One word, two syllables, one heck of a ride. 

College.

First of all, I DID NOT EXPECT college to be tiring as fuck. I thought it would be similar to when I first stepped in to first year high school, quiet, calm, relaxed, and higher batches didn't give flying fucks to incoming freshmen. All of my expectations for the first weeks of college were shattered because everything was the opposite of what I expected. But no matter how shattered my expectations are, I would 100% admit that I enjoyed the activities planned out for us. It was a different kind of experience, A more colorful and creative one to be exact. These activities made me feel like I was at home, in a place full of strangers. 

When I was in 4th year High School, the word "College" intimidated me so much because I didn't know what was ahead of me. But when I stepped into college last week, it made me realize that I was simply overthinking everything. College is a big word, yes, but somehow there's this sense of familiarity to it.

College has been an eye-opener to me, because I have never encountered most of the things I experienced for the past weeks. Like this store outside Dapitan that sells delicious french toast with ham&cheese for 20php? Like dude? Where can you find these kinds of food in Marikina? Also, I found this store which sells a huge burrito for only 45php. I'm actually making this petition to move all of these stores in the vicinity of my area. Kidding. 

Remember in highschool, during "breaks" in-between classes, you're not allowed to go outside your room? Well in college, when your professor goes out of the room, you're also free to go outside your classroom and buy shit you need. (food.) Technically, nobody gives a damn about your attendance but there are some professors that are strict about it. I'm a good kid, so I make sure that the professor won't come to class before I exit the room to buy food from Dapitan. But I'm pretty sure that this kind of "good-kid" attitude won't last forever..... Joke.

The things I learned (so far) in college. (Freshman edition)

But there's more to college life than cheap and delicious food around UST and cutting classes and terror professors. I've seen and met different kinds of people. Especially people from my college, which is "Liberal Arts". Hearing the word "Liberal" I braced myself for the culture shock I was about to experience and yes, I was shocked but IT WAS SO LIBERATING TO SEE PEOPLE DEFY NORMS. I've seen people with different wildly colored hair, met social activists, see people expressing their talents in unique ways and those are only the few reasons why I quickly fell in love with my college. It was sort of a "love-hate" relationship. I hate the lacking of coordination in my college but I love the freedom the administrators give us. You're free to do whatever the fuck you want. Yes, it did scare me at first because I was thinking, "Di ba tayo mapapagalitan pag ginawa natin yan?" but I remembered, college was a different breeding ground. It was a breeding ground for all kinds and types of people. Unlike highschool, you are free to do whatever you want but you should also take into consideration the consequences of your actions. But the "freedom" to do everything and anything you wanted sparked this flame inside my heart that screamed, 

"You are free. And no one will ever hinder your actions. Go do and fight for what you love." So far, this is what AB has taught me and I'm looking forward to more lessons and experiences the liberal arts will give me. After all, it's just been a week. I'm expecting more surprises. 

Also, I've been inspired to color my hair with a wild color. I'm still in the process of picking a color, maybe I'll initiate the plan next semester. 

Yes, college has been chaotic so far because of the endless traffic, long queues and fail air-conditiong units in the LRT, walking approximately 5 kilometers a day (note: I'm wearing heels), not knowing what orgs and groups to join in and missing out lunch because you have subjects at 11-2 but I consider these "chaotic" experiences as life lessons, that would surely be of help when I go to the next step of college. Yes, I'm still a bit overwhelmed because of all the obligations given to us (it's only the first week) but somehow, everyone will get used to it. I will get used to it. There will come a time that this "chaotic" stuff will become a regular routine for me, and the only thing I'm wishing for is that this "regular routine" won't become boring and discourage me from going to school, just like what happened in High School. 

But so far, I'm enjoying college life, no matter how much stress it already gave me which literally showed up on my face as a reminder. Amount of stress = Amount of pimples you have on your face.

The more stressed you are, the bigger the pimples are. So just relax, and do everything in a steady pace. Everything will fall into place eventually, you just have to be patient and wait for it.

Here are some of the photos I took from the previous weeks.

I'll see you on the next one. 

au revoir! x A