I am no longer the drama queen.

 I am bidding farewell to ‘her’.

I have found a new home.

You’ll soon find out where.

 

I promise. :)




It's sooner than you think. Click here, my dear.

I curse myself for slacking off again.

 

So last night’s blog post seemed to be filled with motivation and conviction that I am, at this moment, missing.

 

I was supposed to start writing my speech for the debate, but guess what I ended up doing. I ended up taking care of my crops in Country Story and managing my restaurant in Restaurant City. I didn’t do just that. I also went around the net to search for random things that are, in any way, not connected to climate change. Hell.

 

Whatever. I guess I just compensated for last night’s ‘work’. I stayed up late last night just to search for articles regarding the topic which I have not read yet. See? See? Facebook is evil.

 

So this is going to be it. I’m not going to do such irrelevant things until everything’s over. I have a few messages for people before I leave.

 

Ateneo people (kriselle, effie, and nicko): I know you guys are excellent writers. Help me think of a great ‘power’ opening that can make the opponents pee in their pants. Our stand is ‘Climate security should not be the priority’.

 

That’s it. Thanks. I love you all. 

There’s no turning back now.

I went to school today despite of today being a Wednesday because I had to attend a conference about the upcoming debate next week. Yesterday, we received the news that our team passed the first screening. As my block mates were applauding and cheering to congratulate us, all I managed to do was shout ‘Oh my goodness’ over and over. I was shocked because I never thought we’d get in (I didn’t want us to). Just thinking of how we ‘rushed’ our position paper drowned all possibilities of making it to the semi-finals which was a good thing for me since I never really wanted it to happen. But lo and behold, we got in.

Before going to CAS, I went to Robinsons first to buy the things I’ve put on my grocery list. I also bought candies on the way since I thought I’d be needing a lot of sugar to put me on a sugar high—a state wherein the spontaneous and bubbly me is alive. Moving on, as I was walking along Padre Faura, it began to rain! I had no choice but to continue walking. It made me feel like a real emo. I was wearing a pink shirt and a pink headband, though. Anyway, as I reached CAS, I found Ella there and offered her some of the candies I had bought from Candy Corner.

Later on, the rest of our debate team arrived. (I had to hand Kevin my ID over the fence just so he could get past the guards.) We then proceeded to the venue as we talked about Wonder Girls since Kevin had developed an obsession for the group. Kevin couldn’t stop singing and dancing hits by the Wonder Girls. Mind you, he’s a boy. 

When we got to the venue, the facilitators weren’t there yet and the classroom was still closed. We just continued our Wonder Girls talk with Kevin who handed out facts about the girls—including their birthdays and other personal info.

Later on, the facilitators arrived and asked us to go inside the classroom. Some of the other participants were already there as well. When we got seated, this guy oriented us about what we got ourselves into. He taught us this weird pose that we should do whenever we felt like giving a ‘point of information’ to the speaker. (It’s going to be the British Parliamentary type of debate) He also taught us a game called ‘killer killer’. No, it’s not the killer-blinks-at-victim-and-victim-dies game. It’s an ‘intellectual’ and debate-oriented version of the game. Obviously, it’s a lot harder than the conventional one since it involved arguing. We played three sets. To determine our roles, we had to draw lots. Unfortunately, I never got to play any of the major parts so I was always just a simple and boring citizen. Boo hoo.

What made my day appeared before me while we were playing Killer-Killer version 3.0. Like all the classrooms in our campus, the door in the room we were staying in had a window. I thought I saw a familiar face pass by so I kept looking through it. And then, HE passed by. Who’s HE? My crush! My first ever crush here in UPM who even has pictures in my digital camera! (Shameless me) My heart almost stopped when he entered the room. Turned out he was one of us. That meant he would be staying with us for the rest of the afternoon. My regrets of ever getting myself into the inter-block debate had gone into oblivion.

