Second Year: Year of My Most Unforgettable

II- St. Thomas Aquinas Batch 2003- 2004: My section that I consider the best. Maybe it was the bond that we had made, maybe it was the laughter we had shared, and maybe it was the mischief we all had been through that made this year unforgettable.
If Mrs. Cecilia Palaoag was your adviser, you would never thought that you’d be happy. Of course, she was known as one of the terror teachers. And when I knew that she was my adviser I told myself, “Ang malas naman, sa lahat ba naman ng magiging adviser ba’t siya pa! Pwede pa kayang magpalipat ng section?”
She was once our substitute teacher in Algebra when Sir Palomares was not around, and at that time I didn’t find her as a terror teacher, but again, I told myself, “Ganyan lang yan ngayon pero tignan mo pag second year na kami, nako, magsisimula na yan…mabait lang yan ngayon kase first year palang kami…”
In the line, up to our classroom, that was just the thing that runs my mind. But all that I assumed was wrong. She was never the terror teacher they all been saying.
In this year, because Mara and Tina wasn’t my classmate, I became close to Caralyne and not only to her but to almost all of my classmates. It’s like we’re one big group, and this was called “Tropang Thomasian”, and from then on, we call our adviser “Mama”(with an accent ha?).

Unforgettable moments:
Algebra- our first subject and as I’ve said, Mrs. Palaoag was our teacher.
· Unforgettable was Mrs. Palaoag’s quotation “How can you pass if you don’t know the basic.” And of course, this was written in our “Thought of the Week”, and as far as I can remember, this was the first quotation we had written.
· Unforgettable was Mrs. Palaoag’s joke about our periodical tests, “Ang dali lang n’yan, para ka lang nakain ng mane.” She even sang once, “Napakadali…kuya Eddie”.
· Unforgettable was when miss relate us facts about life, that sometimes, no matter how serious it was, I can’t help but laughJ.

Filipino- of course, the second subject, wherein Mrs. Zenaida Escorial was our teacher.
· Unforgettable was, Mrs. Escorial or Ms. Esco for short, modeling on all corridors before the first period ends.
· Unforgettable was Ms. Esco’s punishment if we enter the class without any assignments. She let’s us do commercials- and it must be good, if not we’d repeat it again.
· Unforgettable was, whenever Ms. Esco gives a recitation then we can’t answer three times in a row (three down!), we will do commercial, again, or we’ll have to sing novelty songs.
· Unforgettable was when almost all of us didn’t do assignment we sang Noel Cabangon’s Kanlungan. She pouts whenever we sing because we don’t know the tune (kung baga sintunado!), but because we only know the chorus part, it was the only time when she smiles.
· Unforgettable was Ms. Esco’s voice in which some of my classmates mimic her.
· Unforgettable was her given codenames for some of our classmates. Example, she calls Laudifer Sobretodo “Mr. Envelope”; for Meg, “samalaMEG”; for Caralyne, “Cara David”, for Raumel, “Mr. Suave; for Vaughn Aquino, “Master”, for Lester Sabater “Sabat” and a lot more that sure it sounds crazy sometimes.

Health and P.E.- our third subject during Mondays and Tuesdays. Sir Luisito Baluyut was our teacher.
· Unforgettable was Sir Baluyut’s expression “Panchin” and “Wow…Philippines!”
· Unforgettable was our game War Ball wherein we won…of course!
· Unforgettable was our last P.E. where we slept in the middle of the sports field. Panchin!

Araling Panlipunan- where I learned Asian History with the help of our teacher, Ms. Rhodora Balangue.
· Unforgettable was Ms. Balangue’s intro, “Sino ang magababalita?” (lagi nalang yang ganyan…)
· Unforgetabble was Ms. Balangue arguing with Robin because she doesn’t want her name to be written in our Thought For The Week.
· Unforgettable was Ms. Balangue’s hand gesture. And because we were so curious by this, we always do it- in front of her.

