A Glimpse of our Past: My Husband's Journey to being a Teacher

Whenever I mention something about my past, especially my college life and my journey to being a teacher (or on-line teacher as of present), it would be impossible not to mention about a certain person who became a big part of my life.

In my second year, I decided to transfer from Centro Escolar University to the National Teachers College. I had nothing against CEU; my one year stay was one of the best things that I had experienced—air conditioned rooms, nice facilities, great professors and classmates--- but I was looking for something that only teacher-training institutions like NTC can offer. I knew from the start that CEU specializes in medical-related courses. Until now, I still couldn't figure out why I chose to enroll there when from the start, I had wanted to study BSED.

It was a big gamble for me because I was one of the first batch of AFPSLAI scholars. I think God had a plan for me because everything went smoothly, from the time I talked to the Corporate Affairs Head until the day I enrolled in NTC. It was challenging. In CEU, I had the same classmates in almost all subjects except Values, in lieu of Religion subjects since I am an Evangelical Christian), but in NTC, I had different classmates in every subject. In short, I was classified as “irregular student”.

Then I met a shy, bespectacled young guy. We were classmates in two subjects- Filipino 2 (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and Philippine History (MWF.) We became close and to cut it short, we became a couple. It was so fast! My friends told me that I just transferred to NTC just to look for a boyfriend.

I was not serious at first. I just wanted to experience having one since most of my friends already had their own beaus and my parents encouraged me enter into a man-woman relationship because they feared that I would never have a chance to have a boyfriend once I became a teacher. They believed in an old saying that a woman who was still single upon entering this profession will become single for the rest of her life. But most of the times, God works in His own special way that nobody seemed to understand. After years of exclusively dating, we finally got married on our ninth anniversary- July 24, 2012.

While I had finally accepted that teaching is my destiny, he was not sure of what he wanted to be in the future. For him, he just wanted to get a degree to please his parents, to have a good job and to start a family. He chose Computer Education as his major since he loved computers, from games to softwares. In addition to that, his older brother is also a computer buff. He had also planned not to teach but to work in an office, like admin staff or computer programmer. I even encourage him to shift from Computer Education to Social Studies or Science especially when we found out that it would be difficult for Computer Education majors to pass the LET because they had to take the test for TLE majors instead. But he was very stubborn; he said he would never want to be a teacher and he would do his best to work for government offices like his parents.

In addition, although we had several things in common, we had a major difference. I was confident. I wanted people to listen to what I say, and whenever someone say something, I would boldly say what was in my mind. On the other hand, he was shy. Since we were classmates in two or three subjects every semester, I witnessed how shy he was. I sometimes scolded him for not saying his opinions out loud. There was a time when he had to deliver his speech, and our classmates and teachers were surprised because he just said not more than five sentences and he was done. He didn't like reporting either. He was just satisfied when the program he was creating was successful, and when he tried to help others when their computers crashed.

When the first semester of 2005 came, I noticed some changes in him. He became a little confident. He was able to somehow speak confidently in front of the class. He used to hate classroom and school responsibilities but I was surprised when he had volunteered to become the class president. Plus, he got the highest rating when he had is first demonstration teaching (or demo teaching) in front of grade four pupils of the NTC Laboratory School. He also enjoyed his on-campus and off-campus teaching although he admitted that teaching had been stressful.

When I graduated, I tried to apply in schools but nobody gave me a chance to teach. Or I should say, I was not allowed to teach in a traditional way- in a classroom with students, but I was given a chance to teach in a modern way. He, on the other hand, had tried to run away from the teaching world. He became a clerk, his first job, but he never signed another contract after five months. Then, he worked as admin officer but he was forced to resign after four months. After months of soul-searching, he was given a chance to teach in a private school in Pasay, but he stopped because he had finally realized the importance of obtaining a teacher's license. He had two other teaching jobs but he didn't finish the school year because of the difficulties that he encountered working while reviewing at the same time. The next year, he was finally able to pass the Licensure Examinations for Teachers, all thanks to Mindgym Philippines He was able to complete one school year in University of Perpetual Help System DALTA in Las Piñas and since last year, he has been employed in Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino High School in Makati City.