By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
Fridays, apart from Mondays, are just about the busiest and the worst days to wait for public transportation. The same can be said for our hometown. Even people like us who live outside of the City must adjust to the hustle and bustle that certain days bring.
Friday has come, and with it brings another day of enrollment for us students, signaling the advent of another likely highly tumultuous semester. As I went out to enroll I wanted to experience again the feeling of going out with a head free of looming deadlines. And simply enjoy the journey to school, but life seemingly wanted to warm me up before the first day of school and the stress that is to come.
The days of vacation has made me forget just how tiring and stressfull it is to wait on a Friday. It simply reminded me of the norm for those who relied on public transportation to get around, that you will most likely wait for more than an hour on certain days or when your luck has simply drained.
As I waited for a jeep that seemed like it will never arrive the rain started to pour. I had no choice but to go back to our house feeling a sour regret on why I never brought an umbrella in the first place. This went atop the already existing mixture of bitter emotions. So the walk back was fast, each step made faster and faster by frustration, and I found myself back waiting again. This time, with an umbrella that made life a bit easier.
Thankfully, an empathetic bus driver arrived faster than the rest of the rain. As it became clear from the comforts inside the bus, the weather was simply winding up for a bigger downpour.
Arriving in Baguio, the umbrella became more and more valuable and I became more and more thankful I went back for it. The downpour was just about the same in the city and I arrived to school only meagerly wet but present to enroll atleast.
I simply tried to go from point A to point B, from home to school. But with the thought of losing a spot for our subjects added with wild imaginations and a quick temperament, the journey I was supposed to enjoy became tumultuous and the semester hasn’t officially started yet.
Since it already seemed like school was in session and life had started to go wild once more, I acted like a student and tried to think if there is anything I can get out of this situation, a coping mechanism of mine that helps to get past tough situations.
The only thing I could come up with is that life may lead you down a detour but it probably doesn’t do so to piss you off but to equip you for what is to come.
The umbrella I went back for, for me, became just about the most valuable item in the world at that time. Because of it I was able to arrive in school and I ended up enrolling as the 40th student out of 40 for a subject this semester. **
