been spending the rest of summer dreamily and just letting the time pass by, half focusing on things that i didn't much enjoy doing. now staring out at a window beside me wishfully thinking that I’m sleeping with body stretched out, lying on the ground and arms folded under my head under those big, green, umbrella-like trees erected opposite our building instead of being stuck in a classroom for another two hours in a dreary afternoon of May.
today's weather is quite different than the previous day. a storm devastated the land yesterday and rained heavily all day that it seems all the water in heaven poured down and is now empty giving the sun the opportunity to burn our skin on an almost cloudless sky. only a couple of cumulus clouds are seen near the horizon.
the scorching heat outside is unbearable and it is felt through the glass window which is shut closed because the room is air conditioned-the only thing that's keeping me inside. touching the window is like holding a warm cup of milk on a cold night.
still staring out at the window, i took out my pencil from my bag then hold it between my thumb and index finger.
i purposely bring a pencil to doodle every time a teacher is giving a lecture i can't quite understand but because of lack of materials to draw upon (armchairs in this room are made out of plastic and lead doesn't clearly mark on plastic, while using a ball pen is a waste of ink) i resorted to fiddle with my pencil spinning it between and around my fingers.
our room is at the fourth floor of the building and the school ground is clearly visible from the view at the window beside me. if it hadn't been for a student i saw walking on the other side of the school ground, i would probably forget that my teacher was speaking in front of the class.
he was talking about the importance of research writing when i started day dreaming and now he's quoting a passage from the bible about human being.
"human being is different from the other animal because human being has the ability to think. saint thomas said that." he rolled his eyes among us as if asking then, are you a human being?
i looked down to avoid meeting his eyes with mine, still fiddling with my pencil in my right hand.
my teacher in Humanities told us that human being didn't had instincts, only animals do. it wasn't clear to me what he meant when he said that. all i know is that human beings belong to animal kingdom too. now it is clear to me what he meant.
human beings don't have instinct because they were given the ability to think. they don't need instinct to decide on different matters, unlike animals who have a specific way of dealing with a particular problem. an example is a cat who can go back home even if left in a faraway place.
another thing i can’t understand was when he said that "there's no such thing as coincidence, we only deal with the inevitable." i still don't know what he mean until now. what i'm familiar of was the cliche, "there's no such thing as coincidence, things happen for a reason."
my teacher in Humanities also discussed to us things that are taught in a graduate school. he happened to talk about this when he was complaining that after teaching in our class, he had to attend his masteral class. he complained that they are studying things which have no relevance in our daily lives.
"in an undergraduate school like you, one plus one is two. but in graduate school it's different. saying one plus one is equal to two is not sufficient. you had to explain why one plus one is equal to two." he said this with disbelief on his face.
"different theories were also tackled in my masterals." he continues, "Chaos and Order, for example. this theory states that in nature, no matter how you put things in order, it will always be disorganized."
what i remember most about that subject was that our room was located in heaven. metaphorically speaking, of course. i consider it heaven because i had this girl classmate in that class of whom i am sure was an angel. now that's not metaphorical, neither exaggeration.
this girl i'm talking about has the power to silence a noisy crowd of people when she walks right in the middle. she's as graceful as a gymnast threading on a balance beam when she walks. her skin looks so soft, so smooth and as white as snow. almost as fragile was her movement. her charm was her gentle laugh. her movement was so refined when she laughs that time seems to stop everytimes she giggles.
"People should acquire the knowledge concerned in their field of work!"
i was still looking down half smiling from my previous thought when i heard my teacher. he's now standing in the middle of the class so that everybody can see him. come to think of it. both him and my Humanity teacher were a little weird. i stopped spinning my pencil around my fingers and looked at him and pretended to be listening. i caught his eyes and nodded in agreement to what he had said. i guess he was still talking about the ability of human beings to think.
"There was this incident: i was looking for a book inside a bookstore then i asked the sales clerk, 'Miss, do you have the book Love In Time Of Cholera?'
"'Sir? Cholera-what?' She should know things like that!" he rolled his eyes again.
he appears to be enjoying the pleasure of letting us know that he knows something that other human beings like him didn't knew.
i tried following his lecture but nothing of what he says registered in my mind. his words enter my right ear and goes out to the left.
the window is tempting. i tried not to look at it to not loss focus again of what my teacher were saying. but i couldn't resist.
the weather hasn't change. it's still hot outside. the cloud is forming an odd shape. my teacher is talking about different types of research.
"argumentative research is the type of research that persuades or tries to prove something. for example, you can have as your research report the legalization of prostitution in the philippines. you'll try to convince people why we should legalize prostitution." says my teacher, "Did you know that in some places, prostitution is legal?"
"yes sir!" commented my seatmate.
it seems that it's not only me who got interested in this topic.
my teacher looks happy now that he caught everybody's attention. then he added, "according to statistics, thirty percent of the population of the entire world are prostitute. do you believe that?"
his smile from the triumph of catching our attention did not fade for quite a moment. he can't recover from it.
i imagine how many of that thirty percent of prostitutes are here with me now in this room.
there was a text message i received months ago saying that according to Reader's Digest, among two hundred people, two of them are ghost.
i wonder why two hundred to two? why not one hundred to one? being that the lowest term of two hundred to two. if there were only one hundred or one-hundred-ninety-nine people would there be no ghost? do ghosts move in pairs?
but the exciting part of that was figuring out who were the ghosts when you find your self inside a crowd of two hundred people.
the bell rang. my teacher is finishing his lecture and reminded us about the next lesson. two hours had pass.
