SCHOOL-tural Differences

by Jec Chua

Schools, are an integral factor contributing to the formation of one's persona. Differences in the school of thought is like a big gap between individuals who see things in 2 different perspective, and no one is open to concede to the fact that only one view should stand in reality. For years, I thought this is just an idea, of some group of individuals who claim themselves as the number 1 worshiper of their alma matter, who are head over heels in love with the fact that they are carrying the pride of their mother school, and can't seem to move on and accept that they are no longer inside the four walls of their sanctuary -that they are now in the real world that always looks like a battlefield, open for everyone who are willing to take the risk just to win supremacy over their eyed opportunity. In reality, this is more to it than that, for this "mayhem" exist and it creates a distortion, that negatively creates the cyclicality of our never ending quest of finding "equality".

Yesterday, together with my Thomasian friends, we watched the UAAP basketball game between UST and Ateneo at the Araneta Coliseum. Obviously, Ateneo won, but it was really a superb game between the two teams. UST almost got the winning advantage for the first 3 quarters, however sudden -don't know where it came from 3 points shots made the thomasian community grief giving the favor to the opposing team at the 4th quarter. We really had fun though, this event reminded us of our ear-drum wrecking screams during our college days in support to our school's team, it made us reminisced the feeling we got -on how proud we are to be Thomasians when we won the Championship title against Ateneo in 2006.

As what I have told you, the UST crowd seemed to lost it's spirit when Ateneo basket those points leaving UST behind, but surprisingly, a geek-looking yellow jacket's member boost the morale of the whole crowd encouraging everyone to go up and continually support the team, for we are not here to win, but we are here to show everyone how proud we are to have the golden seal of the Pontifical and Royal University engraved in our hearts. And though we lost that day, it still felt like we've won, for being there is enough to celebrate our victory being Thomasians. And we applauded the Ateneo team for a job well done securing the game for their benefit, and we concede that they are really a team to beat this season.

Seeing the traditional raising of the winning school's flag and reciting the hymn part, made me admire the Ateneans passion for giving their all in singing the song of their Alma matter, somehow, I dream that all of us Thomasian would acquire the same passion for this, memorizing our hymn more than just knowing the beginning "God of All Nations" and the last line "Unending Grace". However,I was really disappointed by the unethical acts shown by some Ateneans as we started singing our school hymn, shouting, and exhibiting derogatory remarks while we are giving our respect to our school's flag-this is something that made me look down on the values these people have. As far as I know, even before kindergarten, in our very own homes, our parents already taught us the value of respect, and knowing that some people who claims to have a degree from one of the prestigious schools in our country doesn't even know this basic "important" value,made me realize that good thing, I chose UST as the academe to entrust my future with.

I am not generalizing, for I know that it's not the school's fault why some people ended up to be some "professional-idiots", but my concern is, if you are shouting to the whole world that you came from ATENEO, wearing a BLUE shirt attesting you to be a proud one, and even sitting with the whole crowd of people whom you claim to be in the same boat as you are, and "the others" as you claim are seeing you, Please, act like an educated decent HUMAN BEING, not because you are ATENEANS, but because you are a person, given the intelligence to decipher the difference between right and wrong ,and by just simply doing that, I believe it's enough to make your school proud-much prouder than bagging a championship trope in basketball.

I don't know if that incident is really part of the "schooltural differences" between UST and ATENEO, I wouldn't really know what's their core culture for I never spent much time wandering around their community in Katipunan, but whatever it is, that event will surely leave a mark in our minds -who saw what those "few crazy blue-blooded individuals" have done, that in one way or another, hammered to us the reality that schools are not there to feed you everything, they are just a medium used to open the door for us, showing us the different paths we can go , and the decision is still left to all of us, to choose whether or not we will go the way as they taught us where to, or go the other way around like what others are doing (I don't know where maybe to the darkness).

For those nakakainis na nilalang, ito ang sa inyo:

Go Depensa!