After the game, Prof. Kiko arrived to give us the ‘proper’ orientation.  We were given ‘debate kits’ which included a CD that I have yet to watch. Before starting, he asked those who had some kind of exposure in debates or had joined a debate before to raise their hands. To my delight, nobody did. It was great knowing we were all on equal footing.

The rest of the orientation went on smoothly. We watched videos, heard a lot of extemporaneous speeches from the professor, and had our own taste of arguing. Actually, it was fun. Well, without the pressure and anxiety growing inside me, it could have been more fun. Last year, block 25 of BS Nursing was the champion so just imagine how pressured we are right now especially when all those debate people never failed to ‘remind’ us. 

Before leaving the place, the match-ups for next week were revealed. We’ll be competing with the Biochemistry team! The team wasn’t there today so we had no idea who will be debating with us. It was kind of lucky, still, since we were given the freedom to choose which side we wanted to defend. By the way, next week’s topic will be ‘Climate security should be the priority’. We chose to be the opposition since it’s always good being the bad ones. I mean, with someone like me, it would probably be a good idea to be on the ‘evil’ side. 

After the conference, our team started planning. Ella gave us some kind of a pep talk telling us that we should really do our best instead of just letting it pass for the sake of getting over with it. We never chose to be there, but we shouldn’t make it an excuse to humiliate our block and stain the name of our college. Really, my attitude toward it has changed. Sure, I’ve never been in a debate like that before, but there’s a first for everything, right? Since I’ll be competing, I might as well just do my best. Maybe I do have a talent for it. Maybe I don’t. But my faith has taught me something. God wouldn’t put me there if He knew I couldn’t do it.

There’s really no turning back.

FLUNKING
Last week, we had this quiz in outlining and I flunked it. I’ve been worrying about it since Thursday, and when I finally got the result yesterday, I felt worse. I had known before that I failed, but I never knew that by saying ‘I flunked the quiz’, I was underrating. Oh well, I should get used to it. I guess I’m really just scared since it was our very first quiz in Comm 1 and I badly failed. I just hope Madam has more quizzes in store. Or else, I’d have to excel in our upcoming exams which is quite impossible for me.

DEBATING
You read it right. I am now one of our block’s representatives for the upcoming inter-block debate. I don’t know what got into my mind when I agreed to be part of the team. Maybe it was because of my block mates’ stares or simply because I HAD to since nobody would volunteer.

We were required to have five representatives. Before our Math 11 class, Ella went in front to talk about it and finally determine who the 5th and final member would be. I was sitting peacefully until somebody had the nerve to nominate me. All eyes were on me. They were also calling my name! They were BEGGING me. So, being the kindhearted person that I am NOW and because of Mark’s shrieks, I agreed. Then Ella moved on to the next agenda for the short meeting—the alternates. Without thinking, I pointed at Erin and Erine. Now, they’re part of the team as well. (Ahhh…good friends)

Help me out, guys. I’ve never been involved in a FORMAL debate all my life. The debates I’ve been to were all just informal debates like the ones we used to have inside the classroom in high school. I wasn’t even good with those. :(

SPORTS
Again, I got NOMINATED. This time, it was for the Freshman Assembly’s Volleyball team for the intramurals. Ella was looking for people interested to attend the tryouts. Because of a girl named Kristine, I got enlisted. Boo hoo. I’ve never been into sports. Well maybe I used to play during our PE, but that doesn’t mean I was ever good at it. I couldn’t say no anymore so I just nominated my friends. Erin and Erine will be coming to the tryouts with me. :))

I think I just flunked my first quiz in Comm 1. Who knew outlining could be that hard?! T_T

Good thing that in a few hours, I’d be back in Muntinlupa. I wasn’t able to go home last week because of an event so I’m pretty excited right now.

My brother will be arriving from Singapore tomorrow.
It’s my Grandma’s birthday today.

I so want to watch The Time Traveler’s Wife. I have to study hard for our finals so I can’t! But maybe just a few detoxifications wouldn’t hurt…

Oh well, see you when I see you.