The Lara Life: personal

This was 7 years ago. 2015 was the year we finally graduated from our bachelor degree, and at that time, it was as if we conquered the hardest part of life we could ever experience. (Little did we know it was just the tip of the iceberg.)

I can’t say anything about other courses, but Architecture is no doubt a serious struggle. Where do you think the moniker “ArkiTorture” came from. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Our batch started from far too many strangers to even remember their individual names, then came out as friends bonded by 5 years of up and downs.

And truly, what an up and down life it was.

I remember my very first day in Adamson University very clearly. I woke up really early that day, with my clothes already prepared from the night before. First impression is the most important, my teen brain said. Pulled all the stops: the cropped black bolero with camisole under, the super skinny jeans, the side bangs, eye liner, chunky jewelry, strapped sandals and my trustee clear A4 envelope with all my admission details. (Yep, looking back now I look like a gothic nerdy freak. 🤣)

Got to the university, it was total chaos. I did not know where to go and I was so afraid to ask people for directions. First day, my first lesson was: everyone will call you “classmate” even if you are not in the same class (because that's how it is in AdU) and that TBA is not a room/location you are gonna have class in, it’s an acronym for “To Be Announced”.

I was enrolled in Block 1. One of the first ones to be early and standing in front of the room, waiting to be let in. There was this girl wearing a blue uniform and looked so mature and pulled together that I thought she was gonna be our professor. Entering the class, first person I introduced myself to was Kath Cabanela and of course, the only person wearing a uniform, the very one whom I thought was a professor, Ginnie Joy. Then the alphabetical order seating happened, and we got scrambled up and then we hitched Sheena Tokita into our little group, until it grew larger and larger. Fate got me new souls to imprint on: Diane Celorico, Eliza Dela Serna, Sig Careon, Cha Tarroquin, Nikki Padilla and Kevin Nuestro. Us, also otherwise known as the Itim, the Mcdo gang, etc.

I realized all this nostalgia will take a while to put into words so let’s stick to the gist:

1st year, 1st semester:

1. SM Manila is the unofficial cafeteria.

2. All those required architecture drafting tools are way too expensive, especially if you shop at Deovir (SM Manila). But you’re considered cool and rich when you shop there, so I did anyway. 🤣 My gosh! All those Kurecolors!!! Those prang watercolors, those tracing papers that are a bitch whenever you got paper cut! We got these little names in all of our stuff like kindergarteners because it's a dent in the allowance to loose them.

3. And yes, the first lesson is to write your name like an architect. 😎 Then Viscom is all about shading and light. And this is when I’m already second guessing why I am taking architecture when left and right, I see amazing hand sketches and I look down and see the work of a 10 year old.

4. First year is all about school spirit. You’ll memorize and chant the cheer yells like all the other freshmen and you think you’re cool because of it. Screaming "UNAWAKANAHIMO!!" is oddly therapeutic.

5. And because you’re really into the yells, you’d want to go to the UAAP Basketball competitions. Even if you have to pay for it, and have to travel for it. In a way, it’s a perfect excuse to be with your friends out of campus.

1st year, 2nd semester:

1. A lot of our classmates have either dropped out, or has been kicked out of the block class and became irregular. The lucky ones (us) from the previous block stuck together. (and stuck together we did until graduation. 😉)

2. We got to play in Viscom with watercolors and other mediums and thus, have to log around those big drawing boards with us everywhere! Luckily we have those lockers you can store your stuff into in between classes.

3. A lot of reporting. A lot of public speaking in front if the class. A lot of sports, and I'm not good at sports!!

4. Fun fact: I was classmates with Red here. But he was in another group of friends back then.

2nd year:

1. We have HOA now. Where you need to draw all the different kinds of historic monuments there ever was!! I kid you not, we even have to source for an A4 paper thin enough to trace the book behind it just so we could to it faster! Others print a watermark in the A4 and draw on top of it to make it look like it is hand sketched. 🤷🏼‍♀️ You gotta do what you gotta do!

2. Perspective, the vanishing point, the 3-point, one-point, and every other point!

3. Professors love to kill us with esquisse!!!!!

3. We know how to drink by this time. Hey, there’s Bellagio, The Barn, Sherwood Place, Central, etc. So everything’s a bit fuzzy. Haha.

3rd year:

1. A lot of group projects here now. A lot of scale models. And a lot of tracing paper and blueprints!!!

2. We became wiser now with the lockers. Only a designated one will pay (sometimes me) and others are parasites (also me in other occasions).

3. We now have CAD subjects so that’s a bonus because we don’t have to rely now on those sketching talents. Here I’m on even playing field.

4. But math subjects are killing us. And kicking us out one by one. (Thanks God, I’m not one of them.)

5. But the nice things is that, we have field trips! We got to go to Ilocos, Baguio, Sagada, etc. All paid by us but fun nonetheless. Kind of felt like learning while travelling, you know.

6. Another fun fact: 3rd year 2nd semester is when Red started putting hints here and there. There;s a lot of drama there.

4th years:

1. This is when all went serious. There was only 1 block section left. And friends are dwindling. Others became irregular, others dropped out, others became part of other cliques.

2. Math killed everyone here (including me). With SOM and Calculus, I barely got 3. And that’s through blood and tears. And a whole lot of prayers!

5th year:

1. Fewer subjects does not mean fewer duties. Graduation year just got seriously real. Barely slept, the pressure is above the roof and the thesis book needed to be completed, the drawings, the thesis boards, the rush to chase your adviser. The tears when I didn’t make it to the deadline. The even more tears when we got a second chance but still missed the deadline again because I overslept. Then the pee-in-your-pants pressure of the defense. Then the actual defense! And all the crying afterwards before you know the grade (with deducted points because of lateness). And the realization that I could have been one of the highest grades if I weren’t late. The regret but gratefulness I felt that time. And all of it, all of it, blood, sweat and tears, until we got to this point..

And from this point, let the pictures tell it all.

With the woman who single handedly raised me all the way from Macau.

Graduation seatmates! Was not De Lara for most of our university days (was Tiglao and was seated all the way at the back of the room), but changing to "De Lara" did me good to be seated amongst my best mates on the best day. Hi, Celorico and Dela Serna ✋