12/08/2026
๐๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฝ๐ ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐น ๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐!
"The youth is the hope of the nation," is something many Filipinos, especially the youth, have heard over and over again. For years, this idea has been instilled into generations and carried on the shoulders of the youth โ the weight of tomorrow.
While it is true that young people are the hope of tomorrow, they are at the same time active, participating members of the present. It is unfair to treat them as an idealized promise rather than to acknowledge the harsh reality that today's youth live within.
To be the hope of tomorrow, one must go through systemic barriers that hinder their potential from being realized and stand in the way of realizing what comes before us. How can we, the youth, be expected to save the future when we are fighting to survive the present? Other than passively hoping for a promised future, what else can we do?
The solution is that we need to actively become the promised hope. To make a real difference, we must take action today using strong values as our guide.
Simple acts of kindness toward self and others are a great place to begin on a road to healing and uniting the masses of a fragmented world.
Integrity will require us to refuse to participate in corruption as well as standing up for that which is right.
Bravery will be required to speak out against the status quo, to challenge existing power structures, and to demand from our leadership the best they can offer.
The world has many miles to travel before it becomes whole again; therefore, we must persevere when we encounter difficult challenges along the way.
We must be driven by an unrelenting passion for justice and advocate for the rights of all individuals who continue to experience injustice.
To achieve all of these, we must exhibit patience, and while some may never live to see the end result of their efforts, we must still put forth the effort today to ensure tomorrow holds the promise of a brighter future.
And ultimately, despite all the problems we face, it is our strong determination that will turn our good intentions into real, lasting change.
Yet, asking young people to demonstrate such character traits is just one side of the coin. If young people represent the nation's best hope, then it follows that the nation must take an active role as their guardian. In order to create a new way of thinking about our youth, rather than viewing them as mere future leaders in training, we can begin to see that our young people are already engaged citizens.
Protecting the youth sector will mean putting significant resources toward improving access to high-quality and inclusive education. Providing funding for comprehensive school- and community-based mental health services will help build strong, healthy youth. Creating spaces where young people feel safe enough to participate in civic life and have their voices incorporated into decision-making processes will allow young people to be involved in government policymaking.
Young people do hold promise for fixing the damaged world we hand them. We will, however, have to provide them with the tools, resources, and care needed to repair it. Young people's ability to preserve tomorrow depends upon how vigorously we work to protect and cultivate them today.
โ&๐ผ: Heather Ancheta
