The Unbroken Reverie

AT FIRST it appeared simply as a matter of natural course: after elementary, high school. However, the transition was not that easy, that smooth as I expected. High School life is far cry from carefree grade school days. It is largely independent work. One has to be left virtually on his own.

Therefore, the need for the help of others. The parents. The instructors, most especially. And the Salesian Fathers and Brothers. And seriousness on the part of the student. A strong determination to make something worthwhile for himself, his life. A firm faith in his capacity to succeed... to face the insurmountable

Group huddle, football-like. Attention and inattention style. Test and measurement of the teaching-learning process... to each his own... but not always. Classroom affairs are not always stiff, nerve wrecking... there are also some light moments... some exchanges of banter... a little horsing around... one could even find time to make face. And what a face!

The laboratories and workshops provide ample opportunities for the verification of the properties of some chemical substances, of the validity of the basic physical laws... to tinker with some simple or sophisticated gadgets... to look deeper into some principles... and to ogle some distant curves in motion!

Ah, that is always a good time! A much-needed respite from it all... to take a bite, some sniffs of fresh air... or to cram for the rigors of the next periods... to strike that shuttlecocks... to carom the billiard balls... to stretch a leg, strum a guitar, sing a bird song... just to be out for while from the confines of the cubicle of books and chalk and all...

But there are some big happenings too... the intramural games that always get started in all aplomb but never officially come to an end... balls to grab, grapple with, dribble, kick toward the human-barricaded goal... pieces of ivory or wood to push... and to fall in pain...

There are times to pose for picture... to stage some cultural and musical show... party till the wee hours of the new day.

But all these and others are part and parcel of campus life. They are good while they last. Bigger things, though, are waiting outside: greater tasks, trials, challenges, failures, and some ample rewards... the going may be rough... one may fall, not just once... but he shall rise again, and again...