NUEVO SOL: Ateneo Batch 2012

Ahh.. That happy feeling because you ended up doing the right thing. A month before the planned batch party, I was kind of hesitant to go because I thought that the trip was just another excuse to spend money. I mean, it’s not like I can’t party with the same people here in Manila? But, after a few weeks of contemplating, I got convinced that it was worth it the time and effort. After all, you only get to have a college graduation party once in your life.

Four years ago, we were all dancing “Banana”, “Pacific Ring of Fire”, and “Chuga” in the College Covered Courts. Tonight, we dance to “2012″ and “Young, Wild, and Free” in Club Paraw, Boracay. This is definitely the party of the year for batch 2012. COME ON. Count the parties when you didn’t have to wear heels and actually had fun? Ang sarap ng feeling, sir. E-wait for it-PIC.

Brace yourself. This will be my skin color for the next few weeks. Don’t judge, please. We all know that this ain’t my true color HAHAHA!

Spent a few minutes before the party at Jony’s, drinking Mango Shake.

Jason was designing the girls’ outfits for the night. Thanks!

And this is where the fun begins ENJOY!

Club Paraw had UV lights on for the night! Awesome!

One of Never The Stranger’s band members! Who knew this Philosophy classmate of mine was going to be famous someday? :> JP

COMTECH

Spent the night with Mike’s friends–and they are AWESOME!
By the way, all pictures were taken using Mike’s and Angelica’s camera. Thank you guys!

P.S. I’m not sure if I was red because of my sunburn or because I was drunk. Nevertheless, it was fun!

The MARCH That Never Happened

I’m not sure about what I really mean with March never happening. Have you ever felt like you’ve carried EVERYTHING for so long that you’re just tired of it all? Well, that’s just about it for me. I think there are two explanations why I chose this title and I’m ready to talk about these.

I was hoping for a good month. 
I remember tweeting on the first day of March, “March, please be good to me. February was bad and I could really use a good month now.” Think of it this way, if February and I were in a relationship, we wouldn’t have lasted a week or more because tolerating each day is impossible. Almost four years of same old sh*t was beginning to be pretty tiring for me. Because of this, I prayed very hard for a good month–or maybe at least a better month than what I just had to go through. Is a peaceful and stress-free life too much to ask? I don’t think so. Yes, I screwed up. I know. But, it’s like I have a magnetic force for all kinds of issues and problems imaginable.

It seems like everything I ask for is too much no matter how simple it gets. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a terribly blessed girl because of my family and friends.  I’m in a better place compared to other people who are in need, but there’s more to happiness than just fulfilling one’s needs. The feeling of being blessed and happy stop when you just can’t find the strength to go on, but find yourself weak and vulnerable–considering how strong before you were. I KNOW I’ve done crappy things, which make me deserve these crappy effects. I had my own shortcomings and I’m well aware of those. It’s just frustrating when you know you’ve done your part, yet you still find yourself in that ironic situation. Diba kakasabi ko lang na I’m hoping for a better month? GAH. Hello, life.

Double meaning.

Basically March didn’t happen because it was one of my worst months ever–and I think you probably understood that already. But what did exactly happen? Definitely not what I was expecting. Since I’ve been used to getting almost everything I wanted, March made me become the girl who finally had to face her worst fear: working hard to get something. I was informed during the first Friday of March that I was not marching in the coming graduation. That’s where the second meaning of “march” comes in. After telling myself that I have done something right for the first time believing I was going to graduate on time (funny because I even posted this on Facebook as my status), I ended up seeing an F in my Aisis account. Screw you, History. Yeah, History and I never got along well. I was great in Math and Science, but never in History. But since the other subjects that I put effort lesser have given out our grades, I was so complacent that it was impossible to fail a subject I was “steady” in. My History professor is the first person who rejected me and I actually felt something. Wow, eye-opening. Oh, wait. Maybe I should have given him my blue rose instead.

I didn’t know what to do. When I found out about it, I just kept quiet and tried to contemplate about the consequences of my irresponsible actions. I do not blame the prof. But when you’re fresh in the situation, you can’t help but blame someone else other than you just to make yourself feel better. After five whole minutes of staring into space, it sank in and that’s when I started crying on a friend’s lap. When I finally finished pouring out my emotions, my face went from emotional to blunt. That’s when I knew that it was impossible to face my parents anymore. I even stayed in Katipunan for almost three weeks because I was too scared to go home.

