Reaction Post to "The First Post!"

Before anything, I wish to greet my non-existent readers' mothers a Happy Mother's Day this May 10, 2015!

So this morning my best friend Paolo sent me a photo of his x-ray, showing how he had scoliosis and I remembered that a photo of my x-ray existed on the Internet. Good thing I posted it on my blog four years ago because the Motorola flip-phone I used to take that picture is long gone.

So naturally, I checked my x-ray to see if I had (or was developing, after all it was taken 4 years ago) scoliosis, too, and if you were to go back to that post (I think it was the second one in April 2011) you would see that my spine kind of slants diagonally. I'm no doctor (and I didn't bother doing an extensive Google search) but I don't think that's scoliosis. BUT I have developed some really bad habits since then--like using my laptop while lying on my side and no, I'm not doing it now--so I'm about 87% sure I have scoliosis by now. It's NBD apparently.

But that is not the purpose of this post. As you can tell from the title, I am reacting to my first ever post on this failed 'College Blog.' I should have known I wouldn't have the (a) time and (b) discipline to maintain a college blog. I feel disappointed in myself and regretful of the situation because there was a myriad of college memories I cherish and wish I could reminisce through a college blog.

I have managed to capture some, like the Ateneo Freshman OrSem (back when it was still fun and they let the students actually run), the ME PrepCourse (the best and only MEA memory I ever had),  my Adventure Time addiction and over-analysis, and a couple of small things. I regret not writing that much about AIESEC, one of the biggest changes in my entire life. 

But it's not like I haven't tried writing about certain significant moments. I have more drafts in this blog than actual posts. Maybe after some refinement I will post them someday... like when I'm famous. Like, Hollywood famous... and I'll publish it as an autobiography... and it'll be bestseller...

Anyway, back to the point of this post. I will react to my first ever post, written back when I was sixteen years old. I am now twenty (eurgh). Let's see what cynical 20-year-old me has to say to naive 16-year-old me.

The First Post!

This is my first ever blog post as a bona fide college student! Well, actually, I'm not enrolled yet or anything, but I have a confirmed slot! That's pretty much like enrolling here anyway.

Ugh. You were way too excited about going to college. So many exclamation points! This doesn't sound (write) like me at all! But I love the offhanded blurring of the line between confirmation and enrollment. Very pre-rebellious phase.

So for recording purposes, even though the technological properties of this blog already does it for me, I would like to formally announce that this blog, My College Blog, was created on Sunday, April 10 of 2011 in the late hour of 11:30. No, I will not consider it April 11.

I'd like to say this was very nerdy of me (which it is) but I can't admit I wouldn't do the same thing in a future blog post--especially at 11:30 in the evening. I did not know I could stay up that late at 16. Note to 16-year-old me's future self: enjoy it while it lasts because you'll be sleeping at 10pm by the time you're in college.

Next on my list (there is no list) would be to state the intents and the purposes of creating this blog. For one thing, I'm done with High school and moving on up to Higher Education (EDIT: I originally wrote 'Secondary Education' until I realized, in 2015, that it was incorrect.)! Hurray! So, for this new chapter in my life, I am determined to record as many possible happenings during my 4 years at Ateneo de Man--oh wait, sorry. I forgot to put "the"... during my 4 years at The Ateneo de Manila University where I am a soon-to-be Management Engineering student.

(I don't know why the formatting changed there. I suspect it's the line spacing but I see no option to edit that here so I'll just leave it.)

I see my humor hasn't changed much in four years. Also, I just edited that Secondary Education part half an hour ago. Yeah... just a lot of empty promises and a jab at the "the" in my school's name. Funnily enough, you learn to drop the "the" as you go along and be humbled by the school's name, which you will carry for the rest of your life (assuming you pass).

College is a very scary next step for nearly everybody. And the author feels the same (that's cool I think I will refer to myself as The Author from now on) way. I am fully aware of how demanding my course will be and I'm just not sure I'm ready to make the transition from barely-studying-high-school-student to nose-on-the-grindstone-college-student. I mean, it's true for most of us, right? We did NOT work that hard in high school because we all know that's the enjoyable part. When it comes to college... well, you can't do those things anymore. 

I don't think I ever referred to myself as The Author since this post haha. I may have, but I don't remember. Nope, you were not fully aware. You had expectations, which is different from being fully aware. I don't think anything could have prepared you for what M.E. was like and that's okay.

It was a very humbling experience and you utterly did not make a successful transition from a barely-studying-high-school-student to a nose-on-the-grindstone-college-student. You didn't study as much as you thought you would but don't get me wrong, you did study. You often crammed, which was the standard in the university. If I were to gauge it, you relied on your natural intelligence versus a disciplined intelligence, 70-30.

Oh, hells yes. Just the other day you were reminiscing about how much you missed High school. And not (just) your friends, you actually missed the classes and how easy they would be now that you are 20 years old and have had college-level classes.

What "things" were you thinking of, I wonder. We didn't do any fun stuff in high school besides waging an epic, all-out war against our 4th year adviser. I guess it was the hanging out with friends part that you envisioned would drastically decrease. You were half-right. Naturally, you drifted away from your friends who went to other universities, like Jill and your other friends grouped under that umbrella, and Lyca and your other friends grouped under that umbrella.

