Since
the day of our Field Trip Seminar is drawing near, we are required to attend a
seminar that would help develop our intrapersonal skills. We already knew about
the seminar because we were told about it when we had our Field Trip and
Seminar meeting. I mean we already knew about the seminar way too long ago. If
my memory serves we well, we were told about it when we had our first meeting
on our Field Trip and Seminar subject. Our president, Rhon Luiz Guarino told us
the activities we will be doing before, during and after the Field Trip and
Seminar, and one of them is having a seminar about developing intrapersonal
skill. So, if you are wondering what an intrapersonal skill is, well, according
to an answer on the website; materialminds.com, Intrapersonal Skill(s) is/are
the foundations of a successful career. This is emotional intelligence, the
ability to know, understand and manage your own emotions. So, yeah. We are
about to attend on a seminar that will hone those skill(s). In the latest meeting
we had in the Field Trip and Seminar subject, our president announced the date
of our intrapersonal skill seminar, and he also announced that it will be a
two-day event. The first day will be the day for the first batch, and the
second day will be for the second the second batch (Well, it is pretty
obvious). Then, he finally announced who are those student who will belong to
the first batch and the second batch. Our president named the students for the
first batch. I was, or should I say “we were” (referring to me and my barkada)
hoping that we will be a part of the first batch, since it will be on a Monday,
July 20, 2015. We wanted to be a part of the first batch because we do not have
a class on Tuesday, so we thought about it that Tuesday will be our rest day.
Free from various kind of school works as usual. But, unfortunately, none of
our names were mentioned on the first batch, not even one. So, it was pretty
obvious that we will be on the second batch. It sucks, but the best thing about
it is that we are still together. So, it was 4 days before our seminar. I
thought of what are the things that we are going to do on that day. I imagined
that it will be a seminar where the speaker will talk and talk and talk, and I
am not going to lie, it will be boring as hell. Since I really do not like
seminars, except for those seminars that I am interested of. I also imagined
that there will be an activity where our leadership skills will be tested. I
had hopes that the seminar will “somehow” be fun.
It was
July 20, 2015 when the first batch had their seminar. Their seminar will start
at eight, but early than that, we have our Programming 3 subject under Mr.
Pabilona. I thought that how my classmate will be able to attend the seminar’s
first hours if we have a class. But then, it turned out that we do not have a
class that day and we just required to take the quiz which is a timed quiz for
about 5 minutes. So, after that, my classmates that are part of the first batch
proceeded to the Social Hall. It was still early, it was like 7:15am. Me and my
barkada sat on the gazebo and had a little talk. When it was past 8am, we
decided to go to the social hall and take a look at the first batch. We would
like to know what in the world they were doing. But, when we arrived at the
social hall, none of them were prepared, nor ready. I mean, when we went inside
the social hall, there only a few students, the mics, speakers, etc. are being
prepared. So, we were kind of disappointed cause we haven’t got a clue about
what they are going to do. So, the day of our turn came. Unlike the first batch,
we did not have our seminar at the Social Hall. We had our seminar on the University
of Southeastern Philippines’ hostel, or we call it as the USEP Dormitory. We
already knew that our seminar there, and it made very excited as hell because
it was going to be my first time to get inside that establishment after four
years of being here in USEP.
We went
inside the university hostel/university dorm, and I was so amazed how awesome
it was to be there. Inside, on the second floor was a conference room. Maybe it
was built for some meetings or activities such as open cells and seminars. When
we went inside the conference room, we were too early. There were only a few
student at that time, our president was not even there yet. And the same thing
as what we have saw on the social hall, they were still preparing the equipment.
So, we sat on the chairs and waited for the others. Then a lady came in and asked
us if we’re ready, or complete. And, as far as can I, it is pretty obvious that
we were not yet ready nor complete. The lady told us that it was expected that
there will be a number of forty students on that day. So, around 8:30 in the
morning, our numbers increased, it seems like we are almost reaching the number
of forty, so we started the seminar.
We sat
on the chairs that were arranged in a “U” shape. Well, yes we know that it was
arranged in that way so we can see each other. So, the speaker / facilitator
which I forgot what her name is, greeted us a good morning and congratulated us
for our upcoming Field Trip, and she mentioned about the previous batch. We
felt so light having a little chit chat before we got in to the main thing. Our
facilitator/speaker asked us if what was our purpose why we attended the
seminar. Many of us answered in chorus. I cannot even hear a proper sentence.
The room was like a total enclosure where the echoes and murmurs of my fellow students
bounced in every direction. Well, things got a little “funnier” when our
speaker/facilitator slowly roamed and finally approached me to answer the
question. I was caught off guard since I cannot give a definite answer to
question. What I had in my mind is that, we were required to attend that
seminar because it was a requirement for Field Trip. So, I answered her
question with my mind still stunned saying “..because we are required to“. Everyone
at the room laughed and even our facilitator / speaker was kind of shocked about
my response. I was like: “Why are they laughing? Is there something funny from
what I have said?”. After a couple of seconds, I finally got a hold of myself
and I realized why the hell they were laughing and why our speaker / facilitator
was shocked. Well, it was they thought that I was being sarcastic at that time.
They thought that I was trying to be funny. But, actually I was not. I was not
being sarcastic at that time nor trying to be funny. I just answered her
question with complete innocence on my response, because that was the answer I
knew why we are required to attend the seminar. And I must say this again. I
had no intentions of making fun at that time. I was telling what I thought the
answer really was.
