They say a summer can change your life. But what if that summer didn’t just change you…It rewrote your entire story? What if it crowned you with one of the university’s most prestigious awards?
UP OIL didn’t just give me the chance to study abroad. It gave me a summer so surreal, it felt planned and scripted. A season packed with drama and friendship. And plot twists I never saw coming. Looking back now, I realize: my life really did play out like a series.
EPISODE 1: SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
The story begins in South Korea’s top university, Seoul National University. Imagine me, out of breath, dragging myself up the infamous SNU stairs that tested not just my lungs but also my determination. Studying marketing there felt like starring in my own K-drama. Every day was an episode, with unexpected plot twists like missing the last bus, getting lost, and somehow stumbling into friendships I’ll treasure forever.
Seoul wasn’t just a city; it became a home stitched together by late-night dorm talks, getting lost on the subway, and the weight of luggage that couldn’t carry all of the core memories I had. It was a dream my younger self never dared to imagine. Coming to life in real colors.
EPISODE 2: ICU-UP FRONTIERS
Just when I thought the script ended, a new arc suddenly unfolded. I joined a one-week UPOU program, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan – University of the Philippines Frontiers. In only seven days, we tackled design thinking and sustainability. What stuck with me most wasn’t a framework; it was a truth: the core of design isn’t technology, it’s people.
Somehow, in that single week, strangers became friends who felt like co-stars I’d known for a whole season. It was proof that the best stories don’t need years to be written, just the right cast.
EPISODE 3: UP HIRAYA
The next act took me back home, where I became the student chairperson of UP OIL’s summer program, Hiraya. If SNU were a K-Drama and ICU-UP was an indie film, Hiraya was the heartfelt coming-of-age episode. The one that teaches you about leadership, camaraderie, and why goodbyes are always the hardest scenes to shoot.
I still remember holding back tears during our closing program, realizing it wasn’t just the activities or the projects that mattered most… it was the people we do them with.
EPISODE 4: NUS TF-LEaRN
And then, the finale arc. The last leg of my study abroad journey: National University of Singapore’s TF-LEaRN program. Singapore was already my favorite country, but this time, it wasn’t the skyline that stole the show. It was the people.
Every day with our NUS friends/buddies felt like being in a feel-good sitcom. The kind that makes you laugh, cry, and secretly wish the network orders one more season. I couldn’t ask for better people to be with! If this was the closing chapter of my undergrad journey abroad, then it was the perfect send-off. A summer I will never stop talking about!
EPISODE 5: GAWAD PANGULO
But here’s the twist: every lesson, every friendship, every late-night reflection from these “episodes” was quietly writing the script for something bigger. All of the growth I got from UP OIL’s study abroad opportunities came together in one project: Watch!Tap!Shop!
With my dad, Erick, and my classmates Jordan and Porche, I founded an innovative platform. And that “crazy idea” turned into something real, and at the prestigious Gawad Pangulo sa Natatanging Inobasyon ng Mag-aaral competition… we somehow walked away with a ₱1 million award to bring it to life—sometimes you just got to do it for the plot!
SEASON FINALE
Looking back, I see it now, every chapter, every plot twist, every goodbye was leading here. I think about that nervous version of me at the airport, headphones on, pretending my life was the opening montage of a Netflix series. If I could talk to him now, I’d simply say: “What feels like fear now will become the memories you’ll hold closest.”
Because, as all legendary shows remind us, endings aren’t really endings. They’re just the cue for a standing ovation.
Fade out. Roll credits.