As luck would have it, your best friend Paolo made his way to Ateneo on your sophomore year. I wonder why you didn't write about that, knowing that he intentionally decided against applying. I think, even then, you knew that it was impossible for the two of you not to keep in touch, especially since he was alone (technically with Redmond but... you know) in that school.

Anyway, all is well now.

So I've got this whole [plan] worked out where all I do is study, blog, and explore the new environment. I would probably still be addicted to Facebook in the early months of my school year but sooner or later, I hope to drop the habit and just try to hit to books.

 Aha! Finally, something that did come true. You have been off the Facebook-grid for quite a long time now. I think it started when you were getting frustrated at all the AIESEC work coming in from Facebook, and by work I mean complaints and crises. Your favorite social media network is now Twitter, inspired largely by Anna Kendrick's funny Tweets--oh, and speaking of Anna Kendrick, you should know that an addiction that held you your entire senior year of college was a Pitch Perfect addiction.

And, yup, as I said earlier, it was difficult to maintain a schedule where all you do is study, blog, and "explore the new environment." What does that even mean? If that was code for experimenting then you failed that, too. You did not factor in how much movies, TV, and AIESEC would consume your time. But you know what? You end up with no regrets. Sure, you could have done better and eventually graduate with Latin Honors but you also learned along the way that that kind of stuff is a huge deal for like a moment of your life, and then you move on to live the rest of your life trying to be a decent human being to the world.

Yeah, nobody likes to hear about that. So anyway, hopefully a lot of exciting stuff will be happening in college very soon, so that I may talk about it online even though nobody reads my blogs. And by the way, when I'm all grown up and famous, people will be reading my blogs for sure. Right now it's just new so there isn't much to talk about. Quite possibly my next post will be about my medicals. It is a requirement for enrollment to get an X-ray and I'm really exited about how that will turn out. I will also be getting, like, 9 shots and the last time I had ever gotten a shot was so long ago I can't remember what it feels like so that will be a somewhat new experience for me.

Good night!

Oh, wow, I was actually serious about that being famous thing. Well, there you go, our ulterior motive for writing this thing was so that once we're famous, we can have our thoughts read and laughed at by millions of people.

And there is that x-ray post I mentioned earlier. You were quite an excitable 16-year-old, weren't you? I didn't get a shot (IIRC) but I did get a blood test. The most painful part was trying to get the needle to prick through the skin, but after that it was fine.


So there you go, I reacted to my first post. I definitely feel like a lot has changed in the last four years, which is a testament to my experience at Ateneo. My Philosophy and Theology classes have definitely got me thinking in a different way both rationally and spiritually (I have become a lot less religious since then). My Decision Science minor has changed the way I approach decision-making. My M.E. major has taught me pretty much how to be and think like a smart grown up. And how can I forget my four-year stint at AIESEC that took me through both ends of the emotional scale and gave me a lifetime's worth of experiences and friends.

After going through everything, I feel like I am more humble now, but at the same time more ambitious about what I want to do with my life for myself and for the world. That is probably something 16-year-old me would find anti-climactic and dull but it's actually a lot... freeing.






I don't mind writing more posts through this blog, but I may have to change the title since I am no longer in college. I considered switching platforms since having the adding '.blogspot' to the URL was kind of lame and outdated, but I've been a loyal Blogger since the Misadventures series (another blog I should consider revisiting) so I might stick around for a while longer.

Until next post,
The Author

Remembering Art School

This post doesn't really belong in My College Blog, but for some reason I wanted to share it. In any case, this blog will be used for remembering things anyway, once I get old and tired.

Remembering Art School refers to this one summer in the early 2000's when my brother and I took an art class at the local 'museum'. I put quotation marks there because I'm not really sure if it is a museum despite the fact that it is called 'Museo ning Angeles' (trans. Museum of Angeles, my hometown) because I never really bothered with the works of art found in that dingy old building. But anyway, I'm not here to argue the purpose of that building, I'm here to reminisce that one day in "Art School", as I used to call it, that I was a total badass.

Memories often get distorted as time passes by so I can't guarantee that I was the sole instigator of this epic day in Art School, but I'm pretty sure I was one of the ringleaders. But first let me explain (or remind my future self) of what Art School was like. The first day of Art School was what I know now to be called a diagnostic test. We were asked to draw anything we wanted using crayons on a piece of black paper. I was about seven or eight (it was around Grade 2) so naturally... I copied what my brother was doing. We weren't very artistic to begin with (not saying that I am now, though I'd love to be) so we just drew your run-of-the-mill mountains and trees type. Oddly enough considering I copied off him, he got placed in the Green level (which was either the 3rd or 4th, not quite sure whether Blue was 4th) while I was placed in the Yellow (2nd) level. But I suspected it was merely because of the age range--either I'd be too young for the other Greens, or my brother'd be too old for the Yellows. But anyway...

The Red (1st) and Yellow levels were on the ground floor while Green and Blue were upstairs (which supported my theory of the age-thing, since younger kids were normally discouraged from climbing stairs back in those days--what?). The class was nice enough, I wasn't the painfully-shy-bordering-on-neurotic-introvert that I am now so I made a friend or two. I even got close to this one girl whose name I'd forgotten long ago, and shared a crush on this singer guy whose name is probably JC.

