The irregular life

It has been six years since I first entered De La Salle University (DLSU) as a Mechanical Engineering freshman (froshie seems to be the term nowadays). Honestly, I was afraid of the new world I was getting into, but I was also enthusiastic because I believed that I was just moving on from my previous La Salle school for thirteen years, La Salle Green Hills (LSGH).

Yes, I’m a pure green-blooded Lasalista (or Lasallian as they say now) from kindergarten to college, nineteen years all in all, but that does not necessarily mean that everything went my way.
For you who just started the road to irregularity, may this tale encourage you to continue on even when the news hurt and affected your entire college life. To the veterans, may it inspire you to finish what you started, even if your friends have gone ahead. Finally, to the regulars, I hope you gain something from this, even if it does not hit you directly, for failure can be a teacher instead of a fear.

2007-2009: The Years of Struggle
My first two years turned from joy to sorrow as I struggled to cope with the new system DLSU had compared to LSGH. On my first year, I was elected the block secretary, I made new friends from other schools, I became part of the DLSU Pops Orchestra. I felt more independent, and yes, I found a cutie that I couldn’t take my eyes off, and it was good to know my batch was a “lucky” one because, our UAAP Basketball team won the UAAP Season 70 championship.

It almost seemed like everything was going for me, but this was a false reality on my part. Sadly, my life turned around when I found out after my first term upon receiving my course cards (before online grades, we had course cards), I failed two of my Math subjects. It was a bad blow, but I promised myself that I would do better next time. Come two terms, I failed four more subjects (Chemistry Part 2 failed two times and two other Math subjects) and by the end of my first year in college, I had accumulated 15/30 units of failure.

If I came into DLSU earlier, it would have meant an automatic kick-out from the University. But, it was a good thing the number of errors a freshman could accumulate then, according to the 2006-2009 handbook, was 18 units. It was a miracle in itself, but it was also a crucial turning point for me. It was the point where I asked myself: Do I pursue this engineering course or do I take the easy way out and transfer to St. Benilde (DLS-CSB) or some other university?

I took the challenge and decided to do the first. Come my second year, life got harder with me falling behind with my block, the DLSU course code system changing which made getting subjects harder to do, the need to do summer classes to keep up (goodbye summer breaks), and failures still coming in (failed three more times on my second year, in the end repeated 5/6 of my Math subjects and did Chemistry Part 2 three times). But, this did not stop me from completing my course. From hardship, it became a personal test for me to see if I truly had the heart of an engineer, and if I was worthy of such a title someday.

2009-2011: Here Come the Majors!
Come my junior year, I promised myself and to God, especially now I knew that my majors were coming that I would persevere and do my best not to fail. The promise was fulfilled. From 2009 to 2011, I did not have a single failure at all. 1.0s were still present and during this time, I got my first 0/100 ever in an exam, in one of my major subjects. The lowest grade I ever got in an exam was a 14/100 in Calculus during my struggling years, and that was already bad. I never knew I would get one, but I did. Did I fail that subject? I thought I would, but I did not in the end. I took the 0/100 score as a challenge, did better on my next exam (70/100 score), studied for the finals, and I passed the course. This is one of the many miraculous events that happened and it kept on, as I went through my majors. They were all hard to take in, but I found a way to complete all of them.

2011-2012+: The Big Brother
The year 2011 was suppose to be my last year and come October 2011, I was suppose to be marching along with my fellow blockmates, but sadly, I had to accept that that path is no longer open to me, and I must now focus on the one I am on right now. This period of time was lighter than the previous ones.
I had reached “immortality” (the term is a good one, especially in my case), I had more time to join organizations like The LaSallian, LSPO – Kinghts of the Altar, and of course, the Mechanical Engineering Society (MES), and I felt like a big brother to my ID#108 and ID#109 friends. From a freshman who was green on the doings of the school, I became a big brother to everyone else, helping them go through college and giving advice to those who needed it.

Q: Is It All That Bad?
My irregular life was filled with twists and turns from the moment I started it. Some were tolerable while others were painful to bear and even slowed down my progress in college. But, one important thing this life has done for me is it has made me tougher, and it has helped me accept failure. It certainly feels good to go through college or any life stage without errors, mistakes, I think. But, if failure does not hit you early on, how can you cope with it when you are completely on your own in life?

Allow them to make you wiser. Always remember, when we fail, that is when we learn the most and become wiser. So, when it comes knocking on your door, you know what to do.