things i pretend to have learned this past year

although a lot of new and oftentimes exciting things have happened to me this year, the totality of it, as i recall, was still very boring. or maybe that's just me. in the tradition of putting off all fresh starts until new year's, this post will be a recap of some things which i have found to be significant during the last 12 months:

i. graduation

there are only two things that come to mind at this point - that i was the only guy onstage whose mortarboard was on crooked, and that i wrote one of the best graduation speeches in recent memory. well, that's what ms padua thinks anyway. it's the thought that counts. this was also the time during which i first figured that having pictures taken isn't so bad after all.

ii. the stupid-ass sfa secretary's [whose names escapes me right now] taking me off the dlsu scholars' list

well this turned out to be more my fault than hers, but the title is catchier as is. the irony is that she did something similar ["and yet somewhat different"] to frytz. i had no doubt that i was going to dlsu, what with the summer camp and everything, but benilde really tempted me for a while back then.

iii. s15_d_best!

a lot of my friends both zobelian and otherwise have complaints about dlsu [hey, who doesn't?] but mostly it just boils down to their not getting along with their blocks. lucky me, then. although s15 can hardly compare to senior g [come one, what's two terms compared to eight years?], the noise levels at least are delightfully familiar. oh, and long live cooperative learning.

vi. chami's guitar

i've always maintained that a person needs a hobby or he'll go deaf, blind, and stupid [although i know at least one hobby that supposedly does that to you anyway] so a special thank you goes out to chami for entrusting her guitar to me. i've become better at it ["good enough" is the term i most often use] so that's a fulfillment in itself, plus the fact that playing a musical instrument gives you an additional 10,000 pogi points.

v. hating-gabing uwian and lalabu

"too much of a good thing can be wonderful." i wouldn't buy a shirt that says something i don't belive in. life is just too damn short. the same goes for lalabu. i don't think i'll ever forget either the warm fuzzy feeling of gin-soaked camaraderie or the stupidities uttered by frytz within the walls of room 1611. and if i happen to, that last bit's safely tucked away in the archives of this blog, and in a text file on my hard drive. no escape, frytz. btw, is it just me or do people really speak better english when they're hammered?

vi. pakshet teachers

it's only in college that i've experienced a seething hatred for a teacher - or two, to be more accurate. i guess it never got that bad during my secondary education since we could always go crying to our advisor [or if the advisor was the problem, to our former advisors] but there's none of that now. at least the length of time we spend with individual teachers is shorter. hmm... although i never filed a grievance against sikyu or nailed a 95 thesis to reshley's door, i don't feel angry at them anymore. it's either that since i never have to see them again, i've let go, or that for the moment i am distracted by levi's latest incompetence, sombitch that he is.

vii. excellent teachers

i met a few in zobel but for now, at least, only one college professor has inspired me to follow in his footsteps [mabuhay ka, sir bart!]. what i like about the teaching profession in general is that academics is perhaps the least important thing taught. outlook and values are more what i look at to emulate. but i'm satisfied that these teachers are few and far between - it's like waking up at 3am and suddenly realizing that a good song you haven't heard for a long time is playing on the radio. you don't get that feeling with overplayed songs.

viii. my first regular-income job

there's something uniquely satisfying about having other people learn from you. sure, being a know-it-all, that happens to me a lot, but i never tire of the feeling. especially now, when i'm teaching one of the few things i don't have to exert much effort in. i would have preferred to have handled the brighter kids, more like a thesis consultant than a tutor, but que sera sera. my stint ends on tuesday, since classes start the next day, but i will miss the students, definitely my fellow teachers, and most of all, i will really miss making all that easy money.

well that's it i guess. i suppose i should leave you with a few words of advice, since this entry has been all preachy anyway. i don't know if i've typed this out before but it still rings true so here goes: never let academics get in the way of your education.

happy new year.

sige ingat.ü 
posted by stani at 12:27 AM