Anyway, back to my badass story. I'm usually a rule follower, and I never, ever disrespect my elders unless they give me reason to (case in point: Spagz). But for this one day, I simply disregarded the rules--not that there was a specific rule about it--and blatantly ignored the cries of our instructors. I was unstoppable, uncontrollable. I unleashed an inner beast that triggered the unleashing of other inner beasts. It was mad.

Are you wondering what I had done yet? I'd hate to sound anticlimactic but all I did was start some sort of paper fight with the Reds next door. We were connected by wooden double doors, and for some reason it felt fun and cool to throw crumpled up pieces of art paper at the little munchkins behind them. Of course, young and artistically challenged as they were, the Reds retaliated and it snowballed into one screaming, paper-throwing ordeal for our instructors. They shouldn't have given us all that much paper.

It was all rather exciting. I recall the feeling was akin to the Battle of Helm's Deep in LOTR, with the wooden doors being swung open to risk a well-aimed throw at a screaming Red, being shut again against the flurry of papers and crayons. My sharpest memory in all of that was when the doors swung open and I aimlessly through a ball of newspaper and it hit one of the female instructors. For a fleeting moment I looked at her with what I can imagine was a sheepish, guilty smirk before running back to reload.

Unfortunately, I don't remember how that ended. All I know is that we eventually got tired, as kids usually do after having their short attention spans highly stimulated. I'm sure we all helped with the clean up, because our instructors asked us to. And I remember nobody getting in trouble, unless they spoke to my parents behind my back in which case, all was well because my parents never said anything to me.



While writing this I thought something interesting. Why is it that we, the Yellows, felt so inclined to think that the Reds were our 'enemy'? I mean, for all intents and purposes of a paper fight (or war, rather) we could have done it between ourselves. You can chalk it up to arbitrary behavior, but what comes to mind is the idea that if you deliberately segregate people into groups, they will tend to form some sort of 'loyalty' to their group, if not 'hostility' toward others. I'm sure there are tons of studies on this but now is not the time to be researching about them. It is 11:44PM and I am ready to go to bed.


Good night!


EDITED (March 12, 2014, originally published December 18, 2013): Coincidentally, the last topic in Philosophy class was this exact thought! Note to future self: look up Amartya Sen's "Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny", this is what you learned in class! Basically, it talks about cultural identity and how we form a cultural affinity with those of similar culture, simultaneously including and excluding ourselves from certain groups. Violence (exemplified by that paper war I claimed to have started) arises when people ignore the fact that we are all multicultural, and focus instead on a singular identity (read: stereotype) that is different from ours. Anyway, it's 10:40PM so don't think about it too much.

'SMEG status' post + my insight on SMEG

NOTE TO SELF: Edit this douchey post haha.

While most of my batch mates are Tweeting or posting on Facebook a status that exclaims their recent success at surviving and conquering the Sure M.E. Graduate (SMEG) semester, I find myself writing a blog post instead. I'm not the type of person who posts a status on Facebook (at least not since I can remember) so my SMEG message goes out relatively unnoticed.

So... SMEG. Because of my uncanny ability to switch my memories on and off, the weight of 5 semesters does (or did) not burden me so I feel no more comfortable than I was a few weeks or months ago. But comparatively speaking, I am definitely more comfortable than I was two years ago. I'm pretty sure if I travel back in time and be able to re-experience the emotions of the first few weeks of my ME academic life, I would be singing an entirely different tune. But there might be another reason why I don't feel ecstatic tonight... (Hint: I'm foreshadowing what the post is about)

In case you didn't understand that previous paragraph, it simply said that I don't feel any different. And the reason why is that as you inch closer and closer to SMEG sem, it already becomes more and more a reality. In contrast to other events, when the closer you get to it the more anxious you feel. In the case of SMEG sem, the farther you are from it, the more likely the possibility of you getting kicked out. That is why the mortality rate in first year may have been higher than that in second year*, and it's not because the higher I go the harder I work, but because the higher I go, the more accustomed I am to the ME way of life, and "passing" becomes something normal. Failing (unwillingly) now becomes quite difficult.
*(I don't have the proper statistics for that, so you may choose not to believe in my claim but I do have this fact: our block got cut in half after the first semester--not year but semester. Accounting 20/35 may have a greater pull though I didn't feel it.)

Another reason this means very little to me now is the realization that nothing really changes. Yes, we are no longer restricted to the 2 D's rule, or the 2.5 QPI rule but that is, again, because getting higher-than-that grades is the norm. It's not like we're going, "Oh, thank heavens, we can now get all the D's we want" (no pun intended but I guess it turned out that way) because (1) that's not being magis, and (2) grades still mean something. The only thing that's gone is the abstract "pressure" to maintain those grade requirements; nothing has actually changed with regard to the grades we're aiming to get.

I don't want to downplay the effect of passing SMEG sem for others. I understand, even if I can't relate to, the other people who have worked hard and cried over this. And I especially don't want to downplay this moment for those who weren't able to get this far. I've had friends who got out of the program in first and second year. If my post is offensive to them, let it be said straight out that to offend them is not my intention.

I, too, felt the heartache of worrying about my grades. I don't anymore because of the norming effect I mentioned earlier and something else I will mention soon, but the point is I did worry in the early years especially with subjects that were too difficult for me to not care about. But I learned to not care about those grades. I developed a carefree attitude when it came to my grades so you should not compare my feelings about SMEG and the road to SMEG with others', especially with the grade conscious, and with those pressured by their parents (not saying that I am not).

