Growing Up U.P.
There was a discussion in my Ph.D. class a few weeks ago about cross-cultural adjustment and a guest panelist said that foreign students adjusting to the Philippines have to make a double-adjustment to Filipino culture and to U.P culture. Then she went on to speak about how difficult it was for anyone to adjust to U.P. My teacher, who always associated me with Ateneo, turned to me and said, "Was that your experience?" to which I said instinctively, "No, U.P. family kami".
Rarely do I say something that really gets me thinking but this is one such instance. Yes, we are a U.P. family. My father and mother both graduated from U.P. My father even got his M.A. there and taught there for several years before I was born and a few years before he died. He even was a candidate for Dean of the U.P. School of Education and it broke his heart when he lost at the Board level (my father being probably the most professionally apolitical person in the world). Now that I think about it, that probably contributed to his ill-health subsequently.
Because he was teaching at U.P., we lived on campus, in a house with a large lot that was adjacent to Commonwealth Avenue. I went to nursery in a Protestant school near the U.P. chapel. My lola and I would walk to and from that school which was only a few blocks away from our house. We moved out of U.P. when I was 6.
My three eldest brothers and sisters all did their undergrad education at U.P.- Marine biology, Economics and BAA. Only us two younger children chose Ateneo for High School. By the time we graduated from elementary, our family could afford to send us two younger boys to Ateneo. I dont know why my brother chose Ateneo but I chose Ateneo because I thought I’d be going to school in barong or long sleeves and tie. Boy was I disappointed. My classmates even bothered to fake collared shirts. After high school, it was a choice again between Ateneo and U.P. and I chose Ateneo because I felt (physically) safer there.
Now I’m studying at U.P. for my Ph.D. and I can’t thank my teachers and my fellow classmates enough for the experience. I was telling my wife a couple of weeks ago that right now U.P. is my academic community. Maybe it is because I am a Ph.D. student that I feel that I am taking part in intellectual discourse at U.P. more than I am at Ateneo. But even more than that I feel that my tastes have become more aligned with the academic tastes at U.P (although I get a sense that these tastes always were aligned). I have ideas I want to develop and am hard-pressed to think of anyone at Ateneo who might be interested but can easily think of people at U.P. who would help me develop what I’m thinking.
Being at U.P. at this time of my life is like coming home, remembering that before Bangkok, U.P. was home (literally and figuratively). At the very least, being at U.P. is very liberating.