Silver lining.

My friends thought I was kidding when I told them about it. Would you believe it? Despite being irresponsible and lazy, they still believed in me? Okay, that didn’t sound nice at all. But, really. As much as this month turned out to be one of the worst months, I found comfort in people who loved and accepted me unconditionally. These people I call friends kept me sane for such a long time and I feel like I owe my life to them. OA? Okay, maybe not my life. But, still, I owe them even 1/10 of it. Because of this event, I was also able to learn how loving my parents could be when a situation asks for it. We were never the emotional and touchy type, but they had my back when I was going through the worst. Since I’m not that close with my family, to a certain extent, I felt really light when they showed how much they care about me.

Aside from discovering people who really care about me, I was able to do a lot of things last March because I was desperate to distract myself from thinking about graduation and feeling sad. Hello? Skating, outings, and laser tagging are just some of the fun things I did. I think that’s the main reason I spent almost all of my savings. HAHA! I was always out, busy making myself happy. WHEW.

I’m definitely not failing History twice. Make a mistake, it’s okay. Make the same mistake twice, tama na.
Hello, summer classes–summer ruin-er.

Never regret. Just learn from your own mistakes because someday, your insights may be a better use to someone else ; )

AVC Year-End Party (Seniors’ send-off)

MARCH 26, 2012
I woke up in the morning not knowing that something special was going to happen. My plan for today was:

11:30 AM – 3:00 PM Meet Ange in Makati for her break
4:30 PM Leave Makati and go to Club 650
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM Play volleyball if I still can
 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Dinner with AVC in Katipunan
Overnight at Ange’s house because tomorrow’s AVC year-end party!

Ange and I left Makati a little later than we planned so, when we got to Club 650, we weren’t able to play with the others anymore. I saw Pau had a camera on her hand and asked her to take photos

The plan was followed until 7 PM. Everything started to change when I decided to stall some of my time at Josh’s house while waiting for everyone to finish washing up. During this time, Mike, Rye, and I were texting each other to finalize where to eat dinner. Since the three of us missed the food at Jack’s Loft, we decided to tell everyone to meet there at 7:30. Just when the plan was settled, Ava starts calling AVC people to tell them that her grandmother is celebrating her birthday today at her house and she was inviting us for free food. WHO, IN THEIR RIGHT MIND, WILL DECLINE FREE FOOD?

Josh, Kashka, and I got to Ava’s place a little early, yet there were so many people already. To my surprise, there were more than fifteen of us waiting in the open-air dining area, something that never happened before in AVC dinners. I couldn’t help myself but joke, “Eto na ba yung year-end party?” Everyone laughed except for the other seniors who looked puzzled as well. Then, I heard clapping and footsteps, inside the house, on their way to the dining area. When I turned to see what was happening, I saw ten more people lined up, going down the stairs. Now there were at least twenty-five of us in the dining room. When I looked around, I noticed one common thing with all the seniors: we were all confused. After a few minutes, about five more people came with big bags and coolers, then that’s when Kim started talking. “Guys, eto na nga pala yung year-end party!” I looked around the area and saw no food, no drinks, no anything. I effin’ didn’t want to believe him! They said the party was going to be tomorrow! So, I stood up and asked each one of them if  they were serious. I mean, WHAT? HOW? WHO? WHERE? WHEN? WHAT? How are they going to make the other seniors go? Where’s the food? Who else were coming? I was so hungry They all just laughed at me. Okay, fine. I was kind of hysterical.

