Prince Arnold Verundo
Application Essay
Growing up as a child, I’ve been interested in various things—from dancing to competing in contests to writing poetry. Choosing a job that I aspired to be changed countless times since people started to ask me. That’s because I’ve always thought of the world as a train track with no definite rails—I have the freedom to choose whatever I do every now and then, so why should I not try everything? However, when I started to gain enough experience to form a “self”, I started to realize that I’ve always been interested in two things—mathematics and the Filipino language. Since then, I aspired to be a civil engineer—since that was what my parents had been telling me, given that I love mathematics and that they feel like I could make it.
In order to get to that one train station, I needed to take my first trip—I went to Quezon City Science High School. With a heart full of passion and determination, I tested the challenges of being a scientian, striving for the best awards and honors I could get to have my train set to that station. With the resources I only had with me, I brought myself—with the help of many other people, too, of course—to where I am now. I wasn’t the kid that had access to everything I needed, so I had to make resourceful ways to keep up with everyone. I thrived as a student from things that are easily accessible. Sometimes, I think that I might have attained transcendence, but further experience thinks otherwise.
With the approaching college admission tests—remarkably UPCAT—this scholarship program would be able to aid me in securing that train station, even though I changed it into being a specialist in computer programming. Moreover, this coming academic year also comes with numerous projects that would greatly benefit from financial help (e.g., entrepreneurship fair, capstone research project). Having support in these areas in the academy would help me greatly in worrying less about finance and being able to focus more on being a student with grades that are commendable, especially as there are universities and scholarships that are aiming to help students with that kind of trait.
Exit Essay
A statue is nothing but an amalgamation of chips that, by itself, is seen as a flaw. We are mere effigies defined by our defects, carved by our respective experiences, or even by ourselves. The thing about defects is that it is seen through a lens of scrutiny, never through individuality and expressiveness. Some cuts run so deep and long that they essentially become the focal point of the figure, while others could be as simple as a scratch—hard to see, but appreciated by the right pair of eyes. The presence of hollow spaces is also not impossible, events that shaved away a part of us, but do not express prominence.
Art is never finished; it is rather abandoned. We are masterpieces passed on to different hands, each leaving us with a new finish from time to time. I made my first footsteps in kisay—well, digitally—as a block with nothing but a spirit that burns with curiosity and passion, eager to see blocks of a similar kind. I initially thought I had to mold myself into something I am unfamiliar with, but to my surprise, the first few people I was able to connect with were barely different from me (well, most of them). In here, I was able to express myself freely, free from the judgment I used to bear—they get how I talk and joke. They, the Scientian community, grew closer to me, and I grew closer to them, that I started to see them as my people. They made me feel compassion like no other group of people did. We shaped each other in intricate ways, so complicated that I cannot even think of a word to describe it.
It is funny how it has been almost a month since I graduated, and I just wrote this essay today. I just cannot let go of Kisay that easily. I have grown very attached to it, and it is just sad that I took every moment I had with it for granted. 6 years was not so long after all, but I can still recall myself that one morning, during the first orientation for the online setup of Kisay, things about students in grade 11 were being discussed, and the only thing that I could think of was, “Ang layo pa naman niyan, ‘di na ‘ko makikinig,” but here, as I am typing this, I am already an alumnus—I have to remind myself that, by the way. I still have not grasped the fact I am an alumnus already, just like how I still need to remind myself that I am 18, too. How I wish I could relive the last 6 years and do things I regret not doing, and not do things I regret doing.
I am deeply grateful to the artisans who sculpted the very me I am today: my family, my friends, my teachers, my advisers, Kisay’s staff, and people that supported me in their own ways. We must remember that every detail of our figure is chiseled not to perfection, but to who we are destined to be.
