“2019 OK” is an asteroid that came close to Earth last July 25. Not a lot of people know about it because it was discovered mere hours before it buzzed by the planet! Even the scientists hadn’t known about it until the last minute, which is a shame, really. It isn’t every day that a 400-foot-wide asteroid buzzes by our little blue home.
Despite its rarity, however, 2019 OK flew by unnoticed. By that time, we were too busy flailing through the last week of summer and dreading the first day of school. The old students––especially juniors and seniors––fretted over the coming school year. The new students were fumbling as well, apprehensive for the coming tread into unfamiliar waters. In light of this, CIS became a sort of battlefield, and the school year started with an obvious knockout. If July ended with our unregarded space rock, August began with its own version of the asteroid: S.Y. 2019-2020.
As classes slowly resumed, everyone looked like they’d been KO’d in a fight that had barely just begun. The school year was only beginning, and we were barely a month in, yet the teachers were getting busy and the students were getting busier. We were all running to and fro, orienting ourselves with our new schedules and attempting to get back into the school routine.
It isn’t the end of summer—it’s the start of something incredible. It’s the beginning of an endless range of possibilities that will allow us to thrive—to push past our perceived potential.
Now with everything going on, who would’ve spared 2019 OK a glance? Barely anyone has the time to go star-gazing these days. Asteroids could be zipping past our planet and we’d have no clue because there are other pressing matters to look at, like homework and subject choices. Asteroids are unimportant; there are deadlines to meet and classes to go to. But the thing is, asteroids like 2019 OK are important. They serve as necessary reminders for the future that might slip past. Often, we’re so stuck in the “now” that we forget we should be looking up at the stars, too.
Even with NASA monitoring the skies for asteroids, sometimes these elliptical space-rocks manage to elude our best technology. Despite their size and their trajectory, they remain mere observations. These asteroids catch us unaware, and by then it is already too late: we miss them as they pass us by, much like all the opportunities that knock on our door. Sometimes we get too caught up in little dilemmas that we fail to see the big picture. We’re too busy griping about going back to school again, or grappling with the fact that we’re starting or continuing the IB. We fail to notice all the potential opportunities that may come our way, so when they do come, we don’t know they’re there.
So perhaps we’ve been going about this entire month all wrong. It isn’t the end of summer—it’s the start of something incredible. It’s the beginning of an endless range of possibilities that will allow us to thrive—to push past our perceived potential. This year and the years subsequent will give us the tools—the opportunities—to soar high.
CIS is not a battlefield. We don’t KO here. Rather, the school is an asteroid field. It’s full of rocks that’ll spark our own fire, if only we can see them for what they are. So chin up, back straight. Let’s start 2019 OK!
Article by Venise T.; Feature image by Katrina R.
The views expressed in this article represent the personal views of the author and should not be taken to represent the views of Dragon’s Print and Cebu International School.
Leave a Reply