Writer's Block #5 - College

Cue in: Asher Roth's "I Love College"

###

Please stop reading and burn this after you see the journalistic code for end.

Life has a loop button. You just don't know how to push it. And when you do, you don't know you unintentionally did so. Right now, I did, I'm writing again. Drifting and tik-taking away.

I sometimes wonder if I've made something worth remembering during my college days. Being a tourist student, I always saw college as a bit of a challenge. Those were the eager days, the eager years, the Mr. Brightside years of my life. The days were shiny, not to mention totally awkward once I reminisce now.

Of course there are the new friends, starting from being classmates then orgmates. You share lunch, eat together and sometimes get awe struck together since both of you don't know that your long exam was scheduled later that day. Also there were friends you lose because you chose the different sides of the fence. Names are important, even more than what you think.

There are the classes that don't seem to end but when they do, you wish you had done more. You know, not just to feel good about yourself but you realize you could have done something better with those lost semesters. You wished you could have made good with that internship, it could have been a greater addition to your upcoming resume for your would-be employers. Or you could have just slugged it out a couple more weeks to finish your NSTP course or modules.

The parties you attended were epic. No red cups (they're seriously hard to find here) but the awesome 500ml amber bottles cradled you to sleep in the most unwelcome of places- a friend's sofa, grungy sleeping beds, some landlady's carpet and even on the unsuspecting instructor's class time. Those were good times, especially with the new friends, new assholes and new problems in life that conspire after a week-long drinking marathon. Some people out there may occasionally have eaten sand or dirt, but who cares, right?

Then there are the historical battles of life during your time away in college. For tourist students like me who ventured to other regions, countries or areas with different dialects, languages and customs; there are the little victories and defeats that you'd probably have had to deal with.

The academe is one, you have to put a conscious fight to keep your wits amidst the torrents and maelstroms of peer pressure, parent concerns and budget problems. You have to tame it before you can make it do your bidding. You may have to offer your life or limb but damn it it's a true story- you will really reap what you sow and it will be all WORTH it. Handing your professor the 10-page essay exam breathes a sigh of relief, seeing your production after the last cut will be tear-jerking, holding your freshly-bound thesis for passing will cause a minor heart attack. Those days will be glorious and you will remember them as if they were just yesterday. Don't be afraid to lose a bit of your social time with friends, there will be plenty more time to kill with the buddies when you are in the private lounge of your corporate office floor.

Culture will always be a factor wherever you go. Whether it's a matter of language that you speak or the way you present yourself in front of others, students are put in a great deal of trials in this department. You can never go wrong with respect and courtesy. Drink their favorite brew, taste or *smoke* their home-grown food (herbs), keep your mouth shut for ethnocentric comments and learn as much as you can. You'll get to know that there are more similarities in people than differences, even if you were brought up in the glacial parts of the world.

Connections, romantic and platonic and even those between rivals should be nurtured and taken care of. In romance you find your passion or inspiration, in friendship you find camaraderie and baseball bat-swinging partners in crime and in rivalry you find competition and the meaning of being a sore loser and a graceful champion. You have to shell out cellphone load for this or empty your school internet card but what's that if you get to enjoy their oh-so-good company?

This post has gotten long enough, more readers may or may not have read it until this part but that's one real lesson you'll get from college. You can't be lazy even if your slowpoke badge depended on it. Sometimes, you have to read the instruction well, not just look at it and see the obvious.

Life has a loop button. Life has a loop button. Life has a loop button. Life has a loop button. See what I did there? Let's just hope you don't find the loop button when you're on your last semester, that would suck ass.