Tambayan with the UP Intellectuals

Late upload. Meet the highly respected intellectuals of UP SOLAIR (L-R, Gracey, Anto, moi, Jefran, Jab, et Anne). Photo from Anto

The past evening turned out to be a breeze for me. I had an interesting class last night in my Occupational Safety and Health (IR 216) course in UP SOLAIR. So much for the enlightenment about critical safety and health issues at work, I deemed the lectures very valuable for me and for my classmates. My professor, Dr. Theresita Atienza, even commended our class because for the first time in her graduate teaching career, she was able to experience having students who delved away from the usual formal lecturing and reporting set-up and manage to perform beyond her expectations. Moreover, she reiterated that our class was a perfect picture of an "ideal" UP class where students really raise a critical eye on relevant issues and responsibly take courage to discuss them in class.

It was also an iffy gamble for me to decide to go home or wait for some moments in school to meet some of my friends who also went to their respective classes. In the outside lobby, I met Jeff, who at first, seemed to look like distressed. I later realized that he just came from a midterm examination and confessed that he never got sufficient sleep time the past night (as a safety practitioner, I would have reprimanded him for not observing it) due to his work commitments. Later in the evening Anto and Bammer came with the same "drained" look. So it was unanimously voted that we take dinner elsewhere.

The Grill Queen diner in Maginhawa Street proved to be a suitable venue for the gang to talk (Jeff, thanks for the salad treat! yum!), share infamous stories of our personal experiences in school and work (Jeff, na-bingo ka na sa boss mo hehe) and our different perspectives in life and the society. I really miss these late-night talks with my school organizations and friends from my political affiliations so I guess it really made my evening very satisfying.

Bammer went ahead after dinner so the three of us had no choice but to continue our perspective-sharing activities at the Tree House Restaurant in Matalino Road. There were endless debates and discussions about our political frameworks and advocacies were taking place.

Public Administration vs. UP Baguio Political Science (UPB Pol Sci daw ang ok sabi ni Jeff).... Democratization vs. Access to UP Education (Anto ikaw ang may gamay nito)....Pluralism (McRhon and Anto's specialty)..... UP SOLAIR vs. other graduate schools in UP......need for more stringent reforms in the graduate student admission policy..... These are some of a long litany of topics that we have been squabbling for the next three hours.

The boys even kept on importuning me to re-consider my decision not to run for the next year's Student Council Batch. I told them that my two-year stint in the Student Council has already made a difference for the College and I felt it was the time to pass the torch to the next generation of students.

Not suprisingly, Anto never failed to remind me that I am still needed by the College and I am in the best position to influence the studentry. Also, I was putting more hopes that both of them also consider running for the contested council slots. To my elation, I felt that I have found not only a team who are interested to promote innovations in the Council (hopefully) for the coming year, but a group of convicted souls whom I can share lifelong friendship as well. Was my earlier decision not to run been reconsidered? Partly yes.......

For in this evening, I have felt my life revolved around in another horizon that was once taken off from me after I graduated from my undergraduate program in College. Perspective-sharings and debates allows someone like me to be heard. I was able to discover people who have been very passionate to introduce positive changes to the College.

What a way to end my day (Thank you pala Boylet for your boisterous bark, nagising tuloy lahat ng mga natutulog sa neighborhood natin.)!