Grabbed from The Lasallian (thelasallian.com)
My dream school was the University of the Philippines.
Why? Because my dad and my ate came from that university. I didn’t care about how low the tuition fee was, nor which colleges were the centers of excellence. I didn’t care about anything but family and the fact that I wanted to be like my dad, who was a vet. But then, high school changed everything.
My eyes were opened to the different kinds of universities while I was in high school, thanks to the competitions I joined. Slowly but surely, my concept of “dream school” faded. My method of choosing changed to using the heart to using the mind.
I admit that at one point, I just wanted to look for a school that specializes in what I want (DLSU) with lots of trees (UP) but has less space in it (ADMU). I had difficulty choosing a school because first of all, I passed the entrance test in all three schools and besides that, I was given a full scholarship in two of them. Because courses and cost weren’t the problems anymore, my mom told me to decide using their distances from home because she knew that I can’t live in a dorm or in a condo alone, definitely. And so, DLSU it is.
Before the second term starts, let me share with you all of my difficulties in random order as a frosh Lasallian during my first term. Not all Lasallians may relate to it, however.
1. Where to eat
My SAS1000 personality assessment told me that I like change—which is probably the reason why I’d rather eat something new than eat the same thing everyday. This caused me to stay away from blockmates during lunchtime on certain days, but who wants to eat alone? Loners, of course, and I’m not one.
2. What to wear
Not only people from DLSU have this problem—I guess, students from schools that don’t have uniforms have this problem, which varies this way: making sure you don’t wear on Friday the same thing you wore last Monday, choosing an outfit can make you stand out from the crowd, and mixing-and-matching clothes for your next Instagram post. Of course my daily problem is the first one, however I realized that no one cared about this in my class.
3. Conyos
DLSU has always been labeled by other students from other schools as a nest of conyos but I’m here to tell you that the nest part is definitely a misconception. I don’t deny that conyos exist in DLSU, though. There is a specific place where I hear this unique language and I won’t say it anymore.
4. Being asked if you’re single or not
I don’t know but ever since I was in elementary school, it was a given already. In high school we always had a ‘malandi ito’ label for those in a relationship—which is probably the culprit.
5. Cold rooms
This is obviously both a blessing and a curse.
6. Possibility of not getting any slimmer
Classes are always close together in Goks (Gokongwei Bldg, College of Computer Studies) unless you cross-enroll, unlike in MaSci. During lunch, I have the tendency to eat a lot because the servings are big and if I don’t eat everything, it’d be a waste of money. This is the complete opposite of the situation in UP where the buildings are quite far apart.
7. Pollution
Among the top three universities, I believe that my school has the least trees. And the smokers along Castro! Ugh!
8. Striving for better grades
If others have tuition as a big problem while in DLSU, mine is maintaining my grades for my scholarship. Having a scholarship means I always have to strive for 4.0 not because 4.0 is my maintaining grade (mine is 2.5, actually) but because in case I get a very low grade, I won’t have to worry about my grade.
9. Being a rarity (lack of diversity)
Most of my classmates came from private schools so most of the time there are instances where I can’t relate to my classmates. Surprisingly, a lot in my class didn’t know my school existed during the LPEP but the nice thing is, my class was very much welcoming so I really didn’t feel that I was far apart from them.
10. Studying in the same environment
Others may not have this as a problem, but to me I’m actually sick of it. For the last four years in my life I’ve been living the Taft life so I’m not actually proud of it (that I’m in Taft), so I’d rather not wear that on a shirt unlike some students do (and Lasallians are not the only college peeps in Taft, there are a lot of schools along Taft such as UP Manila, PCU, and PWU). Even if studying in a place you’re familiar with means you know how to get around and about—but that’s not my problem! I mentioned my SAS1000 personality assessment which said I like change, and I agree with it.
Author’s Note
Happy New Year! It’s Day 1 of 2016! For my first post for the year, I actually challenged two of my high school friends, Sean Hong and Timothy Mendoza, who are now in Ateneo De Manila University and University of the Philippines Diliman respectively to write about their struggles during their first year especially the first term, which is a big adjustment period. For the challenge, we would have to post the “list of struggles” with our own title on a site that is visible to everyone. I actually intended to make this challenge as a comparison of our lives in different universities, given that we all came from the same high school class.
You can see Tim’s post here: On Being a Fresh Isko | Highlights
~Kairu
Two-faced life 