So, yes. It was officially the start of AVC’s Year-End Party. They fooled the seniors by giving them the wrong date because they wanted it to be a surprise. SWEET, eh? But, it was really confusing!! Honestly, I found it amazing that almost everyone went to the party. At the end of the party, there were more than forty of us filling our stomachs, getting drunk, and laughing our night away. If there’s one thing that’s really hard to make AVC members do, it’s being complete for an event. I don’t want to put much details in what happened in the party, but I hope the pictures will suffice

Eating Part
Thank God a lot of people brought food–even the men’s team contributed to the table (YEHESS NAMAN!) Well, it was eating part most of the time since people kept on getting food during the program, but this was the part when it was just eating-time-and-nothing-else

Awarding for Year-End Tournament
Every year, the AVC holds a year-end tournament open for AVC members only. The core makes 4-5 teams inside the club that will compete against each other. Awarding ceremony for the winning team and the individual awards are given out during the year-end party. For this year, the new core team also awarded the AVC Basketballers who made an effort to play and represent the club in the IAC Basketball League. [I missed this part because JJ, Josh, Kashka and I picked up Carlo in Katipunan.]

Main Program / Awarding for Seniors  
In this part of the party, AVC prepared videos and tributes for the seniors. GREAT JOB LOUISE AND JEGGY! I loved your version of California Girls! HAHA! Josh, thank you for the very touching video.

Then to make things a lot more interesting, they had a “pageant” theme for the awarding where they asked every senior a controversial question [F*ck you hosts for asking so many questions ] This was the order of how we were called:

“Ahhh… LAMON na yan”
Kim Manly likes to eat A LOT

“Peanut Brittle Award”
Kyle Ong: very accident prone and has a small…. :>>

“Haduken Award”
Aduren Wong… Picture says it all

“The AmBRASOdor Award”
Rye Sordan SPIKES IT HARD :>

“Impostora Award”
Tyrone Cammayo can imitate the moves of all Volleyball players!

“Merly-go-Round Awaad”
Juno Gutierrez: Mid, Open, Quatro, Setter, Libero, Digger!

“The HARSHmallow Award”
Mike Chanyungco: Caution. Keep 5 meters away ))

“My Pig Love Award”
Jj Asban, DIETA NA )

“The Magazine Award”
Khryzette Onishi has many issues -_-
(PAKYU PEOPLE ) haha!!)

Lantern Parade  
I WAS SO SHOCKED AND HAPPY, OKAY. Mababaw kung mababaw, but it was what I really wanted! They gave each senior a lantern to light. It has always been my dream to light my own lantern. I know it’s quite common now, but I never had the chance to actually hold it and light it myself. The experience was sooooo amazing :”> Gah. Never-ending surprises.

P.S. Thank you to Tomie and Carlo for the very fun after party These boys would know why they’re being “special mentions”! HAHAHAHAHA!

This is one hell of a night to remember. I can’t remember the last time I had THIS MUCH fun with AVC. Yeah, we laughed a lot during trainings, but it was never like this. Despite the cliques and issues, everyone was able to get along with each other tonight. Hay. I’m really glad I decided to join AVC in spite of not knowing anyone back then. Who would’ve thought that these are the people who were going to change my life?  I can’t thank AVC enough for everything  it did to me and made me do. Kahit nagtatrabaho na ko, maaalala ko parin kayo. EMO? Haha. But really, these kids of mine are awesome to the highest level

Gah. These people are even making it harder for me to let go of them. HAHA! My babies are all grown up and I’m so proud of what they have become. I know AVC will do well next year with the new core. If they can pull off something like this, then they’ll do fine in the future

AVC’s all yours. I know you’ll do better than what I did

Past, Present, and Future Presidents :”>

Thanks, Pau-pau and Rica for the pictures

7. Learns from her own mistakes

Today, I attended the SOM-SOSE Graduation. I started the day without intending to go to it because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to keep myself from crying. Actually, I was even planning on going home today so that I didn’t have to see any toga or diplomas, but a small part of me wanted to be part of this year’s graduation. Finally convincing myself to at least visit some of my friends after the program, I asked Jem to accompany me.

Although I was able to congratulate a lot, I was only able to take pictures with JJ, Rye, Tyrone, and Gretch Oh, and advance congratulations to the SOH and SOSE students

AHEM

I grew up not believing the word “REGRET”. I mean, face it. What’s the point of regretting something? It doesn’t bring you anywhere at all. So, I told myself that I won’t regret anything I do because, at a certain point in time, that was what I really wanted. But, of course, it doesn’t stop there. I also told myself to always learn from my own mistakes so that I don’t do them again. This time, I’ve definitely learned big time. Sampal sa mukha, eh. Yes, I finally learned my lesson. I felt sadness and disappointment for not marching with my batchmates, but regretting that I cut a lot before won’t do anything. The best thing that I could do now is to promise myself that I won’t cut that much anymore HAHA!

