Missing UP
This afternoon I took the UP route as shortcut going from Quezon City to Marikina. As I entered the University Avenue, I had a flashback of the years I had stayed in UP. I managed to look at the students and thought to myself I used to be like one of you. Wala lang!
I wouldn't be what I am today if I had not taken the UP education. I'm sure if you graduated in another university, you'd feel very proud from where you came from. I feel so proud that I survived (finished is such a lame word to describe what I went through) college in UP.
I can't imagine myself if I studied in another university. Maybe I would have finished on time. Maybe I would have known how to stay clean all throughout the day wearing an all white uniform. Maybe I would have been a doctor.
In high school, I wanted to study in UST for college. Most of my relatives, moreso my brothers, finished higher ed in UST. I wanted to be one of them. I was the youngest on my father's side and I knew that my cousins were waiting for me to finally get into college and slowly start my independence. I only took four college entrance exams. If I were to rank the exams, the most difficult was the Ateneo test. Then UPCAT. Then DLSU. Then UST. Why ACET? Because I did not pass the test. Hehehe! All the other three exams I passed. For some strange reason, I found the UST exam very easy. I'd describe it like a piece of cake. I was ready to be a Thomasian. But my parents convinced me that UP would build my character. Studying in UP will be less expensive as compared to the tuition fees that they had to pay for my two brothers.
Since my first campus choice was UPLB, I stayed there for a year. But homesickness was growing in me that I decided to transfer to UP Diliman on my second year. The years in UP are full of adventures and misadventures, so to speak. I know for myself that I'm not the smartest kid in every class. I've had my share of low scores, grades and removal exams. My transcript says it all. As an org mate said before, the only regular thing about being in UP is being an irregular. You just have to keep your head up as you fall down. As we jokingly say, there's always another sem to look forward to and hopefully that subject where you failed in will be offered. Sometimes you'd feel really sad because after weeks of studying, you manage to get a 40+ score out of a hundred while a classmate who doesn't come to class gets a 99. What food or vitamins does he take?! I had to wake up early and fall in line just to get a subject so that I'd have regular load for a sem. I had to be very strategic every enrollment or else I will not get a subject. After years of struggling I was the only UP-educated kid in the family. On my graduation day, I overheard my brother talking to my uncle "UP grad kapatid ko".
People will always have something to say about UP people. We have our own way of living and surviving. As my professor in Social Science said, "If you have to stay here for 10 years, so be it. You can't go out of this campus if you're not yet ready". We had to be tough in mind and heart. I'm not saying we're heartless people. But we use our heads before anything else. You'll know one UP-educated person right away. I accidentally got to read one blog and she said that she knew right away that the people in the room where UP people because we have a certain brand of trash humor. That's kinda foul girl! We know how to have fun. Maybe your brain just did not get the joke. Too bad! We know how to have fun amidst all the struggles that we experience everyday. If you think we're arrogant people, we're not. We just have to be confident even if we know for ourselves that we are uncertain. We also have our weaknesses but we learned to try to overcome those. UP people are not intelligent. UP people are SMART. If you don't know the difference, consult Mr. Webster.
UP has pushed me to my limits. There were nights that I had to stay up to finish my school work. There were times that I shed some tears. It was a rough five years but I had to make use of my time there to make my family proud. What made me hang on was the relationships that I was able to build with really amazing people. If not for them, I would have gone insane. It's a good thing that we still keep in touch and sometimes reminisce our days in UP.
If only I could go back to UP. I would eat isaw at Ilang or Kalayaan, tapsilog at Rodic's or fishballs at Vinzons, lunch or merienda at Casaa. I would put the chairs together again in the lib so that I can sleep. Snarl at the RAs, the gods of enlistment day. Hang out at the dean's office and tease the personnel there. Hang out and chat with my friends. Bully the freshmen (just kidding!). Speak my mind. Express myself.
UP is indeed a microcosm of the big world out there.
