Pisay taught me way back in second year what it really means to be responsible, and no, I am not only talking about studying hard for tests and submitting requirements on time.
My sophomore year was the toughest for me. I will spare all the details but what is important to know is that year, I was almost literally down in the pits daily, always tense, ignoring schoolwork. I could say that the experience has actually caused me to degenerate; my character values actually worsened. By the time I fully appreciated how much I needed to regain-my habits, values-I felt as if I was carrying a weight enough to crush me twice over. While I dislike having to truly express how I felt before, I find it necessary to be honest. Feeling desperate perhaps, I tried to look outside for help but quickly realized, that none would come. .If I wanted to become a better, happier guy, well, its going to have to be all me, no matter how difficult.
The experiences I had in my sophomore year taught me that responsibility not only meant doing your assigned task regularly, it also meant deciding for yourself what you want to become. It meant you had to handle yourself well. It meant being the captain of your own ship.
It wasn’t easy of course because it also meant that there is the possibility of going against the values of friends or what attitudes were “in”. This responsibility perhaps first manifested itself when I decided what kind of person I wanted to become. Essentially, after imagining the person I wanted to be, I tried to inculcate in myself the values and attitudes that this imaginary future me possessed. I did it because I wanted to be able to respect myself, even with the possibility of alienating myself from others.
This now leads me to another lesson I learned that I learned. I found out that I actually had the power to choose how I respond to any situation, even if I could not control the situation itself. This meant that if I found myself in a certain position where I am pressured to do things that I believe is not good for me, regardless of the people involved, I had the capacity to detach myself from it. Friends are one grand example, especially in high school. We know that peer pressure is one immense factor in determining how a person will mature. This means that we should actively seek out amd befriend those people from whom we can learn from the most. We want to be in good company so that we will also be good. In the end everyone will be reinforcing each other. At the same time if you find yourself connected to those whose values and attitudes you do not like, what’s stopping you from loosening the ties in search of others? You should not be afraid to risk alienating those you call friends, after all, this is still just high-school. It is much more important to develop yourself than to tie yourself to others. Further, I believe that we must all be persons who can stand for our own beliefs and stay by them in spite of what others say. I believe in fact that this is the main goal of a high school education.
Yes, I am thankful because Pisay has helped me understand this. There are other things that Pisay has taught me but to elaborate on it would require hours of deeply personal conversation. Why wont it be? These things Pisay has taught me, has made me who I am now.
- Deo Estanislao
Monday, March 1, 2010
Bakit Ako Tamad
May Long Test, naglalaro lang...
May quiz bukas, ano naman?
Perio na, natutulog lang...
Buhay ko ang katamaran
Hindi ko alam kung bakit
Nakuha ko itong sakit
Kahit anong aking pilit
Sa akin 'di na mawaglit
Ngunit Bio ba'y kailangan
Kung ako'y Engineer naman
Aanhin ang tinandaan
Kung walang paggagamitan
Sana'y naging mas maaga
Pagpili ng kursunada
Bagay na gusto talaga
Ang tinuturo noon pa
- Janjan Ersando
May quiz bukas, ano naman?
Perio na, natutulog lang...
Buhay ko ang katamaran
Hindi ko alam kung bakit
Nakuha ko itong sakit
Kahit anong aking pilit
Sa akin 'di na mawaglit
Ngunit Bio ba'y kailangan
Kung ako'y Engineer naman
Aanhin ang tinandaan
Kung walang paggagamitan
Sana'y naging mas maaga
Pagpili ng kursunada
Bagay na gusto talaga
Ang tinuturo noon pa
- Janjan Ersando
Reflections
The Latin root of the word ‘reflection’ is reflectere, literally meaning ‘to bend back’. ‘Reflection’ has come to be interpreted as a reviewing of our inner thought and emotional processes, a type of consciousness which differentiates humans from other creatures. To be able to reflect is a wonderful gift, one that I am about to utilize now in writing about the time I have spent here in Pisay.
Writing about what I learned in Pisay, especially with our final year in high school coming to a close, is as difficult as pulling teeth. It both pains and elates me to finally come to terms with the fact that graduation is just a few weeks away. I believe that I will be glad to be rid of the stress and the schoolwork for some while, but who knows if the university I’m planning to enter is any easier? The future feels so uncertain. And yet, if I look backwards to the past, I feel overwhelmed by the onslaught of memories. Memories that I never want to forget.
