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theashsbucketlist · 8 years ago

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The ASHS Bucket List

Like a Grand Theft Auto game, one would find it extremely difficult to run out of things fun and positive things to do in the Ateneo Senior High School. In fact, if you ask any student what activity defines their Senior High School life, you’re bound to get different but altogether uplifting responses each time; a student might say “losing sleep over the countless assignments as well as losing a firm grasp on reality” is the activity that defines their Senior High life, while another student might say “being discriminated upon by the majority of my batchmates based solely on my gender, sexuality, or even strand” is theirs. Joyful, isn’t it?

Okay, maybe the ASHS isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, but hey, that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist in the realm of ASHS! Despite all the negativity of the first years of the ASHS, any student would agree that there are a lot of small, fun little activities that anyone can engage in. Ask any student, and they’d find it hard to resist the allure of activities like:

1. Watching your favorite movies on the classroom projector

Ateneo has always been a place of learning first and for most but to most of us it can become an avenue for making and hanging out with friends. Watching movies on the classroom projector helps make that process more fun and entertaining. It allows us to share an enjoyable experience no matter what we’re watching. Be it watching a horror movie that takes to the edge of our seats, a drama that'll have us reaching for the tissue box or an action movie that raises our adrenaline levels.

Well it may not be the most productive thing to do but seeing how soul crushing being a student is, at least it provides us a chance for us to take a break and enjoy.

- Lorenzo de Luna (Read more about Lorenzo’s experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/LorenzoExperience)

2. Visiting the library to study and do research

With the end of the school year on the horizon, students are more determined to perform better in classes to meet the final quota for our set goals. To achieve this, it's important to have a peace of mind with all of the important tests and deadlines looming over. It would also be wise to devote some time studying future lessons or researching about the latest topic. Such behavior requires a lot of focus and constant attention.

Luckily, the ASHS always offers plenty of locations to do so. The library is the perfect place to sit down and cool off. Almost everything we need for leisure and productive development is provided from internet access to a vast plethora of reading material to delve in. Also, the school library can be more than just a place of schoolwork. It offers courteous amount of magazines and (after school hours) free use of the computer and internet access. All in all, visiting the library can be a game changer for most us. Especially those who are constantly stressed and in desperate need of a much needed break.

- Kyle De Leon (Read more about Kyle’s experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/KyleExperience)

3. Finding weird, fun ways to arrange the chairs inside the classroom

The tables in the ASHS are as innovative as the entirety of the school that they’re from. See, unlike the traditional rectangles that you’d see in classrooms, sometimes connected to the chairs, the tables in the ASHS are shaped like trapezoids. Weird shape, isn’t it? Thing is, though, that trapezoid lends itself to a lot of cool new features. More elbow room, more space to put your head down and sleep if you can, but most importantly is the fact that the trapezoidal shape allows tables to connect themselves to other tables.

The students, unless there are exams or some other sort of test, are free to arrange the tables any way they want. Some classes still use the tradition row by column, others use the giant polygons and have great group discussions, some even combine seating positions like the boat-shaped trios and the v-shaped duos--which are arranged insofar as to place the trios in the middle and the duos on either side of the trio. The possibilities are endless with these trapezoids, and the teachers always seem to find ways to take advantage of these seating positions. Maybe one day, wise students would come up with a way to make the seats form a giant star, but sadly that day has yet to come.

- Emanuel Felizardo (Read more about Eman’s experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/EmanExperience )

4. Reading literary texts you’re actually interested in during breaks

Admit it: school can be time-consuming, so you’d be hard-pressed to find room for leisure reading at home. To beat the system like a true rebel, set aside time to read during break periods. Not doing anything productive can make you feel like you’re just drifting through breaks, so grounding yourself in reading a book can give value to already precious free time.

