After a few months here in UP, I felt what a normal life is once again. Actually, I hadn't felt it for a long time. When I was in highscool, I somehow forgot what a normal life was and what it was like to be treated as a normal person. Back when I was in elementary years, I was a simple person who barely caught the attention of other people. However, things changed when I was about to enter the third year of my highschool life.
I was studying at UST that time. Unfortunately, I had to transfer to other school not because I was flunking but because of some personal issues. My parents decided to enrol me in ESPS, a school near UST and a school wherein the principal is my auntie. The first time I heard that idea, I immediately disagreed with my parents. I knew that studying in a school wherein your auntie is the principal was going to produce issues. And I did not want issues anymore because I just escaped from an issue in UST. I was so tired. However, I had no choice. It was hard to transfer schools because I was already in third year highschool. So I decided to agree with my parents.
My first few months in ESPS were hard. I became a loner. During break times, I felt like eating inside the stalls of the bathroom because I thought it was better to eat there alone than to eat inside a canteen full of students who were all strangers to me. Days passed, my classmates began to approach me and I became their friend. Everything was okay. I was doing well in academics and I had a social life.
I tried my very best to keep my connection with the school principal as a secret. But my classmates still learned about it. The way they treated me changed. They started to treat me as if I was the principal of the school. They thought that I was a princess. Some even feared me. At first, I thought it was cool because people looked up to me. But I was wrong. It was no good at all.
That time I was always an honor student. Because people learned that I had a connection with the principal, they thought that I was cheating. They blamed the teachers and said that the teachers were faking my grades. I was so down that time. Many thoughts crossed my mind. What if the teachers were really just faking my grades? I started to lose my trust on myself. Whenever our class won on contests, students would say that we won because the principal is my auntie. It felt bad because I knew that I was working hard for what I was getting. I had sleepless nights just to be an honor student. I even started missing my dinners. What hurts the most was that people failed to see how I was shedding blood to get what I wanted because of the single fact that the principal is my auntie. It was like no people trusted me anymore. I also experienced a lot of pressure from my teachers. They were expecting me to get high grades all the time. They gave me more works to do compared to my classmates. Of course, I accepted the pressures they were giving me because I wanted to prove to the people that I am indeed intelligent.
I was somehow thankful that I did not lose all my friends. Some people still believed in me. They knew that I was an honor student because of my hardwork. What hurts was that even if they believed in me, they still treated me as a different person. They looked at me as if I was someone higher than them. All I wanted that time was for people to treat me as a normal person. I also did not know who my real friends were. Some people advised me that I should be careful in choosing my friends because some people might just befriend me for selfish reasons. I did not listen to those people who advised me. That was why I was deeply hurt when I learned that some of my friends were talking behind my back. They were just being good if I was there so that they could get what they wanted from me.
My real friends, teachers and employees in the school treated me as if I was a princess. If I wanted something, I could just get it in a blink of an eye. I was very spoiled. I did not even experienced commuting because there was always someone to bring me to school and fetch me from school. I felt that my freedom was lost. The guards in our school would not let me get out of the school. I always had to wait for my "sundo" for me to be able to get out of the school. I remember a time when it was our dismissal and I was not able to go to my "sundo" immediately because I had to take a special exam in math. My "sundo" came and the guards came looking for me. They asked my friend where I was. My friend, who thought that I already went home, told them I was not in school anymore. The guards panicked and my "sundo" called my parents. They continued to search for me in the whole school because they knew that I would not go home by myself. When my exam was finished, I got shocked when I saw them because all of them were panicking.
Some of my girl friends and some of the guys were afraid to mingle with me anymore. They thought that I was too good, too intelligent and too rich for them. They thought that it was very hard to reach me. I wanted to tell them that I am just a normal person who wanted a simple life. As time passed by, people noticed that I was just a simple person. They realized that I did not used my connection with the principal for selfish reasons and that I am good person after all. But the way they looked up to me never changed.
Now that I am in UP, I am experiencing a lot of changes. I am beginning to be an independent person now. People think of me as a simple person. My parents told me that I should drive my own car to school but I hesitated because I did not want people to think that I am sossy. I am also happy because UP lets me experience what a hard life is and how to do things on my own. It is my first time to ride in jeepneys alone. I am also experiencing to walk miles of roads every day. I am glad because I was able to enroll myself alone because before my parents were always the one who deal with my enrollment and other school stuffs. I am also grateful that I am able to meet diffent kinds of people who teach me a lot of things about life. I guess being in UP is one of my best experiences in my life because I get to be what I want which is being simple.
