Juan Diego V.

Alcudia
2019-20103 (AA Voice)

The term “Tatak UP” has been something that I have aimed to be even before I
was accepted in the University of the Philippines. I come from Ateneo de Manila
University which is an equally fine institution that I recognize has greatly contributed to
who I am as a person today, but after spending almost my whole academic life in
Ateneo, there was always a part of me that longed for something different; a new
perspective if you will. My mother, who also hails from UP, throughout my life would
encourage my siblings and I to go to UP because of the character that we would build in
the culture of the school. She is someone I personally admire and most of her admirable
characteristics are things that she has admitted to us comes from things she learned
from spending her whole academic life in UP, from kindergarten to college. So even
before I had aspirations of becoming an “isko”, I already had an idea of what a UP
student was and maintained that view all throughout highschool: a hardworking
individual who thought for themselves and knew how to get things done. This was the
image I had in my mind on what I would become if I were able to get in, I would learn
the value of grit and quick thinking in UP. Nearing the end of my senior year, I began to
question my motivations to go to UP. The values I mentioned were still things I wanted
to learn in my hypothetical stay but I looked back on my experiences in high school and
realized that I had already learned the value of those things through the challenges I
faced in my high school years. I realized that I did not necessarily have to go UP to
learn things like the value of hardwork, patience, quick-thinking, etc, because, in some
shape or form, I learned those things in Ateneo. My desire for going to UP did not wither
though,I still strived to get in despite not passing the UPCAT and that’s how I ended up
in the College of Music.
My first semester did not go as I imagined in my head. I still faced challenges that
i had hoped to face to learn about the lessons I mentioned previously, but in those first
few months, I realized what made UP different from other Universities. Values I
mentioned above like grit and quick thinking were still things I had to learn, but I knew
UP was not the only place I would learn these things. Spending time with my fellow
batchmates and seeing different people in me GE subjects, I saw how UP separated
itself from other universities, the culture born from its diversity. In my stay in UP so far, I
am constantly surrounded by people of different backgrounds, socio-economic states,
cultures, and views, each with their own perspective of the world that I do not think I
would have experienced if I had gone to a different school. I felt like I was constantly
learning from them from the stories they would tell, to the way they would approach
projects or questions that were different from my own method. I have met so many
different people that come from all sides of the spectrum, whatever spectrum may be,
and my views on different things have been challenged and I have challenged them
back in a way that forced me to be critical of not just others, but of myself in a
constructive way. The culture of UP allowed me to be open to different perspectives and
to find nuances within the different lenses of the people I would meet. The culture of UP,
along with teaching me determination and grit, taught me to see, recognize , and
acknowledge and obscene amount of grey that there is within the world. Being here
accompanied by several other experiences outside of school taught me to be more
open-minded towards certain things and certain people and to legitimately think critically
about things from an objective point of view; to dig deeper with people whom I don’t
necessarily agree with and find areas where we definitely do not share the same views
and find the ones where we do. It has taught me to be critical of everything, including
myself in a way that aims to create a clearer and more understanding environment; to
create more harmony that encompasses our differences as opposed to hostility that
disregards our similarities.
So the term “Tatak UP” to me as of now encompasses all of what I know of a UP
student should be if they are to experience the entirety of UP, and that is a person who
exhibits Honor and Excellence accompanied by Openness and Intelligence. An “isko” is
one who knows the value of grit, is open to many different perspectives, and thinks
critically about those perspectives in the pursuit of harmony and clarity, and honesty..