I believe that Pisay will always hold a special place in my heart. This may perhaps be attributed to the fact that I have moved around so much. After all, Pisay is the eighth school I’ve attended in my life, and the school in which I spent my formative juvenile years. Prior to attending Pisay, the shortest time I have ever stayed in a school was around five and a half months while the longest used to be two years and three and half months. After graduation, I would have been here for a total of four years. While this may not seem long or particularly noteworthy to others, I consider it a great milestone .
Seeing my parents have get-togethers with their friends of 30 something years, I used to wonder what it would be like to live in one place and interact with individuals who weren’t related to but you have known for a very long time. There is a saying that the amount of time does not equal the strength of the friendship – namely that it is possible to feel closer to someone whom you’ve known for five minutes than someone whom you’ve known for years. Though this may be true to some extent, my time in Pisay has taught me that there is a distinct element of solidarity, familiarity and trust between individuals who have spent time growing alongside each other – an ingredient of a relationship that cannot be attained in any way other than facing trials and adversity together. Having the opportunity to attend Pisay has contributed in nurturing close friendships with others.
In this high school, I have met people from all walks of life. A lot of these people eventually became my friends. Through four years, I have watched how people have changed and grown - some vertically, some horizontally, some in the realms of maturity and personality. Having had the opportunity to observe this has meant that Pisay has become like a second home to me. I feel comfortable even in the presence of batchmates who I do not know too well because somehow we’ve adapted to a peculiar and unique way of Pisay life and thus have an inherent understanding of one another.
One of the most notable and significant things I have learned in Pisay is what friends are. They are the people who make fun of your hair, who steal your food, who tell you corny jokes, who say and do the craziest things, who have incredibly generous natures, who give the best hugs, who let you copy homework, who lend you shoulders to cry on, who stand up for you, who try to understand you, who trust you and who, most importantly, accept and love you for who you are – quirks and all. The friends that I have made at Pisay will undoubtedly last me a lifetime, or failing that, provide me with a benchmark to assess what a great friendship should be like. Without these people, I doubt I would have made it through high school.
This Science High School has simultaneously humbled and emboldened me in a lot of ways. Earlier on in my life, I was frequently obsessed with being one of the best, and felt the need to academically excel over others. I regularly achieved this desire – regularly enough to eventually make me complacent in the knowledge that I would always be one of the best. For example, I used to perform excellently in Mathematics compared to my peers. People looked up to me and I was given the opportunity to attend competitions. Then came my first year at Pisay. Suffice to say, I soon found that Mathematics was truly not my strong point in the realm of individuals who were equally academically gifted. From this experience I learnt that there will always be someone out there who is better than you, and that aiming to be consistently best in everything is not a realistic goal. That being said, I learnt that the most important thing is to try, and to not expect things to fall into your lap. Something is always gained when you push yourself to be the best you can be.
The intense workload placed on the students by Pisay, whilst admittedly not always enjoyable, has taught me valuable life skills. First and foremost would be the ability to manage my time properly and deal with stress. Another lesson learned is the fact that procrastination will always serve to ultimately place unnecessary pressure on myself. Whilst I may not have completely overcome the tendency to procrastinate, I have learnt that putting things off makes the project and its impending deadline appear a lot more difficult to handle than it actually is. Tackling projects head-on and doing things like research and study in well-spaced increments make for a better, more polished result than attempting to cram everything in one or two nights beforehand.
I believe that my time in Pisay has aided in molding me to be the person I am today. It has provided me the impetus to visualize new possibilities, it has helped me differentiate my innate strengths from my innate weaknesses, it has enhanced my intellect and provided me with sophisticated thinking skills and fostered a sense of drive and ambition. Due to my time at Pisay, I find I am now better equipped to overcome adversity and personal challenges. I have at my disposal an arsenal of skills to handle not only tertiary education, but life itself.
