Chic Soul: Throwback: My Alma Mater and Me

In more ways than one, it is during our teenage years we started building ourselves, deciding on our own and working towards our dreams. And what place do we, at least, owe our success right now other than our University. It is during that 4 years that we started to build our character, to have a glimpse of independence, to make our own decisions, to fall in love, and to fall out of love. Most of us would reminisce about the fun times we had during these years, but underneath all that fun are lessons learnt and a whole lot of character building. During these times we started to know the value of money - budgeting our allowances was no joke. I can still remember separating money for my basic expenses (transportation & food) and the remaining for good times. I also do keep 100 bucks at the back of my mobile phone for emergency uses. And, do you remember the term teacher's pet/s - well, we all hate these people. But I think they have prepared us with the Corporate Politics in the workforce. And lots more of lessons we never imagined our College lives have prepared us other than algorithms, history, and literature. So enough of the serious stuff, now I am going to probably write a series of throwback entries about Me and my Alma Mater: The parties, first love, passion, hardships and anything under the sun about my personal experience during the self-formative years I spent in the University. But first, let me start by introducing the University that I am so lucky to be a graduate of.

Without further a do, I am proud to say that I am a Thomasian. I graduated from the oldest University in Asia - the Royal and Pontifical , University of Santo Tomas (UST) and the Catholic University of the Philippines. I am not exaggerating about all the adjectives connected to the name of my Alma Mater. It is in fact, it's title. Its complete name is The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines (Spanish: A La Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomas de Aquino Universidad Católica de Filipinas).It was given the title "Royal," by King Charles III of Spain in 1785; "Pontifical" by Pope Leo XIII on 1902 in his constitution, Quae Mari Sinico, and the appellative "The Catholic University of the Philippines" by Pope Pius XII in 1947. (History of UST UST.edu.ph.)

By oldest, I mean, come on, we just celebrated our 400 years last 2011. Westerns, I know you have older universities but at least we got that superlative for the Asian Version. With us being the oldest, you would know that we have also some old & well-restored buildings. Well, I can say that my University can be an attraction if you go visit Manila – especially the “main” building wherein you will also see the Artifacts Museum. You must go visit the place and have some of your pictures taken – well, probably with some students on the background too. Here are some of the photos of my University on my external hard disk. Let me tour you (virtually) to some of the scenic places/structures that you will see around the campus. Viva Santo Tomas!

The Big UST (that is me leaning on the T)