This Screwed Up Society

When I got home last Sunday morning, my mom flashed me her signature raised-eyebrow face. With no proper sleep and breakfast, all I could do was to say, "I'm home!" while giving her a peck on the cheek. She started my day by asking me if I went to my friend's bar last night and I said no. Of course she didn't believe me. "Gimik ka lang ng gimik eh!" she teased but the statement registered to me as an accusation. And so I said in between clenched teeth that I was up almost all night at Tomas Morato working my ass off so I could earn some goddamn good money. My mom was a little taken aback. I took the silence as an opportunity for my exit. I went to my room and slept the whole day.

My battery was fully charged for school the next day. My class was at 8:30 AM but I was already in school at 7:00 AM. My classmates were going crazy over their PGC assignment and so I went to help three of them in printing the goddamn thing. I kind of think it's my mission and everything since I've already taken up PGC over the summer and I must say it's way better than the PGC taught in our college. I miss my summer PGC professor and classmates from different colleges. Anyway, my first class started at 9 AM and ended at 10 AM. Basically, our Current Issues professor has a lot of issues about the social system of the country and about those people outside the walls of UST who are out waiting to catch a big fish. You know what I mean. Robbers. He (our professor) practically spent the whole period telling bullshit stories about his encounters with robbers and how he befriends them to avoid being a victim. That time, I was able to sleep with my eyes wide open. I'm not really used to listening to people who are talking a lot of crap. Well, it can also be said that I don't like my professor and I don't give a damn about how his life has been in his who-knows-for-how-long years in UST. I just don't like the way he expresses his opinions and his dislike for other people's opinions. That's what I hate the most about professors. Some of them don't know how to respect what others think about something but they always go around their way drilling into the minds of their students what they think about this life and force them to agree with it. I just want to say I'm not happy being in his class and every time he says something about social problems and whatnot, I'm dying to raise my hand and tell him in front of the whole class that I want to vomit in the bathroom. Ugh. I'm now an official hater because of him.

I would like to take this opportunity to state my opinion about the right things to fight for in this screwed up society since it's the hot topic yesterday in our Current Issues class. Our professor said he was once a Mendiola freedom fighter. He spent almost his whole college life joining rallies and voicing out the need for social reform and he said all those days were in vain. Nothing changed. Corrupt officials are still alive and active, garbage and pollution are all around with the homeless trying to survive in a community conspiring to get rid of them. The system is still fucked up. We are all fucked up. Are we really? Here's what a frustrated attorney soon to be a frustrated medical doctor who now wants to be a millionaire in two years thinks. We are not fucked up. Yet. We think we are because all we do is to accept what the system feeds us. We stick to the substrate like a little helpless mussel and wait for the current to bring in what we need. We always oblige. Even though what the current brings could kill us, we still receive it like an early Christmas gift. I think social reform should start with social evolution. We should all evolve from robots to intellectual human beings the way a mussel over time evolves into a fish that rules the sea. If the current couldn't change its menu for us, then we should change into stronger organisms that could sort out the good and the bad that the current brings. We can't be filter-feeders forever because if we will be, this country would die of red tide and a stupid reason to die at that. Hope you understood, Sir.

Okay. I guess I've let it all out but there's still one thing that I would like to rant about.

The universe conspired against me yesterday. After our thesis work that officially ended at 6:30 PM, I went to Dapitan to wait for a jeepney that would take me to Quiapo. I was a little surprised to see Dapitan free of public utility vehicles and students were scattered everywhere obviously having the same problem as mine. I waited and waited and waited. No jeepney with free seats materialized. And so thinking I would have a better chance at Espana, I walked to the other side of the campus only to find myself in the middle of a sea of Thomasians waiting for the same thing. For the first time in my four years in UST, I saw one side of the famous Espana Boulevard empty. I thought it's already the end of the world. In a way, it is. Good thing one of my thesis mates was still in school that time and we journeyed the path home together only to be taken advantage of a pedicab driver who charged us 20 pesos each for the ride to Legarda. She (my thesis mate/classmate/friend) and I parted ways at the Legarda Station of LRT 2. I walked all the way to CEU to catch a ride to Pasig. My prayers were heard at exactly 8:16 PM and I finally reached home at 10:37 PM. I felt bad for not being able to join my family for dinner for my brother's 19th birthday. When I arrived, my brother was out and when he got back, I was already asleep. I never had the chance to greet him personally. I shall make up for it by giving him a badass Christmas gift. Anyway, I ate dinner alone. The spaghetti was okay together with the fried chicken and pork adobo. If only I got home in time for dinner, I would've eaten it while cracking jokes with my siblings and my mom. I'm sure it would've tasted better. Stupid traffic.

I didn't go to school today. I felt bad for leaving my sister to commute alone. That's another badass Christmas gift right there.

Guess I'm done here. I gotta go find some way to study the Fundamentals of Ecology for a quiz tomorrow that will sure make me bleed to death.

Please have mercy, Ma'am.