PAPERBOAT DREAMS
Based on true and personal accounts.
It was the seventh of August, in a cold and eerie corridor by the dying night. There sat a young boy, waiting for a crowd to arrive.
It was the seventh of August, it was fast-becoming morning, the night has fled and the sun has risen. There sat a young boy, waiting for any crowd to arrive. But there was none.
For the long hours he waited, on that first Sunday of August, on the seventh of the month. Ultimately, he lost his patience along the nonexistent crowd. There, the young boy found a man, jogging his way in the solace grounds. He asked the man a question that has bothered him hours ago. By then, the man replied- little did he know, he was lost.
He has waited for the UPCAT, much to his misfortune, he waited at a different place, at a different university of the same name, a town away from where he was supposed to be, eight-kilometers from where he was supposed to stand. Poor little boy, how he waited in vain, how he patiently and diligently stood (and sat) there for hours on end, only to end up in a desolate cavern of hopelessness. Could he still make it?
There was no time left. He was at the start of his journey- a journey that would reveal if he would make it, just in the nick of time, to the UPCAT. He ran the vast miniforest of the state university, across hoards of mahogany trees and walking students. He only has 20 minutes left. There was no time for jeepney rides, and armed with a desperation he never thought he had before and a hundred-peso bill, he seduced a tricycle driver into getting him where he ought to be.
With a law-breaking speed and with prayers fit for a hundred late and holy saints, he was there. He ran and ran. "Five minutes left," a voice shouted (Was it his bewildered and disillusioned imagination or the proctor's uncomely voice? There was no time to think). And there- without looking at the stairs or watching for "CAUTION: WET FLOOR" signs, with a handful of slips, falls and stumbles- he stopped.
He inhaled a deep, deep breath, patted off "liters" of sweat, smiled, opened the door, smiled once more and walked in like nothing has happened. He was lucky.
That faithful, unforgettable day was the day he almost lost a once-in-a-lifetime chance. The day he almost missed the chance to be heralded as one of the few "hopefuls" to study in the University of the Philippines, as one of the "Iskolar ng Bayan." A privilege.
Because studying at the UP Colleges is not just a mere "much ado about nothing," unlike other universities claiming "holy merits" that doesn't even size up to the lowest of the low expectations for the UP system. It is a bond wherein you entrust your future to an institution which has provided a century's worth of academic excellence and social values not only in this country, but all across the world- with its leaders, thinkers and philanthropists.
From its second golden anniversary, the University of the Philippines shall move (once more, through its existence) millenniums towards infinity, as long as the Philippine's history continues to be written, as long as the world lives on. As astra per aspera, ad majorem Dei gloriam. A diamond in the rough, polished in UP would be one of the finest in the world- as it shines, the world shall watch; as it glares, mankind shall be captivated. However, the person is the one who creates himself, the UP is only there to guide him along his path; whatever path he chooses, it is up to him. He is not destined, he creates his destiny.
Nevertheless, for anyone who chooses honor and excellence, as he stand upon the footholds of what will confine him for four years or more- it is then, as the gushing waters flow to the ocean furnished with all the opportunities God has set, that he would have been happy in choosing UP as the sails for his paperboat dreams.#
