After a couple of minutes sitting alone on the third bench lined in the left corner in a familiar establishment, i began to notice the hundred plus students of the same university right across that served as our battlefield for four years just to gain victory and get in hand a single piece of paper. I could not help but smile after seeing those proud faces (though some you could easily recognize the good and responsible students by simply studying their movements as well as their faces). But most have the faces of not minding what life is ahead of them after their carefree life as a student. Well, I could not blame them for I think majority of the population of those blue and white students came from wealthy families. Worrying the future is not a worry for them.

It has been a long time since I went to this place. Four or five years before, we were here every single day that God had created, except on Sundays. This place is the testament to the happiness, struggle and frustration of being a student. Moreover, I could even point the seat I usually sat when I was still struggling to adopt the city life which was very alien to me long before.

I and my other classmates (who are very successful in their chosen career now) used to feast our lunch and snacks here. Feast? hahaha. That was something we never experience or if we did, maybe happened once in a blue moon. We just have an allowance enough for a student’s meal, jeepney fare, a little snack and a five-page photocopy. If something we need to buy for school, a budget for snack will be allotted to that thing. It meant a hungry stomach again. That was hard. It became a part of the struggle we used to deal everyday for four years.

I am just glad that I surpassed that stage. That reality made me work hard and harder and do the best I can in order to get even part of what I wanted and experience what I don’t want to experience again.

Before I could think more of my college life, my friend came. It’s about time to rise from seemingly comfortable position. Next thing I knew, I am three steps closer to the gate I used to enter everyday.