Slips of the Pen

Life is absolutely not a walk in the park. It’s more of a walk on the plank. 

Everyday, a student puts himself through a lot of risks: hypothermia from ice-cold baths, eye-pain from burning the midnight candle, headache from finding the value of x in y(x3+y/x­­2)=xy2/3y if y=5, nosebleeds from trying hard to understand the English language, classroom narcolepsy, suffocation or poisoning from a classmate who’s afraid of hypothermia… 

I was once a student just like you—umaasa sa baon, pumapasok para may magawa (hehe… joke… pumapasok para may matutunan). My life is not scripted. It just goes with the flow. I have my dreams just like you. I wanted to be rich, stay rich and get even richer (hehe… mukhang pera ba? Nope. just being practical.). I’ve done everything I was able to think of just so I could learn, pass and graduate with flying colors. I finished every project, have always been present (though I was usually late coming to school), and have been attentive. in fact, I could even win the “Student of the Year” award (if not for my tardiness). 

Sometimes, I don’t really understand how life works. But before I proceed to what I am to say next, I would like to warn you, my younger brothers and sisters, not to try this at home (hehe). I know you watch television at night but don’t let watching destroy your study period. 

Even though I review, quizzes were either too easy, difficult or not in my notes at all. In other words, I may have been physically present during the lectures but I was mentally absent, daydreaming, that is. I was much of a daydreamer back then, though I always tried to catch up with the lessons. There were even times when I was forced to copy assignments from my classmates because I stayed up late the night before watching CDs or DVDs and Koreanovelas. I even tried once not to review for the periodical exams just so I could watch the ‘abangan’ part of F4 Meteor Garden (I was so crazy about the legendary F4 back then). You might be wondering how I fared during the exams. Well, what do you expect? I got low scores. All I relied on was stocked knowledge, though I think I had nothing stocked then. I had been daydreaming during lectures and all the answers to the test questions were discussed during the lectures. It never came to my mind back then to cheat. I don’t think I was a good girl back then, but I think it was respect for my teachers which kept me on the right track. That’s why I got low scores and had to cope with the next periodical exams. 

The mere fact that I failed changed my life. I’ve learned that big changes in our lives are more or less a second chance. I realized I don’t have photographic memory. I’m not a photocopy machine or an audio transcription machine which can just replay all the lessons learned. I learned then that I needed to study, take notes, and participate in class to earn my grades. It is us, students, who earn our grades and not our teachers who give them to us. In fact, we can say that our teachers are just our secretaries who record what we earn.

I’m not perfect. I’ve had my shares of failures. I’ve shed tears, been depressed, got mad and felt embarrassed afterwards, failed quizzes and exams, stared blankly into space, squinted my eyes and put my eyebrows together, but yet I still showed my sportsmanship. I’ve showed my sweet smiles and contagious laughter, shared the little knowledge I have with my classmates. In other words, being a high school student to me was fun, melodramatic, confusing. 

Despite these failures, I also had my best moments as a student. I have enjoyed these challenges. They made me strong. In my 14 years as a student, I’ve had the best years of my life at Sagada National high School. 

I know these are just simple things I have learned during my stay at Sagada National High but they helped me a lot in college. All the things I have learned here would maybe take a novel for me to discuss them all. I would like to share some of these things to you. 

At Sagada National High, I learned things I never expected I could apply when I went into college. Here I learned to play basketball, volleyball, softball, table tennis under Sir Makellay’s MAPEH class. From him, we learned to dance the different cultural dances of the Cordilleras. Believe it or not, I was one of the highest pointers in these games and dances in college. 

Here, I learned how to memorize facts and history not only of the Philippines but of Asia and the world. I remember the drills and quizzes Sir Estangki had been giving us about the different countries and capitals, and the different personalities involved such as the conquerors, the religious figures, and many more. I had been able to understand Asian civilization easier in college due to these. Not to brag, but I got exempted from taking our final examinations since I perfected the quizzes and even perfected the blank map of Asia (oh, yes, one of my shining moments… heheh..). 

Here, I learned the story of Crisostomo Ibarra, Maria Clara, Padre Damaso, and Simeon from Ma’am Padayao and Ma’am Sibayan, which made it easier for us to understand what usually lies behind the Noli Me Tangere and El filibusterismo in college. Here I learned how to improve my English language comprehension and skills from Ma’am Balisong. The stories I heard from her were a great help in my English Literature class in college. 

Here, I learned how to be artistic and industrious in Sir Caligtan’s TLE class. I remember when each of us went building a miniature hydropowered light emitting turbine (a miniature model of how a dam powers electricity). We went for a field trip at Bokong Falls to test them out. I could see the huge smiles of satisfaction as water flowed through our turbines and the bulbs attached lit up. Some were disappointed that theirs would not light up, but still we had a great time. I also remember making house plans and designing houses out of them. Sir Caligtan also taught us the hows on silk screen printing. All these knowledge earned me ‘wows’ and amazement from my classmates and instructors in college. 

