Dear self,

There are things in life that you might never want to forget and I kid you not, this is one of them. Oh and before you started writing this you just came from an NMAT exam (it’s a miracle how you made sure no blood came out of your nose) and you are also trying to forget the blasted Immuno-serology exam that was the only barrier between you and your Christmas break. You are writing this in the hope that in moments of trouble and deep depression you can recall those times that made you smile and say it was all worthwhile.

P.S. As of this moment you are also in a dilemma in choosing between Canon 400mm f/5.6L and Sigma 150-500mm. I hope you made the right decision after

This is a story of troubles, stress, hardship, friendship, adventure, discoveries, and of course, happiness. Oh, and this story is a story told to myself so please bear with the “you” addressing in the tale.

Once upon a time (yes, I am obliged to use the famous start-of-a-story line) you were a troubled student trying to fight your way through your, hopefully, last year of college in Velez College. Though your life in college was no perfect one, it was manageable enough for you to get by. One day you were called to the dean’s office for a certain concern about the upcoming Mr. and Ms. Velez 2010.

The pageant was only a few more weeks away and you still didn’t have candidates to represent your College. Of course there was someone for male category but the female category candidate: Liz, still needed some encouragement before she could join in. Thankfully Liz took in all her courage and gave a firm yes. Supposedly Rhomer was to join the male category but he backed out leaving no one left to represent. The Dean decided to let you join.

Note that a couple of years back you and Carol “Partz” Montecalvo joked around and did catwalk on the ramp for the Ms. Velez 2008. You kidded amongst yourselves that it just might happen. A year after Carol represented for Medtech.

So what did you say? You, without hesitation, said yes. What the hell were you thinking?! But I guess it’s one of those crazy things you do before you end your last year in College. Thankfully it’s nothing crazier than that.

With just a few weeks before the actual pageant you were given a 5Kphp budget to pay for all the expenses between you and Liz. Now in a department of 30+ students you don’t get much money so you two had to make the most of what you had. Fortunately you inherited Dad’s money-saving characteristics.

Oh, and you also weighed 82kilograms (and I’m hoping as you are reading you are at least 10 kilograms away from the aforementioned weight). So you started running for your life. You changed your diet immediately. Gosh you never ate so much salad in your life! You lost 5 kilograms in 2 weeks.

You and Liz were supposed to come up with a forest themed costume but little did you know that something else was going to happen.

Photo shoot

Okay, so you’ve been the one shooting other people for the past 7 years (from time of writing) so it’s actually something new to be the subject instead of the photographer.

You were sort of pissed as hell because of the hot hot environment! You were sweating and you could almost feel the layer of make up shed off from your face to be replaced by a thick barrier of reflecting oil. T_T

You and Liz had your shot in the locker area. Note that you do not know how to do those spur-of-the-moment poses. You suck.

The next photo shoot was a little better. It was in the Exposure Photography Studio in SM and you were rather prepared. Thankfully Rhomer, Kevin, Lyn and Leslie were there to give you and Liz moral support. Also thankfully the headshots from the studio were also useful for your NMAT form.

You got to shoot around people but you’re consistently reminded how you really need a new camera to replace your 5 year old faithful 400D.

More pictures from the shoot:

First day of Practice

Come first day of practice, you were super early and the actual practice 2 hours late. After which you finally met the organizer: Mam Chai, and also the choreographer: Sir Doms.

You sucked in your dance steps and I tell you, you really have two left feet. It’s a wonder how you managed to avoid stepping your partner to death.

I guess it was in the practice that you started to know all the other candidates. With 4 Medtech Candidate pairs, 3Nursing Candidate pairs, 2Pt/OT candidate pairs, and 1 pair of Biologists, this was indeed going to be an interesting competition.

You had your initial biases and stereotypical labels of the different colleges, especially those you were not familiar with but later did you know there was more to what meets the eye.

Next Days of Practice

Not everyone was ready for the actual Talent Night and you especially were not ready at all. You guys practiced for another round and even if you were still not ready you just crossed your fingers and made a go for it.

Thankfully you had Bonnie to do a critique filled with Candor Yes, you were too fast in your practice because you were nervous as hell!

Now here’s the part of the story were you experienced a good deal of hardship:

You had to transfer the Korg Triton Keyboard with hardshell case, Roland Amplifier, Keyboard-dual stand, mic stand and all the wires ALL BY YOURSELF from the office to EMVM hall. Thankfully you managed it all in 40 minutes.

What you were initially planning for the talent night was going to be some kind of performance with a musical but Liz had to use the piano so you had to change your performance to fit you two.

With only a practice from the day before you learned a medley of modern songs which you were supposed to perform for the Talent Night.

To be continued….