My Alma Mater

UPIS year 2002, I graduated from this prestigious high school which I have attended since Kindergarten. Yesterday, I passed by to retrieve my TOR to be used for a petition I filed in court. (Re: NSO birth certificate)
Since I was already there, I decided to roam around their campus and saw that a lot of things have changed.

There were a lot of improvements and also a lot of unmaintained assets. Some people and employees that I have seen before I graduated were still there. The chairs have been replaced. (I wonder if our vandal is still on some of those unreplaced chairs.) Then there are those large hand wash areas. The drinking fountain has been replaced. And the students, they aren't as many as they used to be. The school didn't look as active as before. There was even one batch that consisted of only 80+ students.

I was teary-eyed while I was looking at different posters and scenes, not because I was sad, but because of all those emotions after not being in that school for several years. I think >10. I looked for some teachers that I am still familiar with and found out that there's only a number of them that works there. A lot of them has already resigned. Ma'am De Villa in particular was about to resign next semester and she was the person I wanted to talk to the most. Ma'am Vargas was there, although she never became my teacher, she remembered my name and the profession that I wanted to take when I grow up. Ma'am Laarnie, was at the guidance office and she was very accommodating and told me a lot about the school. They were the only teachers that I was able to talk to.

While roaming around I spotted several posters of things that reminded me of my youth. The boy scout organization that I was a member of has made it big. Back then I was the only member in our batch. The bulletin board that I saw looked like they already have a lot of willing members. Then The Peer facilitator's organization has a lot of activities. They also have a out of town trips. Lastly is the UP varsity swimming team. They have grown from what I last remember. I think there were only 9 of us back in the day, now there are more of them now. Here are some photos I managed to capture.

      Image above: UPHS Varsity Swimming Team now.

                               Above: Our coach since 1998. Coach Bernie Cavida.

I plan to pass by the UP Pool in the future to talk with coach Bernie.