- Courtney Mathay
Writing about what I learned in Pisay, especially with our final year in high school coming to a close, is as difficult as pulling teeth. It both pains and elates me to finally come to terms with the fact that graduation is just a few weeks away. I believe that I will be glad to be rid of the stress and the schoolwork for some while, but who knows if the university I’m planning to enter is any easier? The future feels so uncertain. And yet, if I look backwards to the past, I feel overwhelmed by the onslaught of memories. Memories that I never want to forget.
I believe that Pisay will always hold a special place in my heart. This may perhaps be attributed to the fact that I have moved around so much. After all, Pisay is the eighth school I’ve attended in my life, and the school in which I spent my formative juvenile years. Prior to attending Pisay, the shortest time I have ever stayed in a school was around five and a half months while the longest used to be two years and three and half months. After graduation, I would have been here for a total of four years. While this may not seem long or particularly noteworthy to others, I consider it a great milestone .
Seeing my parents have get-togethers with their friends of 30 something years, I used to wonder what it would be like to live in one place and interact with individuals who weren’t related to but you have known for a very long time. There is a saying that the amount of time does not equal the strength of the friendship – namely that it is possible to feel closer to someone whom you’ve known for five minutes than someone whom you’ve known for years. Though this may be true to some extent, my time in Pisay has taught me that there is a distinct element of solidarity, familiarity and trust between individuals who have spent time growing alongside each other – an ingredient of a relationship that cannot be attained in any way other than facing trials and adversity together. Having the opportunity to attend Pisay has contributed in nurturing close friendships with others.
In this high school, I have met people from all walks of life. A lot of these people eventually became my friends. Through four years, I have watched how people have changed and grown - some vertically, some horizontally, some in the realms of maturity and personality. Having had the opportunity to observe this has meant that Pisay has become like a second home to me. I feel comfortable even in the presence of batchmates who I do not know too well because somehow we’ve adapted to a peculiar and unique way of Pisay life and thus have an inherent understanding of one another.
One of the most notable and significant things I have learned in Pisay is what friends are. They are the people who make fun of your hair, who steal your food, who tell you corny jokes, who say and do the craziest things, who have incredibly generous natures, who give the best hugs, who let you copy homework, who lend you shoulders to cry on, who stand up for you, who try to understand you, who trust you and who, most importantly, accept and love you for who you are – quirks and all. The friends that I have made at Pisay will undoubtedly last me a lifetime, or failing that, provide me with a benchmark to assess what a great friendship should be like. Without these people, I doubt I would have made it through high school.
This Science High School has simultaneously humbled and emboldened me in a lot of ways. Earlier on in my life, I was frequently obsessed with being one of the best, and felt the need to academically excel over others. I regularly achieved this desire – regularly enough to eventually make me complacent in the knowledge that I would always be one of the best. For example, I used to perform excellently in Mathematics compared to my peers. People looked up to me and I was given the opportunity to attend competitions. Then came my first year at Pisay. Suffice to say, I soon found that Mathematics was truly not my strong point in the realm of individuals who were equally academically gifted. From this experience I learnt that there will always be someone out there who is better than you, and that aiming to be consistently best in everything is not a realistic goal. That being said, I learnt that the most important thing is to try, and to not expect things to fall into your lap. Something is always gained when you push yourself to be the best you can be.
The intense workload placed on the students by Pisay, whilst admittedly not always enjoyable, has taught me valuable life skills. First and foremost would be the ability to manage my time properly and deal with stress. Another lesson learned is the fact that procrastination will always serve to ultimately place unnecessary pressure on myself. Whilst I may not have completely overcome the tendency to procrastinate, I have learnt that putting things off makes the project and its impending deadline appear a lot more difficult to handle than it actually is. Tackling projects head-on and doing things like research and study in well-spaced increments make for a better, more polished result than attempting to cram everything in one or two nights beforehand.
I believe that my time in Pisay has aided in molding me to be the person I am today. It has provided me the impetus to visualize new possibilities, it has helped me differentiate my innate strengths from my innate weaknesses, it has enhanced my intellect and provided me with sophisticated thinking skills and fostered a sense of drive and ambition. Due to my time at Pisay, I find I am now better equipped to overcome adversity and personal challenges. I have at my disposal an arsenal of skills to handle not only tertiary education, but life itself.
- Courtney Mathay
