finito

My very first semester here in Texas is finally over. I took my finals in Stat and English yesterday -- a surprisingly abrupt end to a 3-month stint of everyday commuting to school. It's very much unlike my semesters in UP -- when summer or the sem break neared, the busy days slowly faded into listless hours of packing up and bidding short good-byes to dear friends.

My Stat exam was very easy, as I had expected. It's not that I'm exceptionally gifted. My professor told us beforehand what would come out -- two problems, one on chapter three, the other on chapter 8. He also gave the formulas we would be needing -- yes, all of them. The best part is, he allowed us to use our textbook and notes while we were taking the test. Nice, ano? If only UP professors did the same. Heehee.

On the other hand, my English test challenged me quite enough. Although I breezed through the first part, where we had to define 10 out of the 15 terms listed, I was stumped by the second part. Mr. Bundrick gave us a quote each from three famous historical persons to choose one from. And then we had to write a short essay explaining our position regarding the quote.

I chose the first one by Henry Ford, where he lashes out against history. It goes something like this:

I don't know much about history, but I wouldn't give a nickel for all the history in the world. History is more or less bunk. It is a tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we make today.

During the first few minutes into the essay I just sat there, staring at my paper, thinking. My classmates, however, were already scribbling furiously. I then did an outline, because it's much easier to structure essays like this. Besides, I'm really used to doing it.

It didn't work. Forty minutes passed by and I hadn't written an actual sentence. My mind was exhausted on rummaging my stockpile of thoughts for an introduction, so I just settled for a mediocre "When I was in high school..." I managed to scrimp up something like "The past is the key we need, a key that unlocks the future -- our future" for my last line.

Anyway, I won't be posting my essay here verbatim. Neither will I compose a paraphrase just to satisfy your curiosity. All you need to know is that it wasn't very good. I'll email Mr. Bundrick tomorrow whether he's done correcting mine.

I'll be leading a sedentary lifestyle while waiting for the next semester. That won't be good news for my abdominal adipose tissue. I'll just do the best I can to coax my mother into walking on the oval after dinner. But at least I'll have more than a month to ruminate. And write.