A list of things that I have learned so far in UP

Here are some of the few things that I have pondered upon after finishing my first semester as a UP student.

1. The use of po and opo

Back in Zobel, kuya/ate/sir/miss/tito/tita/and even bro was enough for us to address the elderly when we talk to them. The use of po and opo wasn't really reiterated since most of the students do not use them often upon talking to older people. Anyway, as I began my student life in UP, I started noticing my batchmates using the words po and opo towards older people. Yes, saying those words to people 10 years older and above than you is a given but I noticed that some of them use it towards our upperclassmen and even to me!

Now, I get to practice saying po and opo again and sometimes, I get the feeling that I give too much respect to some older people that I was sort of close to already. Anyway, more respect is better than less respect right?

2. It's back to zero

It definitely is a greater world when compared to the little happy world I came from called "high school" just a couple of months ago. Living the college life, especially in UP, is definitely a challenge for every individual since most people usually start from scratch upon entering the university. Despite the amount of success that an individual has garnered throughout his or her high school life, it would be a mere needle in a haystack situation since not many people know you or know where you came from not unless people have talked to you and asked you about your personal information or if you will be lucky, have heard of you in the past.

Another interesting piece that I have experienced would be the lack of knowledge of people about what or where my high school is. Coming from Zobel, I didn't really expect much of the people to know about De La Salle Zobel since the most popular La Salle high school would be La Salle Greenhills. Furthermore, most UP students come from outside the Metro Manila area giving it a more slim chance of knowing about Zobel since some of the people in NCR themselves don't know what or where Zobel is.

By the way, I'm not commenting on this to brag about my school. It's just something that me and my batchmates who went to UP saw as an interesting topic. It's just something that we share among one another to check on how we are as UP students coming from Zobel. :)

3. SPEAKING good english doesn't assure you of breezing through english class (I'm not even sure if the structure of the title of this post is written correctly.)

At the beginning of the semester, I took my English 1 class for granted. I thought to myself that this was going to be an easy class since I believed that I already knew the basics of grammar since everything was being tackled year in and year out during elementary and high school. BUT I WAS DAMN WRONG.

The lesson I found really difficult to bear with was the one on Passive and Active voice. I found it really really confusing and nothing made sense to me.

4. Study.

You will never pass college without studying. Enough said.

Until the next time.

Phim