One of the main reasons why I ended up
in my course is because I wanted to study Finance. When I was a little girl,
although admittedly I am still quite tiny, my Tita who is a CPA in America was
always giving me books to read. “The Billionaire Next Door” and “One-Minute
Billionaire” were some of the titles she’d sent to me. The books were
fascinating and soon I found myself scouring bookstores for my own tomes to
satisfy my newly acquired taste. Among them were “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and a
number of other Kiyosaki books. They were all very engaging and inspiring but I
found myself returning to the same problem. I had zero foundation where the
topic of financials was involved. I couldn't continue telling myself that a day
would come when these would all just become relevant information. I needed to
start learning as early as now.
Right
before my first accounting class, I was excited. This was it. My road to my
secret dreams of world dominat – *cough cough* – financial success was one step
closer to realization. I listened intently in class and absorbed as much as I
could. It was a bit tricky at first as I had no basic accounting background in
high school. Plus, the class felt more like a crash course instead of what it
claimed in the course title. Still, I was determined to do well. Sadly and honestly, it was a big letdown. Our
professor, albeit nice and jolly like St. Nick himself, was absent for most of
the semester and, even when he did manage to make it to class, he never seemed
invested enough in our learning. The worst time was when he made us discuss the
lessons to our own classmates while he stayed out and had lunch. Suffice it to
say, the class wasn't all I thought it would be.
Unsurprisingly
and fortunately, we managed to arrange for a new professor for our second
accounting class. This one was nothing like our first. He had everything
covered and exuded a “don’t mess with me” aura. I once described him to a
friend saying he was like a grandfather who taught you a lot of important and
amazing stuff about life and you wanted to please him and spend all your
afternoons having afternoon tea with him except he sort of scares you at the
same time. He was ruthless. He expected the best from his students and never
tried to hide his scathing amusement over the little mistakes we would make
here and there. But I guess it was this high standard he imposed on us that
made us want to give it our all. Well at least, that was certainly the case for
me. One problem that definitely showed in my work however was my weak
foundation on the subject. I don’t even want to talk about it anymore lest
someone trip on some random sidewalk and break his back. No, I didn't just
imagine that and if I did, I didn't feel a tiny tinge of joy over it.
Now,
having gone through two completely different accounting classes, it has been a
bit challenging to say the least. Half of what I was supposed to have learnt didn't really stick and my mastery was nowhere near perfect. But that didn't keep me from getting giddy over the prospect of finally taking my first finance
class.
When
enlistment day came, I did the usual. I clicked a random class with a time slot
that I felt comfortable with and proceeded to live my life. I browsed over the
list of finance classes available for the semester and was greeted with a bunch
of names I didn't know. I didn't bother to do my research. Why? Part of it was
I was too lazy to use up precious vacation time to go to an internet café and
pester people on whether the Chinese professor would be better than the other
one with a Filipino-sounding name. Sorry, I’m not trying to be racist here. Second,
and judge me if you must but, I was a firm believer in destiny and fate. So on
that particular day when I had gone out from my internet-less house in Iloilo
and into a shabby internet café outside the subdivision, I decided to let fate
work its sparkly magic and picked a class under TBA. It was going to be my
first 6-9PM class. I had no idea who my professor was going to be. But I was
sure as hell I wanted sashimi for dinner that night.
The
day finally came when summer had to go on its knees, grab my foot, and scrape
the floor with its nonexistent fingers while the new season dragged it away. The
first day of classes was always so mundane. I don’t
know why anyone ever bothers to go except to look for a possible cutie to sit
next to or to decide whether your new teacher was going to make your life a
living hell for the next few months. My reasons always bordered on the former. Except
I was a junior now and I was taking most of my classes with faces I could
describe even in my sleep. Although, I did find myself looking forward to who
TBA was going to be. Was he going to be a Rudolph, sans the red nose hopefully,
or was he going to be a new grandpa who maybe didn't make the idea of tea and
cupcakes with him so daunting?
We filed into our assigned room at
around 6PM as instructed. As it turns out, he was neither. He wasn't a new face
either. Boo. Okay, I’m kidding but who doesn't like meeting new people? And
just because I wanted something cool to happen that day, I entertained the thought
that he could also be an escaped Area 51 experiment who decided his best
disguise was to morph into my friend EJ Manalang, stuff the original in a broom
closet somewhere on campus, and go teach his class of unsuspecting normal human
beings. Except, I suspected. That didn't mean however that I was right. It
really was just my old friend and in a way, it was actually kind of cool, save
the fact that he insisted on being called ‘Sir EJ’. Maybe if he grew a mustache,
wore a monocle, and held a wine glass for the next three hours…
Anyway, he proceeded as all teachers
did and basically, so did the rest of the semester. And yes, you caught me. I’m
skipping the nitty gritty details because I just realized I've gone two pages
and am barely close to whatever point I’m trying to make. Oh yes, ‘insights and
realizations’ his post said.
First, it was strange having a
friend teach your class. Yes, it is college and I know people don’t have to get
a degree in Education and blah blah blah but bear with me. I wasn't used to it
okay? I had heard about the strange phenomenon but I never considered myself
lucky enough to experience it. I should send my friend Fate a thank you note
later.
Second, it was weird having a
college professor care so much about whether or not you learned. Sure it was
expected of their vocation but come one, no one really reads the fine print and
they all walk away guiltless on payday for a round of cheap drinks at the bar
during happy hour anyway. But the lengths he went through to help us with the
material was refreshing. It sometimes also even bordered on being sweet. Aww,
am I getting to you? Here, have a Kleenex.
Lastly, yes I’m not yet done
exalting him in the hopes that he might *wink wink* put some extra care bears
by his desk when he does the final calculations, I did learn and I had fun
doing so. Yes, it was still challenging and, yes, my weak foundations still
factored in, but he had managed to make this such an enjoyable and worthwhile
joint effort that I could only be surprised by the outcome. The class was more
than I had ever expected it to be. I learned so much from a teacher who didn't have to scare me or remind me of equally scary authority figures and managed to
simply laugh myself through the rough patches. Yes, there were those long
stretches when the three hours seemed to evolve into a year and I suspected my
brain was being churned to mush by the onslaught of terms but I always found
myself pulled back by his enthusiasm. It was hard not to like his class.
And as I finish typing this
reflection paper, while hoping it is ‘natural’ enough, I can’t help but feel
melancholic about the whole ordeal. The days are numbered and I’m not sure if
I’ll be lucky enough to land a good professor who does his course some justice
again but I’ve decided I still have some hope left for it. I still wish he shed
a tear or two in his farewell speech though. A little dramatic touch would’ve
been nice but I guess it was okay that he stuck to his own brand of contagious
happiness. I should start preparing for our defense now. Bye. J
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