**I look super weird in the photos. I think it’s because of my hair and I was sweating like a pig–if they do sweat :/
***Congratulations, BATCH 2012!

Blue Roast 2012

It has always been part of the Ateneo tradition to send off their seniors through a gathering called the Blue Roast. Booths, booze, concert, freebies, and blue roses are just some of the things that you can expect in this awesome event. Normally I don’t attend school activities, but I promised myself during my freshman year that I was going to attend this one and will be with people whom I have been friends since first year college. So, I spent the afternoon with AVC friends and the rest of the night with Jem, Dzi, A, Sharah, Gretch, and Fille. Since I have been spending most of my time with AVC, I found my blue roast experience nostalgic. Definitely missed these girls! SHOCKS. It’s been FOUR, fast years.

To a certain extent, this year’s Blue Roast was just what I expected. As much as I didn’t want to spoil myself with any Blue Roast details, I have been to one before this. Although this was the case, the feeling of the event being dedicated to the batch you’re part of was very different from the feeling of just attending it for a friend. For the record, I wasn’t expecting that it was going to be this fun!

Big ass SMART lantern

I’m not that tall, okay. Ground wasn’t flat

Hello, Rem!

My brother from another made it! Feeling senior ulit? )

Fille and Tec

Awesome Pasco is AWESOME! Had a picture taken with our Philo prof

In the middle of the event, all seniors were given one free blue rose. It is part of the tradition for the seniors to give their blue rose to the person: a) who made an impact in their college life; b) they want to confess their feelings to, or; c) they really love. I’m not sure if these are the right descriptions, but to make things simple, blue rose is meant to be given to a person who’s very special to you.

When the roses were starting to be distributed to the students, PANIC MODE: ON. Honestly, I don’t like-like anyone right now–and even if I did decide to give it to a friend who have made an impact in my college life, THERE ARE JUST SO MANY OF THEM. Gah. Blue rose, y u make things so complicated?! I actually wanted to buy extra roses and just shuffle the free [special] rose with everything else, but it just felt wrong. So, I decided to give my blue rose to JJ [eh, wala kaming picture together ] because he was the one who made most impact in me. Before anything else, JJ’s a really good friend, alright? He’s been there through ups and downs, which not everyone would do. I really appreciate his efforts in always trying to stand by my side–in good times and bad times. For that, he deserves my blue rose

Sadly, Dzi loses her blue rose before she was able to give it to someone else

Blue Rose

Jem gives her blue rose to Flavie! YIIIE ) #kidding

Best friends

Hands down to this brave guy (Gretch’s friend) who went up the stage to announce who he was giving his blue rose to

Four years would not have been the same without the four of you. Lam niyo na yun kung bakit. We might have drifted apart, but we always find a way to catch up and act like we still talk each and every day. We stuck with each other no matter how bad things went and you girls always made me feel that I will always have you by my side. Thank you. Sorry. I LOVE YOU <3 106 forever and ever, AMEN

Four girls <3 106.

OC-iest of them all!

Pinakamalakas mang-trip )

A, finish your food

[Can't find a picture of me with Sharah] The Talkative one :>

The person I can dance with anywhere even without music,
The person who’s willing to stay up all night with you while eating cup noodles,
The person who treated me like I was part of her family, and;
The person who I’ve known forever and made beach volleyball fun:
You girls are awesome

After party [este, dinner] at Shakey’s with awesome Rico Blanco

I should definitely remember to thank the organizers someday Thanks to Gretch for the awesome pictures!

Things to do before March 23!

