The March Hype

MARCH usually means three things to every young adult: the dreaded finals– which entails cramming sessions, accomplishing final requirements, clearances and projects; the onset summer vacation–which creates a huge hype among the youth, spending way too much on beach stuff (i.e. Speedos!) and daydreaming of the beach while in class; and every senior’s favorite–graduation, which on one hand means liberation from the clutches of academics and on the other hand, means stepping into the corporate world and earning your own money.

March certainly is a busy month.

To many, March means the end of one stressful school year. It symbolizes the end of the piles of homework, projects and clearances. It certainly means the end of teachers following you everywhere, professors breathing down your neck and classmates harassing you about the group project. To others, it means the beginning of the so called “real world”, where they swap their school uniforms and school bags for carry-on cases and corporate attires. The ceremonial receiving of the diploma also means picking up the classified ads and looking for a job.

This year, another batch of fresh graduates joins the list of the employed and unemployed. Lucky are those who graduate with jobs already waiting outside the school gates. The pressure is now on for those grads who have yet to find a job.

Finding the right kind of job these days can be tough. It’s even more difficult trying to find a job that’s in the line of one’s degree. One has to get lucky to actually land a job that’s somewhat related the degree he or she has earned.

Graduating is a rather big step for anybody, I think. Even more so when one graduates from college. It’s certainly more than just finishing school and becoming a degree holder.

It’s about getting a job and earning a living. It’s about independence and responsibilities.

Ultimately, it’s about growing up, and (gasp!) becoming an adult.

Help me; I think I just had an aneurism.

March certainly brings us a lot of things. And when you thought that December was a heavy holiday, think again! Behind all the fun and games, sunscreen, tanned boys and girls and diplomas, there’s a deeper side to March!

As seniors all over the nation graduate and free themselves from the bony clutches of academics and fire-breathing professors, they deserve a round of applause for having survived all those years in the educational system.

Congratulations to all the graduates and happy job hunting!

Clean-up

MY ROOM is a fire hazard. It would not be a surprise if everything in my room would just spontaneously combust one summer’s day and everything will go up in flames.

I sound like a pyromaniac.

On top of my clothes cabinet, a stack of boxes and newspapers can be found (and gathering dust). Underneath my rickety study table, I have yet another pile of newspapers steadily growing. In another corner, I have a steadily growing pile of handouts and photocopies (mostly journalism, literature and advertising photocopies.) And I own a cramped bookshelf.

Now, throw in a match and everything will go up in flames.

As chaotic as my room may seem, I promise you that it isn’t that bad. It’s more of an “organized chaos” than chaotic in general.

I’m sure a lot of teenagers will agree with me here.

I’ve been trying to clean up my room for some time now. But with school keeping me busy, the only time I come home is for sleep, a bath and to change my clothes (in that order).

Before things got extremely busy with school, my room was fairly organized. Everything was where it was supposed to be. But once school started keeping me on my feet 20 hours a day, there was hardly time to organize and keep the room clean.

Now I live in a fire hazard zone and I have dust bunnies under my bed.

I’ve been trying to find time to clean my room. It’s astonishing that I simply cannot find time to pick up a broom and start cleaning. But then again, I don’t own a broom, so, perhaps that was just it. Just to let you know, the broom in our boarding house mysteriously disappears once in a while.

It’s rather funny. I used to think I’m well equipped with cleaning materials. I got cockroach repellant for roach invasions, fly paper, rags, detergent and the whatnots. Yet I do not own a broom. How embarrassing.

One night, I was contemplating over my room’s doomed future while waiting for my interviewee to arrive. I sat by a roadside café and all of the sudden a peddler walked by carrying a bundle of brooms on his back.

Ladies and gentlemen, I knew that that was a sign. God has spoken, I just knew it.

But God sure knew how to keep His conversations short.

My source arrived and as we exchanged greetings, my room’s salvation walked down the street, brooms still on his back.

It’s ok, I consoled myself. I had to think of it this way, had I bought the broom, I would have looked like a total idiot carrying a broom around while conducting the interview.

Bottom line boys and girls, clean your room. Don’t wait for dust bunnies to grow and your room to catch fire. And don’t wait for the roadside broom man to sell you his brooms–he walks fast.

