a catch of fishy files

catch #1: "okay, ready? 1..2..3.. SMILE!!!"

Exactly a week before graduation, I (finally) had my grad pic taken. Woo. It was a big hassle! Huhu. I’m never really a fan of studio pictorials, so imagine my smirk when I walked in IC’s bar (not to drink beer) but to have my hair and make-up done by over-excited gays and posing for the camera, immortalizing my pride as a graduate in a glass frame that would eventually collect dust anyway. Pfft. But then again, there’s that nagging feeling that I JUST HAD TO DO IT! Oh well, six years in college and I don’t even have a damn picture to prove it.. so I said to myself, how bad can it be?!

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Well, it was so bad I was almost wishing the bar will open so I can have a cold beer. My back was hurting because the over-excited gay makeup artist told me to sit still like a statue while I wait for my turn. Apparently, I was the last girl to have my picture taken. Hmm, lucky strike. I couldn’t move around because my hair was styled with one of those hair sprays with fruity smells. Waaah!!! Of all smells, why did it have to be melon?! Huhuhuhu. And I had no idea what my creative shot would be (it was an impulsive decision to sign up for that pictorial)… I was ready to accept the fact that my grad pic will be doomed, and that my grandchildren will laugh their heads off when they see my smug face. Tsktsk.

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Finally, it was my turn. Thank God for Pakshet and Hausmate who were there to make my smile more human, and not those mechanical-looking grins. Halfway through the pictorial, I was finally having fun, smiling NATURALLY and not those pilit smiles chuvanes. Heehee. The idea for my creative shot struck me, and I couldn’t wait to tell the badings what to do for my hair and what outfit to wear. Hmm. =p

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To wrap things up, it wasn’t that bad after all. My brod and I were the last ones to have our pictures taken, so we had time to fool around with cellphone cameras while the photographer downed his burger and fries. Oh, and if you’re wondering what my creative shot was, I posed as Brooke Burke in Need for Speed Underground. Hahaha! And I specifically told the photographer that I wanted a layout of a red car in the background.. you know, para realistic. Heehee.. =p (if you want a copy, just let me know.. haha!)

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catch #2: what’s next?!

After all the excitement about graduation and all that crap, it’s time to think what my future will be. Nyahaha! It’s funny how I think these days. It’s like having a new journal and you can’t wait to fill it up.. it’s like finally taking the wheel and directing your life where you want it to be.. yeah, six years in college and my life was a rollercoaster ride.. mwahaha! Gee, is this me talking?!

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So like any fresh grad craving for something to do, I did the most humane thing I could do.. I logged on to jobstreet to look for a job - but no, I didn’t search for Biology related jobs.. ha! No lab work for me.. no way! A few days later I had calls and texts from different companies, and one even asked (in an almost unbelievable tone) if I was sure that I wanted to apply as a web content writer. Haha! Hey, I could be a Biology graduate but I can write! Pakshet na un, pakialamera! Hmf!

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Anyhoots, I had an exam yesterday for an editorial ekek position in a company somewhere in blahblah. Heehee. (I won’t name companies muna, baka maudlot eh..) =p Super thanks to Fan for waiting for 2 hours.. At least our efforts didn’t go down the drain, because the HR girl just called me this afternoon to inform me that I was invited for an interview on Thursday. Hehe. Wish me luck, you guys! =)

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That’d be my chika for the meantime.. I’ll let you know if I get the job. If I don’t, then you won’t be hearing from me. Haha. I kid. I kid. =) I don’t intend to work as in super soon (I want to have a vacation pa after my grad).. and I don’t intend to work permanently because I plan to pursue my Journalism in June next year. Heehee.. Planado?! It’s about time… =)

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catch #3: 3 days to go..

I just can’t wait. Huwaaaahhh!

Enough said.

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This post will more or less summarize the six years I spent in college to finish that goddamn Biology, and while it may look like an idiot’s guide, it’s not entirely recommended that freshies out there follow everything by the letter - well, not unless you want to end up like me, you don’t heehee. =p

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1. Take up a course that’s entirely out of your field. As for me, my field is writing, and I took up Biology. You get the picture.

2. Convince yourself that 4 years is just "chicken feed" and that you can finish your hated course on time. And keep your fingers crossed.

3. On your first lab exercise, describe the makahiya plant as if you’re writing an essay for the Palanca - while your classmates observe everything about the leaf from the roots to the tip… literally!

4. Do well on your exams for at least four semesters… and of course, do BEST on your subjects that you really like (i.e. English, speeches, etc.) and even write your roommate’s paper for her.

5. For your junior year, take up a major that everyone considers as the best of both worlds - Microbiology (because being a micro major will help you if you pursue medicine, and if you don’t, well, you can always work in a lab or something).

