A Christmas sacrifice of two boy-athletes from Sisters of Mary School Boystown

CEBU CITY, Philippines— A dream to be someone someday is what kept these young men from spending their Christmas far from home.

Jesse Abelgos, 17, from Abuyog Leyte and Gio Beguña, 15 of Surigao del Norte students from Sisters of Mary School Boystown in Minglanilla share with CDN Digital why they opted to stay here in Cebu and spend Christmas and the Christmas break away from home.

“Naa mi dinhi kay nag training mi isip usa mis mga atleta sa athletics sa Boystown, unya naa mi duwa sa January mao nang sige pa mig train,” says Abelgos.

Abelgos, who is an incoming grade twelve student, is a long-distance runner and hopes to make it to any varsity in college so he can pursue his dreams as a seafarer to help his family.

“Nag sacripisyo lang gyud ko bahalag layo ko sa akong pamilya kay para ra man sad ni sa akoa,” adds Abelgos.

(I have to sacrifice being far away from my family because this is also for my own good.)

While Beguña, a grade 11 student and a plays as a thrower for their athletics team, he dreams and aims to be a teacher someday.

“Akoy kinamaguwangan namong upat ka managigsoon so dapat akoy una maka tabang nila,” says Beguña.

(I am the eldest of four siblings so I should be the the first one to help them.)

It all started unexpectedly for both of them to be part of their athletics team making it more precious for the two boys.

“Lahi gyud akong ganahan, volleyball gyud, pero kay gipasuway man ko ani niya unya kamao ko mao tong akong gipadayon dako nig tabang nako ilabi na sa akong pag eswela,” says Beguña.

(I wanted to play volleyball but they let me try this. Luckily, I know how to do this so I continued and this has really helped me in my schooling.)

This holiday season both of them chose to sacrifice and give up their time to be with their families this Christmas and the Christmas break so they can train for the Provincial Meet this January 6.

Abelgos and Beguña have already brought a lot of medals for SMS from their stint in the National Meet, Batang Pinoy, CVRAA and being guests players for Cesafi.

But both of them are training harder and harder every day so they could make it to  Palarong Pambansa someday.

“Kini among gi buhat para sad ni sa SMS sa tanan nilang tabang ug bilib, our way of giving back ni,” says Abelgos.

(What we are doing is for SMS for all their help and belief in us, this is our way of giving back to the school.)

Students from SMS can only see their families twice a year and Christmas vacation is one of them and for them to give it up means that they are dead serious about their training.

“Karon raman sad ni antos lang sa para sa kaugmaon,” says Beñuga.

(This is the only time that we have to sacrifice for our future.)

Beñuga and Abelgos are great inspirations for all the aspiring student-athletes out there.

Keep going boys, you’ll make it far with the kind of determination you have./dbs