Ugh! FUDGE!!

January 28, 2010 – the day 4-Regis class is quiet. >.<

You know what’s the reason? It is our TERM PAPER. Many of my classmates were absent today since they thought that today is the due for our final draft. Too bad our teacher moved it till tomorrow, 5pm. Our teacher also informed us that all of those students who were absent are given minus points while those who are present are given plus points. Yay! Moreover, she also told us that only those students who are present are the only legit people that could pass the draft until 5pm tomorrow. Those who are absent are forbidden from the extension.

Personally, I find this act of some of my classmates as a childish act. They are all willing to sacrifice the four subjects in the morning or maybe the other remaining two subjects in the afternoon just for one requirement for ONE subject. What a deal. And also, if you’ll see, some of these people who ‘excused’ themselves in class are those students that were not doing anything for their draft like typing. These are also the same students who kept on whining about why our English teacher is unfair because the due date is really short. Ftw?! These people are so IRRATIONAL!
I really have a plan that I would excuse myself from the class today. But I also thought that I would maybe miss a lot of things. And my decision to go to class is good, if I did continued my plan, I couldn’t have been legit to pass tomorrow or get plus points. I may have missed lessons in Computer and Physics. I should have miss my long test in CH and new lessons in Math.

The main thing is that some of my classmates, those who are absent, didn’t have a great deal when they decided to be absent. They missed many things just because of one thing, term paper. I know that when you fail to pass your term paper, you’re not allowed to graduate. The secret here is that you need to be able to control your time and know the things that you should do, IMPORTANT THINGS!

Section Naming

You know what, I’m not writing this blog right now because I want to degrade some people or to attack my own, beloved school. But I wrote this blog because this what many students feel and wants their voices to be heard. I’m writing this in a point of view of a General Section student.

In our school, each year level has three types of class: honors, semi-honors and general section. To further explain the three types, here it is…

• Honors Class- this is the class where the smartest and the top students of the batch belongs. Usually, participants for different competitions were taken from this class. Their lessons are more advanced than the semi-honors and the gen-sec since the teachers expect them to learn quickly. The teachers also expect them to be behave since they were supposed to be the ‘role’ model of the batch. *tch*
• Semi-honors Class- this is the class where the people who were smart but not smart enough to be on honors class belong. Some participants for different competitions are also taken from here. Their lesson is also advance compared to gen-sec. Same as the honors, the teachers also expect a lot from them from studies to behavior.
• General Section Class- this is where the majority of the batch belongs. Those who aren’t qualified to be on Honors and Semi are placed here. The lessons are just of average pace and teachers (I think) thinks that some Gen-Sec students are unruly (which is kind of true).

Now why did I differentiate these types of classes? Why? So that you could easily understand the predicament of the Gen-Sec students.

Since there are these Honors and Semi-honors, some students actually don’t even study that hard now. They feel that whatever they do, they can’t be even in Semi so they slouch there and barely pass. My point? Some gen-sec students feel insecure of the Semi and Honors students since they feel that they are inferior to them. >_<

Also, there are many instances that we’ve felt that the school kind of recognize more the talent or potential of an Honor or Semi student rather than of the gen-sex students. You know what? There are many students from the gen-sec who have really high potential of many talents but are kind of not recognized because (maybe) the school focus more in the Honor and Semi-honor students.

Now, I am a fourth year and I’m still on the state where I need to choose my course and school. I’m actually kind of interested at ADMU. I heard that there would be a student orientation about ADMU and I was kind of excited and told myself that I would be attending it. Well, after some time I learned that only the Semi-honors and the Honors gets the privilege of being oriented. O.o of course I was dumbfounded of this one.

Why are they the only ones that were being oriented? Deep in my mind something tells me that maybe the time is so short or the venue is too small. Okay, I can handle that. But what I can’t handle is this is not the first time that this happened. Even last year, only the semi and honors were privileged enough to be oriented. O.o I think they can work on time and space if the people behind this orientation wants ALL the students too be oriented. Why? Are they afraid that Gen-sec students will give XUHS a bad name? >.<

There are so many things that I wanna write yet I don’t have the guts. I don’t want to say and conclude things which may affect the name of our school. >.<

The Story of my Essay

I was already five minutes late when I arrived in the LRC. Father Pen was just finishing his short speech for the participants. Yes, participants. This was the last league of the Essay Writing Contest sponsored by the school’s alumni. I sat in the side and listened to the last few words of Father Pen, “They don’t want to read what you think other’s thought, they want to know your own opinion”. With that, Father gave us the topic of what we should write. We will complete the phrase “I Believe…” I thought that it’s not really that hard especially if many ideas were already running through your mind. I approached Father Pen and he gave me my paper. I walked to the table where my classmate was sitting and sat across her.

We were given one and a half hours to write. As I sat down, I started to jot down my ideas. Some of which were “I believe that we should respect our parents” and “I believe that we should never forget our friends”. But as I wrote these, it did not satisfy me. I flipped my paper back and front to think of the best idea that could pop out of my mind. Then an idea came to me, “I believe that the school should remove calling the sections as Honors, Semi-honors and General Section”. I wrote this idea on the paper and thought hard if I would continue with this one or not.

One of the things that kind of made me think twice to write this one was the reason that Father Pen could be one of the judges. I think he will be insulted with these stuffs especially because he is the head of the high school department. However, a part of me told me to continue since Father Pen himself said “…they want to know your own opinion”. And that was how I started to write my essay that led me to win the second place of that essay writing contest.

