A Day In My Shoes

To spend a life for me means living without too much unnecessary needs and wants. One accurate reason would be because I cannot afford having such. However, knowing my own personality, a simple citizen of this country, I can proudly say I cannot be like that even if I am better-off like Lopez, Ayala, etc. I hope that as you read my paper you’d see yourself how it is living one day on my shoes.

From Tuesdays to Fridays, I’d wake up early in the morning. Probably two hours before my 1^st class or sometimes, when I need to finish a requirement on that morning, I’d wake up at around 4 o’clock. I usually get up first before I hear my cell phone alarm. At times, I’d ask my mother to wake me up and one good thing is that I am not hard to wake up. Little noises are big disturbances to me. However, on weekends, the latest time that I’d wake up is 12nn and as teenagers would call it, I’ll be eating “brunch” (breakfast and lunch) on lunch time. Blockmates!

Eating breakfast is like a mood for me. When I’m happy and bouncy, I would eat a lot for breakfast so that I can save money for early lunch at school and I can have bountiful amount of energy. But when I am not, I’d go straight to the bathroom and take a shower. Since our family can be classified as below average or average type of family in the Philippine setting, my mother would always prepare hotdog, embutido, scrambled egg, noodles or Lucky Me Hot and Spicy Pancit Canton or if she cannot cook for me she would buy goto at the nearby eatery. Any of those for breakfast is enough for me. I don’t ask for something new.

After ten minutes of eating, I’d go taking a bath for 15- 20 minutes while 20- 40 minutes during weekends. I can’t do a lot and stay a little longer inside the bathroom because I should hurry so that I won’t be late for my first class.

I spend 15- 20 minutes dressing up for school but whenever I go somewhere, in the mall or to a party, 20 – 30 minutes would be enough to make me all ready. We don’t have maids of course so I do all the ironing and sorting of our clothes except for washing. We hire a lady to do the washing for us.

Sometimes, when it isn’t raining or the weather is not too hot, my father and I would ride our motorcycle and he’d send me to school. 10-15 minutes would be enough for my father to take me to MC since motorcycle riding knows no traffic. But when it’s raining too hard, the sun is too high and I have lots of things to bring, I’d take FX or jeepney going to school. 30 minutes when there’s no traffic and more than that when there’s a bumper to bumper traffic especially at Katipunan Avenue.

That’s how everyday, especially in college for me. All school days are the same to me. It only varies on the things I am going to do in school. Sometimes, we have plain lectures, quizzes, oral reports, graded recitation, written exams and sometimes, the professor isn’t around. Well, that’s how school day goes for me. And it goes again and again every day.

During weekends, some teenagers like me would go shopping in the mall and attending parties but I’d rather stay home and do more important things there. During Saturdays, it’s either I go to school for work (I am a college scholar and I am required to do work in school.), attend dance training or stay home. As a college scholar, I am assigned to work in the Administrative Services Office (AO) for 70 hours per semester. Good thing this semester, I only have to work half of the working hours so that makes it 35 hours because fortunately, I made it in the dean’s list last semester. It’s automatic that the working hours of a college scholar who made it in the dean’s list will be divided into half. It’s actually one of my driving forces why I study really very hard.

On Sundays, I’d wake up at 12nn again but sometimes, actually most of the time, when there’s a big need to work on my assignments on Saturdays and Sundays, I’d wake up at around 8 am. Attending mass is the highlight of my Sundays. I’d see to it that I hear mass every Sunday, however, due to sickness and sometimes, my homeworks, I can no longer attend mass and I only hear mass on TV. Just last February 2009, I became a member of St. Cecillia’s Liturgical Children’s Choir. Actually, I’m not really into singing but I want to sing for Him although I cannot really sing in good tune. Most of the members are children ages 10- 17 years old.

ST CECILLA'S CHOIR

When I was in grade school and high school, Monday is a school day. But come college, Monday is no longer a school day but a day to either rest, do loads of homeworks, attend organization where I am a member, or simply stay home. Well, Monday is also a work day for me. I usually go to school to work and afterwards, go home or either attend training.

When it comes to shopping and preferences for certain types of products, I am neither a very meticulous nor a choosy type of buyer. Aside from the fact that I don’t have much money to splurge on highly branded apparels, foot wears and accessories, I can satisfy myself with clothes sold in RTWs, Divisoria, Greenhills, tiangges, dry market and ukay-ukay. I don’t buy expensive branded things. Neither do I ask my parents nor friends to buy me such. I am fine with products which aren’t that expensive and aren’t branded for as long as they suit my simple style and they can last long. I love to buy products that are very colorful. I just hate buying things that are plain red, orange and black. Cute-looking products attract my eyes so easily that I buy some of them at times. On top of shopping and buying thing, the most important point that I never forget is that I will not buy things that I will not use. It’s not my habit to waste money and effort.

During spare times like summer vacations, semestral breaks, and holidays, I usually stay home. I am not so much into traveling to some places except of course if a family friend of us invited us for free, somewhere in Boracay or Tagaytay which happened three years ago. At home, I think there are a lot of things I do there during spare time. Sporty and outgoing (not literally that I often like going out :p) - those are just some of the adjectives to describe me. My friends and I play volleyball and badminton outside our house. Sometimes, I also play basketball which I learned to love just last semester because of our PE104 class. Just last summer, I also learned to love playing cards. My friend taught me how to play cards and my older sister even taught me how to play poker. While on the other side, dancing is something I love to do. I am a member (SY07-09) and the IVP of Miriam C*CATT Street Dancers (SY 09-10). Our group performs in orientations, invitational guestings, competitions, etc. This is one of the things that make me really busy aside from my academics, work, family and friends.

C*CATT AND SCANDOLLZ ( my highschool barkada :P )

As for my preparation for the future, I make it a point to understand and be able to apply all the important processes and ideas I have learned in school because I know that more or less, those would be my weapons as I enter the corporate world. Just last Friday, we met in our TV prod class and I’m so overwhelmed by the way everything goes in TV so I would really listened very carefully so that I’d learn so much. My classmate and I are planning to apply in ABS-CBN for internship. This TV Prod class would be very beneficial for my future OJT and work days. I also want to be trained in Radio Production. I want to be a DJ or maybe someone who works for radio. After two to three years, I am planning to work abroad. My parents are of great influence to me so they said that I should work abroad because of high salary. Honestly, I am not yet sure if I’m going to pursue this but if times and situations call for it, I might as well take it.

In one to two years, I’d be in the real world, working and earning a living. When I entered college, I started to prepare myself to become a responsible person. I think that the right time to start is now. I treat every professor as a boss and every task as a job assigned to me and I am paid so I should do my best to give a good output and become an outstanding employee/ college student.

All of these comprise my personal lifestyle, plans for the future, habits and activities. Well, life is not a matter of spending it the way you want, but treating everyday like it’s the last.