Looking at Sunburns

There are actually some things that majority of people see as both a major positive and a downright negative. It may be different for every individual - it could refer to portraying their public image and playing their roles to it, or it could just mean their personal battles fought deep within themselves. However, to the average undergraduate student taking up one hellish course in an even more hellish university, this would only refer to one thing - the summer break before senior year.

To the knowledge of everyone reading this blog post, the summer break before senior year revolves around one major event, and it is this aspect that makes it either the most enjoyable summer break, or the most unnoticed vacation ever given. Of course, I am talking about Summer Practicum - more commonly known as the time of undergoing On-the-Job Training. You see, unlike most courses where the department professors get to assign their students to what company and where, it's somehow different for the ones taking up this program. In here, we're the ones that actually get to choose our desired company, our time to take it, and other aspects such as pay and benefits. But to see it in that perspective would be simply disregarding the other aspects to this adventure. Because some "freedom" is given, then that would entail even greater responsibility. As such, we, the students, have to look for and apply to the companies ourselves, in the hopes that we have garnered enough education in order to be accepted into their fold. This is where lines are drawn - lines that separate us from each other. Because being in the real world is very much different from the university life. Competition is always fierce, and free passes are nowhere to be found. You pretty much get what you've put effort into, meaning if you didn't give a shit about tracing Java functions before, then this time it'll only be shit that you'll be getting.

Looking past this summer semester though, it's a fact that we'd be seeing ourselves in our senior year. All honesty aside, if we thought that summer OJT would be hell, then senior year would mean facing the god of the underworld himself, fighting him/her in a do-or-die battle to the ends of reality. It is here where we get to summon all the minions we have, and hope this might be more than enough to overcome the tests that will lie ahead.

Despite all these, there's always a bright side to everything. Take for example our summer break so far - though there hasn't been an outing I've been to, some of friends have. Expectedly, they got what souvenir shops never sell - sunburn. To some, that simple skin discoloration may be a pinch of anti-climatic happenings in a day full of fun, but you could always look at it in another way. To have sunburn would mean that you actually enjoyed a part of summer, and to some that would more than make up for the hellish weeks to come.

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sometimes man meets his destiny on the path he chose to avoid it.