Josef's Story

“Hi! My name is Josef Gatchalian and I am a freshman student of BS Family Life and Child Development at the University of the Philippines - Diliman.”

To me this is a statement that a lot of people who know me personally wouldn’t believe. Heck to this day I still don’t want to believe in it. Aside from looking too old for a freshman because of my height (yeah right), having a course usually reserved for pre-school teachers sounds like I’m heading to a path far away from my sporty personality. Maybe it’s really a good thing for me to go to a different environment and step outside of my comfort zone.

Growing up in the province of Leyte, I always felt different compared to my peers. I basically grew up as the tall, awkward kid in class and looking back to me that was not fair. I was really trying to find myself even as a kid, as I started excelling in academics and sports during grade school. In my humble opinion when I was younger I was actually the tall, awkward kid in class who was actually better than most kids at a lot of things. I mean it’s not my fault I have been blessed with good genes and a nurturing environment that developed my gifts and abilities at a young age. I may have a little bit of confidence in me nowadays that can be bordering on arrogance at times, but back then I was really shy especially when it came to my abilities. This would actually lead to me becoming socially awkward growing up since I honestly felt like I could not relate well with others because I was different. I only started to gain my confidence back through sports, and for a time I was only interacting with people who shared that common interest with me. I carried that kind of attitude throughout grade school and even though I made friends with different kinds of people along the way, I was mainly known for my love for sports especially basketball.

By the time I was in high school, I started to develop my identity through my peers as I believed that who I am was mainly influenced by who I’m with. That’s where I learned to interact with different kinds of personalities but I was still usually closer to the same group who had the same interests as I did. We would usually spend our free time playing basketball in the gym, and a lot of my high school memories came from that setting. When it was time to graduate high school, I was really expecting more of the same for college.

Not so fast. Not getting in BS Psychology and BS Biology proved to have a major effect on my life as I was at a crossroads in choosing my future course. I felt that I really needed to choose a good premed course because I come from a family of doctors and that's the only future I envision myself being in but I could not find any premed course I knew. That’s when I happened to notice the course known as BS-FLCD or BS-Family Life and Child Development. It was a course in the College of Home Economics and was studied mostly by girls. It also brought me a new challenge as this would mean I would be with people who had different interests from mine. Today that assumption holds true, but I have no regrets. As I continue to evolve and improve myself, learning to adapt to different kinds of settings and environments has helped me to become stronger and more confident in my personality.

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