ERIC’S SONGBOOK

Never look back.  The best is yet to come.  Thank God for an answered prayer, the storm is over.

So what have I been up to lately?  I am gladly settled in my new work cozily located in San Lorenzo Village, just a stone’s throw away from a civilization called Ayala Center.  I started last May 26 and I conquered my fear of heights by rappelling down the gym of Assumption College and doing the trust fall in our faculty team building sessions.  I am teaching Mathematical Economics (ECO3), Introduction to Econometrics (ECO14),  Principles of Management (MGT1) and  Managerial Economics (ECO 9) for the very first time and I am enjoying it a lot.  My students are very nice and pleasant to deal with and I can see their enthusiasm and passion to learn.  I even sang my favorite Richard Marx song called “Right Here Waiting” in the IBES (International Business and Economics Society) General Assembly (ahem, please take note that it is IBES, not IBS).

I was even happier when I was given the rank of Assistant Professor 5.5 (there are halfsteps in the ranking) upon hiring and it feels good to know that I am finally gaining control of my life and to some extent the years of planting are now bearing fruit.  I do not feel like a chess piece being toyed around the tiles anymore and it feels so great and liberating. I read people’s personalities and intentions better now. And I make sure to it that I keep my ace up my sleeve.  I am more reserved now than the eager beaver I was and this time, I swear to God that I will play my cards right.

In my stay so far in the Milleret School of Business & Management for Women (MSBMW),  my students have christened my subject as HALCONOMICS as I teach them to smell the data and talk to the graph when faced an economic problem.  As I aspire to become a better teacher, there is still so much to learn but so little time.  I was finally taken out of the box and now I see that there is indeed a world full of opportunities and while I am still in my twenties, I can still make a difference in my so-called life and turn things around when they go astray. The crisis management I had to go through last summer was worth the experience, it made me smarter than before.  Intelligence quotient has little to do with it.  Emotional quotient made me wonders.

At work, I am fortunate enough to have a very supportive, energetic and a motherly boss, the great Dr. Ma. Corazon T. Lopez, mother of my high school friend Didu Lopez.   I have 4 co-fulltime faculty members in the office and it feels good to be a part of a tightly-knit group.  It feels like family here.  Special thanks to Ms. Evangeline Davila who made my transition to Assumption College much smoother and easier than what I have expected.  Mrs. Davila and I used to teach COMATH1, COMATH2 and COMCALC.

I was even surprised that they elected me as Business Manager of the AC Faculty Club (similar to a Faculty Association).  I joined the faculty and staff choir (I can sing Henry Mancini’s “Moonriver” in bass) and took a little acting lessons (I now know how to project my voice while acting on stage) for a few weeks before dropping out due to my hectic schedule in my Ph.D. studies.  In AC, we have Breaking The Routine every Wednesdays afternoon to attend these sessions to develop the right side of the brain.    I get to use my left brain from teaching Mathematics and Economics.  So far, I have completed 39 units of this advanced degree in Business Studies.  God willing, by next year, I will be writing my dissertation and finally move on to better things.  I earned a 3.500 GPA this 1st Term.  The paper I submitted in the Graduate Seminar in Organizational Behavior class which I titled “The Law of Diminishing Returns & Organizational Behavior: An Analysis of Assumption College’s Best HR Practice in Hiring Faculty Members in Terms of Advanced Degrees” will be made a lead article in the forthcoming special issue of the Research Journal.

Before I bid my twenties goodbye in a few months, allow me to selfishly dedicate this song to myself.   It is good to be self-serving, and self-indulging for a change.  After all, I have don my self-sacrificing cap for seven years and that didn’t do so well.  As I tell my students now, enjoy your youth but do not neglect your responsibilities.  Your 20s come only once in a lifetime.

The Corrs - “So Young” from “Talk On Corners” (1997)

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
We are taking it easy
Bright and breezy, yeah
We are living it up
Just fine and dandy, yeah

We are caught in a haze
On these lazy summer days
We’re spending all of our nights just
Ah - laughing and kissing, yeah

And it really doesn’t matter that we don’t eat
And it really doesn’t matter if we never sleep
No it really doesn’t matter, really doesn’t matter at all

Coz we are so young now, we are so young, so young now
And when tommorow comes, we can do it all again

We are chasin’ the moon
Just running wild and free
We are following through
Every dream and every need

And it really doesn’t matter if we don’t eat
And it really doesn’t matter if we never sleep
No it really doesn’t matter, really doesn’t matter at all

Coz we are so young now, we are so young, so young now
And when tomorrow comes, we can do it all again
Yeah, we are so young now, we are so young, so young now
And when tomorrow comes, we’ll just do it all again
All again, all again, yeah, all again, all again…, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
So young now, we are so young, so young now
And when tomorrow comes, we’ll just do it all again
Yeah, we are so young now, we are so young, so young now
And when tomorrow comes, we’ll just do it all again
We are so young… (Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah-ie Yeah)
We are so young… (Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah-ie Yeah)
We are so young… (Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah-ie Yeah)
Lets do it all again… (Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah-ie Yeah)