https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1D3cGe5YMwffDmiqfKJKdujxpnbTOkR98

Hey, bro

you were never a fan of long messages and cheesy cheer ups but ill make this quick, you first semester in UP wont be easy. There will be times you feel like you’re on top of the world and there will be times where you feel like you’ve hit the lowest bottoms of your life.

There will be moments where you want to quit, heck there were times when you did. But never give up on your dream. You will lose people along the way, you will doubt and question your worth, but at the end of the day remember why you’re here. Academics will be a struggle but a bigger battle with your mental and emotional health will also be something you need to worry about.You will manage.

Breathe, don’t rush into things like you always do. Take baby steps and appreciate the process instead of heading into everything then facing the consequences after. Take everything one at a time, in your pace.

Stop doubting yourself, you can and you will. You tend to devalue yourself and that’s your biggest down side, you hate the fact that you know you could’ve done better,but chose not to. Do your best, it will be enough.

Finally, learn to let go. Let go of the things that cloud your emotion. You can make it, you will make. Stop letting people and opinions get to you, you’re bigger than your problems. Don’t ever give up on yourself. Also, you should have focused more on your weekly writes when you had the time, please next time okay? Kidding aside you’ll make it.

All the best,

D.A.

Dear Past Me,

Our habit of choosing the worst decisions ever still persists up until today.

There were many things I wished I could have done better, and more instances where you would look at me with a cringe because of how clueless I was at the start. To be honest, I was and still am grappling on how to proceed forward with my life.

Naivety and ignorance doesn’t excuse incompetency— that’s a fact in both life and academics. If I could, I would like to tell you all the things we’ve done wrong but, that’s not how life works.

And that’s also not how one learns.

So all I could for now is to impart a little bit of advice for you. I can only hope that these five tips can be a reminder that you’ll practice with your heart and mind.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-AuccV43v_llDLVk80FecKwcgN0SA3Wm

with love,

Eirine

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/mobile/folders/13CqZwZPhIq0ZjV3q_pSgZ0HrNI6-HoDl?tab=wo&sort=13&direction=a

The semester is almost done. Finally, a few more days from now and we’ll be able to go on our respective homes and spend time with our family and friends. Indeed, time flies so fast here in the university.

Looking back, I didn’t expect that I will be able to finish my first semester here in UPLB with fulfillment and contentment in my heart. However, I also realized that there are a lot of things that I should’ve done from the very beginning. Things that may help me to have a more meaningful semester. In this regard, let me share you these five little things that I regret not doing from the very first start.

1. Spend my money wisely.

Reflecting on my expenses here for the last five months, I came to a realization that I really am an impulsive buyer sometimes. I realized that at some point I waste my allowance for buying these things which are not really necessary.

2. Use my time wisely rather than procrastinating.

Procrastination, that’s really my biggest enemy. I tend to ignore all my workloads and whatnots most of the time. And when the deadline is fast approaching, that’s only the time that I’m going to do it. As a result, a cram quality output.

3. Attend different events in the university.

Numerous events were held in the university during the first semester, almost all of it were really a big addition to everyone’s knowledge and awareness. However, I had no chance to attend it all. A big part of me is regretting up until now because I wasted a lot of chances to improve my understanding on different societal issues and concerns.

4. Speak up especially in lecture classes.

I want to speak, I really am. I want to share my insights, I want to participate in class discussions however I always have this thought that what if my answer is wrong, what if my understanding is completely the opposite.

5. Go out and make more friends.

Friends are really essential, that’s what I realized during my first months here. As much as possible, I really want to have a lot of friends because I know they are the ones who’ll help me all throughout my college life. However, I am this awkward person who find it hard to start a simple conversation. Hopefully, next semester, I can overcome it all.

And that’s it. Those are the things that I, Pamela, should have done before. Although I did not do those things right away, I will do my best to do it on the next semester. Laban, Pam! Laban, mga kapwa ko iskolar! One semester down, more semesters to go!

https://drive.google.com/a/up.edu.ph/file/d/1itmHCUY7CHqwQcHeF01DEWqNXj2nrl0h/view?usp=drivesdk

Rose,

Life in UP will never be easy. It was not just a “speed lang” situation where you can be instantly gratified with unos. Settling with a new life here in elbi didn’t just happen overnight, I know. And having a new person to live with for the next four years of your life is a tough decision.

It was surreal, it was unexpected. It was something you’ve wanted, but actually didn’t look forward to. You may not say it, but you have always known in your heart, that you are an Iska. No matter how much you struggle, no matter how much you felt that the institution does not favor your ways, you deserve to be here. You deserve to get pass through the difficulties and prove yourself that your desires are purposive, for the people and for the country.

