The science I know now

STORY BY JANNA ALTHEA ENCARNACION

“HEY, guys, lunch was fun! Same seats next week?”

Those words came out like a reflex; muscle memory. They slipped as if there would be a week coming after this-

“No more next weeks, huh?”

As much as I hate to admit, I actually grew to look forward to going to school. Despite subjects I didn’t often understand well, unwavering heat that even when it rained- it’s still hot, and having had to see people I hated seeing.

It is a little embarrassing. To openly say I enjoy going to school, I mean. Perhaps, it’s because my classmates frequently expressed their dread about going to school. Many times, I had been asked, “you actually enjoy going to school?”

I will admit, at the beginning of the school year, there was absolutely nothing to look forward to. I wasn’t very fond of studying in the first place. I didn’t have many friends either.

However, that changed– and I’m not sure when. But slowly, things came to unfold a little differently.

All I remember is that I woke up one day and saw my friends in a brighter light. I woke up one day and found the school fountain a tad more pleasing to the eyes. I woke up one day and found myself wanting to walk home with my friends, rather than commuting alone.

No subject ever rang to my heart- because I found them all distressing. No matter how much I had tried, I would end up going blank after a few words out of my subject teachers’ mouths.

But I woke up one day– and suddenly, I loved science.

In retrospect, I am surprised. It’s funny just how fast times can change– because I hated the subject.

But just as I have heard many times, no subject is difficult with a good teacher.

As I pack up my lunch for the last time, I start to reminisce.

In my junior high school years, Science was just a simple subject to me– not that hard, but not that easy. History was my favorite.

Then came senior high school.

In the midst of my dreading for the subjects I grew to dislike, I had met my Earth and life Science and Physics teacher, Ryan Cordero.

All he ever did was recite scientific jargon and highfaluting terminologies.

I’m a HUMSS student– what he said would echo through my left ear and out of the other. What on earth will I do with molecules, chemical bonds, scientific formulas when I finish senior high school?

Physics is all the more mind-boggling. I did not give a mind to force, sound waves, chemical balancing– everything. But because of this, as much as I had thought Science was once a simple subject, it stood out.

Among other subjects, it was only Cordero’s that my eyebrows furrowed differently. It was only his subject that wracked my nerves, especially in recitations. Because if I did not know what I’d do with molecules, chemical bonds, scientific formulas, force, sound waves, and chemical imbalances, how would I dare stand and answer?

And among other subjects, I found myself barely passing the quizzes he had given. Many times, I had wished that I’d go back to junior high school– because this was not the Science I knew then.

Second of three parts, from page 9