She walked along the corridors of the University with a sort of planner in tow, dressed in maroon-colored executive looking suit, sometimes wearing a skirt while at times in shapely pants. The heads turned when she passed by as admiring students mostly freshmen oogle and wisper a remark amongst themselves, the source of the attention unaware as she idly mind her unending errands.
She was beautiful and respectable-looking, quite a sight to behold and even now I still remember her making my heart skip a beat. She was the reason why I auditioned. I wanted to know her more. During that stage my feelings for her was quite mild, kept intact and controlled. Nobody should know. Not even the girl.
And as I was fortunate to be part of the group called the MASP, I gradually came to experience one of the most exciting part of my college life, teaching my fellow students and getting paid for it, as well as looking closely to a love that faded in sight.
The Model Approach in Speech Program (MASP) was designed to assist students who have speech difficulties. Realizing the fact that most Adamsonians come from the provinces, and the fact that learning English is different from using it as a daily dialect, the English Department created a group composed of University students who have the skills in public speaking. Aside from the ability to teach, the fundamental use of these so-called speech instructors were to model the correct usage of the English language, so much so that the outcome would be to imbibe the American accent in speech.
It was a tough call in a school setting where “fashionable” is mostly pronounced in the second syllable, and where “Peter Piper” mostly end up having “paper”. “Betty Botty bitting a bit of better butter” would be a tough tongue twister and “selling sea shores” is better than “shilling sea shells”. It was a fun job to be honest, and modesty aside it was a ticket to popularity. Throw in the monthly stipend you get from the University, the free tuition that comes with it and the camaraderie that you get once you get in, then everything else seems heavenly. Icing on the cake is the privacy of my abode, the Speech Lab, where memorable things happened. And then there was the girl.
We had a chat one time. She came one afternoon, sad and needing comforting. I did not know why she would come to “my” place for that. She was in some sort of a cooling off period with her boyfriend and so she was looking for me. Talk about a rebound or becoming a spare tire but I did not feel that way. As a matter of fact I did not feel anything when she related how she felt about me and how we could be a potential couple. I did not feel anything at all. Like a far away star you look up and wish on, this one came hurtling down Earth and was nothing more than an insignificant rock. Love faded away when the de-mystification began. She was just an ordinary girl after all.
I stayed two years with the program, content and satisfied with the daily chores. They ran from the menial like washing dishes, buying teachers’ lunches, and cleaning the restrooms, to the unprofessional like substituting for a perrenially tardy professor and checking student quizzes. There were the research papers that never gets read with the folders and slides collected and “recycled” at the corner store. And also, there were the memorable drinking sprees that followed every allowance.
The most I treasured was the friendship. It was here that I bonded with three of the most fabulous guys I have ever met in my life. Three of whom I cherished every moment and spent evenings of intellectual discussions, from the mundane and trivial, to the philosophical. Such was the impact that being a MASPozie has brought upon me and to some other student/speech instructors like me. We are extinct, yet we cannot dump aside the memories of our clan. For in the stories that we share, there were those hundreds of students who listened to us and learned from us. And they too will remember those days.
Last 20 posts by erwinilao
- A Life That is Well and Full - August 3rd, 2008
- Time Stood Still (posted at ownlegacy.com) - June 30th, 2008
- Political abductions on the rise under GMA - June 11th, 2008
- Ready for change - May 22nd, 2008
- In Memory of Those Who Fought - May 20th, 2008
- A Tribute To Mom - May 9th, 2008
- Vacation - April 30th, 2008
- A MASPozie (posted as an autobiography at ownlegacy.com) - March 20th, 2008
- A Wonderful Cross - March 17th, 2008
- Fighting tuition fee increase - March 7th, 2008
- Obama speech on change - February 6th, 2008
- My second’s seventh (posted at ownlegacy.com) - February 4th, 2008
- The way I love thee (posted at ownlegacy.com) - February 4th, 2008
- My Memories of Adamson University - September 30th, 2007
- Chronicles of An Appendectomy (posted at ownlegacy.com) - September 30th, 2007
- A Long Day At Play (posted at ownlegacy.com) - September 17th, 2007
About the author:
1990 - Freshman belonging to a seminary called the Marian Missionaries of the Holy Cross. The very first student to run out of St. Vincent's Bldg. from the Registrar's office when the violent earthquake of 1990 began.
1992 - Fresh out of the seminary and back to the corridors of the institution. Feeling the need to belong to something or someone. That was when I found SAMAKA.
1993 - Elected President of the College of Liberal Arts, really did nothing but hung out with Morfe, Echauz, Mercado and the Filipinism ideologue. Most were SI Fraternity members.
1994 - Got tired of student politics and joined the MASP, a popular group of Student Speech instructors who knew how to clean tables and do teachers' errands. At least we got paid and I got to "own" the Speech Lab off the 2nd floor of the ST bldg.
1995 - Elected as President of the Adamson University Student Government (AUSG). The election was a landslide courtesy of a no-show opponent, a dysfunctional left-winger, an ambitious "speaker", and my being a popular student teacher.
Not that I did not deserve the position at that time. My term was the most peaceful the last fifteen years prior.
Here are My Achievements:
- Minimal pillboxes thrown off the campus since I keep them in my Cabinet at the AUSG office.,
- Less frat wars since I attended their drinking sprees in front of Cardinal bldg.,
- A more religious contribution from the AUSG, never before done, during the celebration of World Youth Day
- More parties or celebrations like a week-long festivity during the Student Week, a College Student Government celebration, a fund-raising dance party for Lahar victims and other sorties we would not mention.
I am glad I was part of this institution. I am proud to say that it was because of ADU that I am who I turned out to be.
For more of me, visit www.ownlegacy.com.
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