Sitting Under a Tree

At the University of the Philippines there is a maximum residency
rule. It means that a student has to finish his course in at most
one-and-a-half times the prescribed period (excluding leaves of
absences also called LOA). This means that if you are enrolled in a
four-year course, you have to finish it in a maximum of six years.
And if enrolled in a five-year course, the student has to finish in
seven and a half years. This was instituted during the mid-1970's to
curb eternal students who just also happen to be political activists.

There was a notable exception to that rule, however. If you were
already enrolled prior to the implementation of the rule, then you are
exempt from it. Which is what one of the dorm residents was. Antoy
had on his seventh-year going on eighth when I first was introduced to
him. He was taking up Agriculture and majoring in Agronomy or Animal
Husbandry. If he was a farmer, the farm might have been in the middle
of Tondo. I don't even know what province he came from, and I never
heard him speak in anything but Tagalog. Not even when drunk did he
speak in English. He makes it a point to scare off freshmen during
the first semester. Just for fun.

He once pointed to a tree in front of the dorm, by then it was around
fifteen or twenty feet tall with benches around it so the students can
sit under its shade, and casually mentioned that it was planted during
his freshman year. Last I heard from him he was working in a
crocodile farm in Palawan. And you needed to ride the company
helicopter to get there.

The tree itself was several steps from the dorm entrance. And it was
quite common to see people sitting under it at almost all hours of the
day (or night). There was one instance when I was sitting with a
friend talking about things or not talking about anything for that
matter. With friends, talking or not talking is much the same in most
respects. As it was near the entrance we didn't much pay attention to
the noise or the music. There was music and we were hearing it.
Again, not paying any attention, we thought that the music was from
the covered walkway where someone might by playing a flute or
recorder. It did not sound like taped music, as it would stop and
play, hesitate and trying to find the right notes. Whoever was
playing the flute or recorder, knew how to play and enjoyed playing
it. After some time, my friend and I got up and walked back inside
the dorm. And as we got to the entrance (just a heartbeat away,
really) we looked back at the bench to see if we left anything.
Looking up at the sky, we saw above on one of the branches was the
source of the background music, another dorm resident playing his
recorder.

--andoy