Into my first weeks as a college student, grades were at the top of my list. No more acing tests based on 30 minutes of studying, I told myself, you can't pull off that shit in college. Hangouts with high school friends, I also said, could be placed on the back burner for now. Orgs were out of the question (it turned out not to be, but that's another story for another time). But obviously, something changed otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned my naive beginning. I can't pinpoint exactly when, but it most likely came alive with the angry emotions from when my college friends had to leave the ME program.

In my pathetic attempt to console them--which I'm not very good at to begin with, I suck at feelings--I turned to the negative aspects of ME. I unleashed a river of contempt for the program I was in, you could say I was a hypocrite. I complained about how pretentious it was, and how the teachers intentionally made it difficult when what they should be doing is teaching us. Majority of my claims were obviously incorrect, but I needed them to comfort myself more than others. From this anger, I brewed that carefree, devil-may-care attitude toward grades. I promised myself I wouldn't be too concerned about grades that I would get upset over not being "the perfect little ME student everyone wanted me to be". They tell you at the beginning that to stay in ME you have to be intensely competitive (it's actually the opposite, MEAns are intensely cooperative) but I chose not to be a part of the competition.

That is why today doesn't mean that much to me. It's how the rebel in me is saying, "Screw you, pretentious ME shadow people! I won't let your rules tell me how to live my life! I passed because I passed, not because of whatever effect you had on me." Those 'pretentious ME shadow people' don't refer to actual people. No, they are not my professors. No, he is not the ME Program Director. I deeply respect my professors and regard them as some of the most intelligent people in the country. I know they wouldn't treat anyone this way. These shadows are actually The They.

If you haven't taken Philosophy 101, or have but did not discuss Heidegger's Being and Time, you might not understand what I mean. But in simple terms, The They is similar to peer pressure, societal norms. Personified, The They is both everyone and no one, and are present in your everyday life. One key concept in Being and Time (at least how I understood it via my professor) is that The They constantly enforce a dictatorship over us, over our being. Our very being, subservient to The They, is not our own; our being is inauthentic.

So what my inner rebel is saying is that I got through SMEG sem unaffected by the threats and the pretentious propaganda. I didn't care for it when people would say a subject was difficult. I thought, "Who are you to tell me what's difficult for me? I wanna see for myself." Of course some of them were, but not because The They planted the idea, but because I did find them difficult. Some of them I actually found easy, and that wasn't because I studied harder since they said it would be difficult, but because I found it easy. The worst propaganda of them all, that I haven't yet 'defeated' is the one that says ME students are successful in the future. Our task now, is to prove that we are successful not only because we are ME students, but because we are.

My point is that after all this crazy SMEG stuff, I want people to realize that it really means nothing. It is not the manifestation of all your hard work, that would be you. I'm thankful for the kind of person SMEG sem and the road to SMEG have made me, but passing is not my reward. It is the difference between my present self and my first year self that shows my hard work. And the reason SMEG sem means nothing is because the difference will continue, i.e. I will still be developing, after or without that SMEG status.

For those in my position right now, what I'm saying is already a given. They realize this, too, but just want to celebrate. But this message is for those who aren't here yet, or who haven't made it here. Don't let prestige and promise ruin this life lesson: Reach for SMEG not for its name, but for its essence. Reach for that moment when excellence is the norm. But most importantly, at least for me, reach for it not because of anyone else telling you, or because of the promises you've been told, but because you want to.

Good night.

A Moment of Giddiness

Forgive me for getting my hopes up.

There is obviously nothing behind it... but daaaamn that got me flustered.

On Kids and Gender Neutrality

I went to the mall today to shop for my niece's and nephew's birthday presents, which means I spent a lot of time walking around Toys R Us. My nephew is turning one tomorrow and I, know nothing about babies, thought it would be nice to get him this Fisher Price truck (he apparently likes trucks) that has a moveable arm that can scoop up sand and rocks. It is a very cool toy if you ask me. 

But yeah, my nephew is 12 months old. My parents told me not to get the awesome toy for him. Now I know what you're thinking--they have age indicators on the boxes! The toy is for 1.5 to 4 year-old children, so obviously he couldn't have played with that. Pick a toy in his age range! But what I'm thinking is, he's going to be that age someday anyway! Why not get him a sustainable toy that he can enjoy for years to come rather than something that he'll grow out of immediately?

But apparently everyone else doesn't think that way--at least when it comes to babies. Never mind that they grow really quickly, just get them something for their age that they can't even understand at their current age, or even remember liking when they grow older. Case in point: at the back of Toys R Us were these CAT trucks of varying sizes. Exactly the same design but in different sizes. My parents told me to get the tiny one because my nephew was tiny, too. I'm going like, (in my head of course) "I wanna get the big one so he can enjoy it until he's 7!"

Let's imagine both scenarios here.

Scenario A: I get him what I want, the big Fisher Price truck.

Useful life: a good 5-6 years more.

Enjoyment: 4 stars. Being a one year old, he can sit on it and get rolled around. Pretty fun stuff. Now, as he gets older he gets more fun out of its features. You see, his dad owns beachfront property so he could not only ride the truck through the sand like a boss, but since the truck is big enough he can actually dig up sand using the shovel thing!

Scenario B: I get him the tiny truck.

