Emote: She wears high heels. I wear sneakers. She’s the cheer captain while I’m on the bleachers. Dreaming about someday that somehow when I wake up I’ll realize that what I’m looking for has been her the whole time. But I guess I have to give up that sort of emotion; I believe that it is impossible for me to be loved back by a girl who has been carrying the pressure of the world on her shoulders. It’s the same feeling you can feel when you’re waiting for a ship at the airport.

De•vi•ance [dvee ənss]; noun – different, unusual or unacceptable behavior; behavior that is sharply different from a customary, traditional, or generally accepted standard. Deviance has been the word that had kept us apart. It is simply because people deem that being an emo, I don’t belong to her world and neither does she to mine. But I don’t get it, why do people have to set standards? Why do they have to label her as “perfect” and call me an “error? Earth is a place for everything where everything is in its place. They should understand that we are unique and we have different views, and they should not use that as a boundary to wall two, already distant, things. Instead, they must bridge it. I am invigorated with the fact that behind the shallows and tides in every affair of human, there has been always a positive side. We should view ourselves like dipoles – partially charged positive and partially charged negative. We can’t exist as positively or negatively charged alone. But despite the fact that we are uneven dipoles, there’s that Van der Waals force that binds us to be one – love.

Youth has been susceptible to love. But they should understand that love and making love are two different things. A friend once told me that she does not need to unbutton her shirt to show how she loves someone. That idea has changed the way I scrutinize love. Sex has been the focus of most of the youth today when it comes to love whether we admit it or not. We are fecund and we are about to be fertile. The capability to produce generation is within our reach, within our grasp, within our hands. We often say that “The night is young and so are we”, and we should be able to do and enjoy things while they are fresh for life is short and age might pass us by. For this, we become impulsive when it comes to our decisions. We usually rush into things like not having a second thought of doing such act. I really don’t disagree with the fact of having sex at an early age because it is normal and biological. What should the youth must realize is the verity that we must be conscientious of our act, and we need to be responsible of the things that we have started. I bet that having sex and being pregnant is not a mistake, negligence of the outcome is. It is like ‘wag mong subukan kung di mo kayang panindigan’.

You can drive at 16, go to war at 18. You can drink at 21 and retire at 65. So how old do you have to be before your love is real? Life is short to enjoy love and we should not make it shorter. Death is a thing we can’t escape but we can hasten so let’s be careful of our deeds. Statistics had shown the major causes of death – the fats, smoke, stress, alcohols, accident accountable of carelessness; but most of us don’t really take that seriously. I mean, we subscribe to that feeling that we are going to die if fate dictates so. But if we can sustain life and really wants to enjoy life to the fullest, why don’t we discard that lifestyle? A happy life is far better off than all the cigarettes or bottles of champagne in the world. We should try to see life as a mirror; once it’s broken you can never fix it.

People believe that to die is not to become dead; it is called buli, to return home. Our church had taught us the thought of eternal life. Yet, what if our religion is wrong and when we die we will all regret on why we subscribed to that religion? What if salvation does not exist and our prayers are just soft words being uttered? I am afraid I shall not find Him; but I shall still look for Him, whether if He exists or not. I believe He may be appreciative of my efforts. But I guess it’s wrong for me to doubt my faith and religion; it is not just a thing imposed on me but a thing I had earned all these time. There’s no such article like benefit of the doubt, all you have to do is trust God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

It’s absurd why I end up in God’s word from a thought of being an emo. Quite odd, right? But it shows one thing, they’re all correlated to one another. People might not be aware of the relationship of these things but someday, they’ll all realize it. What matters today is to live, love and laugh.

