MAYBE people have too much free time in their cup of tea.
“What kind of sentence is that, Lets? I’m sure it will raise the blood pressure of any editor worth his or her blue pencil,” my friend Rosse G. said.
“It’s my take on trending challenges that have flooded YouTube and the internet. I remember the Running Man Challenge, Bean Boozled Challenge, Mannequin Challenge, dance challenges such as Bboom Bboom, Taki Taki and Dougie. My kind-of-sentence is what I call Make a Headache-causing Sentence.”
“How about this: ‘What type of fool am?’ Would this count as MHS?”
“Not close. I do propose new challenges for people who have too much time on their hands,” I replied.
“Yeah, what we Cebuanos call mga tawong walay lingaw (idle people). There’s nothing wrong with copying trending challenges as long as they don’t harm mind, body and soul,” Rosse said.
“As time-fillers, they must carry a useful result. With school opening, I feel this is a timely topic to share. But primum non nocere.”
“That sounds Greek to me.”
“Well, Rosse, it‘s Latin for ‘first do no harm,’ which has a Greek origin. It’s a doctor’s oath not to do anything to worsen matters.”
With this premise in mind, Rosse and I cooked up some challenges that create a positive effect.
CLEAN UP ENVIRO-BABES. Organize a group of three friends to clean up a section in your school, village, city park or seashore. Maybe for security reasons, get permission from the barangay or school and your parents. Do this in the morning. Post your activity online to invite copy cats.
MOP DANCERS. A real challenge, it involves voluntarily helping at home: washing dirty dishes, mopping the floor and gathering water if your place has no tap water. Tell your parents it is a personal project. Explain why you are doing housework in a certain way. Make an interesting video, maybe with you dancing as you wash the dishes or doing the tango with a floor mop. Post your video online if you like.
CONSISTENT CATS. Although this is aimed at students, it can also be used by anyone else who needs to be more consistent in life. Document yourself studying your lessons daily. Improved grades would be the proof that you did a good job.
Trending challenges need to have a good, strong and positive purpose. When done out of selflessness, it can develop into an admirable and worth emulating habit. A habit or a new behavior becomes automatic after long repetition. Two months or 66 days to be exact is the time needed to form a new you. This is the real challenge in life that you must strive to attain.