Useful life: already pushing it with 3 years.

Enjoyment: ??? because he's a 1-year old. He likes anything colorful that moves. When he gets older he'll always just have this tiny, decorative truck that he doesn't even remember playing with.

I'm no expert in infant psychology myself, but I think that's a pretty well-reasoned argument. But my well- reasoned argument came to no use anyway because we ended up getting him a Little Tikes Play 'n Scoot Pirate Ship which is an even more awesome toy, but the point is that it was also for non-one-year-olds! So basically I got what I wanted but not the toy I wanted to give. My ego is forcing me to say: I thought of getting the nice pirate toy, too, but it wasn't a truck so the subject was moot.

While going through this toy shopping craze, I was getting a funny feeling. We were at the Little Tikes section of Toys R Us, near those playhouses and I was imagining kids laughing and playing, opening the doors and jumping out from behind the windows. The pictures of kids on the boxes doing exactly that did nothing to stop my imagination. I told myself that someday, I'm going to buy all of these cool toys and put them in a room dedicated entirely to my kids' enjoyment and fun-learning, a playroom basically.

I must say, thinking about kids is really something. You get all warm and cozy on the inside. A huge, unstoppable smile creeps over your face. You feel light, and all the stress just flies out of your brain and get replaces by images of a happy family laughing and hugging while having a picnic. I don't want to blame my being a female for these occasional thoughts. I'm pretty sure guys think about this stuff, too. 

For the rest of the day, I couldn't help but be exposed to thoughts of kids because my mom and I looked for my niece's gift, a pair of ballet flats. My niece just loves anything pink or purple but fashion dictated I get her the ruby ones. In the process of locating those tiny shoes we saw other tiny things (okay, maybe not so tiny, she is turning three after all) like dresses and skirts. Now, if you know me at all you'd know that dresses and skirts are not my thing. I'm a jeans and shirt kind of girl. But when you think of children, girls especially, you automatically dress them up in cutesy clothes because they're pretty and girly.

SPEAKING OF GIRLY

While I was at Toys R Us, I felt incredibly insulted by the fact that they labeled their toys by gender. I wanted to go over to the Gundam toys but I was still very conscious of the fact that the term 'Boys' Toys' was glaring at me. Okay, so maybe it wasn't labeled that way but the fact is they grouped toys according to gender.

Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with liking toys that come from "that side" of Toys R Us. Gundam was a TV show I watched as a kid, naturally I'd be attracted to the awesome toys that brought my imagination to life, wouldn't I? And as for Gundam being a show for boys--what, so you're saying robots are exclusive to boys? I won't go so feminist as to accuse society of thinking women aren't capable engineers of giant anthropomorphic Japanese killing machines but you get my point, right? 

It's like philosophy. It's like David Foster Wallace's "This is Water". The more you look into gender stratifications, the more you see how pointless it is.

Perhaps the only time parents ought to be concerned about the toys their children are playing with is when they don't help their children's cognitive development or, at the very least, their happiness. But hold on, let's think about that--there are absolutely no such toys! The mere fact that they are toys eliminates any possibility of ruining of your children! So if your boy plays with a Barbie, or your girl is laying waste to Hoth with a Lego AT-AT you shouldn't be concerned. And if I want to go check out a Gundam, I shouldn't have to be concerned! 

While gender neutral talks could span more topics outside children's toys, I must end my musings here. This week was a hell of a week I hope to forget, and writing about things that seem totally obvious but startlingly obscure feels really good.

I'll update soon.

"Date an AIESECer."

I don't understand why this blog has more pageviews than my other, older blog. The most logical reason I could come up with is that perhaps there are more 'searchable' keywords in this blog, which makes sense considering the posts in the older blog consist mostly of images rather than text. By searchable keywords I mean things like Adventure Time. I don't think my posts about Ateneo are getting around because, based on Blogger statistics, I only have 2 pageviews from the Philippines.

This post is just to share a link to another blog post on Tumblr. Sorry, do they call them blogs? Posts? Well, anyway, it's from Tumblr. I can't give credit to the maker because I'm not really sure who she (or he) is. But in any case, I am sharing it here.

The post is called Date an AIESECer. It seems rather weird that, despite being my college blog, I haven't mentioned AIESEC as often as it has been in my college life. In fact, my entire college life at this point revolves around AIESEC. I've had many life-changing experiences with AIESEC, yet I haven't written much (if any at all) of them on my college blog. So as a way to sort of mend that, and to introduce you to my life as an AIESECer, here is a post about dating one.

And just to be clear, the whole theme of dating an AIESECer is not really the point. Try to see the values and behaviors of a typical AIESECer which, as evidenced by the number of shares and likes of this post, is something universal. AIESEC is an international organization, and it's nice to see that in all corners of the globe, AIESECers are all the same.

Enjoy reading!

P.S. A huge amount of praise from me to the author of Date an AIESECer! I hope that someday we get to meet.

What Time Is It?

I only recently got into Adventure Time--I trust I don't have to explain what Adventure Time is to you--and so I decided to make a post about it since it is a big part of my sophomore year of college.

The way I see it, people either love or hate Adventure Time. Sure, there may be people who don't give a rat's behind but they probably haven't seen it or they just don't wanna get into the societal structure that comes with liking/hating AT. And I think my theory is true because I used to be one of the gray people who neither love nor hate AT. In simpler terms, a gray person is someone who doesn't want to love or hate Adventure Time because he or she doesn't want to conform to what everyone else is getting into.