Dear, the trauma of past years might have damaged your core of empathy. But you are barred with strong hopes, and deep understanding, and soon enough, it will be easier for you to get back on track. The people will be different, there is a new environment to ponder on, there are wider array of venue to know yourself more. Make this as an opportunity to see the depth of life, to swim in the foreign seas.

You will be thrilled with the professors, you will get tired pursuing their standards, but most of all, you will learn to hold still with all the right reasons to give up.

You will be challenged to endure the sleepless nights, to eat excessively and gain stress weights, consume facts and overloaded information, but you will gradually find the balance of everything.

I know time will be your number one conflict but never forget to treat yourself with a deserving amount of reward, and make moments to enjoy with your new found friends. Live in your moment, while living through your future’s dreams.

Be the flower that you are, a rose that blossoms, with a mind that grows. Have fun, and bloom with vivid colors. 

Love,

Your four-month-old-iska self

HI,

You never liked to sugar-coat things, so I’ll tell you this directly: you will end up in UP. A bit hard to believe, I know. Trust me when I say that it’ll be one of the best things that ever happened to you. And trust me even harder when I say these next few bits.

Don’t be complacent, for a start. College is only the beginning of the episodes of hardships you’ll encounter in your years, so best if you get off that couch. Don’t begin to think that your study habits in high school are still going to be with you once you step into UP because believe me, they’ve gone out the window a long time ago. You’ve only started building these habits, I know. You need to start molding yourself again because everything is going to be different.

Second, keep focus. With all honesty, you will be as unmotivated as ever if you don’t set your priorities straight. For weeks you will completely have no drive to finish requirements and go to classes, because day after day you will be tested and no one else is to blame for that if you didn’t come prepared for it. Remember the people who sacrificed too much to bring you here, okay? What would they think if you gave up on your own?

Another thing I have to remind you of is your self control. No one is going to be there to stop you once you leave home, and it holds all the things you’ve ever wanted and the all the ones that just aren’t good for you. You like saying no to almost everything but to yourself. Try to silence that voice inside your head while you can so won’t wind up broke and frustrated like me.

All that aside, you’ve really done good. As self-depreciative as you are, give yourself some credit for making it this far. You’ll be doing many things you’d never imagine to do and it’ll be fun and at the same time challenging. You’ve always wondered how it’d be like to step out of your comfort zone so let me tell you right now: it’s not that bad! You’ve always been a tough woman, so be tougher. The last thing I would want you to do is hold back, and you’ve already been doing that all your life. Learn to love the process 🙂 Everything really just falls in to place 🙂

The year has blessed you with too much, right? It’s still overwhelming up until now. But don’t be a dumb-dumb like me; go and pray more 🙂

Every single thing that you have dreamed for years back is all here. All I ask now is that you keep that smile on your face. It still looks good on you. Even when you end up crying, there’s nothing wrong with seeing the bright side of it.

I really hope you won’t end up like me after these reminders. Get them through your head. You won’t like feeling palpitations at 3 AM with barely anything in your stomach. And I don’t want you regretting not studying because you have to take the finals, because that’s definitely me right now. So I have to go.

The year will be great, don’t worry. No regrets like you always say, diba?

All the love,
Moi

I know you’re thinking of “sana ginawa ko ‘to”, “sana pinaghusayan ko”, “sana pinag-aralan ko”, and ” sana maibabalik ko pa”. This semester will end soon and you have regrets. I can’t blame you. Studying here at UP wasn’t part of your plan and also the course that was given to you. You really don’t have any idea what the course is and the activities.
SMILE, girl. You did a great job and I hope that next semester you’ll do better. Please girl, don’t forget to do these tips. (Magsisisi ka na naman sa huli)

DO IT NOW.

If you have plenty of time, do it now please. Don’t use your phone or put it near you. You’ll end up browsing the internet, sharing and reacting on Facebook memes, watching Korean or Chinese dramas, and playing mobile games. If you have readings, please read it already. I know how much you hate reading a bunch in just a day or two.

LISTEN and FOCUS.

Girl, listen to your professors. Again, don’t use you phone inside the lecture hall. I know that you want to talk to your seatmates/friends and to tell stories or chikas, but you can share them after the lecture. I want you to listen and to focus so that it will be easy for you to review all your notes for your quizzes and exams. Do you still want to read a lot of PowerPoint presentations and still do not understand? Girl, do not repeat what you did in the ECON11 lecture (should I say, all lectures?) Ikaw rin lang ang mahihirapan.

WAKE UP EARLY.

Get up at 5:00 a.m. and not 6:30 a.m. because it takes you an hour or more to prepare. You have 7:00 a.m. class and you should be there at 6:50 a.m. Girl, don’t be late and be sure to eat your breakfast. Remember, huwag kang agaw-atensiyon tuwing umaga.

MANAGE YOUR TIME WISELY.