I woke up as my alarm clock started ringing; it must have been a hard time for me to accept the fact that I’m about to start a new chapter of my life. I went to the bathroom and tried to contact anyone of my best buddies to spare a junk of my time. Then I kept thinking that maybe I could still take back the decisions I came to realize and make some petty reasons to procrastinate the day. I can’t imagine myself on a room sitting right beside the panes and waving my hands to my high school, who are now imaginary, friends. But I guess this is the point of no return – no turning back, no second-thoughts, no coward steps. As I drew myself closer to my prospect, I asked myself if what else would enthrall me. I am captivated of the moment that Heraclites must be right, that things are about to change, as fast as they could, as abstemious and sober like we never expected at all, or just a breath away from what we used to live. This makes me wonder how long does it takes to change someone else’s life, what measure should be used in order to be that accurate to define change, or it is just enough to make things and life worth living for. I am quite cynical and skeptical about the word and the world of change. Being an upcoming college student, there are things that I’m already used to. I might be worn out about these things but at least I’m used to it, I haven’t felt any erroneous about it. Now, what if everything would change when I go to college? Change can strike everyone like a lightning. It may hit you in an open field anytime it wants to hit you. But the thing is how you handle it and how you’ll overcome it. I finally reached it. There’s that sort of welcome as the wind lingered on my skin, like a consolation that everything happens for a reason. The chairs seemed to wave on me saying I’m on the right track. It’s odd but I like it. My first class is about to start. Is this really the University of the Philippines or am I just high?

After almost 16 years in a place close to my heart and my comfort zone, in a place called home, I am now brought to an unfamiliar ground. This is what they named as dormitory – a place with no guardians bugging you, no curfews that would make you worry, no house chores that would batter you and the best of all, no set of rules to follow. A dormitory is quite an unusual sight for me. But this is my home for the rest of my days in college; I shouldn’t feel awkward about it. In a dorm, I can stay late as long as I want and browse the net until I drop. I can even drown myself in bottles of beers and liquors if I want to and regurgitate as frequent as I love to. In a dorm, I am entitled with liberation which is limited and sometimes debarred when I’m at home. My parents would require me to sleep and wake up early because I have lots of things to do. I have to sacrifice also Facebook and Friendster because I have to share the internet connection with my siblings. I can’t go home if I’m drunk or else I’ll be emancipated. But I guess, these are insignificant and paltry grounds to choose a dorm over a home. A dorm can never replace the taste of the home foods my mother used to cook just for me when I’m home. It can never drive me to and fetch me from school the way my father always does. I can proudly tell the world that my bed is more conducive for sleeping and have the superpowers to console me when I’m emotionally challenged compared to bunk bed provided by a dorm. Finally, our comfort room really gives you that kind of comfort you ought to deserve unlike the public CR in dorms that I won’t describe further or shall I require you to see it by yourself. Yes, I admit that I am kindled with dorms because I want to be independent but does it really matter at the end of the day? I mean, I’m still going to end up in home, right?

An upcoming college student would define the University of the Philippines as an avenue for learning the vitals of the real world, the current situation of the country and a training ground for the hope of the dilapidating homeland. In the eye of an elementary pupil, it’s the home of the genius, a compilation of the Philippine’s bests and intellectuals. Laymen would eventually associate it with the protests and rallies, revolts and reforms in the country as if all the scholars enrolled here are bound to be activists. For a student taking a degree program in the nation’s prime institution, it’s just a university like any other university. It’s a collection of students who came from different walks of life. Some are jocks, some are badly intelligent. There are loners and there are friend magnets. Some are the future’s next top ramp models; others are the future’s top role models and leaders. But for me, the University of the Philippines is an undefined one. No words can ever define its system. It’s like setting pressure towards its name. There’s no use in putting a simple thought to describe a complex subject. A part can never affirm a whole so as a word that would require all the sentences possible. There are things that shouldn’t be defined because if you do, you’re just painting out a scenario away from what you’re supposed to paint.


College is a great movie - action-packed, full of extra-ordinary performances and breath-taking scenes. This is quite true and it applies to the School of Technology. It’s an indie motion picture shot under the Paho Tree, the sweetest place on earth, and starred by most brilliant and splendid actors in world history; the chemical engineers and the food technologist. The story is about a man named Sotech who starts to make a name in the University of the Philippines, and makes a family of inevitable and unbreakable bond. But like any films, it has villains that undervalues and takes for granted its existence. They are Clovers, Redbolts, Elektrons, Skimmers, Cfos, Tycoons, Scions and Magnates. These scoundrels give spice to the life of Sotech but will eventually teach the lead character to fight and stand on its own. Need more scoops and sneak previews about the movie? Better watch it because I’m petty sure that it is the next big thing.