I feel like I’ve neglected this blog. Haha. So to make up for it, I shall post a considerably long post! The only area of discussion in my mind right now is school, exams in particular. Let’s make things organized, though. For each subject, I shall post my score (and its percentage) and my thoughts on the teacher of that subject and its exam. Sounds good.

CHRISTIAN LIFE
Score: 51/70 (73%)
Thoughts on Exam/Teacher: I dreaded the return of the old format of CL exams. I did well when Miss Derige was our substitute teacher. Although I can learn from Mrs. Guevarra, I feel like I didn’t do so well this quarter because I simply didn’t care about it anymore. It’s the Fourth Quarter, after all. In addition, it’s the last subject to have an exam. Nobody wants to do it anymore. They just want to get things over with and who can blame them? Plus, the options were very confusing. Considering the Scantron nature of the exam, it’s either you choose the right one or you don’t get a point. Shame.

MATH
Score: 42/55 (76%) (Scantron)
Thoughts on Exam/Teacher: I could’ve done better but this exam was a lot tamer than expected. Funny though that one problem there was a spawn of the problem that I tried to make Sir Berns solve a few weeks ago! Talk about revenge! I always accept my low scores in Math, anyway. It’s natural. But I’m glad I didn’t opt to stay in the regular class when I had the chance. Sir Berns is a great teacher! A little crazy at times but it’s all good! It makes me proud to have him as a teacher because not only does he simplify the topics for us but he also injects some weird fun into the class. I’ll miss him! :(

FILIPINO
Score: 80/100 (80%)
Thoughts on Exam/Teacher: Considerable improvement! The difference between this quarter and the other three quarters is that I turned to Sir Castro’s Powerpoints for guidance. Maybe it’s also because I prefer El Fili over Noli. But yeah, I actually didn’t read the book to review this time and I still got a score like this. For once, Filipino is not my lowest subject! As for Mrs. Balmes, I don’t think she’s boring but I just feel that Sir Castro’s classes are a lot more stimulating.

ENGLISH
Score: 81/100 (81%)
Thoughts on Exam/Teacher: I was happy with the score I got for my paper. Yes, there was room for improvement so I put that into mind when I revised my paper. However, I can’t say the same for my oral defense score but I have to thank Miss Mireille for being extremely lenient on me. If I wasn’t the first to defend my paper, I would’ve gotten a line of one for my defense. It was absolutely terrible… Let’s just say, I won’t miss her. :) I would’ve preferred Miss Kresta or Miss Casty as my English teacher.

SCIENCE
Score: 88/100 (88%)
Thoughts on Exam/Teacher: No complaints here. As expected, most of my mistakes came from the conceptual questions. You win some, you lose some. I’m happy with my score, considering the time I allotted for studying Chem. I will miss Daddy Dayag and his weird lolziness. I couldn’t ask for any other teacher to teach Chemistry for me! Hope he gets to be Subject Area Coordinator next year! That would be awesome.

SOCIAL STUDIES
Score: 88/100 (88%) (or it could be 89)
Thoughts on Exam/Teacher: This is the best I’ve done in a Social exam! But still, I thought the exam was easy so I was expecting to at least get a line of nine. Damn. I tried to fight for my answers, though. One thing’s for certain about the teacher, though… I WILL MISS SIR LEE SO SO SO MUCH. :(( Yes, I know he’s not leaving next year but I probably would not have motivated myself to do well in World History without him. I’ve always liked World History but if my teacher was Miss Mac or Sir Jeff or even Miss Derige, then who would I try to impress? Sir Lee, on the other hand, has transformed me into a high-mark-achieving student because here I am, hellbent on trying to impress him! I always fall short on that but in the end, he’ll always affect the non-academic side of myself. All the things I’ve went through for him, the gifts, the cards, the active participation, the volunteerism, the teasings… I hope it doesn’t just pass him by in the future. :)

Although it may seem like I just compared myself to Chuck Norris, the title is just there to introduce how rare my tears are. To keep it short, I never cry. I only cry over things that involve my family and even that doesn’t happen often. I don’t cry over deaths. I don’t cry over failing grades. I don’t cry over broken friendships. It’s all gillyflowers and daisies for me. But something extraordinary happened to me today in school…

I cried… Hard.

I’ve told you guys before about how I tear up over things but watery eyes are different when the faucets of the eyes are switched on. I was crying a river. It felt rather odd. It felt odd that I would bury my face in my hands and to have others rush to my aid in order to comfort me. I’ve never felt that before. I’ve always witnessed it but I was never really sympathetic towards them. But now the joke’s on me.

It was our last full Social class. It was nothing special. It didn’t feel special. He was staying next year. No reason for me to cry, right? Well, that’s the thing. That’s not the reason. As we said our goodbyes, I leaned my head on Cristine and my eyes were watering up. As soon as he headed out the door… It was like being one year old again. I cried like a baby. I broke down on the platform, Cristine’s hand on my back, other classmates rushing to me with words of encouragement, trials of laughter. I felt like a whole different person.

