Hanging on a hook of my ancient cabinet are the medals I got in my life. Actually, they are all medals I got in my college life, and any medals I got in my early elementary years are all lost (since I don’t value them at all). I am not at all very active at school in my elementary and high school years. I didn’t join school-accredited clubs, competitions, or extra-curricular activities. Heck, I was never an honor student since I was Grade 3. Maybe I am just too passive and lazy and bored to earn myself some achievements in my academic career. I have the mentality that such are irrelevant to actual living and they are not worth bothering about. It was never my cup of tea. But, surprisingly, when I entered college, I found myself earning medals. Hmmm. As if the rule of Bernel “numbness” and laziness on school activities disappeared in college.
I am not
that smart. I am not really that active
in school. There are only 6 medals. But compared to what I got in elementary and
high school, which is zero, these are actually noteworthy.
So here
is the story behind each of them, in chronological order.
Master of Strings – Champion (Freshman)
I am not
actually thinking of joining any competition in our college intramurals as a
freshman (with the course BS Accountancy).
As I’ve said, I don’t want to be bothered with any school
activities. I find them no fun. Plus, the intramurals would serve as vacation
time from school. However, Juris, a senior
of mine in high school, who is aware of my guitar talents, asked me to join him
to play in the intrams’ musical competition.
Well, I really don’t want to join.
But I guess something in me was curious on what would it feel to experience it,
that I agreed.
We would
compete in the “acoustic rendition” and the “master of strings” competition – a
competition for guitar instrumentals. But
our band of four only fully concentrated on the acoustic rendition competition,
and had only a decent practice for the master of strings hours before the
competition.
That night,
when it was our time for the acoustic rendition competition, I got my first taste
of Murphy’s Law in a competition. I
found that the pick-up cable for my acoustic guitar was too short. Bummer.
I had to settle with a microphone to amplify my acoustic guitar, but
actually the mic was inutile since it can never really capture the sound of the
acoustic, thus my guitar was impossible to hear. We only ended up second in that competition,
and I’ll give credit to our brilliant vocalist for getting us to at least second
(more about her later).
Now,
though I am not very active in school competitions, I did develop a competitive
nature. This is because of playing
computer games (I even won an award in a “Pangya” competition, though it was
only my first time to play that game. And
never played that game again after the competition. I just wanted the prize money) and being
exposed to an internet café environment (very competitive). I already knew we would not win in the
acoustic rendition before the winner was announced. I hate losing. And I don’t like to come out empty handed
that night. Thus, I made a decision that
when we play in the master of strings, I would stay near the sound system
controls, which was down the stage and away the eyes of the audience, so that
my short pick-up cable would reach the sound system and my guitar playing,
which was our ace, would be heard. Juris
was the only one who stayed on the stage (his acoustic has no pick-up, but he made
use of the four microphones available).
With that settled, we played some parts of “Hotel California” and Alamid’s
“Your Love” – with me let loose for about 8 minutes of guitar solo. We won.
Probably, the mystique of being an “invisible instrumentalist”
(remember, most of the audience can’t see me since I was not on stage but
beside the sound system controls) helped.
The management department actually had, I admit, the best guitarist of
the college, but I got to beat him… at least that night.
I am
always proud to be a guitar slinger. But
that competition made me a “master of strings”… at least, for that year.
Acoustic Rendition – Champion (Sophomore)
I built a band that has lead
guitar (Eugene), rhythm guitar (Janine), violin (Rich), percussions (yours truly)
and, most importantly (voice quality has a major percentage in the criteria),
lead vocals (Gra). I wanted the
performance to be “un-mainstream” and “show band-style” – to be close to a “professional-sound”
as much as possible. Thus, not only I
instructed the instrumentalists to be polished, I also designed them to serve
as backup vocals. Yes, I was a “musical
director”, but I did not make any much “directing.” Yes, I gave the initial instructions, but I
allowed them to figure it out for themselves.
