school's in

I am holding in my hand my Form 5, a document in my University that doubles as my class schedule list and as a formal receipt of tuition fee payment. This is the shortest time I have spent enrolling in several semesters. Maybe because I did it at the earliest time possible, given how much of sloth I can be when school is just about to burst open. I tried to get myself enrolled on every morning I woke up with my mind feeling a surge of purpose. Hey when the surge is gone, it's gone. Might as well.

Morning one: got my Registration Materials and went to the English Department, to get my dossier for my faculty adviser to check; got my adviser's nod--I can take a master's level fiction workshop and a PhD level nonfiction workshop; got enlisted, and cleared of lost /unreturned books at the library, had my forms assessed at the Graduate Studies Office. (Oh gee, look at the time, it's an hour before noon.) Went home. What you can do today, you can do better tomorrow, when you're in the mood.

Morning two: breakfast tastes a little odd when you are high on cough and cold medicine; coffee, thank heavens, is still coffee, and served to balance what could have been a badly begun morning; had my boss sign my study privilege form (my office is paying for my tuition); went to HR, where, amazingly, everyone I needed to sign my form was actually there; went back to the English Department to return my dossier, where a lecture was waiting for me: "You're not supposed to take this home," said a stern woman behind a desk, while tapping my dossier. "Oh," I said. "Won't happen again." Went home. "Procrastination is the thief of time," said one cliché. I say, "Mug me, baby. I'm rich."

Morning three: such a lazy morning; went to this warehouse that calls itself the Office of the University Registrar; really, it's a warehouse, smells like one, too; got my forms assessed, afterward, I walked to Palma Hall, where I paid a dizzying amount of money for my tuition: P66.00, for six units. Wait, that's not for tuition; says on the receipt it's for student funds. But then I'm a student. I'm funding myself? Why am I required to pay, then? (What? It's only 8:40 in the morning?)

Wow. It's over. Just like that. Usually I'm harassed just by thinking of what I have to do just to get enrolled. But now it's really over.

I have to print out this entry. So I can remember, when I read this at the beginning of the next semester, how, in three successive mornings, the universe conspired to go easy on me.