Out of the comfort zone

By GUIA TRINIDAD, Contributor

June 16, 2010, 12:35pm

 

The baby of the family is now a college freshie!

Trixia Mae Casupanan, an Applied Statistics freshman at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, admits that she had been plagued by the whole college thing for the past few months. This situation had been aggravated by the fact that she would be doing things on her own once she entered college.

“Even for the college entrance exams and interviews, my mom and my brother were with me. But I know that at one point, I would have to do be on my own,” the sixteener says.

For the first time in her life, Trixia says, she even had to join the mile-long line of students just to be able to enroll, a task that her parents used to do for her in high school.

The new environment is also something she will learn to get accustomed to. In her former school, prayers and religious songs would greet her every morning. At PUP, she was welcomed by the rants of student activists and by a signage in an old building saying 

“Mag-ingat sa bumabagsak (Watch out for falling debris).”

Another challenge for her would be the everyday commute. Whereas she would be brought to and picked up from school before, she now has to take public utility vehicles and travel for more than an hour.

“I am already conditioning myself with that and even though I am anxious about traffic, strikes, storms and floods, I wouldn’t let those things and my other fears interfere with my education,” she explains.

Trixia is aware that all college freshmen have to go through the same things in order to adjust to the new environment. She knows that she could gradually acclimatize herself and is also looking forward to several school activities mentioned during their orientation. But more importantly, she knows that she is ready to step out of her safe zone and face her whole new world with much conviction.