Me Na-OVERHEARD ka ba? Ako Meron.

It's a great place to share your stories. There are all kinds of people who had all kinds of experiences. I did it once na ata. But I am more lost in the jokes, the SPARKS moments and the nostalgia of it all. I can feel which stories were embellished being a writer myself  (by passion and by training).

But more so, it's like getting a piece of it all back. The days when I didn't care about attendance, when I was literally rolling in the grass and laughing like there is no such thing as an echo.

When people wonder why I laugh so hard, it's because I got used to doing it. Nothing to bounce off on in the big campus at the foot of the mountains, I knew that laughter and tears where the greatest things in the world. One made you light-headed and happy and the latter made you light-hearted and stronger.

I also learned that volunteerism and activism isn't something that we can confine in just the regular meaning of those words. That each of use can become something useful to society.

I even had my religious experiment while I was there. Among other experiments that would not be mentioned here lest my parents read it. ^.^ So when news of this was OVERHEARD by someone, SPARKS did arise, but of a different kind. Conversations veered away from what my original point was. And I decided that discussing it with people without me being actually able to do anything other than support those who can voice out closer to the homebase, was futile. I even restricted my feed to make sure those whom I might hurt with my opinions and I chose not to talk to about my opinions no longer needed to see them.

But every now and again, I look at my notifications and smile. That some people understood where I was coming from. And the things that I did in the past still had ripples. Of the good kind. Sometimes I believe that I was the most selfish person who ever studied in that school and that we all eventually became apathetic. But every once in a while I remember that we were more idealistic then. And despite just being that, we did our best to show IN OUR ACTIONS that we were worthy of the subsidy that the PEOPLE gave for our education.

In my head, even the manong driver deserved my respect because he was paying for my education. And my life in ELBI was full of LESSONS that I bring with me wherever I go. Someone told me once that I need to let go of my past to be able to face the future that is inevitably not good. But how can I when that past, my parent's upbringing, my mejobadgirl days in UPLB and my experiments with my personality and my education grounded me and guides me still.

Many of us only go back to ELBI to try to relive the olden days. But we forget that everything changes. Some more abominable than others. Some we need to embrace, others we need to slay or fight against.

My stand on this OVERHEARD over bibles distributed during the campus tour still stands. Discrimination is felt only by those in the minority. And if I was a Freshman who was not a Christian or a Catholic, I would feel rejected. And though most people think that it's not bad because they were not forced to take anything, it is the THOUGHT of not being able to BELONG in a foreign place that may lead to scars. I don't care about all the other rules and the hoopla that was made after that point. I just want to know how they would explain to that alienated Freshman that he or she is still welcome in UP.

Check the LINK HERE

FREETHINKERS BLOG ABOUT IT 1 : Open Letter 

Freethinkers blog about it 

I remember one comment that I made something akin to You are in UP and that it's okay for you to be a freethinker. And a Freethinker is not just someone who thinks freely (duh) but someone who acts upon his sense of justice and understands the need to go against the flow of the masses.

I hope that the students especially the Freshmen and the volunteers that now roam my beloved YUPIELBI, find some time to take their thumbs off their bloody phones and look around, LISTEN, OBSERVE, EXPERIENCE the need to have an opinion and acting righteously so.

If I was there I would not have been kept silent. I would not have touched a single Bible or offered a single one TO ANYONE. I would have packed it and said to the dear Madam that she has overstepped her authority. I would have been shaking in fear of getting banned from SU, that is for sure. But I would have taken a different kind of activism and believed in what I stand firm on, that EVERY FRESHMAN, every student had a right to feel like the university WELCOMES them regardless of what GOD or school of thought they believed in.

I walked in a UPLB where Atheists made great teachers but where students prayed everyday for better things to come. Where nature enveloped us and reminded us that there is a higher being that made all this, even if we believed in him or not. I lived there for a short time but it changed me, made me stronger and appreciate that even if I had a different way of thinking as suppose to how my parents think, that they are not stupid or ignorant. I was just a little bit more enlightened than them. And that if not for them, I would not have the chance to mingle amongst believers and non-believers. And I would not understand the difference between freethinkers and fanatics.

Honestly. I don't give a shit about the rules that they broke. But I know that they broke them.

PLEASE TURN ON THE CAPTIONS SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND BETTER

TO ALL THE FRESHIES this is my reminder to you. 

NEVER LET UPLB change who you are for the worse. 
Never compromise your beliefs. 
And always BRING AN UMBRELLA. ^^ To make sure to protect you from the sun, the rain and the falling bullshit hurled at you.