Officially an Iska + My First Two Months in College
I was going to whip up a post about my first two months in college, but I visited my drafts and found a half-baked post I wrote a few days before I was moving in to my apartment. I think it'd be pretty cool to include that along with what happened during my first month in college. I have three papers due tomorrow, but... I have nothing. Let's just keep going before I change my mind and abandon this post
July 31, 2018
I realized I never updated the whole college confusion post. The title pretty much gives it away, but for those who aren't familiar with the term iska, I've chosen to go to the University of the Philippines in Los Baños and take up VetMed! I love animals and it has always been a dream to be able to take care of them as a profession (I also get to wear pajamas to work, how cool is that?). Ateneo will always be one of my biggest what if's, but I'm happy with my decision and I can't wait to start my journey in elbi!
I'm moving into my apartment in 3 days and it's crazy. I haven't packed anything because I'm a crammer at heart it kind of still feels so unreal. I still struggle to grasp the reality that I'm a freshman in college, I'm going to my dream university, I'm going to be studying away from home, and one day I'm going to have DVM attached to my name. Los Baños is just a 3 - 4 hour drive from home, definitely not the farthest, but thinking of living there for six years feels extremely overwhelming.
It's also pretty exciting, to be honest.
I've only been to UPLB a couple of times for apartment hunting, and my medical exam & enrollment, but I already love it. The campus is beautiful (so are the people tbh) and everyone seems so kind. To any college student who might be reading this, you're probably rolling your eyes, oh no not a star-eyed freshie again. I know it's not always going to be all fun, but let me enjoy this while it lasts. I know UPLB will make me cry in the future so.
One of the big downsides of studying away from school is leaving the love of my life (hindi ikaw, Abed): my dog, Ponyo. But I know it'll be worth it because one day I'm going to be Ponyo's doctor!
I also recognize the fact that Veterinary Medicine isn't an easy field. But nothing worth doing is easy anyway. Hopefully, I love it enough to work past the struggles and still see the beauty in what I'm doing even when things get hard and dirty. I don't remember who wrote it, but I kept a little quote I found on tumblr and it has stuck to me ever since: "Vet school will give you this incredibly broad education that means that you can turn your hand to a million things outside of clinical practice." And I am so so excited to see this for myself.
October 2, 2018
When they say college life is hard, boy, they ain't kidding. I've been planning this blog post for so long, you won't believe it, but one of the things I struggled (and am still struggling on) during my first few days in school was balancing work and rest. The amount of workload is no joke. I'm telling you right now, there's a reason college students are so tired. And I guess my system was new to such a heavy workload and I had so little experience in balancing all of them.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no newbie in multi-taskingand procrastinating and cramming, but in UP, my old ways didn't seem to be working. Half-baked essays and crammed worksheets received low marks (this is expected, I know, but it used to work in high school :< sorry mom). Heck, nowadays, even if my essay was well-written, it would still receive an average score. For the first few days, college was actually fun. But as the days turned into weeks, college felt more like crossing a war zone than a walk in the park.
Everyone seemed like they already knew what they were doing. I was, quite literally, a small girl lost in a very big university. Everything I thought I knew about myself was challenged. I was a decent ten-pin bowler so I took up duck-pin bowling as my Physical Education sport. I mean, how hard could it be, right? Very, apparently. I thought I was at least above average in Chemistry, but that notion was abandoned hard when I got 54 out of 100 on my first long exam in a Chemistry lecture class. The one that hurt the most, however, was how much I doubted my ability to write. Essays were my forte, anything that required writing was something I could easily pass. It turns out, almost everyone in UP felt the same. Everyone's a good writer, everyone can create mind-blowing essays. I joined UPLB's official publication Perspective, but I haven't really gotten anything to work on except for sorting out old issues and attending training sessions.
I guess they weren't kidding when they also said that you get to know your self better in college. I've also experienced a lot of firsts here (not what you're thinking). First time paying bills, doing groceries on my own, budgeting my allowance, paying rent, buying drinkable water, deciding where to eat every meal, and all the things that come with adulting. And it's crazy. I never thought I'd run certain errands that I get to run now.
To sum up, my first two months of college felt surreal. It had a lot of downs, but also a lot of ups. The first two months in UPLB gave me a taste of what would be a 6-year journey and it scared the hell out of me, but it also showed me that this is all going to be worth it. I won't stop until I get that DVM at the end of my name. But first, I gotta go finish that paper for VMED101.
October 2, 2018
When they say college life is hard, boy, they ain't kidding. I've been planning this blog post for so long, you won't believe it, but one of the things I struggled (and am still struggling on) during my first few days in school was balancing work and rest. The amount of workload is no joke. I'm telling you right now, there's a reason college students are so tired. And I guess my system was new to such a heavy workload and I had so little experience in balancing all of them.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no newbie in multi-tasking
Everyone seemed like they already knew what they were doing. I was, quite literally, a small girl lost in a very big university. Everything I thought I knew about myself was challenged. I was a decent ten-pin bowler so I took up duck-pin bowling as my Physical Education sport. I mean, how hard could it be, right? Very, apparently. I thought I was at least above average in Chemistry, but that notion was abandoned hard when I got 54 out of 100 on my first long exam in a Chemistry lecture class. The one that hurt the most, however, was how much I doubted my ability to write. Essays were my forte, anything that required writing was something I could easily pass. It turns out, almost everyone in UP felt the same. Everyone's a good writer, everyone can create mind-blowing essays. I joined UPLB's official publication Perspective, but I haven't really gotten anything to work on except for sorting out old issues and attending training sessions.
I guess they weren't kidding when they also said that you get to know your self better in college. I've also experienced a lot of firsts here (not what you're thinking). First time paying bills, doing groceries on my own, budgeting my allowance, paying rent, buying drinkable water, deciding where to eat every meal, and all the things that come with adulting. And it's crazy. I never thought I'd run certain errands that I get to run now.
To sum up, my first two months of college felt surreal. It had a lot of downs, but also a lot of ups. The first two months in UPLB gave me a taste of what would be a 6-year journey and it scared the hell out of me, but it also showed me that this is all going to be worth it. I won't stop until I get that DVM at the end of my name. But first, I gotta go finish that paper for VMED101.
Andrea
May the comments be ever in my favor (or not)