I think the last time I revamped this website was last January. Ten months after, I present the new layout. My coding and designing skills seemed to dwindle since it took me a bit longer to finish this. Fortunately, I do like the finished product.

As I was looking through my blog archives, I realized that I barely had any entries written during the first sem. This makes me quite sad because I’ve always thought that this blog has done a great job of encapsulating the heights of my emotions throughout college. It’s quite a joy reading through past entries and feel the nostalgia creep up. It is quite unfortunate because to say that my first sem is eventful is an understatement. I anticipated a crazy senior year and I got all that and more. But I survived it with flying colors, got myself into the Dean’s List again and achieved more than what I could personally hope for. I vow to blog more as I live through my last undergraduate semester in the Ateneo.

This sembreak is quite a busy one for me. As much as I would want to talk about each event, it is impossible to go through everything.

1. Council of Organizations of the Ateneo Evaluation Seminar

Immediately after the sem ended, the Council of Organizations of the Ateneo Central Board together with the 47 presidents/representatives of the organizations and the Office of Student Activities headed to Antipolo for 3 days of evaluation and bonding. As the Performing Arts Cluster Head, I was happy to be reunited with my presidents, bond, evaluate and plan for our next big project. It was a lot of fun, very productive and I got the chance to meet new people. Picture above is a group COA shot, while the picture below is of my cluster, PAC.

2. Council of Organizations of the Ateneo Central Board Evaluation Seminar

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I never realized that I would have accomplished and experienced so much even after only 2 days of OJT in the House of Representatives. I’ve managed to help finalize a draft for a specific bill, review past bills and the Tax Reform Act of 1997, write a few paragraphs as part of the explanatory note of that bill, learn how to file it, learn how to search archives, and attend my first session. Of course that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The best part about representing a congressman is attending the workshop conference on Political Parties earlier. I’d love to talk about that more thoroughly at another post just because it was such an overwhelming experience. It was amazing to experience the intensity of PolSci in action. hahaha. It’s like everything I learned from my past POS classes were put into good use, while we analyze a bill on political parties. It was such a wonderful exposure and I really learned so much. Two days and I already feel like I’m not just a mere OJT student. I does get quite exhausting since after my OJT, I usually have a COA meeting from 6-9PM at the Ateneo. I will have another one tomorrow. But more on my first week at my next post.

The point of this post is to share some pictures during the previous reunion I had with my high school family. Just before I start work, I had to find time for a little bit of celebration.

We usually allot at least once a month for a class reunion. And during the summer, we try to have at least one overnight affair. This one felt so rushed actually, but I’m happy that there were still quite a number of us who got to go. And that included our Madame President, Cheeze, who was also our amazing 2-time class president. We stayed at a private...

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My three-day formation seminar hosted by OSA with those who comprise COA or the Council of Organizations of the Ateneo was yet again another very high point of my most eventful summer yet. I honestly don’t know how to begin, seeing as the attempt to look back at what has transpired during those three days is all too overwhelming. And the fact that I’m leaving for Camiguin in around 4 hours is also not helping. I mean I’m quite exhausted from the very eventful formsem, as well as the 2am sleeping time for the previous 2 nights. But anyway, I really just want to blog about my experience. Just because it was so powerful and inspiring for me personally that it just needs to be shared out in the open. I’ll just try to put it down in list form to make it easier for me to share a few thoughts about the wonderful experience I had with COA.

• Everything about the formsem was just inspiring. I didn’t think it was possible to feel so much inspiration building up, one activity after another. But it happened. And it was so wonderful. There were so many points wherein I found myself caught up with the words, stories, the overflowing passion of the speakers that I tried so hard to hold back tears. Simply put, I was completely overwhelmed. The things I was learning, discovering and sharing were all so powerful, especially when I am reminded of my role as part of COA.
• Knowing that I am surrounded by an outstanding group of leaders comprising of the COA Central Board, Sanggu President and the Presidents of the 47 accredited organizations of the Ateneo fills me with so much honor and awe. More importantly, I was given the chance to get to know all of them in different ways. We all underwent several activities, sessions and workshops. And I have to say that everyone just blew me away with...

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Just came back from Fr. Dacanay’s whole day seminar/plenary on Marriage as part of our Theo131 requirement. He hosts one and requires all his students to attend every semester. And I’m pretty sure than one sem after another, there will always be raves and positive comments about it.

Coming into Ateneo my freshman year and getting a hold of my 4-year curriculum, I was initially quite surprised by all the CORE subjects I had to take. More importantly, 4 Theology subjects and 4 Philosophy subjects as required courses were something that I wasn’t looking forward to, especially since my CORE subjects usually screw up my QPI at the end. Of course, finally having taken up 1 of each and currently taking both has debunked all those negative notions and made me incredibly thankful that I’m part of an institution that attempts to mold us holistically. Corny as it may sound, Philo and Theo has allowed me to be more contemplative than usual. And I think that’s putting it lightly. haha. There is joy and satisfaction from being able to study things that I can apply every day as I live my college life. It is even more worthwhile and enjoyable that I am able to share all these experiences with my fellow schoolmates and blockmates. Besides, it is definitely refreshing to have MWFs devoted to these subjects as I am also taking up three very, very demanding and mentally-draining Polsci majors.

But more on my post-seminar thoughts… Here’s a lowdown on what happened for those who have no idea what I’m talking about: It was a whole-day affair with basically 4 major parts. First, the entire class (basically 2 Fr. Dacanay classes) was divided into 4 groups that was each assigned a couple. Second part was the very fun all-boys/all-girls session. Third part was a plenary for the entire class with all the couples. And lastly, the fourth part was the processing and group reporting.

It was...

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