MY CHAOTIC LIFE: Another chapter has ended

The 1st semester is over...and I survived! I thought I wouldn't make it alive (hehe..just kidding). College is CRAZY..but I have to admit it, it's kinda fun..alright, enough pretensions..College is SUPER EVERYTHING!

yeah well, whatever. I'm really not good at making great introductions..so I'll just cut the crap and go straight to the point. Let's travel back to the 1st semester...

***Student's name: Garcia, Patrizze Mara Ozaeta
>>>okay..so there's really nothing to narrate about my that..it is, after all...my only "legal" name here on earth..Well, except if I add "gonzales" to my name 10 years from now..but it's another story. *wink*

***Student number: 2008032918
>>>That's my student number. In college, your student number is as important as your own name. It's like your identity. Anyway, there's a very interesting story about my student number. Way back on my enrollment, my student number wasn't posted outside of the registrar's office so I had to go to the admissions office to get one. It really was a very long process. You have to fall in line together with the other students who doesn't have their student number (just like me) and then you have to take instructions from stupid student assistants (and I tell you, they're not easy to talk to. They easily get irritated, most of them are slowpokes and they give you wrong instructions! I hate them! To be honest, I really could've gotten myself a student number without their help, honestly!) So anyway, after a long and tiring process, I eventually got my student number so I proceeded to the other building for the online enrollment. At the venue, I found out another devastating news: my student number is invalid because there are only 9 digits in it. It's supposed to have ten digits! Gggrrrr! I almost cried upon knowing that. I felt like cursing every person in the registrar's office, until I saw my sister's friend. She helped me change my student number so I won't have to go back to square one.

***Course: Bachelor of Science in Nursing
>>do I really want to take up Nursing? Honestly, NO. Well I think that 70% of Filipino students nowadays who took up this course didn't choose it because it's in line with their interest but because they are: a.) attracted by the popularity of nurses abroad b.) forced by their parents or c.) they wanna get rich. Well, I'm one of them (although I'm not going to tell you if it's a, b or c..hehe). I really wanted to take up journalism or creative writing when I was in elementary. Then I changed my mind..I wanted to take up Law instead. But my mom doesn't want me to take either of the two because she said that lawyers and journalists live a very dangerous life. The job itself is life threatening (whatever!). Well, it's my mom who influenced me to take up Nursing (not that I don't really like it), but it was still me who made the final decision. I'm the one who's gonna study anyway. But to tell you the truth, that course isn't so bad after all. Well, except for the fact that there is a very strict dress code for nursing students. Our clinical instructors are meaner than the discipline officers themselves.

***Section: G1C
>>To tell you the truth, I wasn't really thrilled when I knew what block I belonged to. My initial reaction was disappointment because I wanted to belong to block-A together with Monica, Pauline and Kenneth (my highschool classmates). The moment I found out that I belonged to block-C, I really thought that my life was over. I don't know anybody. I guess I just have to start making a new life with strange new people. But I guess God really wanted me to belong to G1C. Three weeks before the classes started, I found out that I have a cousin who belongs to the same class. Okay, so that made me feel much better, at least there's one less strange person that I have to meet on the 1st day of school (although at that time, we don't really know each other that well). First day of school with my new class was really lame. I'm not good at making friends let along starting a decent conversation with one of my new blockmates. I honestly thought that this school year is gonna be the worst that I had in 13 years and that I was going to be an outcast. It turns out pretty well: I am not an outcast and I had new friends. Among the first people I got close with were vanessa and donna (the cousin that I was telling you about). We all came from the IS so it wasn't hard to make a conversation. At least we had something in common. Then we started changing our names to trixee (me-patrizze), vanee (vanessa) and charee (donna).

My 1st semester schedule:

Monday:
7:30-8:30 >>Comski1>>Ms. Donna Torres (this subject is really lame!)
8:30-9:30 >>GenPsyc>>Dra. Felina Marasigan (terror teacher..she makes me really nervous!)
10:00-11:00>>Algebra>>Mr. Daryl Magpantay (I still hate math!)
11:00-12:00>>FiliOne>>Ms. Ruth Vicencio (why do we have to study filipino anyway?)
1:00-4:00>>RelEd11>>Mr. Cielo Delica (luv the prof! luv the subject!)

Tuesday:
7:30-9:30>>PhysEd1>>Mrs. Emily Babasa (I suck at P.E.)
10:00-11:30>>ChemLec>>Mr. Christopher Tapay (no comment)
2:00-5:00>>ChemLab>>Mr. Tapay (3 hours of torture-my lab partner doesn't talk that much)

Wednesday:
7:30-8:30 >>Comski1>>Ms. Donna Torres
8:30-9:30 >>GenPsyc>>Dra. Felina Marasigan
10:00-11:00>>Algebra>>Mr. Daryl Magpantay
11:00-12:00>>FiliOne>>Ms. Ruth Vicencio
1:00-4:00>>NSTPone>>Ms. Richelle Pangilinan (charity time!)

