So what makes you a certified UP student?
You never did buy yourself a decent book. For a seasoned Iska, books aren’t meant to be bought. Believe me. You never buy them because you can find them in the library. If you were lucky enough, they only have one copy. So you go fight with the rest of your classmates and when things turned really NASTY, everybody settles to nominate the official person to oversee the photocopying of the materials. (Intelligent blokes aren’t we?)
You go to class wearing your night clothes. Sometimes a short and a T-shirt that says I’m a gorgeous babe. But you looked like a runner perspiring all over as you sprint your way across the gate in a frenzied hurry because the fact is, you have a long exam to catch. You wake up and you freeze as everything stands still when you find out you have ten minutes to go before your first long exam. To date, that professor of yours never did allow his students to be late. You didn’t stay up late that night only to end up not being able to take the exam. Moral lesson, buy yourself an alarm clock, loud enough to wake up the whole neighborhood.
You know the library like the back of your hand. Your talent goes beyond this one. Ask anybody to give you the book’s call number and you assure them that you MIGHT just find it for them, too. Such is your skill in what we often call as “book hunt”.
If the professor says it’s a reference book, you know he’s probably joking. What he means actually is, you should have them photocopied and read them before you get your awesome butt inside the class. Or maybe you might just find it interesting to undergo a bombastic lecture about the perils of an empty mind. And when he says read, he means read not just one book but a number of them. He’ll even be generous enough to recommend an endless list of readings for you to enhance your “beautiful mind.” You wouldn’t even dare to have forty winks at night or you end up having a nervous breakdown before you enter the class.
Coffee is an integral part of your body system. You start to think, maybe your blood have turned into cappuccino or what from all the “drinking sprees”. Downing SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS of caffeine night and day. Two sachets are not enough to suffice your discriminating taste, meaning you can’t stay awake with two cups. Morning comes, your eyes are very expressive. Droopy eyes. Dazed look. But heck, everybody’s sporting it!! Welcome to the jungle.
You meet a freshman and you want to give in to the urge to tell him…WELCOME TO HELL. (Grin) Nah! You know how it feels to be paralyzed with fear with all those talks of terror teachers lurking somewhere. So you choose to tell her, it’s going to be okay and you give the poor soul a conspiratorial wink while saying “If I were you I’ll have my library card signed as early as the first day of school.”
Being aware of your social responsibility is a way of life. You and your friends are suckers for current events. Everybody is expected to share their thoughts and opinions about issues in the society. Much to your chagrin,you forget that you have to write a term paper because you end up arguing with your friends about your stand on a certain issue.
You don’t check out the latest fashion at the magazine stand. That would come later if you have enough money left after having VOLUMES and CHAPTERS of books photocopied. By the time, you go out of the university to check out that cool backpack that you’ve been eyeing for sometime, you don’t even have a single coin left to buy yourself a chewing gum. So where is justice in that?
You feel intelligent. Of course, you have every reason to feel that way. After all you passed the UPCAT, right? You now belong to the country's premier university and so they say. But something inside you tells you that something is wrong with that idea. Remember the FIRST TIME that you've failed an exam? It hurts a lot I'm sure. But don't worry, if it's any comfort to know, many of us got their first heartache (on a failed exam) probably in this university. Cheer up, kiddo.
Do not judge a book by its cover. You couldn't agree more. That guy who looks like Barok fresh from the cave is actually a Math genius and a national champion in chess. You wouldn't dare compete with him. That shy girl beside you who aces her exams in history is actually a singing diva at a local pub. And of course, you don't give a damn whether he's the son/daughter of so and so. You know very well that no one is above the law in this institution.
Love life? Of course, you have one. They think just because you bury your nose in a pile of readings for PI 100 or STS, you're an ice maiden!! What they don't know is that, You are constantly checking out that cute guy in the front row with an adoring look fit for a king. Not until your professor calls out the result of the exams, you pass the exam but Mr. Cute scored zero. Suddenly you wanted to move on with your life without him. You turn to look at your professor instead, despite of his nerd look, the terrorist actually looks cool in his new pair of eyeglasses!
You have mastered the art of cooking pancit canton. Not that you can’t afford to buy yourself a decent meal but you know very well that “TIME IS GOLD.”
Enrollment gives you the chance to practice what your mom usually tells you….Patience is a virtue. You couldn’t agree more. And you begin to wonder whether UP stands for University of Pila.
Now, let me ease the topic in a different direction. After four years of being a student, your role changed into something more challenging. Now you have become a UP teacher.
So what makes a UP teacher?
You say, get one half piece of paper and students echo your instructions like parrots. One-half Maam? One-half Prof? One half Miss? Ano maam, one-half? Isn’t it that this university is supposedly the institution for the exceptionally talented and the brightest students in the country? Yes, class, one-half. And you eventually succumbed to the truth that they all have hearing defects despite being gifted.
You say good morning class among your freshmen students and they give you a
puzzled look. You tell yourself I should have worn something formal, like a killer slacks and a Victorian styled blouse. They expect to see a school marm but they end up seeing their reflection, jeans, t-shirt and a back pack. Next time, you know better than to shocked your students about not being “respectable” in their eyes.
Read the newspaper everyday. . It will save your hide during exams. Do not memorize rather understand what you are reading. Don’t just read. Think. Be creative in your presentations. I don’t like half bake papers. So give me your best shot. These are your favorite mantra. And pretty soon, your students get nosebleeds.
A deadline is a deadline otherwise you’re dead. And you hear that familiar groan across the room. But you stand firm. Somehow you feel the need to inculcate the value of discipline no matter what. No excuses. Come deadline and you try to wear the toughest look to prove to them that you mean business. Most of the time, it’s effective. They’re too afraid to cross you, knowing your favorite line is….. DO NOT PROVOKE THE ANIMAL INSTINCT IN ME. With a gentle smile, of course.
You begin to wonder whether it’s high time to have yourself a boyfriend for fear of ending up as the honorary member of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club. But nah, you tell yourself, real men want intelligent women. No need to hurry. You have to get your MA and your PhD first. But of course, you know that maybe you are asking too much.
You study your lessons well. Check your presentations and lectures. You never go into class unprepared. It’s your worst nightmare. You always remind yourself that these are not just ordinary students. Come to think of it, you might be talking to the future president of the country. A privilege of course. But at the moment, he surely knows that it’s a privilege and honor to attend your class.
Once in a while, you spot a genius, (everybody’s supposed to belong to the cream of the crop, right? I can see my students grinning like Cheshire cats.), the one who aces your exams effortlessly and delivers witty lines during recitations. You wonder, however, why you don’t see him lately. Somehow you find out that his scholarship allowance is delayed. No money. No food. He is forced to choose between feeding his mind and feeding his stomach.
You get yourself to reflect that despite of the modest salary that you received and despite repeated offers of very well-paying jobs, you stick to this institution simply because it gives you a certain pride to educate the scholars of the nation. And that it gives you a certain sense of serenity and happiness that you have inspired them. Inculcate the value of serving others. This you continue to do even if the logic of that reasoning is simply vague for your friends and family.
You are then reminded of the simple fact that the institution you work for is the University of the Masses, where poor but brilliant minds are given the chance to fulfill their dreams. Where promising minds forged their dreams of being and becoming and that you feel that you can make a difference in their lives.
Above all, somehow in the face of trying times, you never forget to tell them never to lose their faith to their own people. And that you fervently hope that someday, when the going gets tough, they will remember that, THE FILIPINO IS WORTH LIVING FOR.
Having said this, you go into sleep with that beautiful music that softly plays in your heart. What more could you ask for?
