Some Things We Can Learn from Katz Salao

What happened to Katz Salao last Saturday can remind us of how we can fully
accept the full gift of the Gospel to our lives.

It was September 22, 2012.  It was at the Mall of Asia Arena. It was the Samsung-UAAP Cheerdance Competition. UE's courtside reporter Katz Salao wowed everyone with a grand entrance to pep the Red Warriors hopefuls... Oops! Of all the events, this unlucky thing happened. Salao, a graduating Broadcasting Communication student at UP Quezon City, confused her alma mater for the school where she was assigned to while starting her spiels. Despite being able to prepare the UE fans for the performance of their pep squad, Katz became a hot topic for that error. Despite the criticisms, Katz stood tall and inspired everyone who commits similar mistakes.

There are some things we can learn from Salao. One of them is knowing your role. She may be from the University of the Philippines, but once Katz steps into the hardwood, she's now Katz Salao the UE Red Warriors reporter. This is not the first time ABSCBN assigned a non-UE student at the helm. In fact, the assigned reporter for UE before Salao, Nikko Ramos, is himself from UP Los Banos. Speaking of Ramos, he has a tougher task. Once he steps to his office at the 9th floor of the Paragon Plaza in Mandaluyong every Sunday, Nikko is the DJ Tyler who handles the Magic on a Positive Note program on Magic 89.9, but if he turns on the mic at the FilOil Flying V Arena in nearby San Juan, he's now Nikko Ramos the NCAA broadcaster. In certain situations, you must know your role in tackling the matter, whether you're alone or you're in a team.

The cooler thing about Salao, however, is her professionalism. We know our respective roles, but sometimes, even if we think we do it correctly, we still commit untimely errors. Salao's slip of the tongue was definitely out of timing. But instead of taking things emotionally (talk about being humiliated in front of 19,505 people on the spot and of millions watching on TV), Salao continued on, made a pretty good alibi to soften the effects of the error, and finished her spiel. That's what you call grace under pressure.

But if there's one thing I liked about her after what happened, that was her acknowledgment of the mistake. Here is her comment on a meme on UAAP-NCAA Memes regarding that shoutout error:

"... unbelievable din ang pangyayari my gosh.... To every Red Warrior here, I apologize so much for that huge fail. Being a UP student isn't an excuse cause I was UE's reporter this time, not UP's. :( And I've been flipping for a while, for my highschool and for UP, but please believe that that all my frontflips [last Saturday] were genuinely for UE only!! Thank you for still cheering with me! :)..."

It's just like our scenario with God. We are bound in this big error called sin, and we fall short of His glory (Romans 3:23). But like how Katz was supported by her UP and UE friends and virtually everyone from both schools, the Lord still loves us despite our nature. That's why it was no less than Himself who came to earth and took what should have been our penalty, death (Romans 6:23). So like Katz, we can get that love Wait! God already gave His love to us and all we can do is to accept that gift. We only need to acknowledge our mistakes, repent from all of them, let the Lord come to our lives, and let Him cleanse our impurities (1 John 1:9).

In the end, what happened to Katz Salao reminded me that God still loves me in spite of my errors. I will let go of my own pursuits and let God direct me so that I will not err.