Tweener

The word tweener has come into vogue to refer to those kids who are between being a child and a teenager. basically the disney channel crowd. It's used in Prison Break to refer to that guy who was white but acted black.

I wonder now if tweener could refer to me as I was taking care of papers last week. For those friends who I haven't talked to in a while, I was doing requirements, putting all kinds of excretions into plastic containers, shuffling through paperwork, getting in lines, and generally doing all the red tape that gives our school the nickname University of Pila.

On the first day, as I was doing my physical exams and stuff like that, I was in line with the incoming freshmen. A good number were cutting in front of me, and where previously I would just fume and take comfort in the fact that karma would come to them one day, I was remembering their faces, just in case one of them made the mistake of enrolling in one of my classes after cutting in front of me in line.

There's a beautiful scene (well morbid beauty) in Breaking Bad where our hero Walt White has been cut off and generally been treated badly by an asshole businessman motorist who lacks real social skills but looks like he's racking in the dough for being an asshole. At the gas station the bad businessman goes into the convenience store chatting away on his bluetooth. Walt gets out of his car, grabs a squegee, and puts it in the guy's engine. As Walt walks away the engine explodes. I'm one for those cathartic moments, perhaps why I like that movie that with Michael Douglas Falling Down. Everyone wants to explode once in a while.

Anyways, I was there having to put up with the crazy lines and overzealous parents. It's very funny how people act when their kids get into UP. My mom's pretty reserved, i know she was proud of me but she never really showed it much to other people for fear that they would think nagyayabang siya. But I remember as a freshman the auditorium for one of the summer orientation sessions was half-filled with families, and I mean families with all the kids and the grandparents all excited that one of their angkan had gotten into UP.

The second day I was taking care of papers I was contending with the graduating kids who were all fired up to get their clearances and transcripts and the life, all ready to face the big bad real world. This was an easier affair as the soon to be graduates try to put off a cool i've been through it all air.

Ah but the lines, the lines. Now I wonder how things will be when I start teaching.