Religion- ah…one subject in my second year life that tops the unforgettable! And who would forget our teacher, Ms. Celina Bautista?
· Unfrogettable was when some of my guy classmates didn’t brought their books, Ms. Bau (for short) said, “hindi kayo nagdala ng libro, kaya ibig sabihin alam nyo na ang lesson, sige bukas kayo ang magtuturo.”
· Unforgettable was this day when some of my classmates acted as Ms. Bau. They started the class the way she starts it- writing the Lesson number and the titleJ
· Unforgettable was (also in the same scenario), because they are so many, every time they switch, we always say Good Afternoon. So that means to say that we greeted the “teachers” eleven times!
· Unforgettable was (still in the same scenario) when they asked Ms. Bau to read the book and explain it. We roared in laughter because she can’t say no because she “wasn’t” the teacher. But I don’t know why she’s so lucky. Before she could start, the bell rang.
· Unforgettable was (now we are in a different scenario), because we can’t answer her questions in Religion, she got really mad at us. She bid us goodbye saying, “Goodbye my dear intelligent St. Thomas Aquinas.” And that is of course, on the contrary.
· Unforgettable was Ms. Nouay’s quotation in collaboration with Ms. Bautista. “Make it a habit to read books.” That was Ms. Nouay’s. And Ms. Bau added it with…esp. the bible. So now it goes like this, “Make it a habit to read books esp. the bible. Ms. Nouay feat. Ms. Bautista.
· Unforgettable was the name we call Ms. Bautista. And I wouldn’t put it here. Addiane knows it and so with Robin and so with all of us!

English- the subject where we learned Asian Literature and Mrs. Alicia Navarro was our teacher.
· Unforgettable was all the things I’ve learned in her subject. (As I’ve said, English is my favorite subject).
· Unforgettable was our play of the Happy Family (a Japanese short story) where the characters in the chinovela Meteor Garden were our bidas.
· Unforgettable was Ms. Navs (short for Navarro) story about Baguio. She told us how the primitives burry their dead, how the ceremony was executed and how their casket looked like.

Biology- our last subject that deals with the study of life; taught by Ms. Violy Nouay.
· Unforgettable was Ms. Nouay’s “There’s nothing permanent here on Earth except change.” was the english version of Ms. Balangue’s “Walang permanenteng bagay sa mundo kundi ang pagbabago.”
· Unforgettable was the root word of squamous, where we said squam instead of square.
· Unforgettable was when we dissected a frog. My classmate already murdered (as in lahat na ata ng organs nung frog tinaggal na niya!) it and still he let the frog dance in the tune of Dancing Queen.
· Unforgettable was the name given to us by Ms. Nouay- “gametes”.
· Unforgettable was the scientific name of Onion, which is “alum cepha”. We must, according to miss, know the common names kasi di naman pwedeng sabihin ito sa tindahan, “Pwede po bang pabili ng alum cepha?” (oo nga naman..)
· Unforgettable was our last day in bio where Dana cried because she said that she’d miss the days we had.

Computer- ah…Ms. Cindy Salonga, a new comer, was our teacher.
· Unforgettable was when Jilli Anne’s right limb got stuck between the steel of the armchair and because she can’t balance it anymore, the chair tumbled down on the right direction where her limb was stucked. She scolded Jade Hugo after because she said that he didn’t tried to help her. But he thing was, Jade cannot because it was she who was too heavyJ.
· Unforgettable was when my classmates tied Ralph Uy in the locker with the use of a garter. Ms. Salonga said that if he can’t release himself, he couldn’t go home. But because no matter what biting (ang dumi dumi nung garter eh!) he does, he still can’t release himself; my classmates just cut the garter with the use of a scissors.
· Unforgettable was Ms. Salonga’s “kala nyo lang wala, pero meron, meron, meron!” when we were asked if the tag
exists in HTML.
· Unforgettable was when miss wrote all the hexadecimal codes of the colors used for HTML. I don’t know what’s the logic of writing it all when she didn’t even wrote it’s equivalent color!

Drafting- Mrs. Aida Innocencio was our teacher.
· Unforgettable was when Ms. Innocence asked us to write our names in Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
· Unforgettable was when Ms. Innocence asked me to change my paper three times because of some inconsistencies. A classmate of mine told me, “Anu ba yan, balik ka nang balik” (iba na kasi pag suki!)
· Unforgettable was the whole year of learning Drafting. I learned how to draw a lot of polygons in a systematic way!

Music- Ms. Mary Ann Vecino was our teacher, we meet only once a week, and it’s been a while, I already forgot the things we had. Anyways, Ms. Vecino will be my teacher up to fourth year.

Arts- again, Mrs. Marian Wolcott was our teacher.
· Unforgettable? All seems unforgettable when Ms. Wolcott is your teacher.
Of course, I can never put all those unforgettable moments here. This was all I can remember the time I’m writing it (March 21, 2005).

I miss the class we had. We were naughty but still we were happy. Teachers scold us, oftentimes, but still we’re okay. I don’t know what’s the formula of having an unforgettable class, but one thing’s for sure, we accepted each other the way we are.

~There are loyal hearts; there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true; then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you~
-Life’s Mirror Madelaine Bridges