Kingfisher

// Jun Son Patrick Roa | Trinket

Seeds of hope blossom most when handled with utmost love and care.

To be a sprout under the care of Quezon’s green school, Southern Luzon State University (SLSU), is a challenge that would need all the rest you can have every chance you get—something that was cut off short in the recent school calendar shift.

This year’s vacation break would only last for one month and 29 days, from June 13 to August 11, about a month shorter than last year’s two months and 26 days; about a month of breathing space pruned away from the students just about to sprout.

This also means that I have 28 fewer days to spend in my hometown, added to the 5 months I already spent away from my roots earlier this year, considering my municipality being an entire province away, and while being homesick is an issue, it is not the only problem.

Working students who are taking advantage of the school break to earn and save some extra money for the upcoming school year would have one less month’s worth of paycheck to take home, which may have covered another month of boarding house rent or a couple more weeks of food.

The same issue goes with the parents and sponsors of other students who will have to provide support significantly earlier than what was expected, leaving those with uncompromisable financial plans struggling to make a stable footing before the opening of class.

Admittedly, the change had been expected for quite some time now, especially since the tropical summer heat of the Philippines—that the calendar is trying to shift away from—is indeed no environment to nurture the seeds of the country’s future, yet it did not have to be this sudden.

Instead of forcing a whole chunk off so quickly, the effects may have been felt lighter if the weeks being moved were spread more evenly into multiple times or semesters, making the adjustments seem less drastic and overwhelming.

In hindsight, tough love is not the best approach during these periods of adjustments. When it is inevitable that the student body will have to endure the effects of the needed change, it goes a long way to know that the school’s role as attentive and caring gardeners must be there to soften the blow.

College is not easy, and it does not have to be, but it does not need to be cruel as well, and I trust that the caring green thumbs of our green school would be a good judge of that.

// layout by John Saavedra

#YouthPoints #TheKingfisherSLSU