Thursday:
10:00-11:30>>ChemLec>>Mr. Christopher Tapay
2:00-5:00>>ChemLab>>Mr. Tapay (zzzzz..)

Friday:
7:30-8:30 >>Comski1>>Ms. Donna Torres
8:30-9:30 >>GenPsyc>>Dra. Felina Marasigan
10:00-11:00>>Algebra>>Mr. Daryl Magpantay
11:00-12:00>>FiliOne>>Ms. Ruth Vicencio
3:00-6:00>>TheoFun>>Ms. Chavez/Mrs. Mendenilla (worst subject ever made by man!)

Okay..so that's my daily routine for the first semester. It's not really what you might call "hectic" but it's not a typical froshie easy-does-it schedule either. To tell you the truth, my schedule kinda reminds me of my high school schedule. You go to school at 7 and go home at either 4 or 5. But I learned to love this daily routine of mine. I got the hang of it at only 3 weeks after my 1st day of class. Some of my subjects were a little boring, but sometimes it just depends on my mood whether I feel like listening to my prof and jotting down notes like a responsible student or simply removing my glasses, not paying attention, scribbling non-sense at the back of my notebook and daydreaming until the bell rings. There are easy subjects like RelEd (religion) and Comski1 (english), there are boring ones like chemlec and chemlab, but there are also tough ones like algebra (my blockmates are gonna screw me for saying this), PE (pls. don't laugh coz I really hate PE) and of course, my major subject: TheoFun (yeah, I know. Weird name huh? I thought it was supposed to be FUN, but it's the complete opposite of Fun!)! TheoFun is the only subject that I can't quite understand the purpose of. It stands for Theoretical Foundations for Nursing. We study about the different nursing theories "that can be helpful" for our nursing practice in the future. I honestly don't get it! Anyway, there is also one subject that cannot be categorized to neither easy nor difficult..General Psychology. The subject is pretty easy itself, but what makes it so difficult is dealing with the prof. She's a doctor and she's like 60 years old--she gets easily irritated, very strict, thinks we have to know everything and sometimes, very irrational. But I learned to like her by the end of the semester. She's really smart by the way (well she should be, she's a doctor!).

Events worth remembering:

1. 1st day of school (duh!)
2. Acquaintance party
3. My first time to wear my complete white uniform (it was really uncomfortable at first)
4. Recollection (gave me the opportunity to know my friends better)
5. Maranatha elimination round (we got in for the finals!)
6. General Psychology quiz bee (I studied my ass off! We never won, but the experience was priceless. I enjoyed it)
7. Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera Quiz bee (I won-2nd place..yey!)
8. Aeromarathon practices at Mapen's place
9. Aeromarathon competition (we were the champions!!!)
10. Jeepney moments with Donna
11. Failing a 25-item algebra quiz (who cares? nobody passed that bloody quiz anyway!)
12. Watching a movie with my cousin w/o the permission of our parents (we went home at 9pm bec. of that)
13. NSTP second deployment (I read a story to kids w/ malnutrition. It was entitled: "Si Joey at ang gulay gang")
14. Anti-sexual harrassment self defense training (Donna was my sparring partner! How's that for memorable?)
15. Singing "Close to You (by the carpenters)" during my lab exam in chem (yup! I sang in front of my chemistry class! Weird, huh?! Did i mention that I sang the wrong lyrics? **why do birds fall down from the sky?? **Haha!)
16. My everyday struggle to tie my hair in a neat bun every morning (and after my PE class)
17. Volunteering to use a fire extinguisher during a fire safety seminar
18. ChemLOVE moments (I love that class!)
19. Finishing Experiment 8 in chemLab without breaking the crucible cover (there were only two groups who didn't break their crucible cover. We got lucky!)
20. NRP days (no rice policy)
21. Having a surprise visit from a very important person after one hell of a day at school (now that's really worth remembering!!)

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My first semester in college seemed very fast. I never imagined it to end this quickly. But they say that your 1st year, 1st sem in college is the most difficult part of college (really?), but it is also the most memorable one. It's my first taste of independence. The first semester is over and I can't wait for the second semester (we already have anatomy&physiology and Biochem--we're gonna die!). As of now, I'm enjoying every bit of this semestral break, after all, we won't have a summer vacation anymore because we have classes in the summer.

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