Let me tell you the history of Adventure Time and Me. The first I heard of Adventure Time was through my friend, Paolo, in the summer after Freshman year. He just finished taking the entrance exam for transferees and we were on our way to have lunch. He had actually mentioned Adventure Time before but I didn't really ask him to explain more. I thought AT was a series like Game of Thrones, I didn't really think it was a cartoon so I wasn't interested. But I was feeling generous with my attention that day so I listened to him talk about a boy named Finn and a dog Jake. He was talking about a girl vampire that was really cool, named Marceline. And he wanted to share something funny but he couldn't remember so that brought us nowhere.

Fast forward a couple of months, when he was already settled in the unit next door. The first few weeks of my sophomore and his freshman (he had to go back to 1st year) year, I used to go to his place a lot and he would force me to watch his series over dinner or while we were trying to study.

By then he had a new favorite character named LSP, whom I know now to be Lumpy Space Princess. He made me watch her debut episode, "Trouble in Lumpy Space" and the episode "The Monster." Paolo really enjoyed the masculine, valley girl accent of LSP and I caught on, too. I began enjoying mimicking the voice, and the line "no, Jessica, don't cheat on Tony with me!" and how she was very rude to her parents, calling them "horrible idiots." [If Paolo's reading this, I bet he's laughing his head off.]

But after a while, when we focused on other series like Downton Abbey, Pretty Little Liars, Game of Thrones, etc. I slowly forgot about Adventure Time. But I discovered that my blockmate, Bridget, was really into it during one of our Accounting classes. She often asks me to teach her (imagine me teaching Accounting haha!) before classes start. She pulled out her phone on time and asked me to listen to her ringtone. It was Jake's "HAHAHAHAHA" laugh. I laughed only politely because I wasn't interested in Adventure Time that... time. I remembered, though, LSP. And we talked about her for a while.

Sometime later, Bridget posted a video of LSP's quotes on my Facebook Timeline and I told her I'd try to memorize them all. I actually still wasn't all that interested in Adventure Time then. When I watched the LSP video, I got sucked into the YouTube phenomenon that is watching a whole lot more videos related to that. I somehow ended up with the Fry Song, the one Marceline sang lamenting the fact that her Daddy ate her fries. But the version I watched wasn't called the Fry Song, but Marceline's Song. I had stumbled on the demo version by one of AT's storyboard artists, Rebecca Sugar, posted by her dad on his YouTube account.

I guess it was the whole acoustic, ukulele, simplicity thing that got me attracted to the song. I learned it immediately on the guitar (and began longing for a ukulele) and sang it to my heart's content. Soon after, I began watching the other demo videos and played them on my guitar. In fact, I learned Rebecca's version of songs before I even heard them on their episodes.

By now it was term break, and I had to go to the previously mentioned NLDC. I gave me brother some money and asked him to buy me a ukulele. I got the message that he got me one already and I couldn't wait to go home and start playing. Once I got home, I began playing all of Rebecca Sugar's AT songs. When we went back to Pampanga, I brought my ukulele and my brother's external hard drive with the first three seasons of Adventure Time on them and had a week of Adventure Time fun.

Today, I love AT but I don't think I'm quite the fan. I don't know every single character and every single episode by heart yet so I'm gonna work on that. With so many things to do, I wonder though if I'll be able to re-watch the episodes.

So now I'll talk about my views on the characters. I will try to get even the minor characters, but it could be that I don't have enough feelings for them to give them a description. In no particular order:

Finn

Finn the Human

He's a pretty cool character, and I appreciate how though he is the main character, the show doesn't always make him the center of attention. His sense of honor and integrity are admirable, especially in a cartoon character. When I think of Finn I often think of the impression he gives on the children watching the show and so far, it's a good one. Kids today can stand to be more like Finn.

Jake

Jake the Dog

The most adult character in the show, in my opinion, and I don't mean adult in the "adult" kind of way. His humor is more attuned to the older generations and even his wacky antics make me laugh (though they might not to others). Despite being rather simple, his ability actually makes for good entertainment, something I found quite pleasing. At first the thought of a stretching dog was kinda boring, but AT makes it fun.

Lady Rainicorn

Lady Rainicorn
One of the cutest characters, I love how Lady Rainicorn speaks only in Korean. The random weirdness of that is exactly why I love Adventure Time. Her relationship with Jake is also shown nicely. It was clear from "My Two Favorite People" that she was Jake's girlfriend and they had a relationship that was believable and not just for cartoon comedic relief. In " Lady & Peebles" we get to see more of her but not too much if you know what I mean. Like, sometimes when creators want to show more of a character they go overboard and lose the character, but Lady Rainicorn was consistent throughout the series as this semi-aloof, polite-ish Rainicorn. And that's what I like about her character.

BMO

BMO
We don't exactly know the gender of BMO. It is voiced by Niki Yang, who also voices Lady Unicorn. BMO has a noticable East Asian accent, and I love it for that! BMO is a media player, musical instrument, and video game console all in one, and in "BMO Noire" a pretty awesome detective. I love listening to BMO's voice because it reminds me of my Korean friends.

