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Deficiencies.

May 24, 2012    |    0 COMMENT(S)

I came back to UP this week to claim my clearance and transcript of records, only to find out that I've been under-assessed a few years back (I know right, how could they let me graduate?). And after settling all that, I then discovered I had some deficiencies in the College of Law.

In a span of two days I've gone back and forth all over the campus, arguing, asking, confirming, appealing, and at the end of the day I'm dead tired and still in the same situation I started in. I got really frustrated and started cursing under my breath, really - not because this is the first time, but precisely because, it isn't. I've done this before - the entire "UP-treating-you-like-a-ping-pong-ball"; letting you go to this place only to be asked to go back to the previous place, then ending up not getting anything done. It sucks that they don't always have a very streamlined process of getting things done, like they're all guessing what to do just as well. It doesn't help that all these buildings they make you go to are located on opposite sides of the campus. It just gets really tiresome, both physically and emotionally, to be dragged around by people who, while doing their best to actually help you, sometimes are not sure either.

And then, in the middle of one of my walks from the OUR (Registrar) to Law, a mother and daughter approached me, asking me the way to the Registrar's office. While I was pointing to her mother the way (which was more difficult than you would expect, really. It's hard to direct non-UP people inside the campus because UP students don't use the names of the streets but rather the buildings), I noticed the girl looking up in awe at the trees that lined the Oval. Both of them looked tired and sweaty from all the walking, I suppose, and the shade that they now took refuge in somehow felt like a relief for her. For all I knew, in her head she could be saying, "Thank God for the shade of these trees. Ang init!" but I swear sixteen-year-old me would have recognized that look in an instant. It wasn't so much relief as it was anticipation.

It's the look that said, "Thank God for the shade of these trees! And these buildings! And these people! Omgomgomg I'm so excited to be here! I can't wait!"

And for a moment, deficiencies and under-assessments notwithstanding, I remembered.



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Off to appeal at the College of Law with other new friends/incoming first year Law students. Classes haven't even started yet and already we're planning on filing a letter regarding some misunderstanding about the units required to be admitted to the college. It's a long story, but wish us luck! :)



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