#ULOG: The Journey I Never Imagined Myself to be in

The Engineering Journey

There are things that are not meant for us no matter how hard we try to push for them to happen.

I am a graduate of Civil Engineering from Misamis University, batch of 2018, but that wasn't what I dreamed myself to be, rather it was something I chose out of the blue.

I always dreamed to be a nurse or to enrol for biology so that in future I could proceed with medicine. I always imagined myself caring for people. If not I wanted to pursue creative writing and learn more about it. However the school was quiet a distance from us and we couldn't really afford them.

When I finished my high school, I got a full scholarship at Misamis University so I chose to enrol there since it is a 20 minutes ride from home. When I enrolled, my brother and mother went with me (they didn't want me getting lost lol). As we approached the information kiosk, the person at the desk asked me what did I want, and although I was suppose to choose nursing, but my mother took that chance and said "AB ELT (Bachelor of Arts in English Language Teaching), please." My world was torn apart. I couldn't tell my mother it was against my will but I still went with the flow.

After completing the steps of enrolment, we went home for lunch. Only an I.D. with picture along with few other documents were required for the enrolment. I cried 'cause I didn't want to go back. I didn’t want to go back because I hated it. I told my parents I will just go to school next year but they said to me to just accept it because the course was free since I got a full scholarship. In the end, I enrolled it against my will.

When classes started, about a week after, I had a classmate who shifted to nursing. I desperately told my mother that I would shift to nursing too even if it was against their will. I tried to convince them that I will study hard to continue the scholarship and the decision got me in a lot of trouble when exams approached. I wasn't able to shift my course and all my subjects were dropped. It took a lot of effort but in the end I was able to take my exam as AB-ELT, and finish first semester.

The Start of a Life Changing Decision

I really thought a lot about whether I should take nursing or engineering. I knew we couldn't afford nursing so I just cried all my frustrations out and finally took a decision to go ahead engineering. I love maths, and I thought it would really be fun. The first semester was fun but when I reached fourth year and failed in Theory of Structures 1, I felt my world crumbling down. I regretted my decisions in enrolling from engineering. I seclude myself from everyone for one week and cried myself to self to sleep. Whenever I went out of my room it was just to watch anime to ease the pain. However I still tried to work my best on the subject so that when second semester came I could enrol again. I inspired and motivated myself by reading inspirational stories and quotes that helped me to continue and move forward.

I have experienced a lot of hardships being an engineering student. I cried a lot, I had sleepless nights, I encounter all the troubles that engineering students faced, but I still motivated myself that I could do it. I believed since God allowed me to be in that course, then he will help me get through it.

When it was almost graduation, we faced a lot of troubles. We had to get good grades, go through exit exams in some subjects and more exit exams (like board exam) for graduating. But I successfully passed all of them and graduated. I felt so proud and blessed that I had finally finished the course which I never imagined to get through. Though it isn't what I really dreamed of, but in the process I learned to love and appreciate it.

I believe that if God will not allow you to get what you want, it means that there is something better in store for you. If you are into a situation where you never expected something to happen as you wished, just keep moving. As long as you are not doing anything wrong then push for it no matter how hard it is. In the end you will just be proud of yourself that you have done something unexpected for yourself. With hard-work and perseverance, anything can be done.