As I tried to fight through my sobbing, I briefly explained how worthless I felt to him. How my efforts for him went in vain. I felt that my whole personhood was ignored by him, even after all I’ve done for him (on a voluntary basis, might I add!) I expressed my concern over certain people getting in the way of things. I let it all out… and it felt good.

For the first time, I cried in school. That in itself speaks multitudes of how much of an impact he made in my life. I reluctantly told him these words after walking together with him after consultation period. He didn’t say much. He said he had no emotional responsibility over me (which was a good point) and that he didn’t really know how to respond. Heh. He never does. After one year of being with him, he still doesn’t know what to say about me. He mentioned that Multiply message he replied to me on Valentine’s Day and I did tell him how that message made things a lot better. But silly me, I told him I expected more. I told him I felt the message was lacking. Indeed, it’s kind of selfish and self-centered but come on… After all I’ve done for him, could you blame me? Still, I’ve done some stupid things. Said some stupid stuff. I feel bad about it while he is able to walk on. Damn.

One year of progress. One year of decadence. One year of trials. One year of triumphs.

He said we can still see each other next year for our electives. And then I thought about graduation day and smiled inside.

Another year of hope. Another year of obsession.

Times are a-changin’, but will I stay the same?

Bow.

And perhaps too much change that I can handle!

So if any MC student hasn’t known by now… There appears to be a mass purging of current teachers this year. Well, they weren’t really forced out of their jobs. They had their own reasons… but they decide to leave when we’re graduating next year! I admit, I am not too affected by the exodus of teachers. I’m glad my favorites are staying (ILU MISS KRESTA AND SIR LEE. <3) Sir Berns is rumored to leave but I’m just waiting for confirmation.

Also, today, I went with Antonia to watch her classmates go through an oral defense with Miss Casty. There are some common misconceptions about her. She’s not a terror at all… when she’s in a good mood, at least. A Miss Casty in a good mood is equivalent to the perfect panelist. She will help the student analyze the poem, she will provide constructive criticism, she will not have the tendancy to be rude… ‘Twas fun.

And Francis Magalona has passed away today! I myself am not much of a fan but I respect his contribution to the OPM scene and it’s sort of chilling to know that we had to listen to his song during English two months ago… Boy, things change.

This is change I can’t believe in. :(

Today is not particularly not considered a good day for me. I sucked majorly at my oral defense in English. I never really wanted to defend my paper, anyway. All I wanted was some comments on my paper and then I would revise it myself. I didn’t really know what to say in my oral defense and I just went on forever, I didn’t know when to stop. I cannot put my thoughts into spoken word. Can’t they just let me do my part as a writer? I mean, I know I at least did somewhat well in the final draft and there is always room for improvement and I’m willing to accept that. I just don’t see the need to share my thoughts in public. It’s like “What do they care?” Just give me the comments and go. Thank you.

After English, it was all such a bore. Health was boring, but good thing we didn’t have a quiz. Chem was boring because Sir Dayag was absent. Geom was boring because Sir Berns wasn’t teaching. Guidance was somewhat okay, but I know what I want in college already anyway, so it’s pretty useless.

But way to end the day with Social, Monday! I love it! :D I thrive in Social. It’s my brightest spot of the day.

Thank God for a subject that I am actually good at. (Even though I didn’t get the highest score, the people higher than me are respectable.)

Thank God for a topic that completely takes my interest.

Thank God for a period in school that maximizes my participation and activity.

And thank God for a teacher than understands my passions and motivates me to do well in his subject.

I mean, really… Without encountering Social, my day would have been… bleh.

I volunteered to be the first to present in the oral defense for English. Well, I didn’t really outright volunteer for it. I was given a choice to replace my classmate… Okay, so maybe that is volunteerism…

The story is that my classmate was drawn to be the first one to present on Monday but she can’t be ready for it because she has a swimming competition so she doesn’t have enough time to prepare. Meanwhile, after all my classmates were called, I find out that I’m actually presenting on the last day which I hate because I’ll just even be more nervous when I watch my classmates on their personal deathrow. So I don’t know what I was thinking but I offered my spot to my classmate which she willingly agreed to so now I’m the first one to present…

Yes, I am clinically insane.

Let’s look at the pro’s and con’s…

PRO’S:
- I will be able to get things over with quickly.
- I will have more time to relax.
- I will have the pleasure of the teacher being lenient on the first presenter.
- I will expect less challenging questions from my panel.

CON’S:
- I have no confidence in my paper.
- The quality of my report will suffer.
- Everything will come as a surprise to me.
- I will have a very busy weekend, used to prepare for my report.

Well, let’s just hope things will turn out fine and dandy on Monday! If not… Well, then, there goes my English score.

YAY! YAY! YAY! SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE! YAY! :D

I’m so glad this film got recognized for Best Picture and all the other awards. Not many people know this but ‘Jai Ho’ actually means ‘Victory’ which is quite appropriate for the mood. (And “Jai Ho” won the award for Best Original Song! Another YAY!) All the categories that I really wanted Slumdog to win, they won. Danny Boyle for Best Director, A.R. Rahman for Best Original Score, “Jai Ho” for Best Original Song (although “O… Saya” would’ve been okay as well) and then Cinematography (This was a must!)

