As much as I don't want to, I have to

I guess the fact that I've been delaying this post says so much about me: A lot of people who know me too well know how I dread coming into terms with things, especially with goodbyes. I could go on and write about the many farewells I encountered and made during my almost-four years of college, but that wouldn’t really add up my entire experience of utter sadness and sheer hopelessness—feelings that I, like most people, would normally associate goodbye with.

Last Tuesday, October 4th, our class held an exposition that featured creative and healthy ways on how to deal with grief. We had chocolates and pizza for comfort food, a freedom wall for self-expression, a darts wall for anger management, and a couple of beanbags with a giant teddy bear for relaxation. Our main goal was to present grief not as something to be completely sad about, but that there’s more to any grief experience than just the negative feelings. At the end of the day, I think we did pretty well, granted that we only had the weekend to prepare.


I was glad to see people dropping by the area that day. Most of them were at the peak of their hell week and saw our expo as a sort of break, especially from their worries. While I admit that some of them were only there for the freebies, I found a number of them who really found Good Grief! helpful:

• There was this girl who spent 30 minutes sobbing while writing a letter to be posted on the freedom wall
• Another was a guy who, although we were already cleaning up the place because the expo was over, insisted that he expresses himself by writing something for the wall
• There was also this lady who hogged the darts area for 20 minutes or so because she was so troubled by the low grades she’s getting in a certain class

These observations really opened my eyes and made me realize that the Ateneo community somehow does need a class such as the one we are taking now. There aren’t much avenues provided for both students and teachers to deal with their loss appropriately. A required annual guidance interview is not enough assistance, if you ask me. Some students are just forced to go, not even opening up to the counsellors. We often fail to recognize the many hardships teenagers face at this stage in their lives. Perhaps all they really need is just a simple push so that these long-hidden frustrations can come out. However, they don’t have the knowledge on how to work their way through these problems.

Overall, I think our expo was a success not only because of the 155 attendees or the fact that all our supplies such as food and art materials were used up, but also that there were a lot of people who stopped by not for the chocolates but to question and listen intently on what our project really was for. And they weren’t exactly weirded out by it, as most of us would’ve when someone talks to us about a sad topic like grief and loss. In fact, majority of them agreed that Good Grief was a unique project and that it was useful for them. And of course, we were so happy to hear that.

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I believe that, without a doubt, I deserve an A as a final grade for this class because I’ve worked relentlessly well on my papers and blog entries, studied hard for the midterm examinations (and pulled through!), organized and helped out in whatever way I can during the final project, and still able to raise my hand and recite in class almost all the time—all that, in spite of the hectic schedule senior year brings. Besides, although people assured me that such a class would be easy, my performance wasn’t marred with mediocrity and I didn’t do things “for the sake of doing them.” I personally found this class very helpful in dealing with my problems and would most definitely encourage others to take this elective as well.

Thank you for everything, Miss Cathy! See you around!

The calm before, the storm, and the year after

Perhaps this is going to be one of my last posts for this blog, since later we'll be holding our last class session and then after that, we're done. Quite frankly, I'm excited on how our event will go. I hope a lot of people can drop by and try out all our stations. Then there's dinner care of Miss Cathy! Today will be all kinds of awesome, I'm sure of it!

And I guess it's pretty timely. I am one for celebrating anniversaries, a lot of people know that. To be able to move on and to forget--both the hello and the goodbye: I must thank you.