Finally. Two weeks to go ’til I’m officially done with school. When the semester’s about to end, I usually make a long list of things to do. But since this is going to be the last time I’m making that list, I’m posting it as a blog. Before I say adios to Ateneo, I have to do these things first (reminds me of my bucket list):

LS125
–Mock Defense
–Final Defense

CTK41
–Final Pass (Edit Finance)
–Final Defense

TH141
–Group Immersion Paper
–Individual Immersion Paper
–Immersion Presentation
–Time for Creation Paper
–Balanced Spirituality Paper
–Final Orals

PH104
–3rd Long Test
–Final Orals

COM108.2
–Episode Journals (20 episodes, 500 words each)
–Final Paper

COM14
–Dream Project
–Creative Pitch
–Final Paper

HI166
–Finals (Test)

So, all in all, I have two oral defenses, two final orals, one written finals, seven papers, one long test, two creative projects, and at least seventeen journals left to graduate. If I survive the next two weeks, then I’m pretty sure I’m marching on the 23rd!

I Will March On

There are so many things I want to write about, but I think this one deserves to be put to priority and be shared. GAH. I’m not getting any younger and I think it’s about time I wake up and start facing reality by, at least, putting some attention and worry to my future. I’ve been trying to ignore this issue for quite a while and I don’t know if it’s because of my fear that my carefree days are about to end soon or I’m just not ready to face the real, harsh world. The thought of transitioning from college to employment makes me want to be a freshman again–inexperienced in a lot of things and still faces a lot of possibilities.

There are times when we think we’re facing the worst problem today, but our future self will think that the present self is stupid when the real world is handling a much bigger problem that makes our struggles insignificant. 

For at least about four years of my life, I dreamed of studying in UST and taking up Architecture. I was so passionate about it, I didn’t care if I had thousands of competitors when I start looking for a job. I knew it was something I really wanted because I was willing to work hard for it and, at the same time, it was the kind of stress that I’ll be proud of at the end of the day. After being so sure about what I wanted in the future, the worst happened: ACET results came out. Something I’ve planned for a quarter of my life just vanished, like a popped bubble, in less than two hours. The future has been set for me by my parents. Ahh… yes, my parents didn’t expect I was going to pass the ACET and DLSU-CET. I didn’t know Ateneo’s reputation was that strong. Despite not being able to get a Management course (to think of yun yung pinakagusto nila), parents still insisted that it will give me a better future and larger network. After all, shifting was popular anyway. Good bye, UST. Good bye, Architect Onishi.

Which do I pursue, my dream or my practical future?

Because of the turn out of events, I spent half of my freshman year in Ateneo complaining about how I was not able to pursue my dreams and adjusting to the norms of the new environment. I’d have to give it to Ateneo for making it a lot easier for the students to the adjust, but I guess being part of the school’s women’s volleyball team had to do with the ease of adjustment period. The other half of the year was spent on falling in-love and getting my heart broken for the first time in my entire life. I admit that I had a lot of regrets back then, which made me complain again about not being in UST instead. Second year went by so fast because I learned to keep myself busy to forget the painful things that happened to me. Instead of studying, most of my time were spent with high school friends because they became my comfort zone. Dorm issues were slowly raising so Jem, Dzi, A, and I were starting to drift a little. The regret of not being able to protest for my dream job was still there because my high school friends reminded me how life was so easy before because there were not much dramas and issues to deal with. Whenever I wanted to run away from something, I automatically think of them and find myself on the way to Taft.

Junior year was the year I started to develop into a whole different person–at least a better person, I think. I have out grown my comfort zone and learned to socialize with schoolmates. I was so saturated with the life of an athlete, which made me feel like I was missing out on a lot of things in college! So, I decided to explore by applying in organizations and joining a club (that I didn’t know was going to change my life). Since beach volleyball training wasn’t hectic at all, I decided to join a volleyball club where I met the most important people in my life right now. Because of this club, I learned a lot of things about myself. Character building kung character building. Haha! Coming out of my shell fast enough, I became the person who I wanted to be. By meeting people who made a difference in my life and knowing that I also made a good impact on theirs, Ateneo didn’t seem bad at all anymore. In fact, I was grateful that my parents sent me to this school instead of UST because of the experiences and people. EVERYTHING DOES HAPPEN FOR A REASON  

Senior year, OH YES SENIOR YEAR. Surprisingly, it is the most productive year of my life–but definitely not academically. If I was to make an outline of all events I had to go through in my twenty years of existence and highlight the best and worst parts of it, almost everything under ’4th year college’ will stand out because most probably they’ll be highlighted by my favorite yellow highlighter. I’ve learned so many things that made me into the person I am today.

