UP Min’s DULA 2011

UP Mindanao held its annual university sports fest known as DULA, which is a Visayan word meaning play, last September 1 and 2. Hopefully, that will be my final attendance in the said event as a student. The main attraction in DULA is the cheer dance competition between courses. This is where every student gets the chance to cheer for their college mates, course mates, friends… and family, in my case. My sister Miko from the BS Agribusiness Economics (BS ABE) was part of their cheer dance team. I have to say I had high spirits cheering for her… in my heart and mind. I’m so proud of her, but I’m not comfortable yelling and jumping so I kept my exhilaration within myself.

Before I go into detail about what came about in our sports fest or intramurals, let me tell you something about me and my two other sisters. It was like the three of us represent the three and only colleges in UP Min – me (BA Communication Arts) from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), Janine (BS Food Technology) from the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) and Miko from the School of Management (SOM). Good thing though that we were passive with the course and college wars going on at school. We know that those petty disputes won’t do any good to our school, and especially to us. Only narrow-minded entities engage in those rubbish stuffs.

Blood is indeed thicker than water as the old adage says. The three of us may come from different “worlds”, but we still stood by whoever from us is in the battle. Janine and I gave our full blast support to Miko! It feels really good whenever someone from the family succeeds. Why did I say that? It’s because I can truly say that my sister is one of the best dancers in the whole competition, and that paid off because BS ABE seized the 1st runner up slot (BS Food Tech 2nd RU and BA CommArts Champion). Later, I’m going to show the top three winning performances. To my course mates, I still supported you. Good job! And… don’t ever respond to those petty taunts. Keep your cool.

It was the first time that all the courses entered the cheer dance challenge. BS Biology wasn’t able to compete, because they were already considered Hall of Famers for their 4th consecutive victory last year. But they still presented their Grand Slam feat in DULA’s culminating ceremony. I didn’t have the chance to watch it live, but I watched it on YouTube. Rumor has it that they can join again next year. BA Anthropology (BAA) and BA English (BAE) participated in the competition at last. BAE’s intro routine gave me goosebumps. BAA, on the other hand, cracked me up because of their funny spiels. They’re known for their brand of entertaining exuberance.

Here are some DULA photos I gathered from Himati and more…

UP Mindanao Chancellor Gilda C. Rivero doing her speech to formally open the DULA.

My sister Miko’s beautiful snapshots…

CHEER DANCE PHOTOS PER COURSE (from Himati)…

Cheer Dance videos from BACA, BS ABE and BSFT, plus BS Bio’s Grand Slam Performance…

by Himati Vlogs

BS Biology's Grandslam Perfomance by Renzy Benzy

Fun shots with my buddies courtesy of Ed Ralph Aguzar…

What I wore in DULA 2011…

Top: Miss Alice

Pants: Lee

Galdiators: Parisian

Bag: from England

Danglings: from England

Bangle: SM Accessories

Cheers to UP Mindanao for another successful DULA, and congratulations to CSM and SOM for bagging the over-all champion. Before I end this piece, let me just bring out something regarding the course war in our school. To my fellow UP Min Iskolar ng Bayan (National Scholars), I hope we find it in our hearts to stop those quarrels. I hope for sarcasm and name-calling be stopped because it’s an utter waste of time and effort. Those are cheap shots! We are all educated here. We should end those childish arguments that are just so high school.

We always talk about unity and respect, why not do it to everyone else in the campus? Let us not become LOTS (Low Order Thinking Skills) by nurturing grudges to one another just because of a simple thing. Remember, there are a lot more matters that deserve our utmost attention other than just engrossing ourselves to insignificant catfights. Be smart by disregarding temptations to initiate tiffs. Don’t slog out, just simply IGNORE. It takes maturity to stay even kneeled; and it takes emotional intelligence to take anger out of an issue.

I have a sane solution for this dilemma. I think it’s high time for UP Mindanao to take part in interschool competitions instead of just battling with one another within the school. It’s time for us be united and treat each other like family. As I said earlier, it feels good to witness one family member prospering. Do you get the point? Other schools, like UP Diliman, are unified because they fight for their school’s glory, and that they support one another especially in the UAAP. I hope it’s not too late for us to be like that.

With that, I reiterate that we shouldn’t set each other for war. Stop being violently agitated to senseless spats. We don’t want anything to devolve into huge and ugly blowouts, right? We’ll learn a lot if we can take our emotion out of any seething situation. Ang liit-liit na nga lang natin sa school eh, mag-aaway pa ba tayo?