Discovering the Greater Things

We asked some Ateneans to complete this: “When I got accepted to Ateneo, ...” This is what entrepreneur, business development head, and inspirational speaker Kirk Chester Damasco (BS Management 2008) had to say.

When I got accepted to Ateneo, to be honest, ‘saks lang’.
 
I really did not know what to expect.
 
You see, I was, and still am, the only Atenean in the family, and at that time, the idea of the blue school was foreign to me personally and to us as a family.
 
Truth be told, I was just setting my sights on schools in Iloilo City, where I am originally from. The idea sat well with my mom, who, understandably, did not want to be far from her then 16-year-old only child.
 
It was my high school teachers, however, from West Visayas State University who encouraged us to explore schools in Manila. Seeing perhaps that I can handle the rigors of life in the metro, they convinced my parents and me to take the entrance exams of the different Manila schools.
 
I did and passed, including Ateneo’s.
Still, the Blue Eagles’ nest was a mystery to me.
 
Until we flew from Iloilo to attend the John Gokongwei School of Management’s (JGSoM) Open House.
 
To say that I was overwhelmed was an understatement. Students were speaking in a kind of English that was new to me. The teachers’ lectures were fun and insightful. And the campus was spectacular – a refreshing sanctuary with trees, open spaces, and a mix of old and new buildings, a far cry from the daunting commute we had during that warm and humid afternoon from Sta. Ana, Manila, passing through the crowded and, at times, dark areas of Aurora Boulevard.
 
That day in 2004, I decided.
I chose Ateneo.
 
I applied for and was accepted to the Management program. I was attracted to ‘lawyering' during my senior year in high school from the movies and news that I watched, so I figured that the course would be a good pre-law course.
 
Within the first two months, however, I saw the amount of reading materials that law students had in the different coffee shops along Katipunan and felt that law was definitely not for me.
 
So, I went on with my course. I made the most of the opportunities I got. I explored.
And this, I believe, is the gift of an Ateneo education.
 
Ateneo was the fertile ground for me to discover and enhance my gifts, talents, and passions.
 
Our classes were excellent and life-changing. Our teachers challenged us incredibly, but in everything, they cared for my classmates and me. The academic requirements in the context of my homesickness were often back-breaking, but those were the times when I surprised myself seeing that I could do what I thought was impossible.
 
In addition, I joined several organizations like the Ateneo Management Association and the school’s publication, The Guidon, where my leadership and management skills were developed.
 
I was able to grab opportunities to go on different study tours in Hong Kong, China, Japan, and Spain during my stay in Ateneo.
 
Finally, my friends and I operated businesses in the different school bazaars. We also opened a stall at the John Gokongwei School of Management Student Enterprise Center (JSEC), where we opened ‘Kaon Ta,’ a food business selling Ilonggo/Bisaya food. And we were one of the first suppliers at the Loyola Schools Bookstore, where we started GetBlued, a brand of Ateneo merchandise currently available in all Ateneo schools in the country.
 
Today, I still co-own and co-manage GetBlued, now in its 14^th year, and two other brands: Worship Generation— the country’s biggest brand of Christian-themed merchandise, and 100% Good —a brand of multi-themed apparel.

 
All was well until 2020 when the pandemic hit. COVID is single-handedly the biggest challenge that we have faced as a business. We closed many of our mall stores, reduced manpower, and overhauled our operations and plans.
 
Two things stand out for our business as we face this pandemic – things that, looking back, Ateneo has a huge influence on, both in me personally and in my business partners, who are also Ateneans.
 
One, our biggest responsibility is to take care of our people.
 
Two, no matter how challenging things appear to be, we trust that all will be well.
 
The first one is rooted in what Ateneo imparted to us on the importance of people.
 
The classes, the requirements, the organizations, the study tours, and the student-run businesses were made more meaningful by the people I was with.
 
More importantly, Ateneo made it clear to us who we were doing all of it for, who we are striving to be excellent for.
 
We were doing it not just ourselves but for others.
  
The second one is rooted in a spirituality that permeates Ateneo. This spirituality affirms how we are deeply loved by God.
 
As one Atenean I look up to said, “We are not the well that gives but the bucket that receives.” And in it, we find comfort that our business and all our other endeavors will be well – for we are recipients of grace from a God in whose powerful and loving hands our life and future rest.
 
That is why we have devoted Worship Generation and our lives to proclaiming this Good News – the Best News, in fact, to others and the world.
 
I realize writing this, that my journey from Iloilo to Ateneo to where I find myself now is anything but ‘saks lang.’  
 
If you asked me 17 years ago if I expected all this, my answer would be a big ‘No.’ For one, I mean, an incoming freshman for whom Ateneo is ‘saks lang’ to eventually co-starting and co-running a now 14-year-old Ateneo-themed business in GetBlued?
 
How life pulls surprises on us. How God holds the threads of our lives and continually weaves a wonderful masterpiece of a tapestry out of it!
 
Thanks to my parents who supported me, my high school teachers who encouraged me to go beyond what is comfortable and safe in Iloilo, and to Ateneo that has given me the gift of a fertile ground for me to discover and enhance my gifts, talents, and passions for myself and others, for the greater glory of God.
 
 

For more news and stories on Loyola Schools, visit http://www.ateneo.edu/ls/loyola-schools-bulletin.