“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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