The celebration of the 52nd founding anniversary of Bicol University started off with

activities that mostly only the faculties can only attend to. September 12, 2021 it was declared to
us that it will a day only about the opening of the founding anniversary of Bicol University or
what we commonly call as BU week. We were informed through a memo that there will be a
Thanksgiving Mass to celebrate the opening of the founding anniversary. The day also includes
a virtual opening program, the BU Personnel Day and the Gabi ng Parangal. I wasn’t able to
participate in any of this because of the pandemic and other school that I had to do, it was a
shame that we couldn’t enjoy any of the programs that Bicol University prepared for us.
The second day of the BU week was the Students’ Day. It is pretty obvious that it was for
students so we didn’t have classes for the whole day. I spent that time voting for the candidate
that represented our department for the Mr. & Ms. Bicol University. It was an everyday voting
thing and that was the only way I can show support for our representative. There were also a lot
of different contest that were posted in the BU student council Facebook account. My cousin
that also goes to BU but from another department joined one of the contest, which is the
Musical Competition for the category of Bandurria. I helped her practice the piece she was
going to submit, we were part of a Rondalla group when we were in Elementary so I was able to
help her. On students’ day the videos were posted in Facebook and I supported her through
liking and sharing the video. It was a bit underwhelming since the contest is virtual, it would’ve
been really fun if there was no pandemic and we can enjoy the BU week face to face. I would’ve
probably supported her all throughout the contest. Aside from the Bandurria, there were also
folk dances, hip-hop dances, singing contest and etc. But it was also conducted in a virtual
manner. The only activity I participated with was watching the videos that BU student council
posted since I didn’t want to join any contest. We had a lot of free time after that, the first and
last BU week I had was when I was a freshmen, there were a lot of rides and foods all over the
CS department. It such a bummer that we couldn’t spend two years in a row of the founding
anniversary face to face.
Despite all the hurdles and complication of celebrating the founding anniversary, I think
that this year they definitely made it more welcoming for other students to join the contest. Last
years’ BU week I couldn’t quite remember what happened. This year though required a lot more
involvement with other students. I think the university is getting better of doing events through a
virtual manner. With this in mind, I really anticipate for next years’ BU week since it will be my
last time. I hope we can attend the founding anniversary face to face and not through the
screens of our mobile phones.