Entering the University of the Philippines Los Baños still feels like a dream for me, and I cannot believe that it has already been a month since I have been here. During the first month, transitioning to this school is not easy for me, but I sure did learn a lot. So, as a new freshman, from my first month in UPLB, here are my top 5 insights/learnings:
UP is a place for you to grow and learn. There will be a lot of people who will flourish in college even though some of them don’t really do well in academics back then in high school, and some people don’t do that well in college even though they have done really well in high school. The thing is, where you came from doesn’t really matter. What I learned in Up is that it is normal to feel small among the sea of people who may seem to be greater than you, smarter than you, and has more experiences than you. Either you passed the UPCAT, a transferee, a recon, or a shiftee, each one of us has a reason why we are here, and we all deserve it.
Being at a top university is hard. Sometimes you need to sacrifice time for sleep because of an upcoming exam or project, or sometimes when we don’t really care much about we eat anymore, as long as it fills out stomachs. With no one to provide a decent meal for me every day because I live in a dorm, I tend to end a lot of processed and oily food. With this, I started to value my health a bit more and really thought about what should I eat every day. If you have the budget, try ordering a meal plan or just allot a meal in your day where you have a vegetable as your main dish. And also, I sleep whenever I can! Usually, I sleep during the afternoon after classes and make time for the weekends for a long sleep to make up for the time I can’t sleep during the weekdays. I swear, your body will thank you.
As an only child, it was really a hard decision for my parents to let me go when they found out that I was accepted to this university. Just so you know, the first month will always be a month of adjustment. If you feel like crying during the first few weeks of being alone in a big university, it’s perfectly normal! I mean, I cried during the first because of homesickness. But soon, I got used to it. You will really know what kind of person you are here because you are going to live by yourself. Sure you’re going to be with dormmates probably, but most of the time you are going to make choices for yourself. In here, your values are tested, you will encounter a lot of peer pressure and stress. You will discover who you really are and your morals and values will be tested. You learn to be responsible, or you’ll learn things the hard way. I don’t know if some of you have already done this before, but I can finally manage my monthly expenses! Back then, I wasn’t even able to do a lot of these things, but I can now finally do them here, alone. I guess I am finally living up to the standards of a #strongindependentwoman.
Entering the College of Development Communication really gave me a push from the back to move forward and step out of my comfort zone. You must always rise to the challenges that your professors give you. Some people like me who have no experience in writing news or diving into the world of journalism in elementary and high school, everything is new. You must always be ready for what lies ahead, you’ll never know what happens next. So, you always have to be strong.
One of the things that I regret the most when I was in senior high school is that I wasn’t able to get really involved in extra-curricular activities and was scared of joining because I was really shy. The thing is, extra-curricular activities help you gain experience. If there are doors open for you, don’t be afraid to accept them. The experience you gain from them will help you grow and improve.
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