Go ahead and say something. Nothing can change the fact that isa kong Iskolar ng Bayan, ngayon ay lumalaban sa malaking mundong tinatawag nating realidad ng buhay.
I wouldn't be what I am today if I had not taken the UP education. I'm sure if you graduated in another university, you'd feel very proud from where you came from. I feel so proud that I survived (finished is such a lame word to describe what I went through) college in UP.
I can't imagine myself if I studied in another university. Maybe I would have finished on time. Maybe I would have known how to stay clean all throughout the day wearing an all white uniform. Maybe I would have been a doctor.
In high school, I wanted to study in UST for college. Most of my relatives, moreso my brothers, finished higher ed in UST. I wanted to be one of them. I was the youngest on my father's side and I knew that my cousins were waiting for me to finally get into college and slowly start my independence. I only took four college entrance exams. If I were to rank the exams, the most difficult was the Ateneo test. Then UPCAT. Then DLSU. Then UST. Why ACET? Because I did not pass the test. Hehehe! All the other three exams I passed. For some strange reason, I found the UST exam very easy. I'd describe it like a piece of cake. I was ready to be a Thomasian. But my parents convinced me that UP would build my character. Studying in UP will be less expensive as compared to the tuition fees that they had to pay for my two brothers.
Since my first campus choice was UPLB, I stayed there for a year. But homesickness was growing in me that I decided to transfer to UP Diliman on my second year. The years in UP are full of adventures and misadventures, so to speak. I know for myself that I'm not the smartest kid in every class. I've had my share of low scores, grades and removal exams. My transcript says it all. As an org mate said before, the only regular thing about being in UP is being an irregular. You just have to keep your head up as you fall down. As we jokingly say, there's always another sem to look forward to and hopefully that subject where you failed in will be offered. Sometimes you'd feel really sad because after weeks of studying, you manage to get a 40+ score out of a hundred while a classmate who doesn't come to class gets a 99. What food or vitamins does he take?! I had to wake up early and fall in line just to get a subject so that I'd have regular load for a sem. I had to be very strategic every enrollment or else I will not get a subject. After years of struggling I was the only UP-educated kid in the family. On my graduation day, I overheard my brother talking to my uncle "UP grad kapatid ko".
People will always have something to say about UP people. We have our own way of living and surviving. As my professor in Social Science said, "If you have to stay here for 10 years, so be it. You can't go out of this campus if you're not yet ready". We had to be tough in mind and heart. I'm not saying we're heartless people. But we use our heads before anything else. You'll know one UP-educated person right away. I accidentally got to read one blog and she said that she knew right away that the people in the room where UP people because we have a certain brand of trash humor. That's kinda foul girl! We know how to have fun. Maybe your brain just did not get the joke. Too bad! We know how to have fun amidst all the struggles that we experience everyday. If you think we're arrogant people, we're not. We just have to be confident even if we know for ourselves that we are uncertain. We also have our weaknesses but we learned to try to overcome those. UP people are not intelligent. UP people are SMART. If you don't know the difference, consult Mr. Webster.
UP has pushed me to my limits. There were nights that I had to stay up to finish my school work. There were times that I shed some tears. It was a rough five years but I had to make use of my time there to make my family proud. What made me hang on was the relationships that I was able to build with really amazing people. If not for them, I would have gone insane. It's a good thing that we still keep in touch and sometimes reminisce our days in UP.
If only I could go back to UP. I would eat isaw at Ilang or Kalayaan, tapsilog at Rodic's or fishballs at Vinzons, lunch or merienda at Casaa. I would put the chairs together again in the lib so that I can sleep. Snarl at the RAs, the gods of enlistment day. Hang out at the dean's office and tease the personnel there. Hang out and chat with my friends. Bully the freshmen (just kidding!). Speak my mind. Express myself.
UP is indeed a microcosm of the big world out there.
Go ahead and say something. Nothing can change the fact that isa kong Iskolar ng Bayan, ngayon ay lumalaban sa malaking mundong tinatawag nating realidad ng buhay.
posted by rhaych @ 10:58 PM
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