Shopping Bug

I never really understand why a large chunk of the female population loves shoes and shoe shopping (and well, shopping in general). Don’t get me wrong, I love a good pair of shoes and shopping can be fun sometimes but when I hear somebody talk about their extensive shoe collection (and by that I mean, owning 40 pairs of shoes which are organized alphabetically), I can only gape.

Why so many pairs?

“You need one for every occasion, for every bag, for every shirt, blah, blah,” my friend goes on and on. As she lectures me on fashion 101 (I’d like to think, however, that I am not a fashion disaster), my ears become numb.

I have never been much of a “shoe girl”. I’m more of an accessories, bags and funky tops type of girl–if that’s how you define them anyway. Shoe shopping for me is perhaps the most tiring. I don’t have the “perfect” feet that would fit in practically every type of shoes. But then again, I might just be really unlucky and the pair that I’m looking for is always unavailable.

Mind you, I do love a good pair of heels, or as others call them: stilettos (if they fit!). But they are an obvious health risk, since I’m no expert in walking in these death contraptions (expect me to trip all over the place in them), not to mention the back pains they cause. Ah, the pains of being a woman.

I go crazy over accessories. My friends say that I might as well stop eating, and just spend my savings on necklaces and bracelets I find in the streets of Colon. I admit that I’m a rather compulsive buyer when it comes to accessories. But of course, they have to be reasonably priced. If I were not just a little bit rational when shopping, I might as well start getting used to the idea of eating air.

The way I spend on books has not been much of a secret. I spend way too much on them. My bookshelf is already piled with books to the point that it is already difficult to pull one out without triggering a book avalanche (a classmate pulled a book out, she got hit square in the face by Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart).

I believe it is naturally a part of any woman’s genetics to have the itching need to shop, whether for beauty purposes, fun and entertainment or perhaps for nerdy reasons.

Ah yes, women are programmed to shop.

Speaking of celebrations and womanhood, the month of March is officially Women’s Month. So ladies, this is our month and let’s be proud of being a woman! See you at the malls!

Radio

I've learned to love the old AM/FM radio again.

In the age where technology has taken over practically everything, we have teens sporting IPods, MP3 players and MP4 players of all sorts, shapes, colors and sizes. And our good, old (and extremely bulky) radio is left in the corner.

What a sad ending for something we grew up with.

The player that I have with me still comes from my elementary days. Grade five specifically. I remember when cassette tapes were still the hottest thing, and everyone had to own a cassette player or a walkman.

Back in grade school, we did a lot of dancing, doing intermission numbers and joining contests (losing in most of them). Since we were all young and obviously had no idea how badly we danced, the demand for owning a cassette player was high. After all, we had to practice.

So, a few dancing comrades and I bought players (at the expense of our parents of course). The players, by the way, all looked the same.

Needless to say, our dancing still did not improve.

My black cassette player will soon turn 10 years old. And within the span of 10 years, it has been used and abused (and maltreated), although I share a lot of happy memories with it.

I remember my Backstreet Boys days. Like every fan girl, I danced to the beat of "Get down" and squealed at the sight of Nick and AJ. I still own boy band tapes, as embarrassing as it sounds. And sometimes, I still find myself humming a boy band tune.

I have never been one to follow trends. So when people started buying CDs instead of cassette tapes and began using the CD player, I stuck with my trusty old cassette player. To this day, I still don't own a CD player.

My cassette player no longer plays tapes. I only use it for its radio functions, listening to AM news stations and radio dramas (yes, I've started to like them-thanks to my college major) and FM music stations, even if my music is limited to oldies songs. I love music from the '60s and '70s.

I have never been tech crazy. MP3 players don't amaze me and Discmans are not of my interest. I listen to music on my laptop, or on the radio. Besides, I can't afford an MP3 player. It's too impractical anyway.

It's a good thing I still own my cassette player. The music I get may not be crisp and clear, and I get talky DJs and annoying advertisements (and not to mention, nauseating campaign jingles) but nothing really beats listening to the radio and remembering the yesteryears.

Now, how about you start tuning your own radio and start appreciating something from the "past?"