6. Get yourself a second adviser (for your major) and discuss your plan of study with her. Now, everyone knows it’s bullshit because you don’t really get to follow your plan of study the way you planned. Hmmm.

7. On the summer before your senior year, get a 3rd adviser (the pervious one just vanished, apparently) who persuades you to change your plan of study and go for thesis as your major option.

8. During the process mentioned above, ask yourself if you’re in your right mind.

9. Get your draft done by the end of summer and have your mind set on working on your experiment as soon as the semester starts in June.

10. The 1st semester of your senior year kicks in and you find yourself in a far away land where aliens have their booze sessions during the wee hours of the morning - the place is called Biotech.

11. Your acads is doing fine, and you tell yourself that you have to nail that thesis or else you’re doomed. Then, you convince yourself that you can do it. (harhar!)

12. Your 3rd adviser suddenly flies out of the country, leaving your with a just-started thesis experiment, and a hell of a 4th adviser (I mean, Mam O.?!?! it’s academic suicide if you ask me..)

13. Anyhoots, you work in the lab where you grow cultures of stinking bacteria. Half of the time that you’re there, you’re asking yourself where in the world are you. You see nothing but green fields, hear nothing but the murmurs of the lab technicians, smell nothing but agar and taste nothing but your chewing gum (you can’t smoke in there, dummy!)

14. You enter that phase when you just don’t care.

15. You get a major award for all the "work" you’ve done so far on your thesis: your bacteria keep dying (screw you all!!), you’re not even halfway through the experiment and you just don’t go to the lab as often as you have to. You’re so warla by the end of the day that by the time you get to your tambayan, you’re so furious you made a poor applicant cry. (Sorry, Mia!)

16. You stop going to Biotech altogether. And you don’t even care.

17. By this time, you know you’ll never make it to the 2004 graduation rites. Pfft! And again, you don’t even care.

18. Your 5th year looks promising… you change for your 5th adviser (thank God for Canada and Mam O’s plans to just go there) who’s so cute you just had to make up your mind and finish that goddamn thesis. Heehee.

19. But no! Hahaha! Whatever you do, you just know in your agar-clotted brain that you can’t do that thesis again… you make up your mind that you’ll never go to Biotech again and have another major warla moment. No way.

20. Your 5th adviser finally gave up and offered you to change option to all course. You see a light at the end of the tunnel.

21. Then everything went kaput again and they tell you that you can’t change options and you’re stuck in doing that *^%^#^& thesis!!

22. You change for your 6th (and last) adviser who gives you a whole new topic, but you get so busy with running your org, being the President and all, and you just let those biofilms go where they should be - down the drain.

23. Your adviser makes you so warla, commenting on your cheering activities and all those lousy excuses, and you can’t help but ask yourself: did she see me doing all those stunts?! (hahaha!)

24. On the serious side, go get warla yourself because the thought of not graduating at all and the domino effect it will have on your org and your whole life just frustrates you to bits.

25. You pray for a miracle.

26. Your adviser breaks the good news: a shot in changing your option to all course. Then you get close to the college sec and even have a little chitchat with the dean and voila!!! 6 units (2 subjects) to go! Bwahaha! *phew*

27. Second semester of your 6th year in college: your last semester. You know you can’t afford to fail either of your two subjects. The med micro, you can handle. But advanced genetics?! Mother of Mendel!!!

28. You crawl your way through genetics, feeling really stupid and blaming yourself for taking up that subject in the first place. You summon all the genes who master bio130a and you pester them every time you have an assignment.. heehee. After all, it’s do or die!

29. For your last exam, you study like you’ve never studied before. You walk like a zombie. Who cares if you miss all the gimmicks? You can’t taste your beer anyway. Who cares if your emotionally down? You’d be physically dead if you flunk this last exam. Who cares if your friend is laughing his head off watching Jack TV? You’ll never be laughing again if you don’t focus..

30. After all the nerve-racking, heart-thumping moments, you didn’t "just pass" the subject, you get a 2.5! Thanks to developmental genetics, you’ll never look at a fruit fly the same way again.

31. You celebrate. You treat your friends for pizza, for dinner, for coffee… the whole time, you have that stupid, dreamy smile on your face. You made it!!! Potah!!!

32. Then you go for a campus tour (just like the one you had when you were still a freshie), and get everybody’s signature for your clearance! Weeeee!! =) Oh, and don’t forget to say "Thank you, po!" every time you get a signature.. heehee!

33. Now all you have to do is wait for that day, April 29! =p

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And that, my friends, is how I finished goddamn Biology in 6 years! Mwahaha! Thanks for all the people I’ve met along the way.. B26, Spuds, Genes, Penguins, Diabetics, AT Peeps.. many, many more.. =)

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And to the real Bossing up there, and lakas ko talaga sayo!! =)