enROLLment

06/03/2013 02:30:51 PM

YES! I am now a legitimate student, again. Yesterday at 2:30 p.m., my Form 5 finally came out and I am now officially a gradute student.

It still feels weird though because I always feel like a fresh graduate from UP. Well, I guess, it's time to move since it's been more than a year now. haha!

My enrollement yesterday was as amusingly peculiar as a déjà vu.

Me. UP. Form 5. Lines. Long lines.  

I felt like being an undergrad student again -- queuing, filling out forms, holding onto numbers waiting to be called, enlisting subjects -- although this time, I am now under the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.

MA in Psychology. I still feel awkwardly weird about this but I am sure that this is something I want to do.


Anyway, while I was waiting in line, I became friends with another MA student. She was seated in front of me and I saw her clutching this white folder with some orange print in it. I then recognized it as the folder given to us during the pre-employment process. So, I tried talking to her by asking her if she's working in TR as well. Turns out, she is and we are actually batchmates (batch '07) and also worked in TR at the same time. I am the worst when it comes to names but she was really nice and we chatted until out turn in the line. She finished BA Political Science and now she's taking up Master in International Studies (MIS). She had this bright smile and she nods to whatever I say with all the sincerity in the world. Too bad I don't know when we'll meet again but I was glad I was seated next to her during that one hour of waiting.

After I got my Form5a, I went to the department for pre-advising and again, while waiting for my turn, I tried talking to the person next to me. I remember her name because we met several times that day. haha. Kat is already in her last year and just needed to finish her master's thesis to finally graduate. I was so amazed at her because th thing I am about to embark has already been her path and now she was almost about to finish it. But what was more interesting in meeting Kat were the things she taught me about taking up the MA program in Psychology. When I asked her about the subjects she enlisted, she told me she had to take three more subjects that are needed to be able to qualify for the board exams. I was confused because I thought only Ph.D. graduates could take the boards. But as she explained, it turns out that as long as you've taken the required subjects by the PRC, you can now take the boards for both psychologists and psychometricians. WOW. Hearing this from her suddenly lit up the 8-year allowance I gave myself to be able to practice. She told me other interesting stuff too about our adviser (we have the same adviser since we are both pusuing Clinical Psych), about other Psych professors and the subjects I have to take. I was so lucky to have met her especially during a time like this when I am still crawling up to the expectations and know-how of a graduate student.

I also met another graduate student who is also a TR employee. Sadly, we are focusing on different fields as her concentration is Developmental Psych. She was very kind though and now we even greet each other in the office. hehe :)

I also saw other people I know of who made the enrollment more interesting and even nostalgic, if I may. I met my Maskom friend, Jake who is also taking up his Masters in CSSP, while he was absent-mindedly seated on the floor along the corridor. Gah. I miss Masscom. Anyway, I also saw other TR employees there and an old friend back in UPLB. She was my dorm mate and coursemate. If I'm no mistaken her name is spelled "Eileen". She's a very pretty girl and always speaks with confidence. I haven't seen her for almost 4 years and meeting her in Diliman made me reminisce all the freshman days.

So there, my thoughts are probably so jumbled up in this post but please bear with me. I am still trying to calm myself down from all the adrenaline and tension I am feeling now that it's just a day away before classes start.


I hope this is going to be an excellent academic year for me. This may sound so cliche but I promise to be a better student than I was during my undergrad years.

Cheers to this and more!

AJA! Fighting! :D