College, the phase that I was so scared of, turned out to be the best part of my life.

Believe it or not, college will definitely make a great impact on your life. I’m sure those four years weren’t wasted because I am now the living proof of the success. I made big projects happen that never occurred to anyone before. I became a leader and a servant at the same time. I made an impact on other people’s lives. I focused more on going out and experiencing the world rather than staying at home to study because books will never teach you the way experiences do.

Being scared of facing the real world is definitely not because I’m unprepared. 

I always remember my high school self as happy and carefree not because I was a smart person full of wisdom who had a good life, but because I’ve had so many good memories with friends and I had less issues to deal with. I wasn’t prepared for college when I was about to graduate high school. In fact, unlike my batchmates, I wasn’t excited to leave for college at all. Everything good in high school happened during the last two years of my stay, which made me want to stay more. I thought, just when I was finally comfortable in one place, I have to leave and explore a new world again. BACK TO ZERO. So, was I really unprepared for college, or was I just so scared to leave the place I finally learned to be comfortable in?

I know very well the feeling of being the “new girl”. Moving a lot makes me change schools every other 2-4 years. I’ve had transition issues even way back in grade school when I had to change schools for high school. I had a grade school barkada and they made me feel like I was at the height of my happiness. High school came and made me feel like it was the new height of my happiness. Now, I’m telling you that college is the best part of my life. See the pattern? Then I realized that my feelings towards the transition from college to employment is almost the same with the feeling I get every time I change schools. I become scared to leave good old friends whom I’ve had memories with and worry that I might not be able to make new ones anymore. I was so scared that thing won’t be as good as what I had back then. In short, I was scared to leave my comfort zone. Funny how I’ve been worrying about being unprepared for the transition when I was able to adjust so well in college, fast enough to create new ties and get comfortable with the new environment.

Face your fears.
We leave our comfort zones to become a better person.

Yeah, life can be a bitchy sometimes, but it can also be your best friend too. They say that one of our purposes in life is to get to know ourselves and find out what our real purpose in the world is. Little by little, life will teach us to handle the simplest situations to the more complicate ones as we go through with it. Bad as it may sound, we need to get hurt in order to feel loved. Believe it or not, life’s injustice give us justice. Paradox, eh? That’s how I see my college experience as a whole: I had to experience the worst things in order to know what the best things are.

“Crossing the boundaries of today,
We look back on the love of those we’ve carried along the way.”
“We’re here where the journey is about to take a turn;
towards a test, a challenge of all the we have learned.
Though fear may over take us,
we strive to do what’s right;
AND ALL THAT’S LEFT FOR US NOW IS TO SOAR TO WHOLE NEW HEIGHTS.” 

#OccupyJobFair

I couldn’t help but notice that the #OccupyJobFair is starting to trend among Ateneans. The first time I saw the hashtag be used by a schoolmate, I ignored it. I didn’t want to get involved and I had no idea that the “campaign” was growing fast. Some even say that the issue had been brought up years ago, but it is only our batch who made such a big fuss about it. Students who are for and against the issue are posting their (very long, I must say) opinions on Facebook, which I guess is one of the reasons why people are starting to take sides.

From the bottom of my heart, I have nothing against the students who have been complaining about the SOM-centrism of the Job Fair in Ateneo because it is so damn true–and this is coming from a SOM-student. Anyone can easily notice that most companies that are present in the week-long event have management-related openings. If we are to divide the space used by the Job Fair into four (assuming that we’re giving all schools equal spaces), then it could be established that job fair is really unfair with the way they’re prioritizing SOM. Most non-SOM students have been raising issues about SOM graduates are getting more exposure and gaining more benefits from this project compared to the rest of the schools. But if you look at the Job Fair in a different perspective and try to see how the logistics and decisions really went, I think the Ateneo Placement Office (APO) had done a pretty good job with the preparations.

