With the looming weeks ahead, all that a student craves to do is take a step back. However, if she does such, she’s wasting precious time that could instead be spent on school works.
College was meant to be this way, they said. It contains the years where you tick off your best and worst moments. It’s meant to be easy and difficult at the same time.
Sadly, at the moment, it’s just plain difficult. You may start to think that you chose the wrong course, or perhaps, the unfit school. You may begin writing off your “101 (and more) Reasons Why I Should Just Work.”
If you ask this writer, you’ll probably receive anything but disagreement. With a lot of things in these hands and several thoughts in this almost-non-existent mind, all I wish is for the hell weeks to just end suddenly; that I’d go to sleep tonight and wake up on a hot day in May.
A lovely thought, but that’s all that it is—a mindless one.
It truly is draining being a student, what more now that we’re on the tertiary level? You have to go home, exhausted from your 8 AM to 9 PM classes. Then, add more bags to those eyes by sleeping late not because you’re talking to your friends about the latest gossip or your Numbah 1 Kras ATM, but because you’re asking every single person from your class if they are already done with the projects due tomorrow morning.
What fun, right? (Yes, sarcastic.) But hey, there really is fun, still, in college.
Despite the rising problems that come with adulting such as financial responsibilities and time-management among your studies, self and family, college truly creates one’s best moments, too.
Imagine spending your lunch breaks—may it be quick or while walking towards your next classroom—with the friends you most trust and have fun with. They are those you choose (at times, not even) to spend your moments of meltdown with and the ones you’re probably least irritated at when everyone else is plain annoying.
Imagine receiving death glares from other people as the noise your barkada creates is just too much, but with all the apology you could send these people, the fun you’re having is just too much, as well.
Imagine looking at them once and know that the bond you have is immeasurable and only yours to enjoy and cherish.
That every laughter you share with the world is a heavy part of the stress that you’re losing.
That who cares about dessert when you’re already filled with the sweet sincerity of friends who you have learned to call family, too?
That downfalls are not that depressing anymore for you have these people who accompany you as you learn once more how to rise and stand upright just like before.
That when asked, “Keri today?”, you can confidently say that, “Yes! Keri today. Keri pa.”
Because you have such people in your life. And though they might not stay as long as you’d like them to, it’s worth noting that they are staying regardless of the hardship of the past school years and the future ones, as well.
So, maybe, when you plan to start your list of “101 Reasons (and more) Why I Should Just Work,” write alongside the list of people you want to see and experience the pinnacle of your success with you. May it be a friend, a family member, a pet, or friends-who-turned-to-family, provide a space for them on that blank sheet of paper the way you give a space for them in your once-in-a-while-sweet-mushy heart.
It helps. Truly, it does. It will help carry all the burden of whatever you have to endure in order to reach your goals, and possibly, more.
And you know, it is also possible. To survive, that is. And to have fun while going through what possibly is the most challenging and inspiring years of our lives.
So, “Keri today?”
Yes! Keri pa.