Princess Bubblegum

Princess Bubblegum
Okay, this is sort of a semi-rant. I don't like PB. As a princess, she's naturally made out to be kind and all that and I don't know if it's just me, but PB seems rather mean and often lacks foresight. I admit, I haven't really analyzed most of the episodes in Adventure Time, but from the episodes I can remember, PB wasn't shown in good light. She lacks empathy and is quick to have some of her enemies killed or punished. Sure, she visits the orphanage and is really concerned with the welfare of her people but like Sirius Black in the Goblet of Fire said,

 "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." 

In this case, it's how she treats her enemies and I think that is still a good indicator.
But there are some things I like about her. I like that she spends time with Finn and the others despite being a princess. It makes the line between her and her people thinner.

Marceline 

Marceline Abadeer / Marceline the Vampire Queen
I you know me at all, you'll know that Marceline is easily my favorite character. And I think I share that with hundreds of thousands of AT fans across the world. I always pick as my favorite character the characters that break social structures, or in a lamer way, the "rebels." Marceline is actually a stereotypical character. She doesn't want to rule the Nightosphere but prefers traveling (until "Evicted!"), she has 'daddy issues', she doesn't like being all formal (sort of seen in her interactions with Princess Bubblegum), and she's closed off from society both physically and emotionally (she lives in a house in a cave which nobody is allowed to go in, and doesn't like her emotions being revealed, "It Came From the Nightosphere" and "What Was Missing").
Despite being a stereotype, Marceline has the most depth of all the characters in AT. So far she is the only one with a history that is engaging and makes you want to know more. Her relationship with the Ice King and what happened in the Mushroom War, her fight with Princess Bubblegum, what happened to her mom, is she a vampire? (There's a long article on reasonable, fact-based speculations on the Analysis of Marceline's origins on the Adventure Time Wiki.)
Aside from the depth of her character, another reason I like Marceline is, well, because she has powers. Jake can stretch and Lady Rainicorn can change objects' colors but Marceline is the only protagonist with deadly powers. Also, she plays musical instruments and sings about her feelings, which I think is cool. But perhaps the number one reason I relate to Marceline and other characters like her is because she doesn't like showing her emotions.

EDIT: In addition to that, her voice is like "liquid love." I got that from a top YouTube comment haha.

Ice King

The Ice King
I congratulate the writers of Adventure Time in making my feelings for the Ice King take a 180-degree turn. Honestly, one of the main reasons I avoided AT before this was because of the Ice King. And the reason is rather pathetic. I hated the Ice King because his voice actor was Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. And I hate Spongebob. The voice was difficult to bear for a while but when the showed (gradually) that the Ice King was actually a sad, lonely, creepy perverted old man, he kinda grew on me.
Also, the fact that he also has a tragic history like Marceline's is another reason I got less annoyed. Having an empathetic ability like mine, I understand how certain experiences and how people treat you can affect your personality. And that made me feel for him. And the helplessness he felt in "I Remember You" not only gives the viewer an insight on his past as Simon Petrikov, but it also leaves you to wonder what could have possibly happened that would take him away from Marceline, or what the crown made him do that would make her leave.

LSP

Lumpy Space Princess

If a stranger decided to watch Adventure Time and came across any LSP-centered episode, he or she might get annoyed. LSP is a rude and assuming lump, but that's what we love about her. She is an exaggeration of a typical teenage girl inclusive of high school drama. No one can say LSP lacks confidence. I am embarrassed to admit that I like her for the same reason Paolo likes her: she's totes mean and easily insults people.

Earl of Lemongrab

The Earl of Lemongrab
Yes, it's kind of odd to have the Earl of Lemongrab in this list. But I just wanted to take this time to mention how creepy he is. I think it's mainly his creepy, high voice. Thinking about it on a psychological perspective, I think the reason his high voice creeps me out is because it sounds like he's in a state of panic. And when I hear his panicky high voice juxtaposed with the calm state that I am in (laying on the bed watching Adventure Time) my mind conflicts with itself--should I panic? Why? I'm just on the bed!
What... anyway, despite being totally creepy, like the Ice King, I feel for Lemongrab. According to the Wiki, he's got a sort of Frankenstein thing going on with him, and trying to see inside his head, you begin to realize it must be a crazy ride and that it's not really his fault that he acts that way. You just wanna try to relieve him of the sourness that goes on.








If I could, I'd talk more of the Lich and other characters, but I don't have a lot of time to talk about them. So I'll talk about relationships now. There are only two relationships I want to focus on, the more controversial ones.

"You threw me off!"

Between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline

When I first heard 'I'm Just Your Problem' on YouTube, I saw most of the comments were about the relationship between these two. The issue of homosexuality in children's cartoons is nothing new. In fact, I just searched for it on Google, and there are a bunch of results.

I can't be sure if it's because I watch it, or because I hadn't really noticed the other, but Adventure Time is the first children's cartoon that I watched that features a most-likely-homosexual relationship. I say 'most-likely-homosexual' because it is possible that they aren't and that our society is just so inclined to believe that an unorthodox relationship between two girls is a sign of lesbianism already (ahem, Paolo). Are viewers just jumping the gun?

