F-I-R-S-T-D-A-Y First Day High!!!

After a month on lying down on the sofa, it’s the start of classes again! Well, I still have these jitters of the “First Day” of classes.

Yesternight (Too archaic, eh? It just means yesterday night), I was so nervous because of just a room I don’t know where. I was totally confused and I almost got tantrums. I asked all of my friends but to no avail, I didn’t understand anything.

The following day, I just did what a simpleton should do: asked the guard of the concerned building. Better humiliated that be stupid, I just said to myself. So, with my stomach churning, I asked. He then clearly gave the directions. What a relief.

I then went to the first class in my schedule: Math. There I saw old friends as well as new acquaintances and as well as a new (and beautiful *eyes twinkling*) professor. Our professor may not be the previous one (which by the way is teaching the class before us) but we got a new one, and I know she’ll be nice… *eyes twinkling*

Then I went straight to the next class, the one which room I don’t know before. As I sacredly enter, I observed the surroundings: all black. I liked black but the ambiance freaked me out. Later I realized that we are only twelve in the class! And the freakiest part is: the door is swinging… without anything to swing it! It “scared” us all! The professor didn’t arrive, as to first day of classes. And also to my next, last subject.

(missed you, *************)

To Survive...

Last night, I can’t sleep. I’m not insomniac or anything but I think I’m brewing in nervousness. I just can’t avoid those butterflies in my stomach. That, my friends, is my problem: the enrollment.

 

This’ll be the second time that I will enroll but still I got the anxiety. That’s because the first enrollment is just easy: you’ll have nothing to worry about. But now we enroll together with the upper classmen. Of course, it means nothing special to us. We just have to go with the flow. We also have to experience the “hardship” in enrollment, not to be treated special just because we’re freshmen.

 

I remember that single time when I tried to audition in Starstruck. I was at the line by noon. After a few minutes, the line hadn’t moved. It will just move inch by inch. I guess snails were faster than the flow of the line. I was standing in the line for almost seven hours… for nothing. Yeah, I’m not that special to be noticed. I’m just a common folk you see around the streets. But then it taught me of one lesson: patience. The patience to endure the pain of standing and waiting. The patience to believe and dream and hope even if you will get nothing. The patience to survive the day.

 

I woke up early because I fear that there will be many people already waiting in the line. I brought myself up at around four in the morning. I was eating a light breakfast then, thinking of what may happen to the lines. I traversed the long street to the highway but thanks to my grandma, I hitch a ride from a distant aunt. You see, her son is studying in De La Salle University (DLSU) while I enroll at the University of the Philippines (UP). She just dropped me where jeepneys to UP abound. Just hauled a jeepney and went straight to the college building we’re supposed to start to enroll. I was too early. The students that you can see can be counted by the fingers of my hand. But grace fell upon those who came early and we were given materials to start the registration.

 

The line I got stuck in is for the advising of the subject. While in the line, we were given forms to fill up. I knew that when this lane ends, it’s over for me, because the rest will be easy. I have subjects just enough to suffice the unit quota. After the advising, I ran to the college building again to be cleared and assessed. I breezed it, I even got first before the assessor that I gave my papers to him in an undesignated place. Consequently, I zoomed to the last building which I’m going to pay my tuition. I thought the line will be long because it’s just impossible that I’m the only student who got all of the subjects online. I was the only one on the line that I felt really stupid. But everything’s just alright, I finished early and shrugged all of the problems that I had thought. Maybe not now, but how about the next?

Heartbeat Moment

You’re standing on your own two feet… Scared of what will happen next… You will hear a very familiar sound… And it goes louder and louder… And you will realize, you can’t breathe… You are slowly drowning in your own tensions… You’ll get butterflies in the stomach later on. Then the sound that you hear… That is your own heartbeat…

 

“Mamâ, para po!” (Sir, please halt there!)

 

I dismounted the jeepney from Pantranco and walked towards Rizal Hall (known before as College of Arts and Letters, but now popular as Faculty Center). I am to get my class cards, for the university released them just now. I already knew my grades of my three out of five subjects thanks to the “Grades Viewing” at the Computerized Registration System (CRS). The two subjects that I never knew my unofficial grade were those that I haven’t performed well… So I climbed first to the third floor of the building towards the Department of Philosophy, then to the Department of Speech Communication and Theater Arts. As expected, my grades in the class card were those that I have viewed online. Afterwards, I went down to the second floor to the Departamento ng Kasaysayan (Department of History). That is one of the subjects I think I fail. Then, the heartbeat moment… But later I knew that our professor at the subject hasn’t released our grades and she will do so at two o’clock in the afternoon. So I proceed getting my other class cards and went to the College of Science Main Building. By the entrance, I went under trance by what I saw: the registration process… the one-day registration period. When I went into myself again, I now walked to get my class card. It’s OK as it seems. So I headed to the Department of Mathematics, colloquially called as Math Building. I went up three stories (again) and headed to my professor’s office. I saw a long line of students who are to get their class cards (but our class is to get ours from our professor). To my surprise, I saw one of my classmates waiting (and whining?). He said to me that our professor will release it by eleven thirty. I peeked at my watch and saw that it is ten thirty. Hearing what he said, I plugged my ears with my MP3 player and waited. As time passes, some of my classmates are arriving. Then the time has come: we rushed towards the door of the professor’s office. He exclaimed to us that he was pressured by our presence and ordered us to view first our grades by his window then come to him by pairs to get the class cards. Then the heartbeat moment again… I slowly walked towards the said window to see my grade. The students in the table of grades were in numerical order, so I knew that mine was at the top, being the excited applicant number 00035. To my surprise, I saw my grade: 2.5! I said to my classmates “Whoa! I love myself!” being the happy student that passed the subject that I thought I will fail. (If I failed this subject, by the way, I will take this again.) I got my class cards afterwards. Then I eavesdropped some of my classmates self-proclaiming that they were “College Scholars” (the monsters who got an average above 1.75, as the “University Scholars” are the monster bosses with average above 1.45). Argh! I felt so insecure! The “rage” that was built up inside me (for not qualifying as a “Scholar” due to “low” grades) just converted afterwards as an encouragement to do better. One problem, cancelled! I ate lunch at Philcoa for all canteens at the university were closed at to waste my time as well. After I was finished, I went straight back to the university and returned to the Departamanto ng Kasaysayan to check if my professors have submitted the class cards. I was right, because I saw her name now at the professors with available class cards. Then the heartbeat moment again… I was brewed by a lot of questions… I plugged my ears again in my player and waited again… Then the door swung open. “Are you all waiting for class cards?” Then a line was suddenly formed… It was my turn and entered the door. The coldness inside me was accompanied by the air condition of the room…

 

“Prof Gripaldo… TFU5… I’m Lumidao…”

 

I was so startled by what I saw… 2.25! I passed! Thank God! I rejoiced, for I survived the first semester in the university! The heartbeat moment now perished, and I breathed easily now… Nightmare over…