After 3 years of bumping into the same familiar faces along the corridors of the building, Roque Ruaño now houses its new breed of Thomasian Engineers. One of the thousands is an Electrical Engineering Student from 1-6 EE, Kyla Mae Salonga. She is 18 years of age, and she graduated from Don Mariano Memorial State University in La Union. Here are the thoughts of Kyla of how it feels to be a Thomasian:
“I think super surreal nong feeling kasi ever since na dumadaan ako sa harap ng UST, at lagi kong tinitignan yung UST and at some point parang vinivisualize ko na parang ‘oh paano pag dito nako nag-aaral’ at ngayon pag tinitignan ko sarili ko at naka-uniform, parang napaka surreal na ‘oh part na pala ako ng Thomasian Community’”.
Yet despite that her thoughts are as satisfying and overwhelming, there are still struggles and challenges that she faces and overcomes as she tries to cope up to the Thomasian Community. UST, being a big university that admits different people from different places makes her a little uncomfortable, but with courage and determination, she simply tells herself, “sinasabi ko nalang sa sarili ko na pumunta ako dito para magaral and if magkaron ako ng friends, it’s a good thing." Hands down to her Thomasian spirit!
Paving all the way to Manila from La Union, Kyla comes to the University with her goals and expectations to live up to, yet as well as her fears to fight and overcome. Her expectations starts with the university being heart-warming and home-coming, and kudos to UST for being able to satisfy her hopes. She said that, “Ineexpect ko no’ng pumunta dito ako is magiging welcoming yung mga tao and hospitable which is nafeel ko talaga no’ng welcome party, welcome walk and orientation. Feeling mo talaga belong ka dito.” Any Thomasian would definitely agree that UST is the university that embraces all its constituents with warmth. Kyla also envisions herself to be someone to bring glory to UST in the near future, that people would not only look up to her as well as to where she came from. She stated in her words, "yung masasabi nila ‘oh sa UST pala siya galing.’” Yet despite her hopes, she also has fears, but her bravery can still be shown as she stated it, “My fear is probably failure talaga pero you know di naman mawawala na matatakot ka sa failure, sometimes kailangan mong iaccept yon kasi yun yong maglelead sayo sa success.” She also stated that she intends to live up those expectations and fight her fears through prayer and believing in yourself. Truly, there is nothing that prayer and perseverance can’t overcome.
Kyla, with a strong self and determination battles her all way into becoming one of the Thomasian Engineers that would contribute to the betterment of society in the future.
Interview by: Lyanne Vital
Photo by: Raisa Ramos
