I was asked to contribute to the publication's next issue and the topic suggested was something to/for the students. I'm putting this online now because I realized some of them I'm addressing this to are already out of town, or out of the country. They have begun to try out their wings, pursuing their dreams or their parents' dreams.
I am not connected with IMCC now, but many of them have stayed in touch with me, remembering occasions, visiting me, updating me of their lives. A group of them have even dubbed themselves my "fetuses" and have since then called me "mommy", "mum", "mom".
I hope this gets to them and they will know how I cherished the part of me and my life I shared with them.
Article published in the Medivox (Officical Publications of the Iligan Medical Center College
Trying out IMCC was almost like a shot in the dark. After all, I thought I had left the private school milieu when I graduated high school. I hadn’t thought of myself planting the seeds of learning, initiating quest for knowledge in what I considered to be a structured environment, thus not one conducive to opening of minds.
Years later, though, after I had also first left the country’s most open educational environment, I made the realization that learning needs some structure, even the barest outline, in order for it to take root and blossom. After all, even farmers follow some rules of order, albeit those are of nature.
I didn’t know what to expect upon entering IMCC’s portals. I needed to make adjustments, more that I thought I would. And these adjustments had to be readusted in almost every class I encountered. Flexibility was needed. But I couldn’t let go of that realization of the need for structure and order, even the merest semblance of it, for me to stand by the profession I found myself back in. I’d announce my rules inside the classroom, and policies for the course. There would be considerations and tolerance, altough for the most part, the general rules would apply. There was resistance, oh yes, quite some resistance, from a number of quarters. But I stood pat and remained unfazed and held on to my guns. “Never say die” is still my second name, I kept on telling myself and everybody else. I just couldn’t give up.
Lo and behold, God is just the best! (Non-believers, humour me with this!) Despite the human, material, practical, mental and psychological blocks along the way to my fourth semester now, I have been blessed. Yes, I have been gifted with gems. Some of them were so clear even to my myopic, astigmatic and presbiopic eyes. Some had to be dug out, uncovered, scraped, refined. But gems they turned out to be, at the end of every semester. And even afterwards, when the structure and order of the classroom was behind us, we became friends. And I am now, not the tormentor, but their friend and mentor.
You know who you are, my dearest gems! Thank you for giving fun to my life within IMCC. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be the one to reveal your worth and value, to yourselves and to the world around you! Shine on and share your gleam and sparkle with the raw, untarnished and varnished ones!
Yours,
Ma’am Nell