If you’re thinking why that idea just came out of my mind, it was because I find naming the sections as semi-honors, honors and general section quite irrational. You see, in our school, when you belong in the honors class, your school mates may think that you’re the nerdy, bookish, weirdo type of person. When you’re in the semi-honors, other people may think that you are the cool, not-so-dumb-yet-not-so-intelligent type. However, when you’re in the general section (which MOST of the students belong here), some people (other students AND even some teachers) may think that you are unruly, not fit to be in the semi-honors and have a low chance of winning ‘some’ competitions.

As I wrote my essay, my thoughts drifted to my schoolmates who had so many potentials yet they were not that formed. Whenever there are interschool competitions, the people that were always sent were from Honors and sometimes from the honors class. These students were trained and sent to these competitions with their coaches. I find it unfair since every time there are interschool competitions, these same students are being sent to compete. How about those that are in the general section on which I can say are better than them?

When you label a section, that may also mean you label the students. As what I said, in each category (semi, honors and gensec) of sections, the students are perceived differently. And I know that all of us hates to be looked upon differently than who we really are.

To end, I still stand my ground about my opinion. I don’t know why I won the contest or whether or not they agreed with me. But what I am cared most was that they took time to read my essay and maybe, just maybe, this made them realize how some students think of the categories of sections. 

Complaining Much?

When was the last time did you heard in the news about people complaining to the new laws/rules that the government implemented? I bet never. Never because we people are very fond of complaining even to the littlest bit.

In my last quarter for the senior year in high school, the pressure is already high. Projects and requirements should be fulfilled and submitted. We need to make our term paper, produce our play and study for the quizzes and long tests for our subjects. so whenever any of our teacher would say that we’ll have an assignment, you’ll never fail to hear complain like “Ma’am, we already have many assignments” or “Sir, we’re tired already!”

Jus this morning, I realized that in the real world, the world beyond high school and college, complaining won’t do any good. If we already have a job, we can’t tell our boss that we won’t do the work because we’re already tired. Complaining in our job may cause us to be sacked. The pressure and the tiring works that I’m experiencing now (as well as my classmates) can prepare us for the more pressured-environment that we may encounter in the future.

Another thing, complaining won’t do help us move forward. Like the question that I asked a while ago, we always hear in the news people organizing rallies to stop or object the new set of rules that are implemented or suggested by our government or other governing body. This people will have lousy reasons like “We can’t afford it” or “This is just bad”.

Take the K-12 for example. Even if it’s not yet implemented, the people are already against it. They say that it’s just a waste of money and it will not do them any good. Not do them any good? Does that mean that quality education doesn’t make you any good? Does that mean that additional knowledge about things won’t do you anything good?

Some say that it’s money. I understand that some of the least fortunate are sometimes incapable of sending their children to school if there would be two more years. But when they think about it, a good education pays well. In the future, you can get the best job that you want! :D

Before we complain, we need to think about it. It’s not everyday that changes happen. Let’s give change a chance and stop complaining. 

The Teenagers and the Feeling Teenagers

I once saw in Tumblr a post about “People who act like teenagers”. It was a pie graph and it has three parts: teenagers, elder people who try to act like one and kids aged 11-13. The teenagers got the smallest share in the pie graph, next is elder people who try to act like one and the one that got the greatest part is the kids aged 11-13. I laughed inwardly with the result since I know that this is partly true. Teenagers nowadays are a bit childish and those who are only preteens can’t wait to become teenagers.

The grade school campus is just beside the high school campus. So obviously, the grade school students can enter our campus. When you’re in high school, make-up and gossip goes together, totally normal for a teenager. In case you can’t observe, many of the girls in high school already apply light make-ups. When the grade school student(especially girls) would go in our campus, they would be exposed to this new surrounding.

When I see many grade school students (girls) now, I can’t help but get annoyed by how they act. Some try to act as if they’re already teenagers. The way they behave and dress is totally teenager-ish. It’s like they can’t wait to be teenagers and can’t wait to do things that we (the teenagers) can do.

What makes me feel more annoyed about this one is that they can’t enjoy their childhood (or preteen hood). They’re so busy trying to be not they are. Being a teenager and behaving like one comes normally. It is not something that you just learn and acquire. If they just know how tiring (super tiring) being a teenager is, they may regret not enjoying their preteen hood.

Busy Days Ahead

Being a senior is really tiring. There are lots of things that you should accomplish. If you fail to accomplish these things, then you won't be able to graduate this MARCH!

• Term Paper- name me a senior who isn't tired of this one. Without your term paper, there's a little to no chance of graduating. So even though how tiring making this one is, we should just endure it. In the end, this will be for our greater good!
• Play- second biggest thing for our English subject (next to term paper). We have a play to make and a term paper to do, what do you think will this lead us to?! We're kind of pressured about this one since we already know that for the past few years, the play that the past Regis students made were all VIEWERS CHOICE! 
• Talumpati- or oration. We need to recite this one for our Filipino class. We will start NEXT WEEK. I'm assigned maybe this Thursday (or maybe Tuesday >.<). This is 20% of our class standing. 

these are just three of the things that we should do. and these are NOT just the three things that we will do for this quarter. we also have assignments, quizzes, long tests and the EXAMS!! >.<
and I prove it true that when you're in Fourth Year, the Eight-Hour Sleep that you were used to is not applicable! trust me :)