It was a true team effort. And,
boy, these guys practiced well individually to get their part that when we
finally put the individual parts together, it was so good. Gra, as before, was the ace. Her voice is one of the best I ever heard, so
ideal to be the front of a band. She
ranks at my top three vocalists I had performed with (her bestfriend Kaye is
also there. I performed with them when I
was in high school, in the Morph all-star band’s gig at the Pacifif Mall. I could still remember the date: December 17, 2005. Pity, I do not have a video. It was one of the best performances I was
part of). Our piece was The Corrs’ “Only
When I Sleep”. I am not exaggerating if
I say that Gra sang it on par with Andrea Corr.
I was also part of the master of
strings competition that year. Just like the last year, our only real practice
was hours before the competition. But this
time, we did not win. That guitarist of
the management department finally did something so awesome I actually
considered conceding before it was our turn to perform. He probably wanted to
get back at me for my “upset” win against him the previous year.
Academic Scholarship (Junior)
General Information Quiz Bowl – Champion (Senior)
I was an officer of the newly-accredited Junior Institute of Business Administration in my last year in college (see, I’m more “active” in school than I was in high school. Really strange) and I was tasked as top head for the intramurals that year. So, I was tasked to head the organization of participants, and uniforms, and other matters regarding the JIBA’s participation for the intrams. It was not as if I did it all, the other officers were actually more hands on, while I am more on assigning tasks and responsibilities and “putting it all together and making it flow smoothly.” Too “busy” as overhead chairman of the JIBA for the intrams, I was still able to find time to join three events: acoustic rendition, instrumental (replacing the original “master of strings” competition), and GI quiz bowl (I “captained” in all three events. I applied and taught them the use of my usual strategy or practices, which includes a prayer before the start of the respective competition… and lots of psyching out strategies during or before the competition). You can watch our acoustic rendition and instrumental performances in this site, which we lost (I could give reasons why, but a loss is a loss. No excuses). However, we won the GI quiz in an epic fight.
So, as overall head of the JIBA,
I pick “Team Rabat” to compete in the college intrams’ GI quiz that year,
now with a management days quiz bowl under the team’s belt. We were never at all in the lead of the entire
competition until that decisive last question.
We were second place so far and were down by 3 points. The last question in the difficult category, which was worth 5 points, in paraphrase, was “what
was the living together of animals for benefit?” (the question was longer than
that. As I pointed out, it’s my
paraphrase). I quickly wrote “symbiosis.” Now, the usual answer that would be made
would be “mutualism”, the popular example of symbiosis, and I know that it was
probable that the other teams would have it as their answer. My two teammates told me, “It’s mutualism.” They wanted me to change it. My rationalization: “We are down by
three. Now, the other groups, including
the lead group, would probably answer ‘mutualism’ – the most popular type of
symbiosis. Now if all teams answer ‘mutualism’,
and if it is correct, the lead group still wins. And if all of the teams answer ‘mutualism’, and it is wrong,
the lead group still wins. Now, if we answer differently from what they are thinking, which is ‘symbiosis’, which is
also probable to be correct, we have a gambling chance of edging them. If ‘symbiosis’ is correct, and ‘mutualism’ is
wrong, then we win by 2 points. If we
are wrong with ‘symbiosis’, it is no different from the scenarios in which we answer
‘mutualism’ like the other teams. By ‘symbiosis’, we have a one last wild gambit. Besides, I am almost sure that ‘symbiosis’ is
the correct answer.” My analysis and
answer were correct. The other teams answered “mutualism” but the
correct answer was “symbiosis”, our answer, and we won by two points. It was like a buzzer beater game winner.
Dean’s Lister (Senior)
Cum Laude
Outrageous. Me?
Cum laude? I was never the
scholarly type. I was never an honor
student in high school. It was “impossible.”
And that is why I appreciate
this medal and this honor. Because it is
“impossible.” But because of God, he
made the “impossible” possible. He gave me the wisdom and intelligence. He made the high grades possible. All Glory belongs to Him.
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