blissery loves company, really

As a response to Sir Arao's "challenge". (Read about it here.)

Read all about Sir Arao's Maskom days here.

Aaaand here's mine:

I entered the UP College of Mass Communication as a Journalism major in June 2003. My first semester enrollment was uneventful, but I do have a story to tell regarding another semester enrollment (I just can’t recall the year).

I got berated by a beauty queen.

Well, Theresa Licaros wasn’t a beauty queen then. She was taking up Broad Comm, a lowly student like most of us. Except that on that particular sem she was one of the many student registration assistants, so she ranked above us. For reference:

 

registration assistant

dirt

student

 

She had short hair and a perpetual frown. I didn’t blame her – the weather was crazy. It was sunny when I arrived at UP and raining when I got to the Admin windows at CMC.

I can’t remember now what I did wrong with my Form 5. All I remember was that she actually came out of the Admin office with my document in her hand and said something to me in a furious, controlled voice. Uh-oh, I thought, but I was too hungry to feel embarrassed, or to actually understand what she was saying.

So years later, when she joined the Miss Universe pageant, my relatives kept saying, O, taga-Maskom daw. Kilala mo? I said no, because I really couldn't remember her face. Only when she came over to PDI (where I work now in Research) for one of the Read-Along sessions did the fact hit home.

Uh-oh, I thought. Siya pala yun?!

Ahe. E sorry naman.

* * *

I loved school. There, I said it. So sue me. I was one of those boring, diligent (God, I hate that word. It sounds like something perverse) students who, if you’re cool, you probably hate. You know, I pass my papers on time (sometimes even earlier), I actually answer the questions the professor poses, I scribble tiny notes on the margins of readings, etcetera. I don’t even have a CMC org (although madalas akong tumambay sa UJP-UP noon, up to the point na muntik na akong palayasin ni Steph). Disgusting. Unforgivable.

Oh, and here’s the kicker: I never really learned the art of cramming.

I shall burn forever in the fires of hell.

* * *

However, while writing this blog post, all I can actually remember of my stay at CMC are the jokes.

Wait.

Professor Danilo Arao was my first Journalism professor (Journ 100 – History of the Press). In a lesson about audience and perception (if I’m not mistaken, sir), he used Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time as an example. It’s like, the original idea for the Spears video was that she’d be one of the Power Rangers or something like that, and she hated it because she knew what the audience would make of it. Or something like that.

I don’t suppose that’s a joke.

* * *

Anyway, most of the jokes I remember came from Professor Luis Teodoro:

Teodoro: I’ve written a book about Filipinos in Hawaii.
Student: What’s the title of the book, sir?
Teodoro: [pause] Filipinos in Hawaii.

 
Teodoro: There’s a newspaper in Iloilo called Panay News. Pero may editorials din naman sila.

Teodoro: I don’t understand why you young people keep saying, ‘In fairness’. You have to say ‘to’ afterwards. ‘In fairness to.’ [pause, mimics us] ‘In faaairness.’


Sir Lui going all camp = death to students. =)

* * *

Then there’s this one time, while I was at the Journ Department attempting to call a source for a report (I think; I can’t really remember) when Sir Arao and Sir Teodoro entered:

 
Sir Arao: Gusto mong maki-angkas sa bike ko?
Sir Teodoro: O?
Sir Arao: Hindi nga. May extra akong helmet.

Paano ka naman makakatawag nang maayos ‘di ba? So siyempre binaba ko muna yung phone, tumalikod, at humagikgik nang tahimik. Hay, haha.

* * *

Sir Arao ended up as my thesis adviser, and yeah, yeah, as expected I was among the first who passed the finished product. (If not the first – but I believe I’ve been damned enough.)

Sabi nga ni Glenn, nung pumasok daw sila ni Kath sa office ni Sir Arao, nakapatong yung helmet ni Sir sa bound thesis ko. Aba, e I’ll take that as a compliment. Yun yata yung helmet na muntik nang isuot ni Sir Teodoro.

(Or baka sinuot nga niya, kung tinanggap niya yung offer ni Sir Arao.)

(Good Lord, the imagery, the imagery.)

* * *

Mayroon naman kaming ibang mga propesor sa CMC, ano. Wala lang akong maisip na nakakatawang anecdote regarding them ngayon. (Pasensya na po.) =)

 

* * *

You see, this isn’t a very serious post. Hell, it’s not even a very coherent one. Pero ganun naman e. Looking back now, more than a year after graduation (I graduated April 2007), I realize that most of the things that bothered me then: the news article that just wasn’t good enough, the personality profile that came back all mutilated and sad and bleeding, the essay questions, the reports, the thesis (*screams*), and the belief – the utter, seemingly irreversible belief – that my writing skills were insufficient and would never improve –

Well, now I realize how silly they were, how shallow, how (dare I say it?) impermanent.

And yet, how infinitely important.  

* * *

I’ll mimic Sir Arao and just end this post with my graduation picture.

 

Yes, naka-smile.

 

Natawa ako dito sa sinabi ni Sir Arao e: Aside from being accused as a top propaganda officer of the communists, I was branded as “gay” because of the way I posed or smiled in front of the camera.

Well, ang masasabi ko lang sa inyong lahat, mga giliw na mambabasa, ay ito –

Kung estudyante ka, or gradweyt ka ng (UP) Maskom, aba, e bakla ka.

‘Wag ka nang magkaila.

Alam namin ang sikreto mo. =)

* * *

And what is it that they say?

Oh, right.

In faaaaairness. =)

 

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