You should have time for yourself and for your acads. I can still remember that you almost forgot that it’s your special day and you have to celebrate it. Your friends from UPD and PUP were looking for you thay day but you didn’t go out with them because you still have to finish your requirements. You should give yourself time to rest and to enjoy. You know how to balance chemicals so you should also know how to balance your time.

ENJOY LIFE.

I know that you were struggling at first because you were alone in that college and your friend was at the College of Arts and Sciences. You didn’t know what to say to others or if it’s good to approach them first. You didn’t even want to wear shorts if you want to go out and to take a stroll. I want you to enjoy and to try new things. I want to see you smile even though you have a lot of problems in your mind. I know that you can do it. Girl, have fun too. You have your friends with you.

https://drive.google.com/a/up.edu.ph/file/d/1fLFPEBlD7iso69d3XR33eQxUteW2JFTS/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/a/up.edu.ph/file/d/1fL3IWJeR6IJMNQgHxO0L05DNjyFQBlaZ/view?usp=drivesdk

Our first semester in UPLB is finally over. We have faced various obstacles along the way but here we are, very much alive and still kicking. We may have survived and conquered every challenge we encountered; but we can’t deny the fact that along our journeys, we made several mistakes which made us want to go back to our first day as freshies. I know that if life has served us a ctrl+z option, we would have all taken it.

Here are the five things I would have advice my old self to better prepare for the rage of the first semester.

Don’t stress yourself out

I can still remember the anxiety I felt the moment I knew that I’ll be studying in the country’s premiere state university. In my initial weeks as an iska, I thought of the worst things that could happen to me in my classes and imagined the lowest possible scores I could get in my exams. My perspective on these things changed when I realized that I was overthinking things so much that I often forget to focus on the real things happening in my acads. There were times that I spend more time contemplating with myself than reviewing for the exams. I often spend my nights overthinking as well. Good thing, I somehow learned to chill, balance everything out and disregard the ideas that are not worthy of my thoughts.

Don’t be afraid to socialize

I’ve always been afraid of initiating conversations with people I’m not socially connected with. The moment I knew that I’ll be dealing with students from other programs in our GE classes, I started to overthink. But the three months I’ve spent with my classes made me realize that this thing I’m afraid of is actually normal in college. Months ago, my superfreshie self would have been terrified about this, but I would definitely tell her to maximize the number of people she’ll connect with because aside from the fact that she’ll be needing them, they will also make her UP life worthwhile.

Exert greater effort on your acads

There were times in my first semester when I do my acads without exerting any effort; I just comply with the requirements. This is one of the things I’ve regret so much because I realized the value of every point I could possibly get if I exerted extra effort on my works. I also want to advice my superfreshie self to do more recitations in class because every point it makes contributes greatly to the overall grade.

Value the time you have with your supercs

The last three weeks of this semester have been the saddest weeks of my freshie life. These weeks made my supercs and I realize the remaining days we have with each other. My initial days with my superclassmates didn’t start off great because, as expected, I got too shy to approach and interact with them. But the succeding months I’ve spent with these people taught me that the shyness I felt wasn’t totally worth it.

These people are so fun to be with and they’re one of the primary reasons why I adjusted swiftly with the life in UP. If I were given the chance to talk to my first-day-old-college self, I’d tell her to appreciate all the moments she have with her first college friends, ’cause the time she has with them is only temporary.

Seek God’s help

This has been one of the advices I stated in my Weekly Writes Week # entry. But sadly, this important advice is also one of the things I often fail to remind myself in times of my hardships. To seek God’s help would be on first few advices I’d give to myself on the first day of classes. I’d tell my old self that there are a lot of breakdown moments that are waiting ahead for her but praying and asking God for strength would be more than enough to heal herself.

Neither can the wave that has passed by be recalled, nor the hour which has passed return again.

Ovid

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Bahagyang naka-survive, pero at least we made it.

A post shared by Uriel Ian Coronel (@urieliancoronel) on Dec 5, 2019 at 10:00pm PST

The greatest feeling of all time is finishing my first ever semester in my dream school. I wouldn’t say that I finished first semester with flying colors because I know that I didn’t. First semester wasn’t easy at all –  it was full of downs and … just downs. Kidding aside, first semester was stressful but I sure had plenty of fun because no matter how hard it is, I always remind myself that I’m in UP and that’s the greatest feeling ever.

I can say that this semester is successful but I can help but go back to things I’ve done. As I look back, there are realizations that I should’ve done this or that. Well, I can’t go back in time and correct my mistakes but I can do better next semester. Listed below are the tips I should’ve given myself.

