TRUTH BE TOLD, a significant portion of the San Beda population comes from privileged backgrounds, comfortable enough to remain within the four walls of the university without ever confronting the harsh realities that the majority of Filipinos face every day.
Many of us do not have to worry about where our next meal will come from, whether we can afford transportation to school, or if we have enough money to pay tuition before another semester starts. These are privileges that countless Filipinos can only dream of.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing inherently wrong with being born into comfort. No one chooses the circumstances they are born into, and privilege, by itself, is not a moral failing. The problem begins when comfort becomes complacency.
When the walls of privilege become barriers that prevent us from seeing the struggles beyond our own lives, it is time to reflect on ourselves. When we mistake our own experiences for everyone else’s, believing that hard work alone determines success while ignoring the systemic inequalities that continue to keep millions in poverty, comfort becomes dangerous.
This is not an attack on Bedans, nor it is an attempt to guilt students for the opportunities they have been given. Rather, it is an invitation to recognize that education carries responsibilities beyond earning good grades, building impressive resumes, or securing high-paying careers. It is a reminder that a university should not only produce competent professionals but also socially conscious citizens who understand the realities of the nation they will one day help lead.
Beyond the silver gate, life tells a different story. Workers struggle with wages that fail to keep pace with the rising cost of living, while farmers, fisherfolk, and public school students continue to bear the burden of systemic neglect despite their vital contributions to society. These realities, including poverty, inadequate education, environmental degradation, and displacement, are not isolated hardships but symptoms of deep rooted social and economic inequalities that demand urgent attention.
Yet it is remarkably easy to remain detached from these realities. The routines of university life can create the illusion that the world begins and ends within the campus. We become so focused on deadlines and personal ambitions that we forget education is also meant to sharpen our awareness of society. Comfort, while desirable, can slowly become a blindfold if we never choose to look beyond it.
San Beda has long prided itself on forming leaders guided by service and social responsibility, but those values mean little if they remain confined to performative campus activities, carefully curated acts of advocacy on social media, and fleeting displays of solidarity that end once the cameras stop rolling.
Leadership cannot exist without an understanding of the people one hopes to serve. Compassion cannot flourish without first acknowledging the realities that others face. And excellence loses its meaning when it is pursued without social consciousness.
Being aware does not require giving up one’s privileges. It simply requires refusing to let those privileges become walls that separate us from the rest of society. It means listening to stories different from our own, questioning why inequality persists, and recognizing that our education is valuable not only because of what it can do for us, but because of what it enables us to do for others.
The greatest danger is not privilege itself. It is becoming so comfortable that we no longer recognize the suffering unfolding around us. A Bedan education should not merely prepare us to succeed in the world but challenge us to change it, because comfort is a privilege, but indifference is always a choice.