September 15, 2024
by Denise Angelica Clave
“To where would the winds take me?”
Just as I graduated from high school, I struggled with finding a specialization to prepare myself for the next frontier.
I have never thought of a single skill to settle on myself, even today. I’ve heard praises of me helping others get used to the digital age and acing math quizzes without breaking a sweat. However, I also recently discovered my fondness for literature after a barrage of English language studies—which came with being a humanities student, mind you—from the past two years.
This trouble took over for a while, but that all changed with what would have been a simple trip to Gaisano Mall of Davao, where an offer inconspicuously presented itself in ToyCon 2024.
A Vision
Just as I was about to take my leave, a poster caught my eye, talking about “exclusive scholarships for animators.” In truth, I longed to brush up on my skills in visual arts, even though barely anything had come through that, and it sure showed after only two months. I never caught up to the drawing booth either—as if I had any time before the convention ended! I’d be left with programming and computing to fall back on otherwise, and literature courses were few and far between.
And as clueless as I was, I entered the house of AISAT, but not before taking the usual steps: partaking in the fabled IDT Scholarship Exam, submitting documents, filling out forms… and then some. Now it’s down to joining the orientation, and I should be good to go.
The Crew: Freshmen and Seniors
The Institute of Design and Technology is a relatively newer addition to the AISAT crew. It used to be comprised of soon-to-be game developers and animators. Still, judging from the subjects, they later merged while retaining the subtitle of “Major in Digital Animation.” However, when compared to my troubles in freehand drawing, I find myself to be slightly more inclined to what would have been the game development side, as I keep getting exceptionally high marks in (Java) programming class, gaining a certificate for every quiz run to the point where my classmates keep begging me for tutoring sessions.
My batch has a few more students than before, according to some of our seniors, but numerous sections from the other departments outnumber us. Even with that in mind, we’re still within a school about the aviation and aeronautics industries, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that some of us get questioned about having any connection to soaring through the skies. Who knows, perhaps we’ll get an airplane as our next subject as we’ll eventually get used to animating.
I’ve never had the luxuries of being a part of a friend group long enough to join the occasional outings, so to think that I ended up with a few friends within less than a week was a surprise. We got a tour hosted by a fourth-year senior who enthusiastically led the way and oversaw the elections in our student council, plus a referral to some artists’ guild—a staple for us IDT students. I, of course, had to join another club in hopes of presenting my literary expertise, but one should have guessed by this article alone!
Most of my time with the seniors has taken place in the Eureka club, the subject of a past article I submitted for a writing workshop. I got to interview one of its most prominent members after almost a week of making abysmally short progress as I was recovering from the cold and the deadline drew near. (If you are curious about how that went, my article will be published on a different platform alongside an attempt at a banner crafted by yours truly.)
The House of AISAT: Places to Go
Being from a faraway land doesn’t help matters much; for someone like me, you could say it’s home far away from home.
Usually, I have to commute through two jeepney routes to reach AISAT, then one back to the Mandug Terminal, and another to finally reach my hometown. So much for calling myself a wanderer since, for now, I’m not street-smart enough to take on the big city myself, and I have to be with a familiar face to get by.
Once I get in, it does feel like I’m going on a new adventure, trying to do things on my own and learning something new along the way. We get a few perks as members of the IDT, such as access to some rooms tailored specifically for subjects such as animation and computer system servicing. Sometimes, we’ll take lunch or a quick snack at the Exo-Dose café on the third floor or the canteen from below, meeting and greeting students from all over AISAT. It’s amusing how we have quite the long break on Fridays, where we tend to gather at the Multimedia Hub and check in with our IDT seniors if they show up or catch up on other subjects with that much time in our grasp.
A few steps to the left of the main hall, we should reach the school’s gym in Homitori Inn, which is reserved for PE classes and grander events such as this year’s upcoming Intramurals. Of course, the details will have to wait until next month—practice and training abound, and the semi-final exam period is waving!
It’s thrilling how I got a sense of belonging during my first few months in AISAT, even if I had to trek through unfamiliar lands just to enter a home far from home, where each room sets the tone for a new experience. It may be my first year here, but here’s to more months of making memories with you all, whether they be from my writings or wanderings.