School boy

My workmates have been giving me a hard time all day because I came in to work in a long-sleeved shirt and black shoes. Everyone who saw me today had a wisecrack about my appearance because, as Jio put it, "Sanay kasi kaming nakikita kang naka-tsinelas lang eh." The funniest wisecrack (as usual) came out of Bonbon, who asked, "O, Jaemark, grumaduate ka ba kanina?" To which Darwin later added, "Baka galing sa Baccalaureate Mass."

Actually, hindi ko lang masabi, mag-d-D.I. ako mamayang gabi.

I actually came from an interview for my graduate school application. Everyone else there actually wore spiffier clothing than I did, with neckties and everything. I almost cracked up when I saw that the professor who was going to interview me was wearing a very comfortable worn-out short-sleeved plaid polo.

I did well enough in what wasn't much of an interview, lasting only fifteen minutes. Probably not even worth wearing a long-sleeved shirt on a hot summer day for, or even a day's worth of ribbing from my workmates :p


While in the waiting room moments before my interview, I was thinking about what I was getting myself into. It's certainly something I've thought about doing for the longest time, ever since I first started working. It was something I thought I'd be doing some time in the future, and this was something I casually mentioned during job interviews, probably leaving my would-be employers more impressed than they ought to be, thinking Oh good, this kid's got ambition. Soo not true.

In my mind, though, grad school was always in my future. But the thing with this future stuff is, it comes much sooner than you expect, and when you get there you just have to go out and do it. Which is why I was sitting there in the waiting room with only the vaguest idea what I was getting myself into.

So I made up a list of reasons why I was going into grad school:

-- I won't be available anymore, or at least, not as much. See, among my friends (and to a certain extent, among people at work), I'm the guy who's always available, and every other person is busy for some good, valid reason, like kids, girlfriends, some semblance of a life, etc. I won't have any of those, but at least I'd get to say, "Oh, I can't... I'm busy."

-- I could eat at Mang Jimmy's after class.

-- It's my last chance to get good grades. See, I've never been an honor student in my life, mostly because I've always been too lazy to put in the work required to get great grades. Maybe this will be my opportunity to make up for all of that. But I probably won't :p

-- I'd finally be a student at Diliman.

-- I could get myself a new UP ID. I lost my old UPLB ID during junior year, and I never got around to getting myself a new one until I finished school.

-- I'll get to write my old student number again. I know this sounds weird, but a couple of weeks ago, while passing my application form, the nice lady at the admissions office asked me to write down my old student number again, and I swear, it gave me the chills.

-- I'm 24. It's a three-year program. While I feel good about being a young-man-at-24, I'd probably feel better about myself being a young-man-at-27-with-a-master's-degree.

-- I'd (hopefully) meet new, interesting people. New, interesting people are good.

-- There's always a chance that I'd meet a rich, hot chick with a nice car. Although I'd probably settle for people who'd give me a lift to Mang Jimmy's.

- posted by jaemark @ 3/28/2006 11:09:00 PM