High School Life, Oh My High School Life – First Year
I have wonderful memories of high school. I had interesting teachers, weird classmates and friends and some not-so-ordinary experiences. I went to Cebu City National Science High School. It’s a local science school supported by the city government and was founded in the late 70’s.
A lot of parents send their children to this school primarily because the tuition is cheap and the quality of education is excellent. Getting in though was very difficult. The hopefuls must have to pass through a series of examination and interviews before they will be admitted. In my time, there were about two thousand pre-screened applicants, and only 105 slots were available.
Batch 1995 started out with 105 students. We were only 100 by the time we graduated.
The Freshmen Year
Our batch was divided into groups of 35. Sections were named after some planets in the solar system. For the first years, the sections were Mercury, Venus and Earth. I belonged to the section VENUS and our teacher-adviser was from the planet of the apes.
Our adviser was a science teacher. I could still remember how she often arrived late for class and how difficult her exams were. In one particular exam, we were made to list down all the unit conversions from SI to English and vice-versa, something that I was never fond off. She had a reputation of flunking students for the wrong reasons. More like “if you’re not popular or rich, then you’ll have low grades’ kind of rule. Oh, the teacher once went to my house and tried to sell encyclopedia and the book of knowledge to my parents. Naaah. I received low grades in science.
I had a few interesting classmates in First Year Section Venus. There were the rich kids from St. Benedict’s and the international school who always flocked together during break time and who always talked in English. There were those who came from public elementary schools who also grouped together at lunch time so they could ask food or share their snacks with those who didn’t bring any.
Those coming from the girl’s high department of the University of San Carlos and the Cebu State College also formed their separate groups. There were only three people in my batch which came from Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion. One was in section earth and the other’s in section mercury.
Because I was the only Inmaculadista in my section, I needed to make friends. There’s this classmate who came from St. Francis which I befriended during lunch break because no one would eat with him, perhaps because he had thick lips that led people to think that he’s a freak and also, he was a true blue mama’s boy. His mom always came at lunchtime to bring him food. The other guy was from a school in Mandaue and was alone probably because he wasn’t good-looking, he’s dark and he stank.
It was in my freshmen year that Mrs. Nicanora P. Creus, the school principal, ordered me to take off my moustache. Of course I didn’t know that it was illegal to sport extra hair between my nose and my upper lip. I wasn’t aware either that they had grown so thick that the principal wanted them off. I was the first person in my batch to shave a bigotillo and cut my lips in the process.
Every Valentine’s Day, the student government would organize a fund-raising activity. It’s a Valentine love team contest where people would vote for the pair that would be off to a date on Valentine’s Day. I didn’t know what happened but I guess my classmates shelled out their baon just to let me and this girl (from CSC) win. There were gift checks and a dinner date for prizes but the date did not happen. I was just too embarrassed because I and my be-pimpled classmate were paraded around the school oval. It was more of a nightmare for me.
It was in the first year that I got to play soccer or football. Science High students were very much fanatics of the game. At that time, Le coup de monde (world cup) was scheduled for 1992 in the United States and a lot of school boys were attracted to the game. I did enjoy playing soccer. We often play after school hours in the school oval grounds or at the soccer field. I was a mid-fielder or a half-back then. I did not have to run as much as the forwards.
The first year was interesting. So were the last 3 years at Science High. I’ll write about it next time.
