this morning the college had its general freshman orientation program. as usual, the auditorium was filled with the freshies while the lobby was filled with their parents, guardians and what have you. this is my second year of seeing this thing.i find it great and weird at the same time.
back in the day, when i was a freshie, it wasn't like this. information wasn't spread around as fast as today, that's why you had to be extra mindful of every post, flyer or announcement your home college/department would release. word of mouth is more reliable then. now, it's not. heck, even orgmates don't communicate well with each other, much less their outer world. wala e. kakaiba na yata ang mga bata talaga ngayon. or kakaiba na ang maging bata sa panahon ngayon. masyado silang maraming resources at their disposal, marami ring tao na magbibigay ng resources sa kanila, kaya things like looking at the nittygritty of things they take for granted. how sad. is this the generation that will inherit the earth. hm. just a thought.
i think they are super spoiled. oo nga't meron diyang kasama ang mga nanay at tatay ang kahenerasyon ko pero hindi ganitong kasa-kasama kahit saan. nakakaloka lang. dati, pinagtatawanan ka sa peyups kung may bitbit kang paryentes, kaya nga pinsan ko ang binitbit ko, kasi naman mas maalam siya sa peyups dahil third year na siya nun. sensible di ba?
pero pareho pa rin ang nakikita ko sa mukha nila. katulad din ng nakita ko noon sa amin. takot, saya, kaba, excitement na pinaghalu-halo. pride na nakapasa ka, lalo na't nakapasa ka sa quota course sa first choice mong course at college. astig na pala ito pero clueless ako noon when the reg assistants were gushing about it during enrollment. well.
merong iba ngayon, nag-aastig-astigan. kinekeri kahit obvious na kabado. mas appreciate ko pa yung matanong e, talagang honest sila sa approach nila. those are the ones i tend to keep an eye on, kasi may potential.
iba na rin ang impression pala sa cmc ngayon. maingay. well, dati pa naman. pero dati, mas nangingibabaw ang isang bagay. when asked what she thought of cmc people, my fine arts friend said "hmp. kala mo mga foreigner mga tao dun ingles ng ingles." sadly, wala nang ganyan ngayon sa cmc. ibang lengguwahe na ang mga bata. gudlak kung makakita ka ng nagsasalita ng hindi nagku-code switching for 30 seconds.
pero ang gusto ko ngayon, helpful ang mga tao sa paggabay sa freshies. dati kasi patigasan talaga e. paiiyakin ka pa. pinakamalaki nilang warning: huwag tatanungin kung nasaan ang "room TBA" para di ka mapagtripan. true enuf... parang di na ito true ngayon.
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so what was it like when i was a freshie? it was the tail end of summer and the decade just turned. the world was tuning off new wave and about to turn on to grunge. i was happily enjoying the real fresh air of the acad oval back then, months before a major earthquake hit, ruining the summer capital, and a year before mount pinatubo showered the metro with grey ash. it was snowing ash.
but that's a flash forward.
i was a mighty introverted shy skinny girl back then, a far cry from my outward persona now. as in, super far far out. nagbotohan nga yung high school friends ko to see sino sa amin ang pinaka-nagbago the most. so aside from my sexuality of course, ako ang awardee nito dahil nga sa dati, pag tumatawa ako, wlang sound. i hated recitation kasi papagalitan ka ng madre pag mahina boses mo at di ka marinig sa harap. as in, mega-quiet talaga ko. kaya nga one of my profs sa fine arts before, si castaneda, i remember telling him "sir, magshi-shift na ko sa masscom" at sagot niya "ha? e masalita mga tao doon! kelangan magsalita ka!"
yan. that was my image sa fine arts for the first 2.5 years of my peyups life -- hindi nagsasalita. at pag nagsalita, especially pag nagmura, major event. ngayon, wala, laos, sampu sampera ang pagkaingay ko at ang pagmumura bwakanang...hehe.
i came from a high school that was just starting out to bloom in population, and we were only 49 students in the batch when we graduated. there was even a time that i was seriously considering giving up peyups to study in another diliman college because most of my friends were accepted there. yeah, i was the only one in the barkada who got in. that was kinda scary. to come from a tight-knit high school and then thrown in the mega-structure of UP...man.
