Wednesday, December 4, 2024
- Advertisement -
HomeFeatures"A dream postponed"

“A dream postponed”

- Advertisement -


BACOLOD CITY – Rosinie Distrito was already a village councilman when he decided to take up nursing in the 1990s when demand for nurses was high in the United States caused by a shortage of these health professionals. Here, known personalities including lawyers and dentists decided to don a gown and cap in seeking the cliche “greener pastures.”

Village chief Rosinie Z Distrito provides sides over a barangay disaster team meeting early this month in preparation for the recent Typhoon  Tisoy. | Photo courtesy of Rosinie Distrito
Village chief Rosinie Z Distrito provides sides over a barangay disaster team meeting early this month in preparation for the recent Typhoon Tisoy. | Photo courtesy of Rosinie Distrito

But growing up in Punta Magsungay sub-village, where poverty abounds and where kids like him also got daily lessons from the University of Hard Knocks, Rosinie had to put his dream of becoming a nurse on hold after he graduated from STI College-West Negros University (known then as just West Negros).

Why? I asked.

- Advertisement -

“Ummm… I don’t want to appear politicking…”

Then he paused.

“I cannot leave my responsibilities as a village official, public service I should say,” Rosinie, now a second-term village chief of Singcang Airport tells DNX.

- Advertisement -
Rosinie with his high school bstch basketball team. | Photo courtesy of Rosinie Distrito
Rosinie with his high school bstch basketball team. | Photo courtesy of Rosinie Distrito

The Distritos are a political clan in this village of more than 30,000 residents or about a sixth of the city’s population.

Punta Magsungay is where this city was born and where Rosinie and his brother, Caesar, a lawyer and former city councilor, were born and raised by their mother, Simplicia, now a city councilor.

It is also on its sandy basketball courts that their famous uncle, basketball superstar Rudy “The Destroyer” Distrito honed his tough playing style.

- Advertisement -

“I really wanted to be a nurse and go abroad to earn,” he admits.

Being a village official, however, “makes you realize you have fellow Filipinos to serve,” Rosinie adds.

Now, he has to put that dream on hold again “maybe, decide after my term ends.”

Should he proceed to medical school, become a doctor or go abroad?

A nursing degree was supposed to be his pre-Med course as his sponsors, an uncle and an aunt, promised to send him to medical school.

But Rosinie is looking at a Master’s degree in public administration now.

“After all, I am still a fulltime public servant,” he says.

And that dream of being a nurse has to wait again.

- Advertisement -
Julius D. Mariveles
Julius D. Mariveles
An amateur cook who has a mean version of humba, the author has recently tried to make mole negra, the Mexican sauce he learned by watching shows of master chef Rick Bayless. A journalist since 19, he has worked in the newsrooms of radio, local papers, and Manila-based news organizations. A stroke survivor, he now serves as executive editor of DNX.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Advertisment -

LATEST NEWS

- Advertisement -