirks and characteristics.
We are all the children of this world, still learning, still observing things around us. Children should be raised to love and respect each other. No story should be cut short because another took a darker path. They had their own conflicts too. However, it should be known that every story has an authorâan origin, a cause, a purpose.
As youâre reading this, Miguel is being carried out of the establishment, with his mother crying by his side. As we express our grudges toward the shooters, it becomes easy to forget that they, too, were once children. Unbeknownst to us, perhaps, they made bodies cold because everyone refused to keep them warm as children. Maybe, they never got the love and care they longed for, as little, innocent beings. We need to learn to love these children too. Until then, schools must willingly work together in nurturing the vulnerable souls they hold and handle everyday.
The future remains a mystery. However one thing we know for sure remains constant: as we remember the shots fired, let us not forget the subtle but steady tick of the clock at the back of the classroom.
Time is running out. Now, will you patiently wait to be another Miguel?
The sad part is, Miguel never got to take pride in the fruit and flowers grown from the seed his mother planted. Instead, he was laid in a casket and broadcast to the whole nation. He wanted to become the son who redeemed his mother's sacrifices, but instead, his story ended in guns and roses.
Although the bodies are gone, the bloodstains remainâand itâs our job to clean them up.
