Hot Pink Coconut

Return to UP: The Non-Academic

Returning to UP after a long time brings back mixed emotions. UP can make you feel like you have never left, even though it’s been years since you have last stepped on its precious soil. At the same time, it can make you feel like you have missed out on a million things—so many changes, so many fresh faces. There is just something about UP that draws you in, and I’m not being biased.

View of the UP Oblation from University Avenue.

With it’s cultural, social, and academic diversity, UP has been called by many as the microcosm of the Philippines. Although this leaves much to be debated upon, it is undeniable that UP is representative of the Filipino culture. If you haven’t stepped inside a UP campus, what I meant will not be clear to you. But being someone who had spent so many years of adulthood inside the campus, I have interacted with students and non-students, faculty and staff, and just about all types of people who study, work, and live inside the university’s sacred grounds.

I love the way the trees frame the streets in UP.

Last week, I went back to UP to fix my records. Yes, it’s been a year and I still don’t have my Transcript of Records and Diploma. Heck, I haven’t even processed my clearance yet. Hahaha. Walking around our old dilapidated college building with Kimi, I realized that I missed a lot about my Alma Mater—the food (yeaaaah, hahaha), the people, the atmosphere, the witty vandals (haha, you gotta see these ones), and of course, the wonderful memories.

An old photo inside the classroom with PolSci classmates.
Circa December 2005. (Credits to Sha for the photo.)

In a few years’ time, I wish to return to UP for a different purpose: academic. Hopefully, I get into a Masters, or if not, maybe for a Doctoral program already. Til then, wish me luck in the corporate field everyone. Haha.