Yes, you're reading the date right. It's only May and yet, classes have started in De La Salle University-Manila. So while everybody else is still sunbathing on the beach or staying lazily at home, it's back to school for Lasallians. I've decided to give you a glimpse of some thoughts I had in my first few days in school...

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It was one of my accounting classes when I was surprised to see who entered in our classroom and went to the middle of the platform. He was a lean guy with almost unruly long hair (almost since he had at least a ponytail). He was wearing a checkered polo shirt about three times his right size and a pair of blue jeans. He gave a flashy smile as he entered the classroom and asked everybody to stand for prayers.

No, he can't be the professor for this class, I told myself. He resembled someone who would typically fix your broken computer at home. All he needed was a screwdriver in his right hand and voila! You could go on saying, "Manong nagka virus po. Can you fix it?" No wonder we heard some giggles when he actually told the class that he actually dreamt of being a computer engineer before.

When I thought that having a professor like him was a surprise enough for all of us, I was wrong. While introducing himself, he gave his credentials and by golly, we were totally surprised. He was Mr. CPA with all the acronyms that you can think of following his name (e.g. Samuel Santos, CPA, CMA, CISA, CFA, etc. etc.). In other words, he is very much qualified to teach this subject since he has passed many internationally recognized exams not to mention that these exams are quite notorious for their very low passing rates. Moreover, we were also awed at the fact that he worked for the top companies in the Philippines. First, he was with SGV, the largest auditing firm in the country and after a successful stint transferred to SMART Telecoms, the largest mobile telecommuncations provider in the country. He gave a rough description of the subject and it actually sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

It all boils down to this. Don't judge a book by its cover. There is more to a person than his or her outside appearance. However, another thought comes to mind. Image is also important. One may be the most qualified person to talk about a certain subject but his or her looks may tell otherwise. No wonder business suits were invented.

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A lecture in 30 minutes? It has never been done before and it was just done a while ago in my strategic management class. According to some of my seatmates who had this professor during the previous term, the professor would consistently lecture for a few minutes and leave the rest of the time for students to do whatever they want.

Yet those 30 minutes were worth my while (and my parents' money as well) since I was able to get a good understanding of the topic. Brief but full of important details. During the entire thirty minutes, my attention was focused on the professor. It was just enough to keep my attention going because probably, after those thirty minutes, the professor's words would turn into unidentifiable babbles while I busily scribble some stick figures in my notebook to ease my boredom.

Researches show that the average attention span of young adults and teenagers is 13-14 minutes. Imagine!!! Of course, that's only the average and I strongly believe that mine is above the average.

Thus, the length of one's lecture does not measure how much one learns in a subject. In fact, what is the value of one's lecture when nobody listens or people are only pretending to listen but really can't absorb anything?

Same thing applies to life. We feel that we need to do a lot of things and yet when we take a second look, the essentials are only a few. Sometimes, when these things pile up, we end up not accomplishing anything at all. Perhaps, we must concentrate on these essentials and life would not be so complicated as it seems.

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