Of surveys and slippers.

Havaianas Selection for the UAAP edition.

I was giddy when Havaianas GB5 sent me a text message this morning saying that the limited UAAP Havaianas slippers are already available in the store. I reserved two La Salle slippers (the other for my friend in Dubai) and one (UP) for my mom.

When I posted the picture in my FB account, people started commenting. The harshest came from my college classmate who is an Atenean by heart (GS-HS-JD). He said that it’s a glorified picture of a “katol”, which if you look at it is quite true. It’s a bit harsh, but there’s tinge of truth in it. However, he didn’t stop there, which was way overboard in my opinion. He said, “Ateneo’s trumps em all.”

Then people, majority of whom are Lasallians, started to reply armed with contempt and banter: “Batuhin kaya kita ng katol” Which comes to mind: college, all over again with the school spirit, school pride, and all that jazz. That a single comment can hurl one’s feeling into the atmosphere.

It’s sad that sometimes people still associate you with your school: UP, La Salle, Ateneo, UST, San Beda, Mapua, UE, FEU, and the never-ending list of colleges and universities. And people still go at great lengths to glorify their school on the basis of XYZ survey or ABC research. Then again, if the measurement of greatness is one’s school; then why are we still a third world country? We are in fact surrounded by leaders from UP, La Salle, and Ateneo--from the government to private sector.

Maybe at some point, we should stop looking at the school we come from and realize that we’re all Filipinos and work towards the attainment of a common shared goal for all.