Go the distance...

Two years ago, my mother asked me why I chose to go to UP instead of attending SLU where a pre-med degree awaited me. I answered her in earnest, “Mom, I wanted to see how far I could go.” She asked me, “And did you find out?” I gave it some thought before replying, “No. I suppose that graduation from UP will tell.”

Two weeks ago, I justified my desire to apply to graduate schools abroad by telling her the same thing: I want to see how far I can go. I am aware that I will graduate without a Latin title, with grades that are average for a UP student. I am also painfully aware of the fact that US$40,000 is not going to magically appear on our doorstep. But still, I hope. I browse through university websites, take note of academic requirements and estimated living expenses of international students, and search for scholarships.

It also motivates me that a lot of my relatives are there. We’re a very close-knit family. My mother wrote my Aunts in the US that she sensed in me a change of views on life in the US (I once scorned her idea of moving there). Mother knows best. Yet the change cannot be attributed to the many comforts and opportunities there. I simply enjoy having family around and I believe that everyone I love will be on that continent within the next ten years.

Of course, there’s a part of me that wants to experience campus culture on the other side of the world. But at the end of the day, the need to know how far I can go urges on dreams of graduating with a Masters in Biostatistics or Health Systems from a university in America.

Maybe I suffer from optimism...