After that we proceeded to the next
activity (if I remember it correctly). The activity had us group ourselves into
8 members. We were calling out our “friends’ / barkada’s” name to join, but
then our facilitator told us the it would be easier to form the group if the
members are just the students who are sitting next to each other. I mean, if
you are confused about what I am saying, I will explain it. Example, I am the
first student on the first chair, then my group mates will be those seven
students sitting next to me. So, after we had our group settled, we formed into
circle and we were given a manila paper, a pentel pen / marker. We are tasked
to do a sharing with the group. We are tasked to share our own answers on these
questions; “What do you expect from this seminar?” and “What can you contribute
to the others?”, and after that we would weigh in the answers and write it on
the manila paper. After that, our facilitator / speaker showed us an images of smileys
with facial expressions implying their emotions / feelings on the projector screen.
The purpose of that is for us to pick one of the smileys that would describe
our group. Everyone in the group participated in the activity and we got the
activity done at ease. After that, every group had a representative to explain
what was written on the manila paper. The next activity was we were grouped by
having our selves count from 1 to (I forgot what number). I was number 4, so I
went and sat where the students who are also number 4. We were given a paper
individually with a drawing of a tree and there are lots of people on the tree
doing various things. We were tasked to encircle the person that describes
ourselves. I encircled the person who was some kind of chilling on the tree.
Seemingly not giving a care of what was happening around, as if he is at peace.
I chose that because it symbolizes how chill and compose I am even if the
things are rough on me. As if like I do not care at all, or in short just going
with the flow. Well, that is what you can see base on the drawing, but I added
that, even if I am like that, deep inside me, I am still worried and trying to
figure out things. And what made it wonderful is that, majority of the members
of our group chose the same person and had the same or almost the same reason
as mine. After that, we took a break that lasted for 30 minutes. We were given
one bread and one C2 mini. And what made the break fun was the ice breaker in
the form of Skeleton Dance. Our facilitator showed a video of a group of cartoon
skeletons dancing to the rhythm of a catchy children’s music. We were required
to stand up and mimic the skeleton dance. It was so fun that I did not even
dance because I was so shy to dance. What I did was standing up and laugh at
them looking silly.
The next activity we had was to draw
our dining table and draw the family members in their respective position. We
were given a bond paper and lots and lots of crayons. Everyone grabbed as many
crayons they can and sat on the floor drawing. They looked like they became
kinder again. A lot of them drew the table on top view, well I had a different
idea. I grabbed crayons that are analogous to each other and as well as their
complementary. I drew a 3d sphere. Yes, I drew a 3d drawing using crayons and
symbolized it as our table. Too bad I was not able to finish drawing it because
I was short of time. I only drew the family members as fast as I can. My
drawing was supposed to be the family members are revolving around the sphere.
My explanation is that I symbolized the table as a sphere because we revolve
around it. The time for sharing about the drawing came. Only three people were
chosen to explain their drawings. Among them was our classmate, Junalyn
Bantilan. I admit, she was one of our classmates that we like to bully(Not the
kind of bully that is so harsh, or too rude. Just more like a tease). But the
emotion of the room changed when she shared her explanation, and also her image
to us (the bullies). She cried because she does not have a family of her own (sort
of). She is living with her uncle along with her uncle’s children, her cousins
obviously. Her uncle adopted her and took care of her while she was growing up
after her father abandoned them with her mother. One thing that amazed me was
she mentioned that it is not her uncle by blood, or biological uncle. Her aunt
(the husband of her uncle which took care of her) was the one who she has a
biological relation, but her uncle did all the things and provided all the
things that she needs. From there on, I felt pity for her. It is very unlikely
of her to have such sad life while everyone that knows her think of her as a
funny and worriless person. That time, I realized how strong of a person she
is. After that we had another 30-minute break and ate the same food again. But
this time, another ice breaker was commenced and we danced the Animal Dance.
We then proceeded to the last
activity. I really forgot the purpose of that activity, but I remember that we
were grouped into the original 8 members. Then we had our representatives to
pick a paper from our facilitator’s hand. That paper would determine the thing
that we should do. Our group got the “Skit” paper. Along with “Skit” paper are
the “Singing”, “Rapping”, “Commercial” and “Dancing”. We thought about the
concept of our skit. We chose to do a skit that depicts the life of a student
that is being under a teacher who loves to discipline student. Showing his
social life before he was under that teacher, and how he lose it. It was one of
my embarrassing moment in my entire life because I portrayed a woman. So I did
everything to act like one. People are laughing at me, seems like I cannot
handle it. Some of the presentations from the other groups are also
entertaining. But if you would ask me what group stood out the most. Then it
was the group of Rondie Labra did an awesome thing. They got the “Rapping”
paper. They came up with a really great rap music within less than an hour.
Each of them has an individual rap, and their beat is so damn catchy.
We’ve got everything wrapped up
after the last activity. But before we could leave, there was a last thing that
we must do. After the prayer, we formed into a “U” shape while standing. We
were given a piece of paper and a candle. We are required to complete the
sentences. “I promise to….”, “I will start to….” and “I will keep on….”. This
was the “My Commitment” activity. After we wrote what’s on our minds. The
lights were shut and the candles were lit. The mic is passed by the current
student after sharing his “My Commitment” to next student, so on and so forth.
After that, we held hands and sang the “Lead Me Lord” song.
It was indeed a fun and great day.
Such a big opposite to what I initially thought that it is going to be a boring
seminar. But, fortunately I was wrong. The seminar was fun. I had a great
moment with my classmates and those who are not my classmates.