Life's like a Wheel

Whoah, there are so many things I have to post here. Get ready for a long one! But first, I picked this title coz my life for the past few weeks was like a teleserye, full of ups and downs. A lot of things happened and I had no time to post each of them..well, no biggie coz here they are!

I got the highest score in our GE 119 first long exam. Well for the sake of those who do not know, this major subject is all about property surveying like making subdivision plans and doing different kinds of surveys. One thing I like about this subject is that I could feel that I am a geodetic engineer, or will be in a matter of one year. Anyway, I was actually expecting a score a bit higher than 91%(so that’s close to 100%). But don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m not satisfied with what I got. It’s just that I could have gotten an almost perfect score if it weren’t for my carelessness. My stupid fingers had a wrong input in my stupid calculator when I was adding the Double Partial Area for the Lot Area computation. So the effort of not rounding off the Δlat, dep and DMD was worthless coz I got a 5-point deduction. But well..at least..I got the highest score. Thank You!

Uniliver Philippines sent me a letter telling me that top graduating students(I’m one of them?!) from reputable schools deserve to work with their company. So they asked me to send my resume and attached with the letter was a form with questions about management and leadership skills. Actually, I received a similar letter from P&G(Procter and Gamble) a year ago. It wasn’t really a letter asking you to work in their company like in just one snap. You still have to undergo a lot of screening process and once there, you have to compete with top students from “other” universities. Since I had a lot of exams, I decided not to accept their invitation. And besides, I was still in 4th year that time..But now, it’s different! I am supposed to graduate this semester so I could actually say “yes” immediately..well, just to try my luck. But then, I decided to decline..again. I didn’t tell this to my parents coz I don’t wanna hear the word “stupid”! But, why oh why? Well, definitely it’s not because I hate the feeling of rejection(if ever) or I hate to fail or anything like that. Hmmm..I don’t know..maybe I’m just tired of competitions. I mean, why should I compete with “top” students just to get a job? It’s okay to compete with average graduating studes, but with those brightest of the bright ones?? No way! I think it’s just a waste of time.. I just hope I did the right thing.

The College of Engineering has already posted the list of graduating students for 1st sem `06-`07 who have deficiencies. I saw my name on the list so I immediately went to the Admin office to ask Ms. Nacu. I was a bit nervous coz having a serious deficiency could actually ruin my dream of graduating one sem early. Okay, she told me to submit a substitution paper for my GE 179..well, that isn’t so serious.. Then she said I still have one elective left. What the?! I tried to recall all the General Education subjects I’ve had but couldn’t think of any subject that could be substituted as an elective. I told her I’d just come back to check my curriculum.. On my way to our org tambayan, I was so worried. My gosh, what is that elective that I missed?? And as I remembered, Ms. Nacu was holding a paper(something like a true copy of grades) with a note at the bottom: “total number of units: 181”. So I thought there’s something wrong with their copy. GE students are only required to take 178 units, so the 3-unit excess could be the elective she was talking about. Oh my, I even asked my orgmates bout the required number of electives in our curriculum. Some said 3, others said 4..Shit, I only took 2(Pan Pil 19 and GE 160) and I am currently taking my third one(Stat 101). Since I was feeling very upset, I just went home and tried to find the copy of GE curriculum that my first adviser(Prof. Lopez) gave me. According to that copy, we only need 3 electives with a total of 178 units. So where that hell did that 181 units come from?? Which curriculum is false? Oh gosh, why is this happening...?

Take note guys, this thing happened during the week when I’d be having two long exams(Stat 101 and GE 178). I couldn’t help myself but think about this prob when I was reviewing for my exams..Shit, this thing really really pissed me off! Coz of this, I lost my interest of studying central tendencies, dispersion and skewness in my Stat 101! It’s a good thing I answered the problem set few days before that’s why I did pretty well in the exam.

Ms. Nacu advised me to send a letter to the University Registrar when I told her bout the curriculum I had. The letter should be noted by the GE Department Head and endorsed by the COE Secretary. Here’s the letter:

I, Ephraim S. Apostol – 5th year BS Geodetic Engineering student, would like to ask your good office to allow me to graduate this 1st semester `06-`07 even without having taken my last 3-unit elective.

I entered UP Diliman as a college freshman last 2002, thus I belong to the RGEP system. I was given a copy of Geodetic Engineering curriculum by my adviser during my very first enrollment(attached with this letter is a copy of the curriculum). The curriculum shows that a GE student is required to take 3 electives, with 178 total number of units. I have already taken 2 electives(Pan Pil 19 and GE 160) and I am currently taking my third elective(Stat 101). However, I was informed by the College of Engineering administration last August 15, 2006 that GE students under the RGEP system need to take 4 electives, with 181 total number of units.

For the past four years in college, I’ve been relying with the Geodetic Engineering curriculum that my adviser gave me when I was in first year. Unfortunately, it has just come to my knowledge that this curriculum is not for me. I am supposed to graduate this semester so I am hoping to fix this problem as soon as possible.

I am hoping for your consideration on this matter. Thank you very much.

My oh my..I asked Ms. Nacu if there were any cases like this that were approved before. She said there were some, so..does that mean I still have the chance?

But I’m thinking, if ever this request were not considered, guess I don’t have any other choice but to take an elective next semester. Oh hell, can you imagine I wouldn’t be able to graduate just because of one fucking subject?! Well oh well, I would definitely take that during Saturdays..so I’d be working from Mondays ‘til Fridays.. IF EVER!