yes
john lennon first met yoko ono in an exhibit at a gallery with yoko as featured artist. looking around, john saw an A-frame ladder at the middle of one of the exhibit areas, with a spyglass suspended with a piece of string from the ceiling. Climbing up the ladder, he used the spyglass to read the single word attached to the ceiling. It read "yes". john said that if there would have been any other word, he would have left the exhibit and given no notice to the rest of the exhibit, let alone meet the artist.
Such a powerful word it must be then.
Sacrifices
Throughout my career, I have come upon crossroads that made me think about where I really want to go in life. Such decisions have always made me think back to whether I made the right decisions or not. A main problem that I have is in terms of commitment: if ever people depend on me, I have a hard time backing out in the middle of the commitment, in pursuit of personal gain. For me every commitment, every project needs to be finished to the very end.
One instance was when I applied for a job vacancy in a large food corporation as resident Architect. Armed with my mediocre qualifications in construction back then, I bravely sought the position, which they gave me. The package was good, the pay much better than my existing salary at the time, with travel around the country as a major component. They asked me when I can start, since the position was needed yesterday. My problem? I am currently tied up in the middle of the construction of a residential unit. The problem with working for a single client is you get to empathize with the needs of the client. No matter how efficient or how down the project is, I still want to finish it through to the end, before I move to other commitments. I turned the position down.
At present, with my commitments to my schooling, I again find it hard to drop everything for a better source of income. I am already at the later portion of my graduate studies, and again opportunity knocks at my door. An old friend offered me a better job than the one I am currently employed in. His SMS started with “Pare, masaya ka pa ba sa trabaho mo ngayon? (Are you still happy with your job today?)”. To which I replied that I enjoy my job because I have more free time and that I get to pursue further studies. But after learning of the package, I again find myself at a crossroad, whether to take up the job, and give up further pursuit of my studies, as well as give up my current job and its perks, the social relationships formed and kept within it.
I again turned down the job offer, stating that I have to finish school first. But this time I know I have made the right choice, because unlike my earlier crossroad, I know that I am doing this for myself. I have asked myself why I still pursue planning as a career, and recently I have established my reasons as to why I will continue striving to be a planner. No instant offer can now change my mind, and I hope it will not haunt me with what could have been.
So I guess I’ll have to carry on and move forward.
Debt
The good thing with working within the University is that you get to meet old and new people from the different departments, making you feel like you’re one big happy community. It’s like working in one big company, but instead of meeting at the elevator and being separated by building floors, you’re separated by greeneries and open space, but still housed in one large society. You get to meet the veterans of the university with many stories to tell, the aspiring junior faculty, the jaded middle aged administrative staff, the dedicated building administrator, as well as people you already knew but lost contact with.
I have always considered having a debt with some people within the university, for without them I would not have been able to be where I am right now. Off course recent with the list would be my former boss, who has returned to the college, for whom without I would not have been able to pursue graduate studies. But some of the people I have met up again recently go back to almost a decade of being in the university. Seeing these people again open up a flood gate of memories, to a time when I was still clueless and struggling in college.
While working last year on proposed renovations for the Molave Residence Hall, we met up with the dormitory manager, who happens to be the same manager of our dormitory when I was still living inside the university. Doing the rounds inside the old dormitory, she just can’t help but ask where she first saw me. I of course told her that I used to live in the former dormitory she was handling when I was in college.
On another incident, while inspecting for the renovation of some offices inside Quezon Hall, I got the chance to meet up again with my guarantor. During college, I would always seek financial help from the scholarships office within the university. I would always apply for a loan, and my guarantor would always sign my form for me. Upon seeing her, I asked her if she still recognizes me, and I added in Tagalog “Kung hindi ho dahil sa inyo hindi siguro ako makakatapos ng college (If it wasn’t for you I would not have been able to finish college)”. Of course the statement was a bit extreme, but it added a little drama to our little “reintroduction” of each other. Learning that I have finished and is now an Architect, she asked me if I can help her with the initial designs for her family’s proposed rest house, upon which I gamely accepted, for free of course, as a way of repaying her back for her kindness.
