rambling v.1_no exemptions

In school, some teachers give final exam exemptions to deserving students. Deserving students are of two kinds, those who are simply brilliant, and those who are simply matiyaga. In any case, these exemptions are determined by the pre-finals grades that pretty much tell how well a student did during the entire semester. So the students wait—brilliant, matiyaga or otherwise, for the announcement of exemptions.

[I later realized, effort didn’t count much in earning exemptions (“I tried to get high scores you know”) than it does in at least passing a course (‘nagsipag naman po ako, hindi ko lang po talaga inabot ang grade, sana ipasa niyo na lang ako”)] Teachers have their ways of knowing. They just know. And it’s true, we made our grades, and they basically add up and compute what we give them, save for some occasions when a student’s hardworking attitude and character make some teachers reconsider and re-evaluate the case. (Why am I thinking about all these?! It’s been four years since I finished school and maybe, I really want to study again :p)

Going back to the excitement and anticipation of being exempted, students generally accept the exemption and skip the test to study for the other subjects instead. There are those who take the test even if they got exempted, much to their classmates’ annoyance. Ang yabang naman! Hehe

I was one of those who took advantage of exemptions. If my memory serves me right (I sometimes get senior moments already), I never took a test to make my pre-finals grade higher. When I look back, I made a few realizations. One is when I chose to take the exemptions, I actually missed out on the purpose of the final exam, and that is the chance to systematically measure how much information was retained in my head. (I am partial to the idea that exams do NOT measure true learning, well that’s just my opinion) Maybe that explains why I have forgotten most of the computations we did in school, though I am really more of a conceptual learner, if there is such an idea hehe, I love ideas, explaining and understanding ideas, and making them useful. My point is—being exempted has its disadvantages.

Number two, school is too small a microcosm of the universe and all universal laws that govern it, still it is from where we spent most of our formative years until such time, we are mature enough to brave the jungle—that is, when the decisions we have to make are much more than merely accepting or refusing an exemption.

Lastly, for those who chose to take the test even if they didn’t have to, they sure had their reasons, but for the sake of humoring, they should have taken the exemption because, once out of school, the privilege of exemptions becomes rare, in fact, we hardly even get one.

From the trivial to the more consequential, there is so much in our daily routine that supports our contention that there are no exemptions. Nobody is spared from traffic (at least in Manila). Tax exemptions? I don’t like talking about taxes, for one, I don’t totally understand it, and number two, the little I understand about it only frustrates me.

Everyone experiences pain, weather physical or emotional. Everyone goes through phases of weakness, doubt and hopelessness. Everyone experiences sorrow and emptiness. Everyone feels alone sometimes. Everyone feels guilt, frustration, anger and fear. Then again, we always have to remember that we can not remain stuck in this loop.

In our uncontrived reality, there are no exemptions.