1. 5:30 a.m. The bell rings. Oh, please. 5 more minutes. The ringing continues and worse is, the
sound is so irritating, you’ll have no choice but to get up, sleep chased away by mere noise. You head for
the shower, eyelids half-closed and suddenly, something smacks you in the head with a loud thud,
jarring you awake. Oops, sorry, it’s only the CR door. Spewing expletives to whoever invented doors, you
enter the shower cubicle. All is going well, when you heard a loud scream in the shower cubicle next
from you. Sounds like someone is being murdered inside. Since when did shower heads become murder
weapons? But the next scream confirmed your horrific suspicions: “AAAAAAAHHHH!! AAAAANNNGGG
LAMEEEEEGGG!!” Great. You try the water, and after a few seconds, you also intoned the same mantra
with an even louder scream, it sounded like a stick of dynamite exploding. Luckily, you survived the
combat, and now refreshed you head for the chapel for the morning mass.
All went well until you finished your breakfast. You start preparing for school, and afterwards
start the more or less 20 minute walk going to it. The day passes by like a blur, with new lessons learned
and new friends met. The day in school goes well so far, except for that instance when you stepped on a
“poop trap” while walking towards school, and that moment when you were walking proudly and
confidently along the corridors winking at ladies, then suddenly you slipped, landing facedown with a
fantastic crash.
You head home, feeling tired and exhausted, but you remember that the scheduled activity is
community sports. You immediately perk up! Maybe my day will become better, you say to yourself. The
game was not so bad, with your shots ALMOST making it to the basket but by some imaginary technical
wind problems, always fall short of it. Never mind, it’s just a game. Better luck next time.
Dusk slowly approaches, and after a hearty dinner, it’s time to face those formidable opponents
of yours: Books and Lecture notes. At first, the struggling is strong, but after a few minutes, they finally
give way to you, and you’re able tackle them. As you review your notes, you’re amazed by how many
doodle works you’ve drawn in an hour of lecture. Oh, maybe the lecture is about arts. You read you
English grammar notebook and you see the same doodle works. Translations to hieroglyphics, maybe?
Fortunately, you’ve written all the major points that your instructor discusses, so you’re still saved. The
bell rings again, and you snap out of your short reverie. The night prayer concludes, and then its
bedtime. Thank God. One day down, many more to go.
Such is an ordinary day on the life of us seminarians. One might say it’s so boring and routinary,
but for us, that is not the case. Routine is only boring when you let it be. The challenge for us is to
adhere to routine and still have fun. Actually, the fun part of seminary life is finding fun in a scheduled
routine of activities. The fun comes in on those little things that makes today’s routine different from
yesterday’s routine. Confused? Don’t worry, 85% of the people who read this don’t get it on the first
time. The point is, routine is boring only when you believe it is, when you view it as such. So for anyone
who doubts us when we say “It’s more fun inside the seminary!”, why not try it out for yourself if you
think you’re called too?
