It's all over

I'm officially welcoming myself back to the world. Twenty-one weeks of reviewing for the ECE licensure examination, overlapping with eight weeks of training and working as an engineer for Globe; this was one of the most 'wicked' challenges I've encountered in my life (although I'd still say not as bad as my thesis, but equally fulfilling). It's all over now. I took the two-day exam last weekend, uncertain whether I was prepared enough, but thanks to my bahala na mentality, I was the least bit nervous. After taking the exam, I honestly was pretty confident, not only for myself but also for the whole batch of Ateneo de Manila graduates who took the same exam. Knowing the potentials of all my batchmates, I thought we all deserved to pass. After each subject, I remember praying at the UE chapel not to ask God for me to pass, but to thank Him for helping me answer most of the exam's items pretty well.

After the exam, each day that passed waiting for the results made me grow a bit anxious. Pano kung overconfident lang pala ako? Pag bumagsak ako, ano kaya ang gagawin ko pagkatapos? Mag-take two kaya ako sa April? Anaaak! Ipagsasabay ko na naman ang review sa trabaho, mahirap yun! Sayang naman yung pinaghirapan ko ng limang buwan! Those were some of the thoughts that crossed my mind. Some of my batchmates sharing the same feelings were texting and calling me, asking me if I knew when the results would be released. This made me more nervous.

Then came Wednesday night, I got home around 9 PM from working overtime. Right after eating dinner, I received a text message from Sweet saying the results were out and congratulating those who made it! Woohoo! I literally jumped out of my seat, rushed to the computer and checked http://inq7.net/exam/ which was already bookmarked on my browser since I've been checking it very often for the past days. The funny thing was that I didn't scroll down the list of passers to search for my name right away (probably because I already knew I passed; thanks to Sweet for spoiling the suspense =P), but for the name of my batchmate whom I was most worried about. Unfortunately, I couldn't find his name. I went through the whole list thoroughly, and noticed that more names of my batchmates were missing. I had extremely mixed emotions that night, as I remember one moment running to my parents' room to tell them about the good news, and the next moment shedding tears because not all of us were able to pass. It was really disappointing, but then we just had to accept it.

And then after all has been said and done, I'm now one happy engineer. A great amount of pressure has been removed from my back (thus reducing the stress on the small cross-sectional area of my centroidal axis. Hahaha! Help! I can't get over it!). Though my occupation still demands me to frequently work overtime during weekdays and occasionally during weekends, at least I have my 'life' back. Aahhh sarap! =P