Rise to the occasion.

My recent illness the past couple of days has been keeping me on the shelf, as much as I tried to come to school to finish the week off, the illness still bugs me today. Even so, I'm writing this entry today to regain my confidence back and to write again after a long hiatus due to my schedule loaded with a lot of schoolwork. Besides, I'm getting better with every hour.

Picking up from where I left off, the journey through this whirlwind of a semester went through a massive detour once the results of the preliminary examinations came out last month, and it wasn't a pretty sight as the struggles I endured during the first half of the semester finally showed up. Despite the setback, there is still another half of the semester to bounce back and recover. I'm not giving up and will give everything I can to finish the semester strong so that we can move forward into taking up practicum at a tourism establishment.

In addition, once the preliminary examinations were done, my training resumed for the competition at hand which is the Final Round of the 5th PHILTOA Tourism Quiz Bee. The bad weather prior to the competition took out most of my training time as class suspensions came along the way. But, I just had enough training to get me prepared for the big day. Then on September 7, it all came down to one afternoon at the SMX Convention Center as I competed with 10 other contestants in the Final Round. I was happy that my family and friends were there to support me in the competition. It was a tightly contested battle, the questions as expected were pretty tough especially those involving manual computations. Apparently, I almost won the event. However, I ended up in 2nd Place since the champion was able to answer a difficult question which was worth more points. Despite that, I'm happy with what I achieved in this competition, especially the fact that last year, I didn't made it to the Final Round and in the semi-finals this year, I barely made it through the Top 10. To quote Mr. Cesar Cruz, PHILTOA President: "Bumawi 'tong bata na to." "This kid came back." The following day, I came back to receive the award and winnings that came along with the victory.

Photo ©Karl Carandang

With the competition through, it caps off my quiz bee competition run for the semester. As my last tour of duty for the team will continue into the next semester. More than a week later, I was given the chance to give back in what the college has given me over the past two year as I was given the privilege to be the quizmaster in the Tourism Quiz Bee competition in our college. It was also an opportunity for me to share my experiences to the contestants. It was a great feeling for me, that I get to be on the other end of quiz bee competitions where I got to ask the questions instead of answering them.

Last week, three months of blood, sweat, tears and thinking caps came down to one week as the THORC Week (Thesis week) came along. The work everyone put into the past three months came down to this week which included the poster presentation and the thesis defense. Our group came through BIG throughout the week as we won third place in the Best Group Presentation category and fifth place in the Best Paper category. Afterwards, we started working on making adjustments to our paper and put it into journal format.

Photo ©Kymie Constante

In the UAAP, the UST Growling Tigers are back in the Final Four as they pulled off a huge victory on the last day of the elimination round against the defending champions Ateneo Blue Eagles with a 82-74 win. The win ended Ateneo's title defense as their five-peat championship streak is snapped and they will miss the Final Four for the first time in 14 years. The Tigers will now face the top seeded NU Bulldogs who enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four. In the other bracket, the FEU Tamaraws and the DLSU Green Archers will battle in a virtual best of three as the first game will determine who will have the twice to beat advantage.

The semester is winding down, and in a couple of weeks, we'll be heading for our practicum. Graduation shots to be taken soon. We're coming to the conclusion of what has been a great ride. Better bring everything I got, and lay it all on the line. Rise to the occasion as they say, it's time to put into action.

Rise to the occasion.

18 days to go until NBA Global Games Philippines 2013

K-Smoove