College Memories

The End of my College Journey

Today’s world is on a Facebook frenzy. You’ll see everyone in Facebook – your college friends, high school friends; your brother, sister, mom and dad. Everyone’s on Facebook! But before the craze, my friends and I have Multiply accounts which is very much like Facebook, the only difference between them, at that time, were games. Oh yes, the good ol’ Pet Society!

I’m writing this blog just for the reason that my husband’s asleep and I can’t sleep and I (to kill time) browsed my Multiply Account. I saved the pictures I posted there so that I can keep them in my hard drive. As I was doing so, I walked down memory lane again. I saw candid shots of the new members in our college org. I noticed how thick the white powder was on my face. I realized that some of the many friends I met stayed and some did not. I understood during the many minutes I was browsing these pictures that time DOES change things… a lot.

These pictures were taken from 2007 to 2009. I was just turning 18 at the beginning of it and was about to be 19 by the end of it. It captured the good last two years of my college life. If for people, high school is the best time of their lives, mine is college. Unquestionably, college. In college, I learned a lot of things, topping the list is 1. Self-reliance (which I didn’t really have until God placed me, a little fish, in a big aquarium called UP); 2. Friendliness (without this, you’ll be a dead fish in the aquarium, each class you should have good friends); 3. Toughness (this aquarium has fishes that devour, better keep your head low and your skin with thick scales); 4. Dream (UP is an aquarium of dreams for the ocean out there. UP trains students to dream, to have an ambition to make a change, make an impact.)

  I have mixed emotions now that I’m writing here. I am sad to see those faces whose names I’ll never forget for their memories are still in my heart. I am laughing when I saw old pictures of friends in their totoy and nene times! I am grateful for that short-lived adventure which I am willing to repeat over and over again, in spite all the pains and the hurts in those years.

Time DOES change things. If at that time, you would tell me that I would get married when I’m 21, I would have kicked you in the butt! But God had a different plan for me. If at that time, you told me that I’ll graduate Magna cum Laude, I would have been very arrogant and lazy and God wanted the opposite for me, wrapping for me the surprise of being Magna cum Laude. If at that time, you would tell me who among my friends are staying and who are not, I wouldn’t have spent precious time with each of them. And for all it’s worth, I’ll do the same thing if I be with them again. Not that there are conflicts between us, not at all! I love them and our friendship still stayed but time just changed things… it changed us.

On top of all these feelings, I have one that overpowers all emotions that I feel now – gratitude. The Lord has been truly good and kind to me. He has orchestrated his plan and I am just in awe of what He has done. Not everyone likes my story, let alone the people who think I’ve ended up to nothing. The Lord has secured His plans for me, to prosper me and not to harm me, to bring me a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). God has brought me to a place now, to a moment when I can look back and see all the things that happened then and say, ‘It is good.’ Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with each class, each prof, each classmate, each orgmate… each friend.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessings.

You always remind me to count them all…

…and I realized that they’re too many.