THE BOARD EXAM

January 18, 2009

9:00PM

It was so mentally and physically draining! Our board exam has ended! At last! I feel like, after eating at Shakeys, everything that has happened is just sinking on my thoughts now, and I am sooo drained out. During the exam, all you think is to focus, analyze, solve, draw… so much pressure, stress, and I’m so tired, I don’t feel like talking to Grace. Tired, wearied, and drained. I just want to write everything that has happened during the final weeks before the exam.

January 02, 2009

Went back to Manila for our drafting mock-up exam. I was on the bus as early as 1:00am, it was just after the celebration of New Year, no rest, sleepless, but by God’s grace we manage to finished  the exam. Just a bit disappointed since our mentor didn’t explain to us the supposed solution...

So after that, again... review…. Review… review…

January 03, 2009

We were invited by a friend of mine, Jovin, to have a fellowship in their church at Quezon, City. Was blessed by the warmth of the youths and the worshippers their.

January 09, 2009

We attended a Victory Christian Fellowship Youth Service (every Friday night), just in the inner circle of Espana, just a walking distance from our Boarding house. I came to respect their church, beliefs, passion. It is way different from my roots- Methodist, when it comes to worshipping You.

The Sermon of Pastor Ryan was beautiful and inspiring; his topic was all about the youth and what the youths can do, and why the church is so passionate for the youth ministry.

I do admire their purpose, and God is using the strengths and weaknesses of different churches, all for His glory. I know, lots of youths are struggling to find their purpose in life, and the different churches are the tools or instruments God ordained in seeing their purpose.

The church was filled with hundred of students from different universities, the praise and worship was spectacular... and sometimes, I do think of whether God is pleased in what we do, the music that they’re playing, the lights and slides and all... but who am I to judge? God looks at the heart.

Sometimes, I am ashamed of myself; my mind was thinking all this stuff, instead of worshiping God in the midst of His worshippers. I am differentiating my church to their church.

Who are the Methodists? We are already hundreds of old, comparing to the new churches that are growing. But when numbers come, Methodists stopped growing. I came to envy other churches, was thinking of is there something wrong in our church? Why are they so passionate and why are we not that passionate? Are we lukewarm, in our faith? In comes to worshiping our Lord, Methodists are not so demonstrative, while these people,  are not ashamed of lifting up their hands in full surrender, jumping and shouting, and dancing

We need revival...Oh Lord, we need revival…

January 10-15, 2009

Review days. These are the days where you seem cool and unaffected, but you have piles and piles of books in your table, not knowing which book to review first...

January 16, 2009 (Friday)

The first day of exam. We were assigned on Manuel L. Quezon University, on 5^th floor, I in room 506  while Grace is 513. Woke up as early as 4 am, and the water was freezing cold! So we had a quick bath, had our breakfast, prayed for guidance, wisdom and strength and thank Him for what He has done in our lives.

Ganun pala ang board exam, we are so nervous, my pencil fell a lot of times, even my calculator, and there was a lot of pencil banging on the floor by other students too. Our proctor came, gave our answering sheets, instructed us what to do. I don’t know why we keep on asking questions like we don’t understand the simple rules, our mind was block! I guess we were just afraid of committing any mistakes… that may ruin our chances of passing the board exam!

We started at exactly 8 am, first half had 100 items, all were in multiple choice, seems easy, but it’s not... the questions were very tricky, and all answers were correct, you just have to choose the best answer! My exam was full of uncertainty!

Afternoon came, started at exactly 2:00 pm, had 150 items! 40 sheets!! Goodness!! Kakabahan ka talaga! Questions are simple to understand. I was feeling confident. But I still don’t know! We had until 7 pm, but I finished it at 5:00 pm

It was so draining!  It was just like an ordinary exam you take at school, but difference is, this is BOARD EXAM!! And when you fail, it will hurt, big time!

January 20, 2009

1:00 PM

After the first day of exam, we went again to Victory to offer up our thanksgiving, together with our friend Ramces; he was like feeling awkward on the way of worship. But we went on worshiping.

January 17, 2009 (Saturday)

Rest day! What did we do? Watch TV… and browsed our National Building Code book, hoping that the exam would include the different setbacks, of different residential.

