If you were to ask me how I feel, as a senior very nearly graduating Pisay, I’d say, “Well, I’d think, by this time, it would have dawned on me that it’s all over now.” When I think about the Pisay hardships I’ve encountered, the academic obstacles I’ve thrown aside, the sleepless nights I’ve had to endure, the stress I’ve had to fight back, the valuable friendships I’ve formed and broken, all of it is just dust in the wind. I have but the cold and distant memories. I can hold on to them, and maybe even relive them. But the experiences themselves are pretty much gone forever.
Wow, all this talk about memories got me thinking: Why is it that I remember so much about the people I’ve come across, (batchmates, teachers, or whatnot), I remember the situations, I remember the Pisay campus, I remember the experiences I had with my friends way back in First Year; but when it comes to my actual highschool lessons:
I just completely black out. I mean, if you asked me to give the formula for kinetic energy for a particle moving in a semi-circular path, all you’d get from me is a blank stare. And to think I knew this so well last year. Or how about the value of sin θ if θ equals π/8 radians? I knew this, once. But that’s about it. Or even if you asked me to enumerate the process of how a deoxyribonucleic acid becomes a strand of RNA through transcription and translation within the nuclear envelope, I would just walk away. Amazingly, I was forced against my will to memorize exactly just that, mere hours ago.
With the mere fact that I had completely stifled the memory of all these academic lessons shows just how much useless data I can retain at a certain period of time. By the time summer vacation ends, I would have forgotten much more than half of the information that was taught to me in the classroom, which brings me to my main point: the “actual” lessons you’ve learned from textbooks and applied in long tests are less infinitely important than what you’ve learned and what you’ve done throughout the whole damn thing. You learn who you are. You learn how to deal with peers who are different from you. You learn to pace yourself. You learn how to cope with failure. And you learn how to kick back up and get back on track. And sometimes, you do something that would change someone’s life.
At the risk of digressing, I just wanted to share this one story, in hopes it could inspire someone. I read a webcomic on xkcd, wherein the alt-text read (and I quote), “And the ten minutes striking up a conversation with that strange kid in homeroom sometimes matters more than every other part of highschool combined.” This couldn’t be truer in my case. Well, there was a time I was that strange kid who no one really wanted to talk to. I was quite the loner for a time. And despite my outgoing, loquacious and confident façade, I was so insecure, and I didn’t know at that point if I could cope.
So there I was, eating in the cafeteria by myself one day early in the school year, when that one classmate I didn’t expect to pass my way asked if he could eat beside me. I was surprised, but I didn’t really mind. As he sat beside me, we got to conversing about our lives and what was pretty much going on. I don’t quite remember how the flow of our conversation went, but I do remember genuinely declaring, “Shit. It’s not like I matter anyway.” (Or something along those lines). It was then, when my cafeteria seatmate (and now, my new good friend) then replied hastily, “Oh, no. Of course you matter.” What struck me was how sincere and honest he sounded.
The fact that this was someone I had rarely talked to at that point made the effort to make me feel better about myself was nothing short of astonishing. Someone who I hardly knew gave me the real self-assurance I needed to get through the day. That one remark helped me build the foundation for a better self-esteem I had slowly been building that year. That enigmatic cafeteria seatmate and I actually became pretty close friends as the year progressed. However, he may never know, though, how much that one remark helped me because it just seems ridiculous in retrospect.
In conclusion, don’t underestimate the little things that have an effect on you or the learning experiences you could impart on others. It is experiences like those that stick to people so much more than any theory on quantum physics could.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
10 Reasons Kung Bakit Pangit Makipag-group Kung Kaya Mo Namang Mag-isa
1. Mahirap silang hagilapin.
2. Maglalampungan lang sila sa harap mo.
3. Ikaw gagawa ng halos lahat (o lahat) ng mga inassign sa inyo.
4. Maraming excuses.
5. Last minute mawawala.
6. Kung anu-anong ipagagawa sayo.
7. Pinapakialaman yung mga ginagawa mo.
8. May makikipagtalo sayo.
9. Aalalahanin mo pa yung contributions nila.
10. Walang mangyayari kapag nagmmeet-up kayo.
- Jill Listano
2. Maglalampungan lang sila sa harap mo.
3. Ikaw gagawa ng halos lahat (o lahat) ng mga inassign sa inyo.
4. Maraming excuses.
5. Last minute mawawala.
6. Kung anu-anong ipagagawa sayo.
7. Pinapakialaman yung mga ginagawa mo.
8. May makikipagtalo sayo.
9. Aalalahanin mo pa yung contributions nila.
10. Walang mangyayari kapag nagmmeet-up kayo.
- Jill Listano