In my almost four years of stay in Ateneo, non-SOM students have always raised their concerns regarding the said issue. From SOM-centrism of job fairs to the university’s favoritism towards SOM, there are a lot to talk about. I guess my say on this issue won’t really matter because I am part of SOM and people will definitely think that everything I’ll say is biased. But, when I saw the tweets and notes on Facebook regarding the silent protest, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed so I started typing down my thoughts. A silent protest during the job fair might give the company representatives a wrong impression about the students. I mean, obviously their protest will not only affect the SOM students, but also themselves. I wasn’t there to witness the protest itself, but I saw this picture from The Guidon:

Really? I think (this is just what I think) that companies don’t only hire Ateneans because they are smart and well-trained, but also because of the environment and culture we’ve grown into. We are known to be classy and well-mannered, which are good characteristics for managerial positions. Companies who participated didn’t have a clue what was going on. This whole thing could be misunderstood as something else. Some of them might have heard that the protest was for the APO, which is a bad thing because it is the office that they contact when it comes to hiring fresh graduates. They are visitors, after all. Imagine ruining Ateneo’s reputation because of all these. I hope we settled the issue in our own way, not the UP way (protesting through rallies). I have nothing against UP. I have lots of friends from there and they are all awesome, but I don’t think that their way works with us. This is not how we do it in Ateneo.

Once again, people have jumped to conclusions. Before researching the process behind the selection of companies that participate in the job fair, disgruntled students assumed that everything was just in favor of SOM. I’m not affiliated with the Ateneo Placement Office in any way, but I know some people there because they have helped me prepare myself in looking for job opportunities and presenting myself well in the real world. I don’t think they did it because I’m a SOM student; they did it because it is their job to give Ateneans a more convenient way of searching for the right job for them.

From what I’ve heard, the APO tried their best to contact the biggest companies in every field under the different programs offered by the university to be able to cater to the needs of the students. What the students don’t know is that, despite APO inviting different kinds of companies, it is the big corporations who had the money to afford the limited space in this year’s Job Fair. When this was brought up, students started to complain about the issue of NGOs and small companies not wanting to pay for the slots because they didn’t have the money. In order to address this problem, the APO actually made a rule that only the corporations were required to pay for the slots, while the rest were given for free. Unfortunately, NGOs and small companies still turned down the offer because they couldn’t afford to send staff to the job fair. That was not APO’s fault, was it?

Yes, the job fair is SOM-centered, but the APO isn’t. It is the real world’s fault why there are more companies hiring SOM students, not the APO’s. I think there’s a difference.

I guess because of rage and bias, some students failed to recognize that at least one-fourth of the companies present in the job fair are only interested in IT students. The funny thing about this is that, there are only three courses in Ateneo which are greatly related to IT: MIS, CS, and ECE. I’m a hundred percent sure that students from these three courses don’t make up one-fourth of the whole batch. Why am I not hearing about the IT-centrism of job fair? Since the issue about job fair’s SOM-centrism is pretty old, APO tried to make up from last year. They organized networking events that is open to any student from the Loyola Schools, yet, through attendance, they found out that most of the participants were from SOM. In short, students don’t complain that SOM students are spoon-fed because it is unfair, they complain because they are not spoon-fed like SOM students.

I think we grew up in a sheltered school that’s why we’re reacting towards the issue this way. Whether we like it or not, to a certain extent, the companies that participated during the job fair are already a representation of what we can expect of the real world. Each one of the programs offered in Ateneo are all equal in terms of value to the humanity, yet we all know that some are just more in demand. Don’t take it against the APO or SOM students. It is not their fault that the real world is as harsh as it is. At the end of the day, we’re just all students with no experiences with work yet. I’m sure that we’ll all have a hard time in the future, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a future. We are expected to be resourceful and creative when it comes to this kind of things. Let me remind you: job fair is not the only way to find a job. Yes, it is more accessible and convenient for all of us, but the sad truth is not all of us will be able to get a job from it.

We should always remember that APO is one of the offices that tries to create a good reputation of the school so that Ateneans will find it easier to get hired. This is one benefit that we get and students from other universities don’t get. We should be grateful even just for that. The issue is not anyone’s fault, but the manner of bringing it up was wrong. Like what I said, truth hurts. Not all kinds of job have openings for everyone and you won’t be able to please every company. These facts needed to be accepted by students who have been whining about inequality and other things because I wouldn’t be surprised if next year, the APO decides not to hold a job fair anymore and let the students do the work to make them realize how hard it really is to find an employment opportunity.

Seniors, I think it’s time to grow up.