Okay so in my introblog, I spilled to you guys about my experiences in college life. But, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Every picture in the photo collage above has a different story behind it.

FIRST SEMESTER

August 12, 2023, --- It was my first day in the college dormitory. On that day, I was overwhelmed the moment I stepped into reality, where it was my first time living miles away from my family, away from my hometown. I didn't know what I was gonna do, for I was consumed by my feelings. But luckily, I saw a friend from my hometown who had already stayed in the dorm for years, and a wave of relief washed over me. She's such a good-hearted person because she guided me throughout my first days staying in the college dorm, and sometimes we would hang out just to have fun. But we didn't see each other that often because she was always busy with her internship at the hospital.

When I first entered my room, I was greeted with silence. No one was in the room. I was alone all along. But then, a few hours, after attending our worship service, there were my two roommates, just doing a chit-chat about something. When they saw me, they greeted me with their warm smiles. From introducing ourselves to each other to having a conversation about stuff, I was having fun.

September 2023 ----- This was the month that we had our first face-to-face classes in the university. Throughout the month, I learned a few things, such as using the stethoscope and microscope. I also met my new classmates along the way. We would eat lunch at KFC and in Central Market sometimes, and I had the best time of my life.

October 2023 ------ It was the midterms. Well, everyone, including me called it a "disaster week" (midterms & final exams are usually held in a week) like we had to study from night until dawn, and we could only sleep for less than 5 hours or sometimes, just two (because we were always cramming 😅). There were times that I was nervous and exhausted at the same time because of the exams, and I regretted every single time because of my bad study habits. Like I said to myself, I should've done it better. Fast forward to after exams, when the results came in, I had passed some subjects while others were not.

December 2023 ------ At that time, I was very excited to travel back home, to my hometown. Finally, the semestral break had came, and I had nothing to worry about anymore. We could finally see each other again after 5 months. And I could finally spend my time with my family! This was the first time that I'm gonna be boarding the plane without my family.

When I was at the airport, I was just casually sitting on the chairs, then suddenly, a boy around my age approached me and introduced himself. That's when I realized that he was the one that my parents told me that I was going to board the plane with. I then offered him a seat, then talked about our college lives, and eventually, became friends. We chatted and chatted until it was time for us to board the plane.

SECOND SEMESTER

January 2024 ----- It was time for me to head back to Manila. I'm gonna miss my family once again, my hometown, and my friends. It hurts to think that my family is gonna miss me too and to think that we ain't gonna see each other for 4 months.

February 2024 ----- We were taught how to puncture veins using needles, as part of the duties of a Med Lab Scientist. I was nervous because I had a fear of sharp objects and I couldn't stand seeing a person's skin being punctured. So, I tried my best to get used to it.

After days and weeks of practicing, I finally managed to overcome my fear and had a successful vein puncture.

March 2024 ----- It was the midterms for this semester. I was double stressed because I was busier than ever like I had to study and work on our investigatory project at the same time. And to make things worse, some of the exams in the midterms were more difficult than the finals because most of the questions were unfamiliar to us. And because of that, the majority of our class didn't pass the test.

April 2024 ------ There were so many practical exams that we had faced. The first one was the vein puncture. We were all so anxious because we would be randomly called by our professor in pairs. When it was our turn, I was beyond anxious, but I tried to calm myself down. Although my performance was not that perfect, at least it was a bit successful😂.

There was another practical exam in chemistry which was all about titration (the goal is to change the liquid from colorless to light pink). As usual, we were all so anxious about it. As we were performing the titraion, we thought our game was over but luckily, the color had changed! Both my lab partner and I didn't expect that to happen. At first, we all thought that it was difficult, but it turned out to be a piece of cake.

May 2024 ----- It was the time of the finals. Well, let's just say it was a double trouble week 😂. As usual we were studying, but also, we had an upcoming defend in our investigatory project in chemistry. For me, this was the undeniably most stressful week I've ever had. We didn't had time to rest, because we were so busy with all of that studying and working with the paperworks in our investigatory project. When the day of the defend came, we were all both exhausted and three times more anxious than before. Our group anxiously waited for our time to come, and when it was our turn, our study didn't went through because there was an error in our results. And, to make matters worse, it was possible for us to take a summer class. So, we begged for our professor to give us another chance to redo our study and fortunately, she did. What we did after our defend was we did redo our experiment, and obviously, correcting the results.

After a day we took the finals, it was the second round of our defend. While it was ongoing, our professor pointed out the mistakes in our results, and our group, including me, was really, really anxious for we thought we had done our experiment perfectly, and second, we thought that we were doomed. But, our professor shocked us by saying, "although you have mistakes, at least it's just very minor. Therefore, I would say that you have passed your investigatory project." And with that, our group jumped in joy. All of our sacrifices and efforts we've made are worth it.

After all of the "so called-chaos", It was time for me to head back home again. After a year full of stress, happiness, and homesickness, I'm finally free from all of them. I'm thankful because I have survived through my first year.