the thing i liked about UP was the fact that you remained anonymous. save for a few familiar faces from high school (older batches) and some GE classmates. other than that, i can sit anywhere and read or chill out with my walkman and nobody would care. that's one thing i liked about UP -- nobody cared whether you sit anywhere, provided you don't get in the way of people. actually, dala ko yan hanggang ngayon.
noon, phenomenon na rin ang maraing koreano pakalat-kalat sa campus. i don;t know if they were enrolling as exchange students like now, pero grabe lang sa deluge din to dati. minsan a korean woulds trike up a conversation with you sa sunken garden, kahit nananahimik kaming nagsa-sound trip ng fine arts classmates ko at nagwa-watercolor ng landscape plate. i remember this naughty korean boy trying to chat up my classmate who didn;t know how to brush the dude off, so i helped. nagpapakilala siya, so sabi ko "her name is suzanne." "suzanne?" sabi niya. "yeah, suzanne, suzanne vega." tawa kami lahat. syempre lost siya. sensya sya, album ni suzanne nakapasak sa tenga namin those days. pero uso na rin ang "teach korean english" rakets noon. pero ewan ko ba, i never really got to like them, until now. sorry but there are nationalities and countries na di talaga ko interesado. ewan ko kung bakit.
at saka ewan ko kung meron pa nito ngayon (parang wala na) pero may parang church group org dati na sa may grandstand ang congregation, tapos they really run after you and ask you to join their bible study. isyu dati ito na parang kulto na ang dating e. sadly, one of my high school batchmates joined this, at puta ang kulit lang niya, stalker mode. to the point na iintayin niya ko sa classroom ko after class para i-recruit sa bible study. e punyeta mahilig akong dumaan sa may sunken kasi ang booksale outlet lang sa vicinity noon ay sa vinzon's lang. kaya lagi akong biktima ng mga recruitment na yan. pero wit! magwawagi ba sila sa isang true blue agnostic! laos. dude, true blue catholic school girl rebel ini, no amount of religious blah would convert me, unless i seek it.
hm ano pa ba ang eksenang freshie ko? ay, isa pa pala, muntik na kong atakihin sa puso sa 2nd floor ng AS kasi may ale na nakaitim na duguan na naglalakad na nakatapak na naka-bestidang luray-luray... isang hapong tag-ulan pa naman. yun pala punyeta UP Repertory promo ng isang play. punyeta.
speaking of AS corridors, i hated it whenever richard gomez would pass by, sometimes with john estrada in tow. there was literally a swarm of students following them, naglalakad. as in, talagang sinusundan siya ng crowd literally. naisip ko nun "hangtatangah din pala ng tagapeyupz."
and back then, i wasn't really enamored sa kanya. kahit mas gwapingsters siya noon kesa ngayon. hm. goes to show ang tagal ko na palang lesbiyana, di ko pa alam. nuninuninu...
pero at least hindi ako nagpapa-edit ng production ko sa mga tao sa network dibahhhh...hehehe. among other stories.
ang gusto kong ka-batch si harlene bautista. kasi tahimik lang din siya. at nang makainuman ko minsan, ma-angst na artist na tao pala. keri. hm, sabagay lahat naman yata sila sa teatro noon ganun. at least nag-mellow down na sila.
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first time kong pasukin ang cine adarna, then known as film center, ay dahil required kaming panoorin ang PRIVATE SHOW ni chito rono. fell in love with jaclyn jose's talent, and first time to watch a movie like that, with pure unadulterated skin and movements. hayep. wala na ang virgin eyes...
first time ko ring makakita ng nakalundoy na mga patotoy sa stage play ni anton juan. funny how later on he'll be a friend and he'll narrate stories about how construction worker patotoys just seem to keep coming his way...aaaah too much information! but that's anton for you.
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first time nag-lantern parade? dun ko na-feel na fine arts nga ako. we made some thingies na required plates at required iparada sa lantern parade. nakakatuwa kasi participant ka, pero nakakapagod din. and incidentally, first time ko ring ma-harass ng fratmen, who shouted bastos comments at us girls sa parade. at may tagay silang mga bote ng red horse. puwede pa kasi ang alak sa campus nun e. scared ako dun chong.
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ang dami talagang firsts sa freshman life sa UP. yung iba traumatic, yung iba useful, yung iba nakakatawa, yung iba nakakaasar. sana lang alam pa ng mga bata ngayon kung paano idi-distinguish ang one from the other.
ikaw, what's your UP freshie memory?
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