Some categories, I’m glad for the winners (Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger) but some, I wish someone else would have won (broke my heart when Frank Langella lost :( But there were a lot of strong contenders in the Best Actor category so I expected the loss.)

Okay. Back to my celebratory mood now…

WOOOOOOOOOOO!
SLUMDOG MILLIONAAAAAAIRE!

Seriously. Once they show Slumdog Millionaire here in the cinemas, I am going to watch it, even though I’ve seen it already. WHO WANTS TO COME WITH ME? :D

So this all happened yesterday but I lost my internet so I wasn’t able to post it:

Okay, LSS. I heard it today in class and I kept singing it to myself on the way home. I love Lady GaGa!

So today, we had our JS Turnover which wasn’t as bad as I expected. It was quite short. And I hated the Grade School one because we had to stay LATE and form a gigantic freakin’ human cloverfield. And most Juniors and Seniors don’t care about each other anyway.

Also adding to this cynical post is the news of Sir Alano leaving MCHS. He wasn’t my teacher in the Second Year but it’s still sad to see him go because a lot (and I mean A LOT) of students like him. He’s always so happy! He sends forth rainbows in every direction. He kept joking to us that he would get into a business of selling cellphones and his store would be called “Bright Electronics” (because Bright is his nickname) Oh Sir Alano. You will be missed.

YAY. LONG WEEKEND. Okay, so I’ll watch the Oscars… Study for Social… Study for Fil… I can’t study for Geom. I left my book in the classroom. I’ve got extra time after that so… NEOPETS TIME. God, I’m an addict.

And I’m into wrestling again! I was so random during Recess with my friends. I kept blabbing about my wrestling knowledge because nobody else in class currently watches wrestling so I chose them as my unfortunate audience. Oh Christian. I’d stay faithful to ECW for you. <3

ALSO, from this day forward.. Sir Berns will be known as “THE GENIUS” because he answered the Lenny Conundrum correctly. Like, right on the dot! He spent so much time in conquering the problem, it practically became a part of him. We were doing a seatwork during P.O.E.M. class and then I showed him the solution I printed out from the Lenny Conundrum page. Then after he looked at the alternative solution, he gave it back. Then he said “Nicole, can I borrow it again? I wanna show it to another teacher.” Okay, something’s wrong with his mind. He’s a genius but… wow. Toni’s dad was right. He’s not just a Geometry teacher. He is a mathematician. Damn. I bow down to him. (Which I did.)

SUCK IT, MONKEYS! I DID THE ENGLISH BODY! And I promised that I would be finishing it on a Saturday but I never thought that I would be able to finish it before Saturday night! That just makes things better!

So I had a one night stand when I did the English body. I have no intention of calling it back because I felt like I didn’t even try. Although I might have made it pregnant. Yeah. The Conclusion. That might haunt me but maybe it will decide to raise the kid on its own. Whatever. All I know is, I’m done and I wanna live my life.

SO HAPPY FREAKIN’ VALENTINE’S DAY, EVERYONE! NOT EVEN HE CAN DAMPEN MY SPIRITS ON THIS DAY. :D :D :D

We had no classes today but my section had to go to a building activity. So right now, I am tired. (Even though I didn’t do much.) When I came home, English was the last thing on my mind. I just went to do my daily internet activities and then played games in Neopets. (I earn Neopoints pretty quickly!) I also re-added the people from my old messenger account to my new one. I was pretty selective, though. I do want to make my list meaningful. (I should’ve chosen ’schindler’ as a username.)

Because of liberal neglect of English on this day (I don’t feel motivated at all unlike my other friends who have way better English teachers than me) I decided to dedicate this Saturday, Valentine’s Day, to my English paper. Yes, I am married to my work.

Which is fine.

It’s not like I’m WITH someone right now. It’s just something to help me distract myself from this commercialized day. It actually helps me to move forward. I just hope I won’t encounter (or decide to encounter) some delays as I write my paper. Because I will not rest until that paper is finished on Saturday! I do not want to do any further work on Sunday. That day is already reserved for Social and Geom.

I usually complain about Valentine’s Day but I’m rather apathetic to it now. I don’t want to be affected by it because… really. I have no reason to be affected by it at all. So it’s just an ordinary day to me now. Like New Year’s Day… or 9/11.

Prom was enjoyable. I danced awkwardly during fast songs and kept saying “I want to go to there” and instead of eating the formal way, I ate how I wanted to eat which was more practical. Oh Liz Lemon. I have patterned my whole self on you. And I went on my first sleepover ever!

Anyway, enough of that… Thanks to those who looked after my emotionally unstable self before the prom. I feel a lot better and I’ve got a more positive outlook on life now… and with more self-restraint. (I wonder if he noticed this.)

So I gotta move on my own pace now. Can’t force people to what I want. Just gonna go with what God tells me to do… and apparently, God tells me to go on Neopets again. But I forgot the birthdate I put on my other account so now I can’t access the Laboratory anymore! EPIC FAIL.