My Blog, my journey… or something like that :o)

Last Saturday, I was given the opportunity to share my thoughts about Grad School during the Graduate Orientation Program…. in behalf of the continuing (in my case "continuous", according to Jun and Kahlil) graduate students. I’m posting this for documentation purposes, and whatever purpose it will best serve me…. hahaha! =D

To our University Officials, members of the Faculty and Staff, my professors, classmates and fellow graduate students: Good Morning.

Let me start my sharing by relating my “UP Smile” story. This happened two weeks ago while I was riding in a jeepney going here. A high school classmate asked me where I’m headed to on a Saturday morning, I answered “School, I’m taking up my Masters”. He then asked me “Where, UP?”, and I smiled and nodded.

This might NOT be an extraordinary experience for all us but I just want to share my realizations that resulted to what I now call my “UP smile”.

….it was a smile with a sense of pride, knowing that I’m enrolled in the best Graduate school in the region…

… it was a smile that means I’m enrolled in the University that embodies academic excellence and nurtures academic freedom.

… it was smile with a sense of achievement when I realized that somehow I’m surviving UP Grad School challenges and that I’m in my last few months of my journey as UP Grad student.

During my undergrad days here, I would see people attending classes during the weekend. I would look at them and naughtily smile with thoughts of them being “old” BUT with such admiration and respect that despite their “oldness”, they were still willing and very capable to learn. Today, I would find myself receiving the same “look” from the undergrads. This time, it’s my wishful thinking that those “looks” are also coupled with admiration and respect. J 

That is just one of my Grad School stories that keep this learning experience more than just academic exercise but also an integrated human development process. Allow me share with you a few more realizations and realities:

o       Grad school will bring down your defenses but will make way to build new alliances. After years of proving that you’re an independent person, you will eventually see yourself reaching out and seeking a classmate or friend’s help over an assignment, presentation, paper and eventually The Comprehensive exams.

o       Grad school will expand your network, of business/ project partners and new-found friends that would make your life a bit easier.  This might be Louge requesting her MIWD officemates to fix our damaged pipeline; entrusting to Jun and Sophie our clearances; Ronnie accommodating us in West Bridge for group study. The list would still go from being invited to Kahlil’s fiesta in Villa to giving a lecture in another classmate’s school. … (inserted, for the benefit of my Idol Giselle and Mae) and be around the company of the reincarnation of The Star of the New Decade or a Telecom Magnate J 

o       In Grad school you will unleash your inner strength and potentials. You would realize this when you have to juggle your time meeting work targets and finishing presentations, balancing personal budget and your financial management assignments, understanding (or rationalizing) the behavior of your boss and that of Boss X in your HBO case study… or say preparing for a class presentation while making a message for an orientation J Probably we were prepared for these when you decided to enroll wherein we opened ourselves to a new dimension in of life… a new challenge.

o       Grad school will be your time to loosen up.  After days of wearing your business attire, you can get into your rubber shoes or tsinelas, jeans and t-shirt and just be another UP student.

o       Since I have an 8:00am Saturday class, I first thought Grad school would take away my Friday evening socialization. Experience proved me wrong; I still have my Friday night outs; this time for group studies and “discussions” of assignments, finishing up last minute changes for the next day’s presentation, editing and finishing term paper or completing a take home exam. J

o       I may have missed Saturday outings and travels because of Grad school but I look forward to our end-of-trim outing; this maybe in Andy’s ancestral house in Miag-ao or simply an evening chilling out in a nearby restaurant recalling stories of the finished trim.

For me, Grad school is another chance to go back to the good old undergrad days when I tried to convince myself that being educated is fun and exciting experience. But the difference this time is that, I’m have now personal and professional experiences that can be shared with my professors and classmates with the hope that it can contribute in a more realistic learning process.

Definitely there were sacrifices and trade offs. These, we are all aware even before Ma’am Jo or Ma’am Nitz stamped our registration forms as OFFICIALLY ENROLLED. Vicon, one of my classmates, mentioned that after many years she’s back in UP, this time with her daughter in the undergrad. She then may now have to “compete” for a quite corner of their house, for her study time.

Economics would re-affirm the reality of life as full of choices, and that in order to be considered a rational being; we have to be conscious about analyzing the costs and benefits of being here in UP. While some of our friends decided to take up nursing to go abroad, we decided to pursue our master’s probably with a certain hope that the knowledge and skills we will gained will translate to more opportunities and eventually make life better.

It’s still a reality that with a UP Graduate School diploma, we can increase our market value as a professional and get that long-over due raise or promotion. But before that we still have to face the NOW, the challenges of being in UP Grad School.   

As part of the UP community, we must remember that UP’s celebrated academic freedom and academic excellence is not solely a product  the University’s system or it’s pool of qualified teaching force; it’s also a result of students’ social consciousness and academic achievements – two things that we also have to embrace. 

While we are encouraged to think critically, we are also indirectly encouraged to examine the society wherein we are an integral part. For us not only focus our efforts in criticizing the “what’s not”s and “supposedly”, but in our own capacity be a contributor of the “what is” and “should be”s. This is a mark of a true UP student.

Let me share with you a text message from a classmate, in celebration of UP’s Centennial Foundation:

U.P. made you in such a way that:

when the world is sitting, you would be standing…

when the world is standing, you would standout…

when the world stands out, you would be outstanding…

and when the world tries to be outstanding…

YOU would be the standard.

Guided by God’s “Invisible Hands”, you will write your Grad School story. If you want to get the most out of this “investment”, then let’s consider the next days ahead to be HERE. The here I’m referring to it’s more than just physically being here, of just being one of the those who wants to write UP Grad in their resumes or friendster profile; it’s totally being HERE … of connecting, of interacting, of sharing, of reaching out, of smelling, of smiling, of laughing, of burning midnight lamps, of making your own mark… of being an ACTIVE participant and not merely being considered as a PASSER BY. This is the reason why we have started to talk about organizing us and start putting names to faces that we bump into every Saturday and all start wearing our UP smile.

With hard work and the grace of God, it is my fervent prayer that we will wear our “UP smile” while receiving our Masters Diplomas. And anytime when somebody would ask where I got my Masters degree, I would definitely give that person my usual UP smile and proudly answer “UP Grad School”… knowing that behind those three words were treasured personal experiences and memories that made me an equipped professional, a developed individual and overall, a better person.

May we all have a fruitful journey here in UP Grad School, good morning and God bless us all! J