You Are An Iskolar ng Bayan

A product of procrastination.
Here's another paper crammed by yours truly, for SEA30.
I think I've mastered the art of cramming. Haha.

*****

You are an Iskolar ng Bayan

…when you attend the University of the Philippines, regardless of which campus you are. The mere fact that you study in the country’s premier university overshadows the significance of the campus you attend. Be it in Diliman, Mindanao, or the Open University, being a UP student is enough to make you stand out from the rest of the crowd.

…if even fifteen units of academic load is stressful enough for you. Sure, it’s nothing compared to the 20 plus academic load other colleges and universities sentence their students to. However, they don’t have Math 17, the most basic of the series, complex enough to drive you up the wall. Or English 12, whose assigned books would equal an average person’s lifetime supply of leisurely read. Or even a PE that’d work you out to death, and still they tell you, “You have got to be better than that.”

…if the number 1 makes you happy enough to burst into a song.

…when not a semester passes that you didn’t experience “No Wash Day”: a day or two (usually around the end of the semester) when the work’s piled up, all due on that same day, and you’re late for your 7AM class, that you forgo all rules of hygiene and sanitation and go out in yesterday’s clothes, only stopping to brush your teeth.

…when the words “Main Library” reminds you not of books, but of sleep.

…if all it takes for you to be happy by the end of the semester is to pass all your subjects, whether in flying colors or “pasang-awa.” It really doesn’t matter; as long as you survived this semester, you’ll live.

…when you have a naked man for a mascot. Nudity was never an issue for you.

…when you debate with your friends over whether or not that bird in the school logo is an eagle or a parrot. Seriously, does it make any difference? It looks like both for me.

…when, despite striking out of the UAAP season for the nth time last year, you still cheer your lungs out for your beloved Basketball Varsity Team. Go Fighting Maroons! (That accounts for all the other varsity teams as well, but you cheer louder for the Basketball team, with the slightest hope it’ll help them win.)

…if it has to take you a jeepney ride to get to your next class. Walking is optional, but with a campus big enough to be proclaimed a town (or a city), you’d rather not take the risk and be late.

…when the worst part of the school year for you is the enrollment. They didn’t call it UP for nothing.

…if casual conversations with friends revolve around the current price hike, Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, what your thesis will be (though you’re still a sophomore), call center options, and the existence of God (if there exists one, your friend debates).

…if lunch for you means a dozen isaw, or twenty pesos’ worth of fish balls.

…when you consider dormitories heaven-sent.

…when people make rallies sound synonymous to the name of your school. Really.

…when your alumni are famous (haha).

…when people are awestruck when you tell them where you study.

…when you consider the freshmen as Public Enemy No. 1 come enlistment and enrolment.

…when you find yourself striving not only for personal gain, but also for the benefit of others and nation as a whole. You think of the opportunity you were given to study in this university, and find a way to pay the people back, someday.

…as soon as you step into the threshold of academic excellence, where the brightest of minds meet, all in the unified goal of serving the country. You are an Iskolar ng Bayan because you are in the University of the Philippines.