when i was (much, much) younger, i remember planning out my life. i'd go to UP for college, work in a bank, buy my own car before i turned 30... stuff like that.
i pretty much stuck to the plan. i DID work for a bank... for an entire month. i "bought" my own car... from my dad, for a hard-earned buck. the studying in UP part i skipped for my undergrad. back then, UP was too radical with their "makibaka, huwag matakot" posters in red; not conducive to studying at all (for the record, i passed the UPCAT and got into ECO, a quota course... ahem!)
so i earned my undergrad, without regrets, from the Ateneo. AAAH! the pampered life! i would learn to appreciate the pampering in years to come.
it took me around about 15 years to re-apply to UP, this time for my masteral. it seemed that "the plan" had a way of working itself out on its own.
what's the big deal about going to UP anyway? why do thousands of HS seniors kill to see their names in the acceptance lists each year? what's so great about getting your degree at the state university?
i will not argue about the great minds that were scholared there. my parents went there, met there, and married there. (dad would later go to harvard; mom won a fullbright scholarship.) so did marcos (and like him or not, he was brilliant!) and ninoy (there's another one for ya!) and many others who would become true leaders in their respective and respected fields.
i do not admit to being an expert in the school's system (or lack of it). i always considered myself "divorced" from the school, going there only if i had a class to attend. at most, i would stay after to grab a bite with my classmates - be it fishballs, monay, taho, or mang jim's.
my boss couldn't understand how it took me a week to enroll into 2 subjects (it would only take half a day in Ateneo); it would even take longer to file for an LOA. i couldn't comprehend why somebody couldn't just come up with a flowchart or a list for pre-enrollment processes. it would save a person a day's commute to find out beforehand that they needed clearance from health services first and to be told that they needed an x-ray to get that clearance. not when they're already there! i couldn't understand how an entire drawer in a library's card catalogue could go missing and the librarian just shrug her shoulders at my dilemma. i couldn't imagine how a girl can go to the college of EDUC's first floor comfort room and not fear for her life!*
after going through these (and much more), that was when i understood what made going to UP so great. it wasn't the school's utilities and facilities, and (sadly) neither was it because of its teachers (but when they were good, they were REALLY good!); it was the process of getting the education. it was learning to be creative and making things work when the system didn't (i did all my research at Ateneo's Rizal library. like i said, no regrets.) it was learning to be patient when you were in one of those long lines that was synonymous to the school's name. UP stood for University of Pila - "pila" means queue for non-tagalog readers. it's commuting back and forth to buildings to obtain a signature; stalking a professor's office for hours to get into what you know would be a good class. it's in exchanging and throwing ideas back and forth with peers to make sense of what a teacher was trying to explain inside the classroom. it's in meeting and dealing with people whose personalities are as varied as there are colors in a pantone guide. it's survival. in short, UP builds character.
now i understand why the school gets only the top students the country has to offer: you have to be good to begin with so you can come out better, if not GREAT. i have my parents as proof for the last note.
*i am happy to report that the bathroom has since been renovated.