At present, we are working on the comprehensive master planning and renovation of the Vinzon’s Hall. This building and almost all of its offices (well, aside from the Student Disciplinary Tribunal of course) has been influential in my stay in the University. Aside from the previously mentioned scholarships office, the counseling and guidance office has also helped me in choosing which course to shift to and which career path to take. I took the exams provided to see my strengths and weaknesses, and found out that I have strong points in social work (really?), English (really???) and mathematics (which I seek to avoid, since at the time I want to shift to a non-mathematics based course, like Interior Design). Ironically, I asked for my artistic skills, and my guidance counselor was relieved to see that I have a moderate aptitude for the arts, since I did tell here that I plan to shift to Interior Design at the time.
Going back to my guidance counselor, I again met up with her while doing the rounds of inspection. At first I haven’t got the slightest clue as to who she was, but she was the one that brought it up. She said that she remembers me, and from that moment on I tried my best to relive my memories of Vinzon’s Hall, and the rest of my early days in the university, hence this article.
As an ending for my week of reminiscing, while eating dinner at a diner inside the campus, my former commanding officer in ROTC was also there. He approached me and asked me if I belonged to the same dormitory he was in when I was in freshman year. And to which I said “Hindi, officer kita dati (No, you used to be my commanding officer)”. And again another flood gate opened.
The four incidents are just one of the many experiences I have inside the university. My first experience way back in college was meeting up again with the very first person I talked to in the university. I was applying for a college org, and again, this person, whom I was asking for a signature, stopped for a minute and declared that he already know me, by name.
I guess that’s just one of the benefits of living and working in the university. The memories pops back again to help you look back and see the developments that have happened in your life. So maybe I could indeed hopefully stay for another few years here, and see who else I will meet again.
On a side note, one person did forget and I have not yet have the time and chance to tell her how we first met. She now heads one of the units in the university, and due to work related misunderstandings, wrote me a very nice two page hate mail. How’s that for keeping your memories alive?
ideas
I just have to post what's currently cooking up inside my mind before it eventually goes away. This is the academic in me talking, bear with me.
Now at the latter part of my urban planning studies escapade, I now come to the point where I have to sit down and cook up a nice topic for a masteral thesis. Yup, thesis na naman! Unlike western and European countries where the conception and preparation of a thesis topic and probable output is done firsthand, upon entering the course, here the school prepares and introduces the course first thoroughly, before the student can eventually develop a good topic.
Throughout my masteral course, I have always focused on educational facilities and university planning. Since I am working, living and studying inside the university, I might as well make the most out of my stay here. So I try and develop this interest into a specialization of sorts. Might as well focus on the development of my own backyard you might say.
On a side note, I recently went back to our hometown in Bolinao, Pangasinan to inspect a project there. Having to endure the six to nine hour travel time back and forth, the trips gives me the opportunity to just sit and think, since there is nothing to do inside the bus, unless you have the urgent need to go to the john, and therefore worry when the bus will finally reach the stop over point up north.
Which brings me back to the main topic of this piece. The development of the province of Bolinao, specifically Alaminos, home of the Hundred Islands, and/or Bolinao, slated as the next Boracay.
Allow me to explain.
________________
Alaminos is the town prior to Bolinao (although there are a few more towns in between). It is a prime tourist destination because of the hundred islands. But the way to the port leading to the hundred island is obscure and undeveloped.
Bolinao is located at the northwestern part of Luzon. If you will imagine the mainland via a simple sketch, it is the small "horn" we see when we draw the map of Luzon. It has magnificent beaches, historical lighthouses, museums, and the UP Marine Science Insitute research facility. Is has been said that the town is being redeveloped into the next Boracay.
Now let's connect the dots. Lets do a little writing freefall.
Many tourist destinations. Unconnected. Obscure. Undeveloped. But frequented.
MSI. University. Research. Environmental.
Beaches. Boracay. Tourists.
So for purposes of writing it down before I lose it, my proposed thesis topic would roughly be on the development of the towns of Bolinao and Alaminos, with focus on the introduction and/or development of the tourism and academic / research centers within the region. Think university town. Think Boracay. Will the two mesh? What will be the problems, in terms of environmental, social, economic? Will it sell? Will the residents like it?
What do you think? Comments are most welcome.
