Bottled Sky

My college friends and I hung out this weekend. It had been months since I last saw some of them, so I was really excited. We went swimming, had pancakes for dinner, played PS2 (they played; I just randomly pressed buttons), (re)watched Golden Boy, drank, slept a little, then woke up and had leftover alcohol with our breakfast. Good times.

Of course there was gift giving, too. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I didn’t have much money to spend on gifts this year, so I did a lot of DIYing. This time I drew cartoon alter egos of the girls, had them printed, and found matching desktop frames for each drawing:

They loved it! Seeing their reactions to the cartoons got me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. The guys pretend-pouted and asked why I didn’t do the same for them, so I mock-complained about how hard they were to draw because they all looked alike, hehe. I did try, but unfortunately I can’t draw boys as well as I can girls. I got them uber-geeky squeeze flashlights instead. Maybe next year.

Happy holidays, everyone! And thanks to Rose for being extra cool.

My old high school barkada (Filipino for “clique” or “group of friends”) got together for our annual holiday dinner last night. It’s been getting harder and harder to schedule our gatherings, because everyone’s so busy these days. A couple of our friends weren’t able to make it, but we still had a great time just talking and catching up on each other’s lives.

As we talked about what we’d been up to the past year, what our plans were for the near future and how silly we’d all been in high school, it hit me—we’re all grown up! When did that happen?!

Anyway, we always get each other little tokens for Christmas, but since I’m dead broke (having recently spent all the allowance money I had saved over my last year in college on a brand-new, work-appropriate wardrobe) I had to be creative with my gift-giving this year. My solution? Custom wall calendars:

I simply modified one of the calendar templates from Microsoft Office Online, personalized it with my own artwork and had several copies printed on glossy poster paper for a few bucks each. I topped them off with matching gift tags and voila! Cute and inexpensive gifts!

It has finally happened. I’m a college graduate! It won’t be official until they release the final list of second-semester graduates in December, but I have completed all the requirements for a UP Journalism degree. I still can’t believe it. The whole thing is surreal to me. I feel so overwhelmingly relieved that it’s over, but at the same time it seems somewhat anti-climactic. Is it because I finished in October instead of March? I’m not sure. However, I am quite grateful that I managed to get through college mostly unscathed.

I say mostly, because I did hit a couple of speed bumps along the way. I had originally chosen to major in Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE), because I mistakenly thought a math lover like me would be most suited for an engineering degree. I very soon realized my mistake, and this blog became host to my rantings on the evils of ECE. To get a better idea of how much I disliked my old course, check out what I doodled at the back of one of my ECE readings:

Of course, this one has been digitally cropped and colored. The original doodle shows the three stages of ECE insanity, complete with accompanying text. Hmmm, maybe if I had spent more time concentrating on the actual lessons instead of doodling I would have done better… Nah!

However rough my academic life had been in ECE, I can honestly say that I had a lot of fun there. I made many wonderful friends in ECE and managed to keep them even after shifting to Journalism. Cue cheesy photo montage.

Unlike ECE, Journalism was fun because of the coursework. I’m not saying it was easy, but it was challenging in a manner that I liked. There was a lot of room for creativity in Journalism, while in ECE there was practically none. I got to play reporter/photographer/producer/poet/etcetera. I interned at a fashion magazine, where I met many “interesting” people. I was even able to apply my favorite hobbies (drawing and designing websites) to my academic work. I would have never been able to do any of those things had I stayed in Engineering.

Another thing that would have been impossible for me in ECE: I got a cum laude average! Well, I’m not actually getting the honor because of a silly technicality — I wasn’t able to complete all my Physical Education classes within the first four semesters. Funny, huh? I really don’t mind, because I’m not the scholarly type, and grades don’t matter much to me. Still I can’t help but feel good about myself that, despite my procrastination problem, I managed to do well in that respect.

With or without honors, I’m just happy to graduate! I’m finally done! Woohoo! So now what? Unfortunately I still don’t have the answer to that, hehe. Until further notice, I am a bum. Oy.

This week has been quite interesting so far, at least for me. I got to try a lot of new things, including riding a bike (I never learned as a kid) and getting a big ol’ shot in my thigh. Here’s a rundown of my week:

Continue reading Of Bikes and Bites »