A UP Student’s Exploring Time

There comes a time in our lives where we get confused, humiliated and really ‘sabog’. This first occurred to me during my first day in UP.  My first day in the University of the Philippines was a topsy-turvy one. I didn’t know where my classes were or which buildings are which and I did not know what to expect from UP professors and also from my fellow UP students. I just said to myself, “Bahala na lang”.  

My first problem was getting to my classes. I could compare myself to a traveler not knowing where to go but still had the guts to travel. This is me, the bold traveler or better yet the clueless UP student. So I did what every freshman would do, I asked people passing by where my classes were. I could remember asking a girl, standing beside the photocopy machine of the left wing of AS, where my Bio 1 class was held which was at PHAN 4105. She told me “That is the Palma Hall Annex 4, just behind this building.” So I went behind the building but then I went to the other side of the road since I thought it was not directly behind the building. In the end, I ended up asking 3 more people just to find where my class was and to make things worse, I was 20 minutes late. As I entered the room, everybody froze and looked at me for 3 seconds. The teacher then asked me, “freshman?” I answered, “Yes sir.”And he said, “ Kaya pala late”. Then everybody smiled. 

My other problem was getting to understand what professors or students mean. In UP, there are some terminologies they use that everybody knows what it means but for a freshman other things come to mind.  For example, I thought when they said ‘Oble’, it meant academic oval because it was slang for oval. When they said ‘Petics’, I thought of a branch of Science because it had the suffix ‘ics’ in it. When they said ‘blue book , I thought of a record book used in inventories because it was the only blue book I knew. I was really in a culture shock.

This was a day of confusion for me. But as the saying goes, “When there is confusion, wisdom appears”. Even though I was embarrassed, puzzled or clueless, I learned eventually what UP terminologies meant and knew where buildings are. Well, maybe this is how UP wanted me to experience UP for the first time, to be confused so that you will know next time which is which, what is what and where is where. 

By: Benedict Guinto
   (Illustration)

Sources (Photos):

http://www.justanotherpixel.net
http://iskwiki.upd.edu.ph (http://iskwiki.upd.edu.ph/index.php/File:UP_Blue_Book.jpg#.VGcq38nEJYo)