Living as a Senior
My grueling five years at college is about to over, and a lot more surprises to pop up on the next few months 'till June.
Hey, I'm back!
It's been years since I've last written an update of me in this blog.
Spending college at the University of Southeastern Philippines, in not less than the College of Engineering, is like walking on broken glass. I have never seen Engineering to be this hard, since no one in my family is in the profession and practice of Engineering. The State University is a good chance for a degree for not so rich students like me. Yes, I am on a scholarship (which I introduced on my previous article).
Education might be free, but it never came cheap. In order to survive, you have to work hard, and harder as semesters go by.My early years are spent on domestication. I love spending time at home, doing chores, read books, having pets, and occasionally go outside. I never feared the sun, but my skin's not that dark. In my freshmen year, I had an exposure to scenarios closest to what we so call as real life. The convenience of home slowly swept away before my eyes. Hey Rapha, It's college !. I've never felt so alone in my life during that time. I came and I wasn't really prepared. Reality struck me like a ton of bricks. I have to take care of my own. I didn't exactly know what to do. I cannot define myself as a total nerd, always knowing what to do in a day. But I also don't want to end up sucked up. I've tried some things, testing one from the other, sleeping over to my High School classmates' house, roam around places in the city, and little adventures with my newfound friends. But my academic record isn't depicting a responsible student at work. While my grades aren't failed, they are mostly barely breathing. I was never proud of my transcript. I made unwise decisions, leaving one person for another, because I was ignorant. To sum it up, my freshmen year isn't celebratory for me. But I still thank God that I made it.
Sophomore year: I tried, and did, improve myself. it was on this year that I dragged back to my EE classmates, my concentration and focus was restored. This was the year when I got my scholarship from DOST and also became a Tuition Privilege Scholar (equivalent to Dean's Lister back in the times). Still, my academics need some serious work in order to survive and proceed to the next year.
They say, Third Year is the start of the real Engineering life, and they are right. Bye minors, hello majors. Academics is on its full swing, and I felt like riding on a wrecking ball. Assignments, projects, exams, quizzes, and everything in between: you name it, and we have it at almost astounding proportions. Hey, you're halfway there. The worst part of this year was deciding whether to continue pursuing Engineering or flew away and go to other school to look for greener pastures. Truly, this school isn't the greenest on the horizon.
Year four, and the show must go on. While your friends are on their senior year, behold, I'm still not. The quest for being a better person continues, after the first leg of our internship. But this year's different. It's never anymore about independence, it's more on interdependence. You need to know which people are on your side, and handle interpersonal interactions more carefully. Team work is one ingredient that can overcome difficulties in college. It is when you realize you're not a monopoly of everything good. Also, there's no time for emotional stress, and I get it several times. IQ is important, as well as EQ. But hey, academics' still hard. And so I learned to move on in life regardless of any physical, mental and emotional stress.
After several years, ta da! I'm not a senior, but minus the seniority (I've never been a fan of seniority ever since). Level five of life vs lemons. Aside from lemonades, I've also made lots of fruit juices. It was on this year that I was able to experience unique opportunities. I was able to travel to Japan via the Jenesys Program, and also experienced being a Grand Winner in a National Research Contest. Before the year ended, I clinched the Outstanding Student Award of USeP 2016. You did it !.
College is five years of my life. Five years of ups and downs. Five years of pure learning. And I can't even make any single of it if it wasn't because of God. I owe to Him all the pieces of experience, whether good or bad. #