Ohh... by the way, before our first day of exam, Punz called, I even talked to Abbie, Mian and they prayed for me. Saturday night, Guru also called, he found out that I’m having my board exam, told me he was going to pray for me too. Thank God for additional strengths through good friends that He has given…

My family also called, papa, mama, gem, ate. During those times that I really need to hear some encouraging words, God gave them.

Prayers, prayers, prayers... I was strengthen reminding me that I can do nothing apart from Christ who strengthens me...

We had an early sleep, and had a peaceful one, unlike the night before the first day; our eyes were close, but not asleep!

January 18, 2009 (Sunday)

Our last exam! Again, got out of bed as early as 3:45 am, boiled our water for our bath, again it was freezing cold!

My school is just in UST, just in front of our boarding house, while Grace traveled  to Adamson!

Ohh... we went to look for Grace’s school the day before this last exam- Saturday, and after, we end up, entering a PCBS store, there I found a book from Philip Yancey “The Bible Jesus Read”, bought it (ever since, I got to Manila, I never bought a book, and now is the perfect time), and also I bought a NIV Bible for Grace.

So, while I was walking towards UST, with a big drafting table, that I was carrying on my shoulder, a lot of students that was also assigned in UST, were like me... hahaha... at exactly 6:30am, they opened the school building, and all of us were like racing towards the elevator! Mine is on the 7^th floor, imagine that if I had to take the stairs with my drafting table!

We waited again, the drafting exam started at exactly 8:00 am. My hunch was right! Residential pa rin ang exam! AN OPEN-MARKET TWO-STOREY RESIDENTIAL PROTOTYPE. What killed my time was the computation for the given area of the different areas of the house, I was like getting the exact dimension, only to find out (because of my stupidity) that I either could exceed or decreased! Goodness! That was a start!

Exactly 12:00pm, I am already on the drawing board, but not straight... I was kind of, stop...pause, and think... draw...what am after is the correct solution...  I was hoping it could give me high scores in having the correct solution! Everyone was tired and hungry, but neither one of them stopped to have a lunch break. How could we? Time is of essence! All I could do was to take a bite from my Sneakers chocolate and drink my Gatorade! That’s it... while of course, drafting…

I finished my SDP, FLOOR PLANS, SECTIONS, ROOF PLAN, CEILING PLAN AND EXT PERSPECTIVE. There were many details, and I haven’t done it all. What I’ve done is what I thought were the essentials.

We ended at exactly 6:00 pm. All were done due to lack of time; the last few minutes were the cramp up time. The proctor was saying to pass our drawings, and yet, some of us, were still giving their finish touches. Some of them donated their drawing tools, pencils… but not me! Hahaha. These are my remembrance!

(Big sigh!) I didn’t have time to go to church to thank God. Maybe that’s why when I and Aciang met at Shakeys, she was telling her stories, and I was merely listening, I don’t have enough strength to talk. I really felt drained-out... Literally! I was having mixed emotions, and I was speechless! The weight on our shoulder was gone but the thought whether “are we going to pass or not” was taking over. The waiting starts... and waiting, unsure of what’s gonna happen is the hardest... maybe that’s why, I wanted to go home…

At first, I always tell ciang to wait for the result after our exam here in Manila Na Lang, so when we don’t pass, we’ll not go home Na Lang... Hahaha, but now that our board has ended, I realized I needed my family, to whatever the result may be... I needed their support, I needed them, while I wait...

“Lord I am thankful for everything that has happened, learned many things, You changed my plans, you know my heart and my thoughts.

You have shown that even though I am far away from home, Your mercy and grace remains. Patiently molding, guiding and holding me all through out.

As we go home Lord, as a new morning arises, I will never forget what happened here, friends I met, people I’ve learned from, the church that I attended to worship You, the growing friendship between Xane, Grace, kuya mOniong and may best friend, Te Lib.

Lord, my family, si Papa, Mama, si Kuya, ate, Gem, Jom and Papang... all of them who believed and prayed for my strength, for guidance and wisdom.

For You Father, for being so good to me, for not changing though I changed. For not forgetting, though I may forget…

It is my prayer, to hold me dear Lord in this time of waiting…

Help us, to treasure You everything and to simply trust…”

Amen.