In June 1994, I began my journey as a high school
freshman in the nearby Partido State College. As a freshman, it wasn’t easy for
me to abandon my old habits as a boy. I still did a lot of running, jumping
and other rough child’s play. My teacher, Ms. Marilou P. Competente would
always scold me for being so sweaty after a bout of ‘tatso’ or ‘agawan’ base
with other boys. In spite of this, I managed to make it to the honor roll and
at the end of our first year I was awarded the most outstanding freshman. Come
summer of 1995, I was again back in the woods wandering and frolicking-
fishing, swimming, bird-hunting and sometimes planting rice and corn. I became
closer with cousins’ from my mother’s side and I spent more time with them.
During that time, my mother’s father and mother were still alive and strong and
I stayed with them for some time. My father’s father would often get jealous
and he would fetch me to stay with him.
I barely noticed I was fast becoming a teenager and
in a few years’ time, I began having little crushes on pretty and popular girls
in our school. I became more responsible at home. I learned how
to cook and do other house chores. By then, I felt I had to maintain my good
standing in school and somehow understood what pressure was all about. I continued studying
well and I am glad it paid off. My classmate Tom Tan still got the first
honor with me as his wing man at number 2. Well, he was always the first honor
since kinder while I proudly stood beside him as second except in Grade 4 and
Grade 5 when I became the first honor. We were always good friends and our
closeness still remains until today.
Our second and third years quickly ended but I’d
always remember the times I spent as a sophomore and junior. Mrs. Nehlia P.
Esmeralda was our class adviser on our second year and Mrs. Marichu B. Borre
during the third. On our senior year under Mrs. Nora E. Bacares, we took the
first ever National Secondary Achievement Test (NSAT). I think our school got the
highest rating throughout the province that time. I recall we also both topped
the National Elementary Achievement Test (NEAT) in 1994 and we were paraded around
our town for such feat. In 1998, we graduated from high school, again with Tom
as the Valedictorian while I was the Salutatorian. It wasn’t all that bad for a farm
boy who once dreamed of riding a horse and conquering the mountains.
Iskolar ng Bayan
When my high school life closed in 1998, I didn’t
know I would be ushered into a completely new beginning. It was the first time
I felt I was standing at a crossroads without knowing which path to take. There
was the road towards priesthood waiting for me, and there was the simple life
in the farm where I grew up. Meanwhile, I was also at a loss whether I would go
for the university life and the hustle and bustle of the big city. In the end,
I opted to go to the University the Philippines in Diliman, not for anything
but for the DOST Scholarship I was lucky enough to be accepted into. Besides,
my older sister, Sindhy, already went ahead and was already on her second year
that time. That time, my parents cannot afford the two of us to be in college
at the same time without help. Thanks to DOST, we were both able to enter university
for free.
I enrolled as a freshman Chemical Engineering student
in the summer of 1998 and I underwent orientation together with other DOST
scholars to help us acclimatize to university life. There, I met various
freshies like me from all over the country. Except for a few Manileños (those
who grew up in Metro Manila), most of us were promdis or probinsyanos-
newcomers in Manila. It didn’t take me long to get the feel of big city life
but it didn’t stop me from missing my hometown. There were a lot of times when
I felt I’d like to just go back to my hometown because I missed my family but I
thought I didn’t want to go home empty handed. At least that’s what kept me
going and buoyed my spirit whenever I felt down. It was not easy for me and
my sister as we were always financially constrained despite the allowance that
we were receiving. Nonetheless, we didn’t lose hope. We didn’t lose sight of
our dream to finish what we have started.
Amidst the harsh academic environment, I met a lot
of people from different walks of life. Some of them remain my friends until
today. I also joined the Tau Rho Xi Fraternity which helped me get through
university life and eventually shaped me as a leader. I became its head in 2001
and we had a very productive year then. The brothers I have embraced then are
the same brothers I have until today. They have inspired me in a lot ways and I
have always carried with me the values it believes in- brotherhood, loyalty,
determination.
But throughout the years I have spent in UP, I have
always thought I was meant to do something else. There was this nagging voice
inside my heart calling me to a different path-soldiery. As fate may have it, I
found myself being herded to the hallowed grounds of PMA in 2002 along with 480
other young men and women who heard the same voice, who had the same calling. I
left behind me a promising engineering career but I brought with me a wealth of
memories. These memories and the fear of failure-of going home empty handed,
were essentially what propelled me throughout my stay inside Fort del Pilar in
Baguio City.