Let's try to look at this objectively. The speculation began after the episode "What Was Missing" when Marceline let out her feelings in singing 'I'm Just Your Problem'. After that, the t-shirt that Marceline evidently gave PB, and the blush on Marceline's cheeks when PB said she wears it every night. The blush may have been the reason people believe that Marceline has feelings for PB. But what does blushing mean? We blush when we're embarrassed. But because of similar situations in other media (especially in anime), blushing means affection. So it's possible that Marceline was actually just embarrassed.

In her song 'I'm Just Your Problem,' Marceline makes it out that the two of them had a falling out in the past. She seems to say that it was because of something Marceline did or was doing that PB didn't like ("I'm sorry I don't treat you like a goddess... I'm sorry I don't treat you like you're perfect") which may be because of Marceline's personality or behavior ("Am I not sweet enough for you?"). And Marceline knows that but she believes it's not her (Marceline's) problem that PB feels that way ("I shouldn't have to justify what I do... shouldn't have to prove anything to you... I forget what landed me on your blacklist") but despite that, she still wants to make up and be friends (or whatever they were) again.

As someone who had a fall out with a girl friend before, I can understand where Marceline's coming from heterosexually. It's possible to have feelings like that when you've had a fight with a friend and you strongly believe it's not your fault but in the end it doesn't matter who's wrong or who's right because you just want to be friends again. There wasn't a t-shirt in my situation but if the other person had kept something that I gave her I would also feel embarrassed because I would realize that she values our friendship more than I did, and I should just put my ego aside and apologize (like Marshall and Lily's fight).

Right now it might seem like I am against the 'Bubbline' pairing, but I'm actually not. As a proud friend of gays and lesbians (that's just half true, but not my fault. It's not exactly easy to force a friendship!... or to figure out which ones are gay...), I completely support the representation of the LGBT community in cartoons. With regard to the arguments going over the internet between those anti-Bubbline and those pro, a shrew top comment from YouTube cleared things up and posed a more important issue: the YouTubers weren't protesting the validity of the Bubbline pairing, they were protesting the fact that the person from the Mathematical! channel who issued an Adventure Time promotional video that explicitly questioned the possible relationship between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum was fired from his job. The message being sent there was that it was wrong to expose children to the idea of homosexuality.

So with all of that said, I am for relationship but won't go so far as setting it in stone. I'll leave that up to the writers.

Marceline hugs the Ice King

Between Marceline and the Ice King

I find the relationship between these two very interesting. I was also relieved that it was more of a father-daughter relationship because, honestly, eew at a Marceline and Ice King pairing (what would you call that, Marceking?). The relationship brings a lot of depth into the characters. And raises a lot of questions, too. I mentioned some of those questions above.

Simon consoling little Marceline

The episode "I Remember You" showed us more of the great Mushroom War, or at least the aftermath of the war. A lot of facts become clear to us: (1) the Ice King is older than Marceline, (2) Marceline wasn't a vampire yet (already clear from 'Marceline's Closet' but now we're more certain), (3) the crown is what makes the Ice King live so long but at the same time, makes him forget his past, and perhaps the greatest discovery was (4) that it was the Ice King who gave Marceline her beloved stuffed toy Hambo. And one of the questions raised after this episode was the question of her father, Hunson Abadeer, and how this little kid came to be the Vampire Queen and in line to rule the Nightosphere.

The huge gap between this time and the present is what seems to be the new main plot of Adventure Time (remedied by the exciting cliff hanger of the season 3 finale, "The Lich"). Answering the questions and filling in the gap will give a lot of depth to the series as well as the characters. What attracts viewers to Adventure Time may be the seemingly random adventures that Finn and Jake go through but as evidenced by polls in the Wiki, the most liked episodes are the ones that have a sense of continuity in them. My only wish for the writers and Pendleton Ward is to continue building on their already strong fan base, but at the same time not forgetting the random adventures. There are only a few episodes that have continuity and I believe they have reached the perfect balance between the two.

And finally, the last part of my Adventure Time blog post is the gender-bender episode, Fionna and Cake.

Titlecard for the 'Fionna and Cake' episode

I love the idea of a gender-bender episode, because it adds to the creative imagination of the viewers. Also, it generates preferences. Some people might like Fionna better than Finn, or Prince Gumball than Princess Bubblegum (although that may be just because the great Neil Patrick Harris voices PG). Or in another case, make a pairing of the alternate character such as the Marceline and Marshall Lee pairing.

Marshall Lee

Doing the \m/ sign

Needless to say, my favorite gender-bent character is Marshall Lee. And though he was on screen for less than ten seconds, he has already developed a large fan base that includes the author of this blog. But as I learned in my recent lectures in Filipino and Western History, you learn a lot from the things that aren't said. And Marshall Lee is one character I bet millions of fans have created stories about. His cool demeanor and plaid shirt is enough to make a girl (or guy, sure) fall in love with him. Personally, I had in my mind a sort of aloof guy who is surprisingly nice. He looks like a bad boy but is actually a gentleman... 

What... anyway, I can't wait to see his debut in "Bad Little Boy". This storyboard art from the Wiki hints at a possible romantic relationship between Marshall Lee and Fionna (to the disappointment of those wishing for a Prince Gumball and Marshall Lee pairing, as well as the Bubbline one because if their male counterparts don't have the hots for each other, it's possible that the writes have in mind that Marceline and Bubblegum don't either).

Storyboard art for "Bad Little Boy"

This concludes the Adventure Time post. I have a lot more to say, but I have to leave early for school tomorrow. Good night!