1. Believe in yourself – Since DevCom wasn’t my first choice, the tasks we did in our DevCom subjects like: reporting, script writing, etc. were all new to me. The first task that I doubted myself is when we were asked to write a straight news. I know in myself that I’ve never done this before and there’s a big chance that I might screw this up. But all is well because I never thought I could learn to write a straight news. You always have to believe in yourself that you can do all things as long as you are determined. “Kapag gusto, may paraan.” I was scared at first because I thought that I’m the least skilled in my class but I kept reminding myself that I’m here to learn. I am willing to learn and will always be. I always tell myself that I should believe that I can, because courage is all it takes to complete the most difficult task.
2.  Learn to explore – Never in my life that I imagined myself in front of a camera reporting for an event. Of course, we all have to experience different firsts. I am not complaining though, because if I wouldn’t have experienced it, I wouldn’t know that I find it fun. You should never be afraid to try new things because you’ll be amazed on what you might discover. I realized that exploring your potentials is very important when I found out I wasn’t qualified for Veterinary Medicine. It has always been my dream to become a veterinarian like my parents, but my dream to study in UP is greater. We don’t have to close our doors to other opportunities because we don’t know which one is really meant for us. There are lost of opportunities out there, we just have to choose the right one to be happy.
3. Live in the moment -I always tell myself that I wanted to have that sablay immediately. My family and relatives always tell me that I don’t have to rush because success is never a race. My cousin even told me that, “Kapag nagtatrabaho ka na, hihilingin mo n asana nag-aaral ka nalang ulit.” That made me think that I shouldn’t pressure myself to finish college as soon as possible. I should live in the moment, enjoy, and take time to learn many things. Besides, UPLB is like the happiest community I’ve ever been to and I don’t think it will be easy to leave the place. My mother always reminds me and my sister that success takes time to be achieved. Beautiful things are meant to be hard to get. I should not worry about the future, but instead work on my present.
4. Work hard – As I’ve said, beautiful things are achieved when you worked hard for it. We must remind ourselves that if you got it easily, there’s something wrong. Just like in math problems, if the solution was too easy, maybe you did something wrong. I am the kind of person who dreams big and I remind myself that I must work extra hard to achieve them. Besides, the more you work hard for something, the more satisfying it is when you achieve it. Like when you finally bought that shoes you’ve been eyeing for a long time with your own money that you saved for almost a year. You take good care of that shoes because you worked hard for it. Remember that a person who works hard is the most successful, because they’ve overcome a lot of challenges that made them stronger.
5. Work hard for other people – Isn’t it more satisfying to be successful because you’ve helped a lot of people? Success is not about the money you earn, it’s about how many people you’ve helped and inspired in your own ways. I always dedicate every success to my family and to God. I always think that every challenges are worth it because I am doing it for them. It is always my goal to make them proud. As a Development Communicator in training, we must work for other people. We must be the voice for those who are unheard. The most successful person is the one who’s willing to help other people without asking anything in return.

Life in UP can be very difficult that you might think that passing the UPCAT is a course. But think about it, you are meant to face those challenges because you have the whole Philippines waiting for your outstanding service. You are not in UP just because you wanted to be rich, you are in UP for a reason. You are meant to serve our country, and that is when you become successful. A little sacrifice for your country won’t hurt right?

Note to my *slightly* younger self.

Hey,

Do you remember the first time you realized you wanted to go UP? Yes, that day. You were sitting on your living room couch with your mom and out of nowhere you spoke loudly, “Ma, gusto ko pumasok ‘don” while gesturing to what it seems to be a news report that featured the university.

Do you remember your first role model? Ah yes, Shamcey Supsup. Architecture Licensure Exam Topnotcher and Miss Universe 2011 3^rd runner up.

Do you remember the first time you sat at your desk chair and attempted to review for your College Entrance Exams? That day, yes. I’m sure you remember being overwhelmed and freaking out because you think you’re running out of time.

And do you remember? Do you remember the first time you knew you passed the UPCAT? You unconsciously entered a fancy restaurant and said yes to everything the cashier offered you. Ah, too much many wasted there, my friend.

Do you still remember? All of them?

I hope you do, because all of those represent your yearning to achieve your dreams.

You’ve already gone far, I mean not too far, but you’re not the dumb, clueless kid that you used to be before.

You have improved, you’ve become better, and I’m so proud of you. I’m sure a lot of other people are too.

Now, what I want you to do is appreciate and give credit to yourself for all the things you have done. You may have failed a couple of times, embarrassed yourself more than the fingers in both your hands. But you’re still standing there like nothing happened, and sometimes your resilience is more than enough.

Yes, college is tough. But you know what’s tougher? You. You’ve overcome too much difficulty at this point and there’s no reason to quit now. It’s okay to be weak, but don’t make it too often, okay?

Cancel all that false positivity. Nothing’s ever going to get better. You know that. But you, you can get better.

Stop the self-deprecation, my friend. It’s not cute, nor is it quirky. It’s not good for you and will only contribute to your self-decay.

And remember, even if it’s hard to believe, not everyone hates you.

You’re doing nice, you should keep going.

Without wax,

Ezy