Ateneo 101

Before I start doing my homework, hear me out.

Im having a blast in school, thankfully. Everything's new to me. There are so much new things for me to discover. The future is for me to absorb. Stepping on Ateneo grounds is like stepping on unfamiliar territory. I am thankful to have my blockmates in this incredible journey to who-knows-where. Although I consider my blockmates "aliens" too like I am, their culture and lifestyle are very intruiging. In this biological community, adaptation is the key to survival. I am so not used to the things they find importance in. It feels like only yesterday when I would go ranting out to my friends the perils of life in an absolutely inane way of speaking the tagalog language. Only yesterday when I would dance to the sound of hip-hop music with my friends. Only yesterday when the only person I could talk to about art is my literature teacher. Only yesterday when I had the skill of singing along with every song my classmates would sing.

A step in the Ateneo grounds and a fantastic three weeks, everything has changed. I have learned the basics about what almost everyone would call their "dream" school. I now laugh on the common misconceptions people make about Ateneo. Let us tackle the subject of conyosism. Not everyone in the school is, what you would call, "conyo". We are a mix of your typical stereotypes: the nerd, the cheerleader, the jock, the sexually-preoccupied maniac, the stoner, the upper-class men and so on. Today, no one can seem to define the exact and appropriate meaning of what a conyo is. For some a conyo may mean a person gifted in the art of the english language. For some a conyo may mean someone who dresses like one. For some, a conyo's a conyo just because they're rich and they live in Alabang. For me, a conyo's a mix of the three. We're well off topic here. SKIP.

Music. Music has taken so much of my blockmates' life they actually feed on it. Right now, I do not know what music they are listening to, what genre or who sang it. I am an alien to their whimsical world of guitars, pianos, violins and the like.

Books. Wasn't it just yesterday when I was considered the nerd in my class just because of getting hooked up on one of them? Well, nerds make the majority of us now, my own kingdom of friends who actually have read one of them without pictures on it.

English. PERIOD

Arts. There is though, one thing that seperates my Creative Writing block from the others. Our seemingly deep ardore for the passion of the arts. It is nice to know that there are actually a lot of people in this world of my age interested in writing too.

Humor. Extremely different compared to the one im used to. This will take some getting used to.

My friends, I have been in the same school with almost the same people for six years, each of them I dearly love and miss right now. But now, I have come to the realization that all of us must move on. We must all be adept in the process of adaptation if we want to be someone in life (this doesn't mean giving in to the claws of peer pressure though). Accept. Accept and absorb. Live and learn and love...