The thing about university life is that meeting new people is inevitable. Every semester, there’s a chance to socialize and mingle with different sorts of people. This makes friendships in university diverse. As part of shaping and figuring out yourself, you have the freedom to explore and see the kinds of people you want to hang out with. With this, entering university can be a life-changing experience based on whom you decide to hang out with. While your focus may go to finishing academic requirements, attending classes, and doing organizational work, it is indeed the people who are at the core of everything. Friendships forged in university are impactful and reliable sources of support. Having a strong network of friends that you can count on is a reminder that no matter how busy life can get, there will always be people who can make it bearable and, dare I say, far more enjoyable.
Now, friendships come in many different ways, whether you’re orgmates, batchmates, or a fun combination of people taking up different majors, the possibilities are endless. To give you an idea of how friendship is in university, particularly under the Philosophy program, here’s an inside scoop on how our friendship came to be. Hopefully, you’ll have another idea of what to look forward to beyond academic and extracurricular work.
From left to right: Sofia, Choco, Claire, and Aly’s first ever group photo: Polsc 14 YR2 02
WHO’S FREE? LET’S HAVE LUNCH!
Admittedly, being a pandemic batch, it was not easy finding our people. The distance and computer screens gave a detached air that largely impeded our capacity to form solid friendships. Despite more opportunities to connect online via messenger chats and zoom meetings, we mostly knew each other by name and their profile picture (that is, if they have one). However, our batch persisted, and some have initially found their group of friends, but for the four of us, things started to take off when face-to-face (F2F) classes began. It was the summer of 2023, the 2nd semester of our second year in university.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t even in a Philosophy subject that we became close, but rather it was a GE (general elective) subject called Polsc 14 (Philippine Government and Politics) that we coincidentally took at the same time. We were four different people with four different personalities and completely different interests that unexpectedly meshed well. Fortunately, a dynamic friendship had taken form.
As we got along, having lunch together seemed to be the best opportunity to bond and get through the day. The common phrase heard between us would be “Mamaya na yan, kain muna tayo.” or “Who’s free? Tara kain lunch!!” As we began to know each other, we discovered that we had several philosophy subjects that we were all simultaneously taking together! Particularly, we were surprised to find that we were all students under Sir Valero’s Philo 110 (Ancient Philosophy), the first of the four history of philosophy courses every philosophy undergraduate must go through. It was hard to know people by face then because everyone was wearing masks; it was a guessing game to know who’s who, but we were fortunate to have found each other.
Generally, to give a rough idea of the dynamic, Choco is the big brother of the group. He had everything in his giant backpack. Sick? He has every medicine you can think of. Dirty hands? Fear not, he’s got wipes and tissues on the go. He’s also the group’s eldest. Claire is the chill and cool sister. At first, you’d think she’s stoic about everything, but she’s the most sociable among the four of us – our Ms. Worldwide. She’s often the one initiating and planning the group hangouts. Without her, this friendship might’ve sunken into idleness. Then, we have our fiery sister Alyssa (Aly for short). Sharp quips and witty remarks are a staple. Her honesty and vulnerability make her a deep and wonderful friend. Whether it is a rant from an overdue paper or an unexpected meetup with college crushes, she will always be there to listen and accompany you. Lastly, the “baby” sister of the group, Sofia is the group’s little ball of radiating energy. A friendly face with an optimistic aura, she is always beaming with hope and smiles. Never truly misses a beat to greet you with a warm ‘hello!’ and always tries her best to hang around despite her busy schedule. Now that you have met the gang, let us move on to how the four of us handle this crazy journey together of being philosophy undergraduates.
From left to right: Aly, Sofia, Claire, and Choco eating at NISMED YR401
ON STUDYING PHILOSOPHY TOGETHER…
Studying philosophy is, admittedly, not a walk in the park. Some texts that we were assigned to read date back hundreds of years. Most of them are dense, convoluted, and riddled with modal logic. As a group of Philosophy majors, we only had one another to rely on; after all, who else would understand our ramblings and rants?
We became soundboards to each other, bouncing off ideas, arguing for and against our stances, in order to grow as budding philosophers. Critical thinking, clarity in writing, epistemic humility, and sharpness in thought are required to process philosophical texts from the ancients to the contemporaries. Arguing requires a deep understanding of the philosophers and their frameworks to establish the groundwork for a well-written philosophical paper. Thus, we did our best to collaborate and find little moments in between classes and breaks where we could all just share what we know and what we wish to know about philosophy. It also helped that we had different research interests—Choco with logic, Claire with socio-political philosophy, Aly with bioethics and philosophy of mind, and Sofia with philosophy of law—so it only made sense for us to reach out to one another if we felt like we needed help in one another’s forte.
Inevitably, our friendship group eventually formed little routines. We had random food trips to A2, Nismed, or UPTC (when we feel generous), tambays in front of the Department’s office while waiting for classes, to sitting in on each other’s classes (shoutout to Sir Ato for always letting us sit in his Bioethics class). When the semester started to pick up, it became review calls on Discord and Messenger, trading notes, and procrastination poorly disguised as “study/sanity breaks.” Post-exam crashouts were a must; these consisted of (1) debriefing sessions, (2) going to karaoke and screaming our little hearts out, or (3) eating food we had been craving as a reward for surviving. In short, these routines became a source of collaborative study strategies that supported each of us to get through each semester. We couldn’t imagine having gone through it all without each other.
SENTI MOMENTS AND REFLECTIONS
As the semester came to an end, we made sure to bask in the moment and enjoy the last day of our classes to the max. Much like other seniors, we had our senti moments and looked back at the chaos that was college. The group was lively, cherishing the feeling of being complete—that despite our hectic schedules, our never-ending exams, and our many, many papers, we managed to survive.
We have reached the point where we have each learned different life lessons at the end of our college lives. Realizations about perseverance, resilience, self-discovery, freedom, and humility are all that we shall cherish and bring with us as we enter a new chapter in our lives. Despite the slow start of our budding friendship, the four of us managed to stick together, from sharing moments of laughter and calmer days to experiencing random, yet profound, philosophical and existential crises. From the highs to the lows, we’re lucky to have each other. With all that, this friendship of ours has truly been such a fun and wild ride. Our college life may come to a close, but we believe that our friendship will be strong enough to transcend beyond this chapter of our lives. As you embark upon this journey, we hope that you may also find friendships that you will come to treasure in university and beyond.
From left to right: Choco, Claire, Sofia, and Aly on the last day of classes YR402
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Sofia Kisse Luna, Alyssa Rae Galing, Claire Giasmine Tamayo, and Jan Albert Estioco are senior philosophy students running for magna cum laude.