What you read is just as important as when you can read it. The additional perk is the flexibility of choosing the material. When it comes down to it, books you love are there to remind you that learning must be fun. As essential as school is, if you aren’t truly invested in what’s being taught—the value of the education tends to find itself lost. Learning shouldn’t be a task, and it definitely shouldn’t be involuntary!

Who knows, maybe one day you’ll start to enjoy school-administered books too (but that is just a maybe).

- Hans Gonzales (Read more about Hans’ experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/HansExperience)

5. Fighting sleep whenever and wherever

With varying reasons ranging from academic schoolwork, extracurriculars, insomnia, or the inescapable jungles of the online multiplayer game, the sad reality is that students today have a never-ending battle with sleepiness. Peer into the classrooms of the Ateneo Senior High building after lunch and you will most likely see students half-asleep or barely present in class. Some students just give up and hit the sack immediately.

Any quick cures? A personal life hack is a dab of Katinko or Vicks VapoRub. Applying the ointment to your nostrils, philtrum area and forehead should provide a swift wake-up call. A few fast nasal inhales also work for a hit of oxygen.

The best remedy still remains: getting a good night’s sleep. Hmph, easier said than done…

- David Hernandez (Read more about David’s experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/DavidExperience )

6. Smiling at everyone we see along the corridors

The daily cycle of frustration and annoyance due to the usual Katipunan traffic and an overwhelming amount of work, calls for a great change. We may rally around the foyer every day and beg the APSAF to lessen the load, but this just seems impossible. What we simply have to do is to smile - to lift some muscles around our mouths and widen the gap of our cheekbones. This smile could have saved your grade-conscious classmate from going off on a groupmate. This smile could have helped your seatmate who is undergoing depression. This smile could have helped the person you pass by in the hallway deal with a loss. The benefits of this act are endless, but assuredly, an inclusive senior high community can be stronger if each one would do this very simple thing - smile.

- Vaughn Fajardo (Read more about Vaughn’s experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/VaughnExperience)

7. Talking to people and getting to know them as a person

A good way to spend your time in the Ateneo is to sit around with friends and just listen to their stories. Some other times, people would go out of their comfort zones and talk to strangers and perhaps start a friendship with them.

In the Ateneo, you will be amazed by how many people you will encounter every single day and it’ll make you wonder what kind of life they’re living. It makes you want to sit down, have a chat with them, and listen to their thoughts. They all have different stories to tell and we want to hear every single one. Sure, we won’t be able to fully understand some of their stories but there is magic in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something.

- Nix Galgana (Read more about Nix’s experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/NixExperience)

8. Attempting to exceed one’s own limits

The Ateneo Senior High School, despite the changes and the challenges that came with it, developed to become part of the best experiences that we have had, and this was attributable to us pushing ourselves beyond our limits.

Despite the new sections, new classmates, and a new Atenean culture, we need to remain determined to have a great time ahead. With less familiar faces, we need to meet people and initiate conversations with them, despite us being shy. In spite of coming from different areas, from sections and schools, to even other provinces, our collective aim of wanting to have an amazing experience united us, while highlighting our personal contexts and traits as something that made us special, and worth contributing to our joint advancement.

- Jaime Inocentes (Read more about Jaime’s experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/JaimeExperience )

9. Strolling around the Ateneo after the sun sets

Ateneans made it a habit to stay late on campus and just walk with one another along the sidewalk, chatting and laughing about anything, only to always point out the beauty the Ateneo (literally) offers. There is a certain peace one could feel in the calmness of the night: the wind will feel cold against one’s skin and it will embrace you like a friend would, we’re unsure how to explain why it reminded Ateneans of home, but it did; the sounds creatures made in the night will remind us of life, how earth can be so, so beautiful if we let it flourish; and the companion of another, the beauty of understanding and being understood.

- Jaz Gallos (Read more about Jaz’s experience here: www.theashsbucketlist.tumblr.com/JazExperience )

#Ateneo #Creative writing #listicle #humss #senior high

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