Here, I learned from Ma’am Sumedca that acid turns  litmus paper into red and alkanine or base turns litmus paper into blue. I also learned from her that Avogadro’s number is the number of particles found in one mole of a substance. It is the number of atoms in exactly 12 grams of carbon-12. This is also constant at 6.022 x 1023 particles per mole. 

Here, I learned from Ma’am Baniaga about Earth science—that the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere correspond to rocks, water, air, and life. From her we also learned about the different formations of rocks formed by the movement of water, the changes in the Earth’s interior, and the occurrence of Earthquakes.

Here, I learned from Ma’am Tauli about biology which came in handy in my course as I understood the mechanics of life. She taught us that cells are the fundamental unit of life. She taught us how genetics work and how genes are transferred from parent cell to daughter cell through the Punnett square. 

Here, I learned from Ma’am Umaming that trigonometry deals with relationships between the sides and the angles of triangles, and with trigonometric functions, which describe those relationships and angles in general such as those of sine, co-sine, tangent. Her knowledge earned me a very good standing on my statistics and basic algebraic subjects in college.

Here, I learned from Ma’am Bakisan that the theory of demand and supply is an organizing principle to explain prices and quantities of goods sold and changes thereof in a market economy. This states that as the demand goes up, supply goes down, therefore, is inversely proportional. Knowledge she imparted to us in Economics made me understand the law of supply and demand of nurses in foreign countries.  

Here at Sagada National High, I learned how to make friends and keep them close, how to love, how to live life to the fullest. I learned that the pains of going to school practically everyday have far-reaching advantages. Despite the hardships, criticisms, and challenges I have encountered, I am proud to say that I am one of the products of Sagada National High—one of the products of the ever-energetic and mind-empowering teachers of Sagada National High. 

And now, I am proud of how far the school has gone since 5 years ago. I’ve seen the struggles the school went through and I know how lucky you are today, my younger brothers and sisters. At least, you have the internet for additional research work. During our time, we only had the library and books at home for our resources. We had our reports and projects hand-written or type-written then. Now, you have computers to help you with your work. We didn’t have a computer lab where all the students could have a chance of learning how computers wok. However, being one of the members of the school paper, I was one of the lucky students to ever use a computer. I feel for our fellow students who had not experienced this since I saw how hard it was to pass our computer science subject in college. You are also lucky to have new buildings to conduct your classes in. Before, we had the makeshift building which pours on us students when it rains hard. We also borrowed the room from Sagada Central School near the district office.

Nevertheless, the school and the Sagada National High family braved the pains and difficulties just as regularly and withstood the daily burden and struggles just as normally. They exerted more effort than we can imagine and rendered a fight more than we can describe. Yet look at Sagada National high now—accomplished, dignified, and highly respected. 

This just goes to prove that dreams can come true. We can dream. We can hope. We can succeed. We can make it happen. We have our parents and teachers to thank for the effort. Not only have they been there to inspire. They have also dreamed—of a new building for classrooms, additional facilities, quality education. They have hoped for a better Sagada National high School and they made it happen. See the result? Now you, my younger brothers and sisters, could enjoy the luxury of the sweet scent of sweats, of the undying dreams, and utmost efforts of our dear parents and teachers. It’s not only them who share the glory. We also share their life, dreams, pains and triumphs. The present SNHS evolves from a mere combination of industry, hope, faith, success, and a communion of souls who dared to share. Sagada National High is not only a public high school. It is a celebration of humanity, of unwavering optimism. 

You, my younger brothers and sisters, should consider yourselves very lucky. So, don’t forget to take good care of what you have right now—the new classrooms, the computer lab, the science lab, the library, every facility you have right now, and most of all, your teachers. Be thankful that you have them to guide you as you go through all your failures and achievements. Keep in mind that you are doing yourselves a favor by respecting and taking care of what you have because this is a way of paying back your parents and teachers for a job well done—a way of cherishing the dreams planted by them for your future and the future of others. Let it be your ultimate legacy to leave behind something others would cherish too. 

And now, it is your turn to dream and to cherish these dreams. Don’t let go of them. And if you dream, dream big. You’ve got nothing to lose because it’s free to dream. Don’t let failures stop you from dreaming. ‘We are but humans,’ but out of this flaw comes our constant struggle towards success. And with every fall we encounter in pursuit of this noble goal is an opportunity to transcend our humanity. Every page of our life contains encounters we experience in pursuit of our unending hopes, and undying dreams. Our failures need not make us pessimistic though. Rather, let them be springs of inspirations. 

Sand castles may fall with the rising tide but as long as there is hope, dreams thrive. As long as we have faith, we succeed. We can make things happen—make our dreams come true.

a moment is the answer to all of lifes mysteries!